My experience using Linux Mint as newbie

[merlin]

Hello everyone

nice to meet you guys im just a linux noob and im just going to share my experience using linux mint

okay so one day I got so fed up by windows that I just could not handle it anymore so I was like hey windows isnt the only thing so lets give a shot to this linux mint thing people have been recommending and I gotta say I am not disappointed at all of course there is drawbacks with everything nothing is perfect obviously but I gotta say linux mint is a pretty well easy to use and polished distro imho but I also believe there are areas linux mint could improve

lets get into it

okay so the installation part was really simple and straight forward it was fast and easy to understand i did not have any problems with it
i really like the welcome app linux mint provides
it was really easy to install updates and to install the nvidia drivers using the driver manager app
using the software store has really been awesome and i really like the inclusion of flatpak right out of the box even tho i prefer system packages by default
but i would say that the software and nvidia drivers are a bit outdated on this distro but i get it the distro is focused more on stability so that is okay

now lets talk about the flagship cinnamon desktop environment
i believe that for somebody coming from windows they would really consider this easy to use and i can totally agree with that
everything just speaks to you and it is really customizable which is nice

but i would say its not as good as kde for example which i was really disappointed not to see as a spin of linux mint i really believe it should be a flagship or atleast a second option

but you might say well hey dude this is linux we are talking about here you can just lets say you want kde plasma as a desktop of choice you can do sudo apt install kde-full or whatever but I have heard that some users have had all sorts of issues with running multiple desktop environments and people just dont recommend it and they just say just use a distro that has kde plasma out of the box and install that but the thing is there is no alternative atleast for me at this time of course there is kubuntu but the thing is I would probably spend a whole afternoon configuring it thats why I love linux mint a lot It isnt stock ubuntu it does not have snap and all the canonical bs in it and you might say well ubuntu based distros are not the whole story you also have like debian opensuse fedora or arch with kde but the thing is ubuntu distros give me the least amount of headache when using them bcs on one distro I might not have my bluetooth working or there would be an aplication I would use that only has a .deb package or it is not as stable or whatever issue i might have and that is why I primarily use linux mint as my linux distro of choice

not having kde as a spin is kinda a bummer to me because i really like kde fractional scaling on my 4k monitor and its look and its polished wayland support and superior gaming performance and hdr and ability to import icc profiles it is also pretty lightweight etc. i really like kde.. so i dont really understand why it is not included as a linux noob i dont really understand how alot of things work in the linux world so there might be alot of counter arguments against kde which i look forward to hearing from you guys.

but then i was like hey there is LMDE as well and i thought it might give me a choice to install the de like the debian does but that is not the case here

Curently i have linux mint xfce installed on my second drive on my main pc and on my laptop. One issue i have encountered on my desktop is the random display stuttering after a while of inactivity or it would be random
lets say after a bit of inactivity im scrolling on linux mint forums it would just stutter or like if i move a windows after inactivity it would stutter for a second and return to normal smoothness now i do not know why this is happening i have not encountered it on my laptop so this might be a nvidia issue since im running a 1650 super on my desktop and intel on my laptop. I have heard alot of people yapping about how nvidia is bad on linux but i have never heard any mention of stuttering on a desktop so it might be another issue again im a total noob so i dont know alot but this also happens on another de like cinnamon and mate as well as other distros like popos nobara etc. this is really annoying i was thinking of buying an amd gpu but idk if that would solve my issue.

i would probably ditch windows completely if i did not have that stuttering issue since it is really annoying me
i have the ryzen 5 1600af on the desktop and on my laptop i have intel i3 1115g4 so i dont believe the kernel version is the problem i have tried both 5.15 and 6.5 edge kernel it is the same
maybe i have to configure something for nvidia im thinking like maybe there is some powersaving stuff going on? or maybe it is just nvidia drivers or something.. again coming from the windows world i have no idea

there is also an issue where if im watching a 60 fps video on youtube no matter the resolution i choose i get frame drops which simply is not the case while using windows on pc and laptop

but aside from that i have really been enjoying linux mint as a linux distro and i love the features and the stability and reliability it provides

sorry for bad english im not a native speaker..

im looking forward to hearing from you guys and would love to hear your experience

peace

[spamegg]

Welcome to Linux Mint

Your English is fine, but you might want to use capitalization, punctuation, more paragraph breaks, etc.

