Linux Mint Forever!

[cecilieaux]

I left Ubuntu for Linux Mint because of Unity. I absolutely hated Unity. I'm a computer user and use my phone sparingly for genuine computer purposes. I saw no reason for one common interface. This is where Canonical went off the rails for me.

To me GUI and eye candy is important. I have written the odd script and program but I am not a programmer or a heavy techie. I want something that works and I want it to look the way I like. Mint does that.

Initially, I chafed under the truly conservative approach of Mint. I rebelled at having to do clean installs to upgrade (you really should, I learned). I even rebelled at the idea of not upgrading just for so.

But, you know, now Ubuntu is out without Unity and with all the security blankets I loved. Yet, I'm kinda stuck in a love affair with Mint, which is customizable, to which I can add programs that are not in repositories (I know: bad, bad Cecilieaux!). I love Cinnamon. Why would I ever want to go back to plain Gnome?

I just don't see myself doing that any more. Mint is home. Please keep my home going, folks. I can't donate too much, too often, but I have and will once again soon. I think the team is doing a great job being cautious. I like their apps. I even like that they're trying to speed things up with Tara.

I may change my tune, but for now ... Linux Mint forever!

[ud6]

I left Ubuntu for Linux Mint because of Unity. I absolutely hated Unity.

Me too.. that and the codecs in mint - I know it doesn't take long to install them, but pretty much every home user needs them, so mint was just better. Can't see myself leaving mint mate now, but I still look back to a time when I felt revolutionary using my ubuntu with it's little orange folders.

[kyphi]

Your story, cecilieaux, hit the right spot with me and, like many others, including ud6, I too found Unity not to my liking and discarded Ubuntu. At the time I installed the Gnome desktop in lieu of Unity but that too did not fit very well with me.

Eventually, after some meandering to this distro and that distro, I settled with Linux Mint. It has consistently met all my requirements and continues to satisfy.

I do have Ubuntu 18.04.1 installed in Virtualbox because a friend uses it and I like to understand what he is talking about when he asks for my help or opinion.

Would I switch? There is no good reason to switch, so the answer is: No, followed probably by never.

[Valsodar]

I left Ubuntu for Linux Mint because of Unity.

I tried Ubuntu once and left it not because of Unity. Unity sucks, yes, but there's an easy way to fix that (at least in normal distros): sudo apt-get install cinnamon. However, the stupid Ubuntu didn't let me choose the new DE. I had it set to ask me for user password at startup, so that I can choose the DE but Ubuntu never showed the option to change the DE. Looks like Micronical have done the necessary to protect their ugly and restricted child named Unity from being replaced with something better.

[greerd]

I kind of liked Unity when it first came out, but I did get caught up in the stampede over to Mint, used to dual boot for a while. I liked Unity's icon status, ie: when updating the update icon showed a little status bar in it. I also used 'Dodge Active Windows' (I think that's what it was called)

With the second generation of unity, 'Dodge Active Windows' was not enabled by default and one had to dig in to enable it. The third generation (or fourth) of unity, 'Dodge Active Windows' was no longer available, and also nautilus defaulted to opening a new iteration for each folder click.

So I started booting Mint more often, it didn't take long for it to become my daily driver.

I tried other distros in VM's but never spent much time with them, I figured that if I installed something on bare metal I'd spend more time with it, so I installed Manjaro kde as dual boot. Talk about setting foot on an alien world! It wasn't kde that was alien because I used to use that back in the day, it was just way different. I used it for a few days, got my head some what wrapped around AUR's and PacMan and such but decided that this wasn't for me so back to Mint cinnamon.

Been here a long time and no desire to leave.

[151tom]

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[benali72]

Yeah, I committed to Mint when Ubuntu went for Unity. It was like Microsoft jumped off a cliff with their goofy Win 8 interface, so Canonical decided they should jump off a cliff, too, with Unity.

And now Canonical is back to Gnome... which, btw, still has the goofy style of cluttering your desktop with the icons THEY think you should have. Yuck.

In my decade with Mint, I've come to have a high degree of respect and trust for the Mint team. They don't make radical UI changes for no reason, and they don't ship product before it's ready. Quite an incredible track record. They deserve tremendous THANKS for a job well done.

I've given many boxes running Mint - Xfce to people who have never even seen Linux, and they have no problem using the simple interface. Plus it runs any dual core computer with 2 gig ram, so you don't need new equipment. Mint - Xfce is simple and reliable. Mint guys and gals, you rock!!!