But new users don't even know what snaps are. They don't care. We care because we are crazy bastards
What's snaps?
I am so sorry this got so long. I'm absolutely horrible at brevity.
Applications use things called libraries to provide particular functions rather than implement those functions themselves. So like "handle HTTP request" as an example, you can just use a HTTP library to handle it for you so you can focus on developing your application.
As time progresses, libraries change and release new versions. Most of the time one version is compatible with the other. Sometimes, especially when there is a major version change, the two version are incompatible. If an application relied on that library and a major incompatible change was made, the application also needs to be changed for the new version of the library.
A Linux distro usually selects the version of each library that they are going to ship with their release and maintain it via updates. However, your distro provider and some neat program you might use are usually two different people. So the neat program you use might have change their application to be compatible with a library that might not make it into your distro until next release.
At that point you have one of two options. Wait until your distro provides the updated library or the go it alone route of you updating your own library (which libraries can depend on other libraries, which means you could be opening a whole Pandora's box here). The go it alone route also means that you have to turn off your distro's updates because they'll just overwrite everything you've done library wise.
This is where snaps, flatpaks, and appimages come into play. In a very basic sense, they provide a means for a program to include all the libraries it'll need to run, without those libraries conflicting with your current setup from the distro. You might hear them as "containerized programs", however, they're not exactly the Docker style "container", but from an isolating perspective, that's mostly correct. So your neat application that relies on the newest libraries, they can be put into a snap, flatpak, or appimage and you can run that program with those new libraries no need for your distro to provide them or for you to go it alone.
I won't bore you on the technical difference between the formats, but just mostly focus on what I usually hear is the objectionable issue with snaps. Snaps is a format that is developed by Canonical. All of these formats have a means of distribution, that is how do you get the program to install and how it is updated. Because you know, getting regular updates of your program is still really important. With snaps, Canonical uses a cryptographic signature to indicate that the distribution of the program has come from their "Snaps Store". And that's the main issue folks have taken with snaps.
So unlike the other kinds of formats, snaps are only really useful when they are acquired from the Canonical Snaps Store. You can bypass the checking of the cryptographic signature via the command line, but Ubuntu will not automatically check for updates on software installed via that method, you must check for updates manually. In contrast, anyone can build and maintain their own flatpak "store" or central repository. Only Canonical can distribute snaps and provide all of the nice features of distribution like automatic updates.
So that's the main gripe, there's technical issues as well between the formats which I won't get into. But the main high level argument is the conflicting ideas of "open and free to all" that is usually associated with the Linux group (and FOSS [Free and open-source software] in general) and the "only Canonical can distribute" that comes with snaps. So as @sederx indicated, if that's not an argument that resonates with you, the debate is pretty moot.
There's some user level difference like some snaps can run a bit slower than a native program, but Canonical has updated things with snaps to address some of that. Flatpak sandboxing can make it difficult to access files on your system, but flatpak permissions can be edited with things like Flatseal. Etc. It's what I would file into the "papercut" box of problems. But for some, those papercuts matter and ultimately turn people off from the whole Linux thing. So there's arguments that come from that as well, but that's so universal "just different in how the papercut happens" that I just file that as a debate between container and native applications, rather a debate about formats.
Here friend, I also didn't know
Snap is a software packaging and deployment system developed by Canonical for operating systems that use the Linux kernel and the systemd init system. The packages, called snaps, and the tool for using them, snapd, work across a range of Linux distributions[3] and allow upstream software developers to distribute their applications directly to users. Snaps are self-contained applications running in a sandbox with mediated access to the host system. Snap was originally released for cloud applications[4] but was later ported to also work for Internet of Things devices[5][6] and desktop[7][8] applications.
The problem is they don’t care until it becomes an issue which by then becomes harder to fix. I also just really hate snap lol
When would it become an issue?
I recently started using Mint after years on Debian.
I may be weird here, but it has quickly become my favorite distro.
It's snappy and super user-friendly, plus it's been de-Ubuntu-d. Out of the box Flatpak support is just nice to have, and Cinnamon is a sweet de.
I've done my fair share of distro hopping. Mint is the distribution that I have to do the least amount of configuring starting from a clean install.
