Time To Stay With Linux Mint

[VixyHox]

Hello all, first post on the forum, but I felt the need to share my love of Linux Mint here.

I decided over a year ago to dump Windows on my laptop (which is my primary computer currently), and have found myself distro hoping over that last year. Ubuntu, Manjaro, Fedora, Debian, Pop_OS!, just to name a few. Each one presented me with some form of issues.

Ubuntu - I faced performance issues, but also had issues with installed software suddenly going missing and not working.
Manjaro - Constantly having issues with installed programs not having icons, and some programs the font just would not display properly no matter what I tried.
Fedora - Wasn't too bad, but experienced issues with some updates.
Debian - I couldn't for the life of me get my wireless working. It was probably something I did wrong on my end, but it was just too frustrating.
Pop_OS! - Similar to Manjaro with font and icons, but also with updates having issues.

Between some of these installs, I had put Linux Mint on my system. Each time I had Mint installed, everything just worked. Streaming shows was flawless with the codecs installed right away, never an issue with missing icons or text not showing correctly. Never an issue with updates. But I guess why I kept leaving it is that I always see Linux Mint touted as being for beginners. I'm no guru with Linux or anything, but I felt like I wanted to use a more... I don't know, intermediate system? But every distro I used seemed to cause me trouble.

Because of that, Linux Mint is where I've decided to stay. It works the way you expect it to, and there's hardly ever any issues that are major.

The only issue I seem to have occasionally, is that my wireless connection for some reason will stop working. It shows I'm connected, it seems like it should work, but I can't access anything online. This usually only happens when I'm using my laptop on battery power. I've tried a fix of changing the wifi power save feature, but it still seems to happen every once in a while. I just make sure I keep a command handy to reset the network manager when that happens and it fixes the issue. For those curious:

systemctl restart network-manager.service

Aside from that small inconvenience, Linux Mint just works so well for me. The team are doing an excellent job with this distro, and because of that, I intend to stay!

[Swampthing]

Yeah, I know how it is.
I tried some distros in Virtual Machine and even dualbooting.
But none of the other distros had anything to offer(for me at least) that Mint couldn't deliver.
Mint is, to me, rock solid. And I'm also staying.

[DAMIEN1307]

But I guess why I kept leaving it is that I always see Linux Mint touted as being for beginners. I'm no guru with Linux or anything, but I felt like I wanted to use a more... I don't know, intermediate system? But every distro I used seemed to cause me trouble.

There are many a "seasoned" Linux experts that use Linux Mint as their main, "go to" distro.

As far as "beginners" all of us were beginners at one time, your a beginner now and your knowledge will grow as well by using Linux OSs.

At least you found LM and found it doesnt break on you every time you look cross eyed at it...lol...Its what you might call a "Stable" Linux OS, not a beginners OS...lol...there are a lot of systems out there that lack stability...DAMIEN

[Pierre]

Hi VixyHox,
welcome to our forum.


that WiFi issue may be linked to an Power Saver shutting off the WiFi connection.

[kc1di]

Hello VixyHox,
Welcome to Mint, enjoy!
The wireless problem is most likely a driver issue. Give us the output of

Code: Select all

inxi -Nn

and we may be able to help.

[deanr72]

Mint Cinnamon was my second distro after starting out on Ubuntu Mate. Since then I've hopped around and then settled down for some time on each of the following:

- Mint XFCE
- Kubuntu
- Manjaro XFCE
- Q4OS Plasma
- MX-Plasma
- Crunchbang ++
- MX-XFCE

As of last week I have Mint XFCE installed on all my computers again. Why? Well, since returning to XFCE I've worked out the following:

- XFWM uses just slightly more RAM than openbox but obviously requires less working with config files
- MX-XFCE is a right mess when it comes to the placement of tools and settings - and is imo vastly more ugly than Mint
- Setting keybindings is a breeze with the GUI tools included in XFCE
- It's possible to create a right-click openbox-like menu on XFCE

Not sure how long I'll stay with Mint this time but I did really believe that the workflow of Openbox was perfect. Since I've now managed to replicate that almost perfectly with XFCE - with the addition of mouse-action window-snapping - I reckon it'll be for some time at least.

So yes, ditto the OP's final line: "The team are doing an excellent job with this distro".

