What made you switch to Linux Mint?

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Vanilla Lumina

Re: What made you switch to Linux Mint?

Post by Vanilla Lumina »

Eh, I think I'll just go for Mint as I have nothing worthy of needing Windows for. What exactly are the advantages of UEFI, by the way? ^^'

I'll look for some tutorials, though :)
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Dngrsone
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Re: What made you switch to Linux Mint?

Post by Dngrsone »

I certainly do like being able to create as many partitions as I want without having to deal with 'Primary' and 'Extended' partitioning and all that crap we had to have with BIOS.

One advantage you will have with installing Mint over the existing Windows is that you won't have to wrestle with the manufacturer/Windows over control of the boot process... that can be a royal pain in the keester and took me a week and a half to resolve the first time through (of course, this was like five years ago).
Try politeness; people will like you for it.
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Spearmint2
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Re: What made you switch to Linux Mint?

Post by Spearmint2 »

Vanilla Lumina wrote:Eh, I think I'll just go for Mint as I have nothing worthy of needing Windows for. What exactly are the advantages of UEFI, by the way? ^^'

I'll look for some tutorials, though :)
EFI is great. UEFI is the corruption of it by Microsoft. Just my take on it.
All things go better with Mint. Mint julep, mint jelly, mint gum, candy mints, pillow mints, peppermint, chocolate mints, spearmint,....
Vanilla Lumina

Re: What made you switch to Linux Mint?

Post by Vanilla Lumina »

I tried installing it, and it decided that it wouldn't boot, so I just gave up. -.-
I'll just stick to Windows 10 on my other laptop, even though it is a piece of garbage.
Catmint57

Re: What made you switch to Linux Mint?

Post by Catmint57 »

Well I switched to using Mint to replace Windows 10. Kept the machine as a dual boot, but have only used windows once in the last month. Had minor problems to start with, but by using this forum have managed to sort them out. After one month's use, system is totally stable and fast. Moving to Mint was a good move.....actually enjoying using a computer again.
sonny jim

Re: What made you switch to Linux Mint?

Post by sonny jim »

I switched to Linux Mint 18.1 from Windows 10 for many reasons but mostly because it just WORKS. It does not have strange glitches in it, it doesn't freeze and make you restart for no reason, and I do not have to install a slew of antivirus and malware programs just to keep it running. I do everything on Mint that I did on Windows only much faster. :wink:
ilikereading

Re: What made you switch to Linux Mint?

Post by ilikereading »

windows :lol: :lol: :lol:
Brian Potter
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Re: What made you switch to Linux Mint?

Post by Brian Potter »

I was running Vista so not eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 10 as I had never upgraded to 7. Vista SP2 worked well for me but it was in the final year of its support cycle. I did not like what I had read about Windows 10 so I decided to try linux.

I tried another linux distro before settling on Mint. That was Zorin OS but I found it a bit glitchy so tried Mint and have stuck with it. No plans to change yet but I do like the look of Solus & Elementary but to be honest Mint suits me fine and the others just appeal to me aesthetically ie eye candy.
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bob466
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Re: What made you switch to Linux Mint?

Post by bob466 »

I've been a Widows user for many years and love Windows 7 but when that horrible OS Win 8 came out I starting looking at Linux because if this is the future of Windows I want no part of it. I did try a few Linux Distros on a live DVD or in a Virtual Machine and found Linux Mint the best but didn't do much as Win 7 was working fine.

All that changed when Microsoft tried to force me onto Windows 10 an OS I hate...then my updates started playing up or didn't get any at all and the updates I got were spyware and malware that came straight from Microsoft and now you can't choose which updates to install either.

I discovered the spyware can't be turned off and all the information goes back to Microsoft who then sells it to Governments or anyone with cash and since Microsoft own the OS (you don't) they can do anything they like...well that's enough for me.

So last year I switched to Linux Mint 17.3...had a few problems with my Graphic card and Freezing which I couldn't fix. I then installed Mint 18 and it runs very well without those problems...so well I now have Mint 18 on both my Desktop and Laptop computers and very happy.
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Veerstryngh Thynner

Re: What made you switch to Linux Mint?

Post by Veerstryngh Thynner »

Hello all,

Here's my story.

Once upon a time, every Windows issue solved would almost immediately invoke at least three fresh ones. Besides, I had never heard of Linux before, amazingly. But endless Windows grief ultimately going over the top took me there, eventually. At such a rate that the situation became truly untenable.