If you want KDE Plasma, go with Kubuntu or KDE Neon. Basically the same as Mint (based on Ubuntu) but with KDE.

Mint will never have KDE due to big code / framework differences https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3418

[Dan-cer]

...and welcome to this forum!
Thank you for your detailled thoughts. "just a linux noob"? Not really compared to people that only knew Windows before. Right?

[TaterChip]

Another good choice for KDE is MX linux

[Kory]

Hello and welcome to the forums!

It's great to read about your experiences and thoughts on the linux journey. I also have an eye on KDE Plasma but at the moment Mint is just so fantastic that I don't wanna distrohop. Also don't worry please, your English is great.

Just wanted to say, if you need advice with some of the issues you mentioned, I'd encourage you to open a thread (each) since it might get overlooked here.

[wwblm]

Kde plasma is sure modern looking and having installed MX on an old MBP I can understand why people really like it. Amazed that something that looks so modern can consume such little resources. OTOH, the Bluetooth took some work to get working properly, today I just wanted to use my TV as an external monitor and could not get any HDMI recognition for sound and there were unacceptable video artifacts -- unusable. Used Mint on that laptop for years without issue. Yes it took more resources and was a touch slower but it just worked and that is why I stick with Mint.

[Hoser Rob]

.... you might say well hey dude this is linux we are talking about here you can just lets say you want kde plasma as a desktop of choice you can do sudo apt install kde-full or whatever ...

That sounds like that "in Linux you can do anything you want" crap often said on the web by users who don't have an actual clue how Linux works.

It's only true in the sense that if you have the admin password and what you do doesn't violate the command syntax, the OS will assume you know exactly what you're doing and will do it. Even if it trashes the OS. With no warning. Whereas Windows assumes you don't know anything, even if you're the 'Administrator' which in Windows, unlike Linux, doesn't really mean much.

And you can break the OS in more subtle ways doing this, it may seem to work now but will fail later.

I'd also recommend MX KDE, but it's Debian Stable based. You can't add UBuntu ppas and expect things to work. If you want non repo software use flatpaks or appimages.

[TaterChip]

Kde plasma is sure modern looking and having installed MX on an old MBP I can understand why people really like it. Amazed that something that looks so modern can consume such little resources. OTOH, the Bluetooth took some work to get working properly, today I just wanted to use my TV as an external monitor and could not get any HDMI recognition for sound and there were unacceptable video artifacts -- unusable. Used Mint on that laptop for years without issue. Yes it took more resources and was a touch slower but it just worked and that is why I stick with Mint.

It's why I came to Mint. MX told me exactly what monitor I had connected to my laptop, but wouldn't send any picture to it. Mint just worked

[BG405]

Welcome Merlin!

You seem to know rather more than the "average noob". A few comments:

Re. the "stuttering"; that does indeed sound to me like a power-saving "feature". I guess many distros these days tend to focus on and apply settings more appropriate for laptops. It's worth looking through these.

As for KDE Plasma, that is also my number one desktop of choice.

The last Mint version with this option was the 18.x series; I still have that installed on one of my netbooks .. plus, at least one Mint user here does have KDE installed, presumably on a newer version.

Back when KDE ws being dropped, there was talk of a guide to install it, using Xfce as the starting point, as this was deemed to be the least likely to be problematic.

I use Manjaro for my KDE fix. Beware though that this does sometimes need "hands-on" maintenance, especially with it being a rolling-release distro, if you are tempted to try it.

[majpooper]

Well the "I wish Mint had KDE Plasma" DE has come up before so a while back I installed LMDE 6 in a VM and purged Cinnamon and installed Plasma so I wouldn't have competing DEs. I played with it a bit - opening and closing apps etc. and everything "seemed" OK but I hardly did a long term test or used it all that much. But I would say if you really wanted LMDE with Plasma try it out and see how it runs . . . I mean it is linux - right?