[VixyHox]

Thank you all for the welcome! I'm certainly glad to be here and look forward to being more part of the Linux Mint community.

Through more research and forum lurking, I've realised that there are plenty of seasoned Linux users who stick with Mint, a lot of the time touting the stability of everything. I very much agree with the stability and am really enjoying not having to constantly fix things or figure out problem after problem.

The wireless problem is most likely a driver issue. Give us the output of

Code: Select all

inxi -Nn

and we may be able to help.

Hopefully your suggestions might help. Here is the output from inxi -Nn:

Network: Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter driver: ath10k_pci
IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: 9c:b6:d0:90:aa:39

Any help with the wireless issue is greatly appreciated.

[silverstory]

I started with dual booting during the early 2000s
It was a nightmare in terms of driver support to make a Linux Ubuntu work back then. I remember the Tux penguin game. Since I'm a PC gamer during the college days, it is hard to drop Windows XP. I even love Windows ME. Using windows blind and other UI software to make and look feel different back then.

Recently, I've installed Oracle VM on my Windows 10 PC and had several Linux distros including Mint. A month ago, I started a project to de-google myself, including de-MS, de-Apple, etc. So I bought an NVME and installed Linux Mint for good. It is still dual booted with Windows 10 for certain games and just checking the updating the VMs I've left - MX Linux, Manjaro, Fedora, Pop OS and Ubuntu. I think I've deleted other distros to save space as well.

So far so good, I have initially installed Cinnamon but now using KDE Plasma. I love the UI configuration and my computer still didn't feel any lag.

For the VMs, I've installed all of it last year. I recently played around and Pop OS feels weird in the VM which lags a lot, compared with the others like Fedora which also uses gnome. All specs of the VMs are the same and it should run better as it is only in VM.

Anyway back to Linux Mint, it is easy to use and easy to transition with. I'm using it more often. Installed all the games that could run on it. There are a few games that won't run properly like RA2 (haven't installed CNCUpdater though), COD Warzone, etc. Persona 5 golden for some reason won't identify my controller but works fine in Steam and other games. So far so good as my daily driver while I back up all my files to NAS.

I hope more people would transition from Windows/MacOS to Linux distros as it is better to use Linux OS.

[Portreve]

Right now, there's a lot of ballyhoo going on with the upcoming release of Fedora 34: in particular, what's being called "Gnome 40". I've now played with it in a virtual machine, and to me it's just as much of a screwball way of working as the original transition to Gnome 3. If anything, they've found a way to make it even more awkward a.f., and I have to concede I didn't think that was actually possible.

My daily driver is LM because it's solid, stable, very well thought-through, and has what I consider to be the best desktop environment, at least for people like myself. I would never diss there being other desktop environments (or DEs) because we don't all think alike, work alike, or have the same preferences. Variety is one of the more important results of free (or libre) software.

[kc1di]

On thing you can try is to turn off the network manager power saving setting. That seems to cause the problem with your wireless card.
go to a terminal and copy and enter this command

Code: Select all

/etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf

enter password when asked You will see the entry that says this :

Code: Select all

[connection]
wifi.powersave = 3

Change the 3 to a 2 so it looks like this.

Code: Select all

[connection]
wifi.powersave = 2

Reboot.
that should stop the connection drops. If it does not you can reverse the process and change it back to 3.
good luck.

[VixyHox]

On thing you can try is to turn off the network manager power saving setting. That seems to cause the problem with your wireless card.
go to a terminal and copy and enter this command

Code: Select all

/etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf

enter password when asked You will see the entry that says this :

Code: Select all

[connection]
wifi.powersave = 3

Change the 3 to a 2 so it looks like this.

Code: Select all

[connection]
wifi.powersave = 2

Reboot.
that should stop the connection drops. If it does not you can reverse the process and change it back to 3.
good luck.

I had found this fix a while ago when I reinstalled Linux Mint and gave it a shot, but it still happens every so often when using battery power. Really not sure what more to do about this other than keeping that network manager restart line that I have. Your suggestion is appreciated though!

[NoWinBob]

Glad to see I'm not the only distro hopper to end up on Mint.Am currently using Mint on both computers:medium hot i5 nvme video editing semi-monster tower,and my old-ish HP Probook laptop.Works great on both.I used Ubuntu for quite a while,but I eventually realized Mint could do everything out of the box,no tinkering needed.I also found it was easier to have the same distro on both machines.I can always experiment on the laptop,then go back to mint in a day or two.I have had to try a number of photo and video editing programs,but with all of the free programs,I can try them without spending$$$$.I still miss my adobe Lightroom,but I'm slowly figuring it out.Go TEAM MINT!!!!

