bristleworm wrote: ⤴Tue Feb 19, 2019 5:56 am
lsemmens wrote: ⤴Tue Feb 19, 2019 5:50 am
I would go so far as to say that Mint is the ideal DIstro for beginners. But I would not say it is only for beginners. It is every bit as good as any of the more "complex" (for want of a better word) distros.
That's what I like about it. You can install it and in most cases it will "just work", making it suitable for, let's say, my parents. But at the same time it does not limit me if I want to do more fancy stuff.
I supported MScrapware for years.... when I retired, I was tired of the mess of baby sitting my PC....
I looked at the various distros in Linux land, I discarded Unix as too messy with a 90° vertical learning curve.
among all the distros that I tried, and it was a bunch, Mint Cinnamon was the one that allowed me to immediately install Linux, and start using it without having to "learn a new command set"....
The GUI is familiar, albeit a bit different, but manageable.
The Terminal to me, looked like what I was been using in MScrapware, just different terminology.
This forum by far, is the best in Linux land, and that sold me.
I started with 17.3 Cinnamon and installed 18.3 when it was released. I have no interest in Beta software.... e.g., 19.1 is still 'Beta' IMO, and won't be considered for use until it reaches 19.3
Now with a solid year with this forum and the very knowledgeable gurus who help here, I have graduated to where I was able this past weekend to help a friend who was submerging with the weight of Win10. He is a trucker, he gets to use his computer on Saturday only.... his wife is an accountant, her PC must be flawless and not get in her face....
4 weeks ago, she was doing taxes for a client and almost ready to file them, when the PC went blue, said "do not shut down until updates have finished"
to say that she was pissed doesn't even get close to how she felt.
My friend has followed me verbally ever since I installed Mint Cinnamon and me glowing about how easy it is to use...... that ended up with me spending 2 days at their home, Friday and Saturday, and I downloaded all of their data to my USB HDD... then I just installed 18.3 Cinnamon and wiped the entire disk clean...
It was 100% Linux, they did not want Windows in their house anymore.
the wife is 100% computer illiterate, other than knowing how to use the keyboard and run her accounting software..... in about an hour, she was surfing the internet, downloading her bank accounts, and using LO to write up her letters to clients.
To me, that is total success for Mint Cinnamon, and why I believe it is the best Linux out there.... my friends are not geeks, and have no wish to learn anything. they just want to use Facebook and a couple of forums they are members of.
Both are Firefox lovers, and FF was identical in Cinnamon as it was on Windows.... so they never even slowed down.
to me, that is 100% success, and a huge testament to the Mint Cinnamon team that developed it.
With all of that ease, it still allows me to geek around, and try new things, and yes, crash my laptop from time to time.... but the recovery tools are amazing, and life goes on without a whimper.