[BG405]

To be honest I think the Mint team did a fantastic job with the KDE editions. Though I think it was already on the cards .. the transition from Plasma 4 (which I'd customized down to a tee by then) to Plasma 5 was less than ideal due to the major changes and a lot of customizations etc. being missing for some time. A lot more divergence from the "Mint" way of doing things.

It also looks like it's going to be a bit of a challenge with the transition to Plasma 6 .. I've tested it, it works, but again, lots of stuff missing as of now. All those good people who create the features we have got used to have a challenge ahead. (In this case, some of us being slightly behind the times is a good thing).

I think the Mint team are doing the best thing by concentrating on what they know and love.

[Hoser Rob]

Truth be told, I ran MX KDE for a while and then Debian 12 KDE for a month. I've switched to Debian 12 Gnome. Plasma 5.27.5 is just too buggy. Gnome works a LOT better, and I'm finding the simplicity refreshing. Quite a change from KDE. I hated Gnome 3 bit Gnome 4 (43 actually) is really very nice.

[Peter Linu]

Hiyall,
I tried the various KDEs for a day. I wonder what all the fuss is about. It's like putting a skirt on a fridge! Wots wrong with plain ole LM21.3? It works faultlessly for me.

[TaterChip]

I have MX Plasma on my server machine, but it wouldn't work on my daily driver. I despised having to connect to my phone with KDE Connect. I wanted to browse my phones file structure with a file manager, not just connect specific directories. That is one of the main reasons I came over to Mint.

[wwblm]

I have MX Plasma on my server machine, but it wouldn't work on my daily driver. I despised having to connect to my phone with KDE Connect. I wanted to browse my phones file structure with a file manager, not just connect specific directories. That is one of the main reasons I came over to Mint.

I don't understand this. Will have to plug my phone in to my MX Plasma machine and see what happens. I have other issues with MX Plasma that keep me from using it as a daily driver. However, I don't gt all the hate for KDE Connect. The biggest problem I have with it is that it does not always work. When it does work I quite like being able to text from my computer. I also kind of like and sometimes dislike the fact that my phone notifications make it to my computer. That does seem to work reliably. I actually had more problems getting KDE Connect to even work with my MX Plasma whereas it works mostly well with Mint.

As I am typing this, I have a phone notification showing on my Mint Cinnamon 21.3 notifications, I sent a text with KDE SMS, Have my phone plugged in to the computer with a Nemo window that lets me browse both internal memory and my SD Card. Much prefer Nemo for this and completely agree with you in that regard. Sometimes KDE Connect can be handy for sending a file over but Nemo is much better.

FWIW I just plugged my phone into the MX Plasma machine and Dolphin handled it as well as Nemo. Don't see any real need to use KDE connect if you don't like it.

[TaterChip]

I have MX Plasma on my server machine, but it wouldn't work on my daily driver. I despised having to connect to my phone with KDE Connect. I wanted to browse my phones file structure with a file manager, not just connect specific directories. That is one of the main reasons I came over to Mint.

I don't understand this. Will have to plug my phone in to my MX Plasma machine and see what happens. I have other issues with MX Plasma that keep me from using it as a daily driver. However, I don't gt all the hate for KDE Connect. The biggest problem I have with it is that it does not always work. When it does work I quite like being able to text from my computer. I also kind of like and sometimes dislike the fact that my phone notifications make it to my computer. That does seem to work reliably. I actually had more problems getting KDE Connect to even work with my MX Plasma whereas it works mostly well with Mint.

As I am typing this, I have a phone notification showing on my Mint Cinnamon 21.3 notifications, I sent a text with KDE SMS, Have my phone plugged in to the computer with a Nemo window that lets me browse both internal memory and my SD Card. Much prefer Nemo for this and completely agree with you in that regard. Sometimes KDE Connect can be handy for sending a file over but Nemo is much better.

FWIW I just plugged my phone into the MX Plasma machine and Dolphin handled it as well as Nemo. Don't see any real need to use KDE connect if you don't like it.

Keep in mind it was about a year ago when I tried MX Plasma as my daily driver. I am getting ready to blow it off my server machine and install LMDE6 so both my machines work the same.