[JesseRBassett]

To the Original Poster, welcome to the forums first off!
Secondly, I also am sticking with Mint. For many many reasons...but most important of all the security of Mint. Compared to Microsoft, Mint is way more secure!

[NoWinBob]

I'll second all that.I used Ubuntu for a couple of years,but had some issues with dual monitors,and some other minor issues.I tried Mint,19 I think,and it seemed to work a little smoother.I liked the Ubuntu desktop until they switched to Gnome.Thats when I dumped Ubuntu for good and stuck with Mint.I'm using 20.1 now and loving it.The best version yet.Let all the pros play with other distros that always need fixing.I like my computer to just work.Mint does that on both my hot new tower and my oldish used laptop.Go Mint!!!

[Portreve]

I've been doing some stuff with my computer lately, so I'm going to add some thoughts to what I posted above...

I've started elsewhere that I have dreams of re-entering the tech profession. Things have changed a lot since I used to be a professional, and what a good tech with their salt is expected to know includes a lot of things I know of, but don't have much experience with: networking and remote system management and maintenance. What I've been reading lately says, in fairly black and white terms, is you need to be comfortable with both Red Hat and Debian. Generally, it's been recommended to have both CentOS and Ubuntu.

I already run Linux, and I run it as my daily driver. That is, I don't have it just so I can study it. By far, Linux Mint Cinnamon is my absolute favorite, so I don't feel I need to bother about running Ubuntu. So, having recently bought a WD Black 1TB MVNE, I've been filling around and experimenting, and at long last I've now got it set up (for real!) with Win 10 and Linux Mint. My next move is to set up VM Ware with CentOS.

I've posted previously (here and elsewhere on LMF) about my thoughts on Gnome 3. I'm certain the Gnome team has poured blood, sweat, and tears into its development. I'm equally certain that's also the case with the KDE team, and likely it's the case with all the teams working on all the basis DEs. That said, I have no ambitions to be a software developer, so I really don't give a darn about the underpinnings (certainly not from a code perspective). Therefore, I find no value in running it. I'm not exactly certain what CentOS uses, or what my options are, but I'm not going to panic (whether at the disco or elsewhere) about it.

[majpooper]

"Linux Mint, is a distro aimed at beginners" This has just been said over and over for so long folks start to believe it's a truism and mindlessly repeat it. It probably started because LM; 1.) It usually works out of the box except when it doesn't - which is true for every distro. 2.) It is packed with such a large suite of apps beginners have everything they want/need for the most part and an easy to use software manager with a bunch of other stuff. 3.) It's stable and easy to update.

But there are distros for beginners - Zorin comes to mind.

[Portreve]

I don't know if it's too late to do anything about it, and I don't really know what strategy should be used, but I have a heck of problem with LM being described as "a distro for beginners". It leaves it sounding as though it's wanting in some way(s) and that it's not really something a normal user would want to make normal use of. In my estimation, it's the product of distro snobbery, and it really needs to stop.

[majpooper]

. . . . . . it's the product of distro snobbery, and it really needs to stop.

I think you are right - Arch advocates come to mind as well as the tone on some of the other linux forums. Linux, to said snobs was the exclusive domain for those who rolled their own as in compiled apps and were command line commandos. The notion that something that just worked OOB, well . . . . . . .

[dorsetUK]

The notion that something that just worked OOB, well . . . . . . .

Hi majpooper.

Could you explain the '...'

Mint's always worked OOB for me.

Jargon. OOB. Out Of the Box.

Thanks.

[majpooper]

The notion that something that just worked OOB, well . . . . . . .

The implication being that if it works out of the box then it must so simple that a beginner can install it and start using it then it must be of limited utility because, of course. a "real" linux distro is for knowledgeable linux experts.

Hi majpooper.

Could you explain the '...'

Mint's always worked OOB for me.

Jargon. OOB. Out Of the Box.

Thanks.

Not only does Mint work for lots of people OOB but it often works much better for them Than the operating system they came from . . . . and they never even open the terminal or have complied an app.