It's the most stable distro I've used so far. Manjaro just seems like it's a ticking time bomb just waiting for borked o'clock to come. I couldn't get Nvidia drivers working on fedorat all. Ubuntu was just slow as ass. I don't know why. But it was just fucked from junk street. I've given it a go a few times. Just slow wet ass. Kali is snappy and clean but not meant to be a daily driver. Not would I use it as one.
Mint works. It's relatively snappy. I like the gui. It's customizabe.
I use Mint, and I found that it's the best distro for introducing my family to Linux. Those who tried it never asked for their Windows back.
Totally. Man I gotta try an updated mint and see if it will work for gaming. I miss the stability.
So far I've got Steam running flawlessly. Haven't tried much else yet.
Jokes aside, this kind of gatekeeping behavior is what gives Linux a bad name. Also, you don't have to be a beginner to love Linux Mint.
You just have to not care about Wayland ;D or modern software
I was running Linux Mint until the other day when I found out Linux Mint Debian Edition existed so I installed that. I'm a recent Linux convert and I can safely say that Lemmy might have partially been the reason. I've been loving it so far.
There's actually linux mint debian edition rather than ubuntu edition
wasn't it stopped? was using it around 2012 but thought they stopped maintening it.
Liked it because there was no need for version upgrade
Nope I use it and they are on the most recent stable Debian. No snaps and built in flatpack support.
LMDE6 came out within the last couple of months. It's based on Debian 12 which, at time of writing, is less than 6 months old.
Upgrading is still wise every couple of years because the base Debian distro also reaches EOL, but yes, rolling updates occur constantly in the meantime. Provided the system owner allows them to anyway.
I'm running the most recent version, based on Bookworm, as my daily driver.
You probably thought that because debian moves so slow.
Mint is great. I love it when shit just works.
Todd Howard Approved™️
Quit Linux? More like quit [non-server revisions of] Ubuntu... Besides, I somehow have an impression that preinstalled crap is among the popular reasons to why ppl leave windows
All the talk of Mint lately. Looks like my fifteen-year Ubuntu streak may be coming to an end. Will I, decidedly not a power-user just an Internet browser, occasional game player, Csound programmer, Libreoffice user notice a difference? Is Mint better at printing? That's the only real problem I've had with Ubuntu over the years.
In my experience Linux is better at printing than windows. Especially debian based distros.
However you can just Google your printer and see if there are issues.
Edit: can't read. I don't know if there will be any change on printing since mint really just removes snap and Ubuntu stuff and adds flatpak and a few smaller details.
It was weird. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS printed perfectly. First try, every time. Barring printer issues not related to the OS anyway. Then, 20.04 dropped, and I couldn't print anything. For two years, I had to move files to the Mac on the front desk to print at work because it refused to print anything. Same printer. I tried a few fixes people had posted, but none worked for me, and most fixes were for HP printers and mine is an Epson, which no one reported any problems with.
Now, with 22.04, I get intermittent printing. It works more often than not, but I'd estimate my print jobs get randomly canceled about 30% of the time. Which is annoying, but not deal-breaking since I usually just push it through again, and it works. To be fair, it might be because of wireless printing, but I doubt it since like I said, 18.04 worked flawlessly with the exact same setup. I might just try out Mint sometime and see if it makes a difference.
Out of the mainstream distros what might end up getting bought by Google or even Microsoft, Ubuntu seems to me like the most likely candidate.
I mean, RedHat was once the even more likely candidate, but
RedHat is unapologetically the Enterprise Linux so they're very close to Windows Server in that way.
I find Redhat annoying with how they lock down access to KB articles unless you have a subscription and certain "proprietary " things they do but I managed over 500 RHEL 7 and 8 servers at my previous job and I will say that their support is excellent, and RHEL is rock solid. Satellite server on the other hand, that thing is a steaming pile of garbage...
Snaps:
On server = good
On PC = bad
Hell no. I can't have my server updating itself without explicit approval, randomly breaking shit at any hour of the day.
Snap is basically Dockers right?
I hated it and it made me switch to debian, I don't see the point to install all dependencies for each apps, I guess they don't want to deal with package dependencies anymore, so let's install the same version of python 10 times
It's supposedly containerisation, but not really docker. After all, docker itself merely presents the OS's underlying feature in a somewhat more accessible way (keyword: somewhat).
