Why people like Linux Mint so much? What LM users have to say about it?

[BG405]

Mint was my first foray into Linux-land. It was love at first sight when I booted that ISO. Ditched M$ overnight .. I'd already been using FOSS alternatives for a good while by then which may have made the transition easier to be fair. Only the OS itself to familiarize myself with, for the most part.

Easy to install, easy to maintain.

Yes, I do use Manjaro (KDE) but have a couple of machines full of Minty goodness, one of which often goes in my backpack for use at the Pub.

N.B. You DO need a fair chunk of knowledge when dealing with some of those Manjaro updates ...

[MurphCID]

Hey BG405, long time no see, glad you are still around! Mint is my preferred distro, but I have tried several others over the years.

[TaterChip]

I am looking for it, but I cannot find it right at this moment, but I am going to keep looking for you. It came up on the television youtube not one of my laptops/desktops so I will keep looking. I think it was this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJExFAc6wys

thanks

[TaterChip]

I feel Win 7 was the last good MS OS up to about the last three or four years before EOL when MS started putting out buggy updates and employed underhanded, sneaky tactics to try to trick users into downgrading to Win 8.x. I had to wait about a week to download and install updates to make sure I didn't get a buggy one for the first two of the last four years, then stopped updating altogether the last two years because it got so bad.

When MS forced my wife's computer to change from win7 to win8 while we slept, I deleted the .exe responsible for ALL updates.I did the same thing when I purchased my win10 machine. I haven't updated in more than 15 years. MS cant be trusted.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...MS cant be trusted.

You got that right!

[MurphCID]

Double Amen from the peanut chorus! You are totally correct.

[Louis99]

On my first ever laptop, I used Win10, which came bundled with practically every PC at the time. I knew that the OS was pretty much spyware but never got the guts to make the switch back then. I stayed on it for about 3 years, got a newer laptop (the one I use now) which shipped with Win11. I really hated this "upgrade". It felt sluggish, the OS ate way too many of my resources, I couldn't say I actually owned "my" laptop. I tolerated the madness of Microsoft for another half-year before I decided I had enough and wanted to move on to greener pastures.

When I finished college in December of 2023, I decided to switch to Linux Mint, thanks to knowledge I'd been building up while researching beginner-friendly Linux distributions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S98qGgOqF-k This video from Mental Outlaw was actually my first look at Mint and is what originally put the distribution on my radar

Since I was on break from my studies, I figured I'd have time to troubleshoot if any big problems occurred. I went with the Cinnamon branch, since it was supposed to be modern, and it did not disappoint. It's super clean! I only had one "major" issue related to hybrid graphics, but this was solved the very same day after installing thanks to SMG's help on a post I made regarding the matter

Overall, I think Mint is great for beginners. It made my transition to Linux super smooth and it handled all the issues I feared most out of the box.

[xinu]

[spamegg]

On my first ever laptop, I used Win10, which came bundled with practically every PC at the time.

That's why I always build my PCs from the ground up!
Motherboard comes with nothing, just BIOS.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

On my first ever laptop, I used Win10, which came bundled with practically every PC at the time.

That's why I always build my PCs from the ground up!
Motherboard comes with nothing, just BIOS.

That's what I used to do until I got lazy last summer and bought a prebuilt that was pretty badly designed and wound up gutting it and moving parts of into a new case I modified (I'm still working on it).

Laptops, on the other hand, are pretty hard to impossible build from the ground up. You can do that to a small degree with the Framework Laptop but you are still pretty limited with what you can do with it. Most of the time, one just has to either find a laptop that comes with Linux preinstalled or buy a Windows laptop and install Linux on it (when allowed; some are now DRMed to prevent installing anything but Windows).

[NealG]

A quick background: I began with a Commodore 64 (~1983), and progressed through DOS and most all Windows versions up to 8.1. I began testing Linux distros in 2004 when computer magazines included Linux disks. Having tested most all distros and somewhere around 300-500 versions, I landed on a few that were good enough to put on customers' old computers (some customers also gave me their old pcs; I'd put Linux on them and give them away for free to neighbor kids). As the years clicked by, the few grew fewer, finally landing on only 2 that were good enough for my own computers. Within the past year, the 2 has now become 1: Mint Xfce.

Stability: On my personal choice of hardware, Mint is the most dependable of all distros. (I downgraded back to AM1 with a 4-core 2ghz at about 15 watts; it's quiet, cool in summer, and does everything I need.)

Aesthetics: I am very picky about tidy appearances. Xfce has the right stuff, including the ability to easily create new themes (merely changing the css in existing themes).

Hardware: Linux commonly (usually) has better video and audio drivers than Windows, and Mint's drivers are ideal for my hardware. I've been using Mint Xfce for quite a few years for streaming movies in the living room. (I ought to update it, but Mint runs so well, I just can't find an excuse to jack with what works.)

Software: It is noticeable that software runs better and more stable in Mint than in all other tested distros.