A neighbour of mine happens to be a Linux expert. However, until he told me about Linux, I had been totally unaware of its existence, believe it or not. And so he offered to install Linux on my then desktop. Thus my Linux journey started: with Ubuntu 10.3 kicking it off. Its wonderful stability and reliability my greatest joy. And that is still the case, actually, for Linux as a whole.

However, 12.04 was to be my last Ubuntu. Mainly because its Unix launcher increasingly annoyed me. So after some research I finally opted for KDE Mint: 18 'Sarah' currently on my regular laptop. And Mint 17 on my desktop, on which music production has been the main activity. As to Mint 18, though, it seems not as stable (yet?) as Ubuntu used to be.

There are still some things, however, for which Linux can't offer any suitable alternative. For a decent voice changer, for instance, I still resort to Windows 7. And without a university degree in IT, the manifold complications around sampling and samples, in Linux, will forever be way over my head. So in this instance, too, Windows provides a much more straightforward way out.

I was born just a little too early to be able to catch up with the first "Whiz Kid" generation. However, Linux for daily use and Windows 7 for some "special needs" that Linux doesn't provide for seems to be working well for me.

Veerstryngh Thynner
lexon

Re: What made you switch to Linux Mint?

Post by lexon »

Ubuntu made me switch shortly after Mint 6 came out. Better OS than Ubuntu was and much more civilized forums.

L
ilikereading

Re: What made you switch to Linux Mint?

Post by ilikereading »

What i like about it is that it comes out of the box with many installed programs which are very useful (windows does the contrary).
A few updates and configurations after the installation and is already usable. With windows i was wasting a full day. :(
pyjujiop

Re: What made you switch to Linux Mint?

Post by pyjujiop »

I've dabbled in Linux for many years, dating as far back as at least 1999. I still have old install disks for Mandrake and Yellow Dog Linux that are more than 15 years old somewhere. Unfortunately, it was a very long time before any distro reached the point where getting it to work properly was not a complete PITA. The first useful distro I ever used was Puppy 4.1.2, in 2009, on some older systems that I had.

As Linux matured, I got to the point where I would have liked to run it on my desktop as the everyday OS, but until the fall of 2015, I worked at a job that required the use of a lot of Windows software. However, I did switch my laptop from Windows XP x64 Edition to Mint when Microsoft pulled the plug on XP in 2014. My desktop stayed on 7 until October of 2015. I had just changed jobs and used the switch as an opportunity to move away from Windows as my primary OS.

I tried several distros and Mint Cinnamon was the one that worked the best for me. It just works, and it uses an UI that is something I am used to. I still use Puppy on some older laptops, but my daily driver desktop and laptop both run Mint Cinnamon 18.1.

The desktop dual boots with Windows 10, but I go months at a time without needing to use it. My laptop can only do Windows in a VM. Can't remember the last time I actually ran it.
balayya

Re: What made you switch to Linux Mint?

Post by balayya »

i think mint team listens to the users ,works on my PC without issues (other distros dont) and good community
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Re: What made you switch to Linux Mint?

Post by Zynks »

I first tried Linux Mint back in 2008 because my Windows work laptop (from a telecoms multinational) would be useless for up to 2 hours in total every week, taking all kinds of updates - usually at the worst possible time like during presentation and customer meetings. It was incredible that MS and the company's IT departments thought that it was OK to take control of my work tool without any consultation.

After some research I picked Mint and never went back. I still have an old laptop with a Windows partition, which I boot every few weeks to get its updates, but that's about it.
upuv
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Re: What made you switch to Linux Mint?

Post by upuv »

I switched when Ubuntu jump on the Unity kick. At around the same time gnome 3 came out as well. Both interfaces were a complete disaster in my opinion. This whole nonsense of using a space wasting tiled interface which hides much of what I like to use simply because touch screens will be everywhere was something drove me nuts. Windows 8 comes out with basically the same interface as well. Except Windows 8 not only hides stuff it implements secret menus that are only accessible if you actually know where they are on the screen. ( What moron thought this was a good idea? ) The basic issue at the time and still is, tiled interfaces do not work with a keyboard mouse input metaphor, tiled interfaces are for touch surfaces.

