CinaMint wrote: ⤴Sun Oct 28, 2018 7:18 am
I should note that I've also read many other articles where others have also said that Linux Mint is not for beginners and should not be encouraged as such because it is fraught with unresolved issues and is not really fit for release (V19) at this point.
Now I think it might be time to try another flavour and see if I have more luck.
Interesting observations.
Corporate world wants things to work so their employees don't have to be computer whizzes...nail on the head there.
However, I did find Mint to be the easiest to use right out of the box. What I can't understand is, if you're trying to target neophytes and new users, why remove the CODECS from the bundle?!?! Even I have blown right past the "Do you want to install multimedia CODECS?" question and then had to load them by hand. Almost everyone wants these installed by default; but I believe it has something to do with licensing, and this puts the onus on the end user.
I've tried almost everything out there. The reason I stick with Mint is because Clem and the gang put a lot of work into it to try and make it seamless and transparent to install and use, and focus on stability. My handle may be Arch Enemy, but in fact, I LOVE Arch! Talk about being able to tweak ANYTHING! But there are a few drawbacks. Arch made me very familiar with the CLI, and it's also a rolling release, and because I run some archaic photo software, about the 5th update removes or overwrites needed libraries and usually bones the whole installation. I was using it on my work machine, but after the third time my supervisor called and said "Can you look at...?" and I had to tell him I had to reload the OS he said, "Either switch to Windows or FIND SOMETHING THAT WORKS!" That's when I came back to Mint.
If you feel like delving into Arch, go the Manjaro route. The people there are like the people here; they realize that some people like me are going to get bitten by the Bleeding Edge stuff, so, while it is still a rolling release, they take the time to wring out the packages before putting them in the "Stable" respository.
The best thing to do with Arch/Manjaro is, get your system working the way you like it, and then completely turn off updates!
There are also some Debian/Ubuntu based distributions developed for schools to use that come closer to a simple out of the box experience, but they usually lack something, mostly a good Control Center to make quick changes.
BTW, the only times I have ever needed the CLI to load packages was when I've painted myself into a corner somehow. Synaptic works jut fine for packages from the repositories, and for 2nd /3rd party .deb files GDEBI-GTk package installer works well. It even checks dependencies and installs them automatically if needed.