Updates and Security: I myself will never buy another Microsoft product (long and horrid ten-year story), and since Windows 8.1 will not receive browser and email client software updates in several months, then the only sane choice for an online computer is Linux, and the best Linux choice for me is Mint Xfce.

Years back I used to do Dell warranty service on confidential pcs at government agencies, where I would use a live Puppy CD to access dead XP pcs. If I were doing similar today, I'd use a live Mint Xfce USB.

At present I am keeping one offline pc loaded with Windows 8.1 while I finish some confidential text work in Word 2010, but once that's done, all of the files will be transferred to another Mint Xfce box. I'm seriously looking forward to my home office being 100% Mint!

[TaterChip]

... (when allowed; some are now DRMed to prevent installing anything but Windows).

That makes me despise Microsoft even more. Which brands? I want to avoid them at all cost. The last thing I want is to do is spend thousands then cant install the OS of my choice.

[151tom]

I'm using Linux Mint 21 Vanessa Xfce as my daily driver and it's okay.

[MurphCID]

That's what I used to do until I got lazy last summer and bought a prebuilt that was pretty badly designed and wound up gutting it and moving parts of into a new case I modified (I'm still working on it).

Laptops, on the other hand, are pretty hard to impossible build from the ground up. You can do that to a small degree with the Framework Laptop but you are still pretty limited with what you can do with it. Most of the time, one just has to either find a laptop that comes with Linux preinstalled or buy a Windows laptop and install Linux on it (when allowed; some are now DRMed to prevent installing anything but Windows).

Yes, the DRM thing is real and annoying. Especially for those with Microsoft's Pluton chip which is allegedly for "security". Lenovo is reported to have been installing them on their latest laptops. Still Mint (and Linux) is better on a laptop than windows unless you just have to have Windows for certain mission critical programs.

[Kory]

When I wanted to install Linux on my old laptop, I didn't know much about modern Linux distros. I tried a few and none of them could get my Wi-Fi to work, even with extensive tinkering on my side (or trying to). Then I tried Mint and it simply worked out the box. I was very impressed. So I started using it and started to like it. Everything was so intuitive and even when I had to find solutions for something, the Mint forums were a great resource and I could get everything done.

So after a while, I also switched my main PC to Mint. It's not the youngest anymore, so I prefer the stability over the most recent stuff. I'm using it exclusively for over a year now and I love it. It's really a nice feeling when you don't despise the OS you are booting .

The only thing that keeps me checking out other distros is that I like KDE a lot. I know that Mint once provided KDE as one of their DE's but then it was discontinued. The blog post here https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3418 said "KDE is a fantastic environment but it’s also a different world, one which evolves away from us and away from everything we focus on." I'm not 100% sure what that means or what kind of differences there are, but I somewhat wish it would still be maintained. I understand that I could use KDE with Mint, but I often also read the recommendation to use it with a distro that provides it "natively".

[BG405]

The only thing that keeps me checking out other distros is that I like KDE a lot. I know that Mint once provided KDE as one of their DE's but then it was discontinued. The blog post here https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3418 said "KDE is a fantastic environment but it’s also a different world, one which evolves away from us and away from everything we focus on."

Plasma has certainly diverged a fair bit more from GTK-based DEs in the past few years. It's something I was discussing with a mate last night.

One example .. I mentioned in another thread about the terminal scroll-back limit and history file size. I'd forgotten part of it, as you'll see if you read that. This is because in Konsole, I'm so used to the profile settings normally being used for some of these adjustments.

There is also Wayland, which is still in its early stages of deployment here but I've been using it for several months now .. maybe longer. (Don't worry, it'll be here on Mint full-time soon enough. There are still some things which don't "play nicely").

[Kory]

/quote]
Plasma has certainly diverged a fair bit more from GTK-based DEs in the past few years.

This is so interesting, thank you for mentioning that. I'm now reading about the history of GTK-based DEs and the discussions surrounding that topic. Great stuff!

[BG405]

You're welcome!

When Clem and the team announced the demise of the KDE version (from LM19 onwards) a lot of us went exploring for alternative distros to feed our KDE Plasma "fix" and I landed on Manjaro .. would have gone straight Arch but I needed something up and running "pronto" on one of my machines so I went with that.

Plasma6 will hit the Stable repo there soon enough, maybe too soon. This is another big divergence from GTK!

I've always had Mint machines around though, and I'm back on it at least part time now. Mostly missed out on Mint 19 & 20 sadly. I'd tried installing one or both of those on the ancient be-headed (lidless) Dell in my signature (the crossed-out one) but kept hitting roadblocks at the end of installation whatever I did .. maybe hardware issue as it'd been on 24/7/365 for years. I need to give that another go, maybe it was the .ISO(s) I tried.

I recently put 21.2 Xfce on my Acer D255E (since upgraded in-place to 21.3), which often accompanies my mate & myself to the Pub along with my Manjaro laptop. It works well with that rather limited hardware; I just need to update / re-familiarize myself with a few of Mint's intricacies. It'll soon hopefully get treated to an SSD.

                                                                                                                                                            ...Cheers!