Snap is more like a big ecosystem around that idea that breaks everything that should work in that context, is a security nightmare and is sold as "work anywhere" but really only work in one place, which developers could have targeted in the beginning without having to rely on Snap to begin with.
I would actually benefit from beig able to keeps different versions of dependencies rn. Got a deprecated software wich forces me to exclude a package from my updates.
Snaps just don’t really work very well. When I have had problems in the past and gone looking for answers, what I consistently find is that the problem is fixed by installing the non-snap version of . I love containers but if I am going to use them I want to have control over how they are configured and that they have access to.
Or at least if I don’t control them I just want them to work, and they never do. I would use them if they weren’t consistently shit.
You don't have to be a beginner to love Mint. I am very happy that they are putting more energy into the Debian edition. I've tried lots of other distros over the years, and I am just comfortable in Mint.
Linux Mint has a Debian edition available, I'm curious about that one.
It is a long term release based on Debian so that if Canonical goes down someday and Ubuntu falls, they will have a fallback base distro to remain on.
Best distro imo right now for desktop. Fedora a close second.
Others like Arch are great too but more for enthusiasts.
What makes Fedora good?
I've been using Debian on servers for maybe 20 years now, so I'm very experienced with Debian on servers, but I've never really used the Fedora/RedHat/CentOS side of things.
The last time I used a Linux desktop was Ubuntu back in 2006 or so, back when it was still a new up-and-coming distro and they'd send you a free CD (very useful since I was using dialup at the time).
I'm thinking about which distros I should try since I want to switch from Windows. I've heard Mint and Pop OS are good? I might try Debian too. I used to love tweaking the OS back in my teenage years, but now I'm in my 30s and don't have time to fix random breakages.... I just want something stable that works well. (that's why I was considering Debian)
Debian remains the king of "something stable that works well". And with release of Debian 12 that brought a lot of quality-of-life improvements, easier non-free package managing etc, many users go for it on their desktops. So I suggest you do too.
Fedora runs at a twice annual release model and includes kernel and firmware updates within those releases whereas Ubuntu matches a kernel with a release.
Their packages, to me, feel much higher quality in terms of reliability and reaction time to reported bugs. They also test and guarantee updates for packages in their repos. I ran my college laptop through 15 system upgrades without any issues, nothing has been that reliable for me.
I enjoyed using Ubuntu for several years and hadn't considered Fedora until they were the first to default to Wayland (f21) and never switched again.
You can do anything on any distro, so you end up just shopping for your fav package manager and default repo and staying there. I encourage you to play with all of them with a separated /home partition or so it's easy to shop.
Fedora tends to include a lot of the latest tech in a stable working configuration, stuff like Wayland and GNOME in the past and more. I like that I can get that while still enjoying a nice curated set of package repositories and without relying on something like the AUR for most packages. I'm happy to let others do the testing on the absolute bleeding edge and take the risks while I get to enjoy the fruits of that with a lot less pain with Fedora.
Manjaro KDE (default) makes Arch a wonderful starting point. Beautiful (gold standard of KDE implementation), truly blazing fast (thanks, Arch), incredibly Windows-like, and unlike Arch itself, completely plug-and-play.
Their update withholding schedule, while causing anger among some Arch enthusiasts, is what makes the system super stable and completely effortless to maintain, while remaining close to the bleeding edge.
The only thing newbies should be taught is that AUR should be used with caution due to potential (rare) dependency version conflicts; luckily, Manjaro repos have just about everything you can think of and AUR is almost entirely unnecessary.
Still using Mint, see no reason to change
What are snaps and telemetry?
Snaps are a package format that handle dependencies differently. People don't like them because of increased startup time.
Telemetry is when software sends analytics back to the parent company. Ubuntu does very basic telemetry, but people like to compare it to Windows
Ubuntu asks you if you're fine with sending usage statistics to canonical and if you say 'no', the distro won't send anything and never ask you again*
I keep hearing people complain about snaps but I don't know the good or bad about them
Worse thing about snaps is that the server that provides them is propietary and owned by canonical.
Open source people tend not to like when things are not open source.
Other than that they are like flakpacks but blessed by canonical. Sometimes they are more curated or there's more official releases on snaps that flakpacks.
Both are a way to deliver software without falling in dependency hell and kind of isolated and more secure(?).
Also is a way to wait 10-15 seconds to launch a simple app so there's that.