I looked at MATE and decided against it simply because at the time I felt that they branched from gnome 2 and would not have enough resources to properly maintain it. Cinnamon being gnome 3 based had a better chance of being relevant in the years to come. As it turns out both had legs and are still around today. MATE now on gnome3 base is also a big improvement. The mobile touch screen gamble of Canonical made has completely bombed out. As I predicted it would. I would have preferred that Canonical spent more time on the server version instead. Lifting the game of the network stack and security so that BSD is not the only serious network OS out there would have been great. Then Ubuntu/Debian could have owned the server room by now if it had. However I really like the fact that during this time of UI upheaval we saw the birth of Wayland. The very ancient X world finally giving way to a successor. I'm hoping Mint takes on Wayland at some point in the future.

I'm also very please to see that Cinnamon runs so well on other forks in the linux tree. It's rather nice to have a friendly UI when building a minimalist host.

I use Mint for my access devices. My servers are all headless flavors of RHEL, Debian, and BSD and don't require it.
uglyduckling81
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Re: What made you switch to Linux Mint?

Post by uglyduckling81 »

I've been having trouble with Win10 ever since I upgraded to a new Kaby Lake + GTX 1080 build 6 weeks ago. Constantly freezes on boot up, had to keep going into safe mode then restarting from there to get Win10 to boot and not freeze up.

I got fed up with it and thought I'd try Mint again. I tried Mint previously but was unable to get the Nvidia drivers to work with my GTX970.

To my suprise the new Mint package just worked right out of the box. All my favourite games (Paradox and Indie) are on Linux except for League of Legends and even that I have been able to get working after a bit of reading. I do mostly gaming on my PC so things are looking pretty good.

Also i was having so much trouble with my projector setup in my living room. Every time Win10 put the PC to sleep the only way to get a picture back was to power the PC down and on again, even then it would show an image maybe 30% of the time. Over the last couple of years I replaced all HDMI cables, new power points, new projector, tried different PC's all to no avail. Mint was the answer. Put Mint onto it 2 days ago and 0 problems with that PC and setup anymore. It's what made me think to try it on my main PC, BOOM no longer any issues with the PC.

Thanks to all the devs of Mint for all the hard work. Also a big thanks to those that have written such comprehensive guides to using Mint. I'll be visiting a donation page in the near future. :D
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moze229
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Re: What made you switch to Linux Mint?

Post by moze229 »

I didn't "switch" to Mint, but rather just stumbled upon it. Exiting the MacOS scene, I knew that I did not want Windows to be my primary OS. When I built my new PC in 2015 (With Windows 8.1 - ugh) I immediately began searching for a distro that would just "work". After 3 months of research, I decided to try Mint. After following many recommendations on installation procedures (Installing Windows first) and tweaking a few other things, Mint became my go to OS. I only used Windows for a while to play the games I had, but once discovering and using Steam, there was no further need. I still have Windows 10 as a boot option, but I spend 99.9999999999999999999 percent of my time in Mint. Windows 10 is a spy tool in my opinion, and only allows me to utilize Office 2010 and a few other proprietary things I have going on. Mint is cleaner, runs faster, and is just as capable of handling email, web, and gaming. I'm in for the long haul waiting for the day when ALL companies embrace Linux as a valid OS. (It's valid, and has been MORE valid since day 1. But money marketing has corrupted the PC market for years.) I love Mint, and don't see going to another distro anytime soon.
steve65e

Re: What made you switch to Linux Mint?

Post by steve65e »

Brian Potter wrote:I was running Vista so not eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 10 as I had never upgraded to 7. Vista SP2 worked well for me but it was in the final year of its support cycle. I did not like what I had read about Windows 10 so I decided to try linux.
Ditto this. I actually waited until the last day of Vista support whilst looking for solutions which didn't involve giving Microsoft money or using dodgy software. I'd always been aware of Linux and can recall trying Red Hat a long time ago without much joy. Anyway, I had a Ubuntu disc lying around which someone had once given me during previous Windows problems. Googling to see if that was the way to go led me to Mint 18.1 Mate, which looked like the easiest transition from Windows, and I was very happy to have something that looked like XP.

3 months in now, and haven't looked back. The laptop works properly for the first time and Mint is a pleasure to use. I've had to do far less terminal stuff than I expected, and that has been relatively painless. For me it just works and I doubt I'll bother changing anything until 2021 now.
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MurphCID
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Re: What made you switch to Linux Mint?

Post by MurphCID »

I really hated the Ubuntu desktop, and found MInt on a forum. Installed 17.3 and never looked back, it is absolutely the perfect distro.
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