Good - Snaps are more advanced flat packs
Bad - Made by the company that makes Ubuntu
Mint with Maté gets no love but it's so fucking great.
Have not tried a mate based de yet. Gonna try this out after kde fedora.
Been struggling to find a distro with good multi monitor multi aspect ratio setup without it fucking up when one is turned off.
What sets mate apart in your opinion?
I guess I just think that it's one of the easiest desktop environments for a transitioning Windows user to get used to despite the fact that I've personally used Linux for over 25 years starting with old school Red Hat 5 command line.
It doesn't default to dark themes like many DEs do lately...
There's other things .... Desktop shortcut naming.. idk
And both of them are just remixes of Debian. So why not just use the base distro for all of them?
Debian is not a good distro for the tech illiterate. The point of Linux Mint is to be a good entry point for people to Linux, some will stick to it and that's fair cause it's a good distro, some may move past it. Debian isn't very friendly to noobs. Ubuntu is just garbage, I'd love it to be good but snaps are just that awful.
I stuck with it because it worked and I could do all my electronics, software, 3dp development. It's kind of nice to mostly forget about the OS and just get projects done.
I think they should improve their website download page, and have an easier installer before I can recommend it as a first distro to someone. But that's just my opinion. Some people even get Arch as their first distro, so..
I'm brand new to linux and was just trying to install something on a partition and I couldn't figure out how to do it with either fedora or mint, they kept giving me errors and asking about mount points and stuff I didn't understand. Then I tried EndeavourOS and the install was so painless, it just asked for the partition and did the rest for me. It also worked with my wifi card out of the box as an added bonus. By far the easiest experience so far. The little bit of googling I had to do to figure out how to use pacman and yay was not a big deal compared to actually getting started with Linux.
This might not count as Arch, but that's my experience at least.
Yeah or compile from source?
Whoa there, Satan.
or better, MX Linux !
LMDE and Flatpaks for daily apps.
I like the idea of switching to Linux to break the strangle of windows on my hardware but I don't know if all my games on Steam, Wargamings launcher and Automatic1111 will work properly if I made that switch. I installed Mint for a friend because I'm semi-literate and feel like messing with that....cmd window "terminal" to do...literally anything installation wise would get irritating.
I want a Linux that is as easy to use out of the box as windows. Will Mint be that way or will I have to spend 5 hours figuring out special words for commands any time I want to install something?
I've been using Linux Mint as a daily driver for ten years now.
I personally find Linux Mint to be easier to use than Windows out of the box. For example, you probably don't have to worry about drivers at all; AMD Radeon drivers for example are built right into the kernel, they "just work." In Windows, you have to go out to AMD's website, download and install them.
Linux has an app-store like system called a package manager. Most--including Linux Mint--have graphical ones that work just like the Play Store on Android does, except everything that's in there is free. On a Mint machine, you open the App Menu, go to Administration > Software Manager. To install Steam, you search for "steam" in the box in the top right, and you'll recognize the logo.
This same task can be done from the terminal. You can open the terminal and type
sudo apt install steamI will use both approaches depending on what I'm doing at the time. Like for example, it's faster to install multiple programs via the terminal.
sudo apt install steam obs blender audacity gimp shotcut inkscapewould install all those apps in one big thing, no need to sit there clicking through the app store.Linux Mint won't require use of the terminal very often, it has GUI menus and utilities for most things you'll likely want to do. Sometimes, using the terminal is faster, easier, or more convenient, or just more fun. Yeah there's fun to be had in the terminal. Get on Youtube and look up what "cowsay" does.
It seems like I can get borderlands games and tanks up and running on Mint, I'm ok with LibreOffice over Office 2010, but how does one begin to move any of this to a new OS? do I need to like take an entire day re-installing everything? Can I open it, as other have said, on an external hard drive, move stuff to the new OS, and then let it have most of the rest of the PC? (keeping maybe 500gb for windows in case I can't find something working) how does dual boot work then? Can I just have it boot Mint all the time and then "switch user" over to windows?
How is mint day to day? This is my big concern. Something going wrong and not having the time to go digging across a dozen pages to figure it out. (I'm savvy enough to know how to work Google and get answers, but I'd rather things just work you know?) Do Nvidia drivers work the same as windows as far as manually searching for them? Who do I turn to if I have a question noone has asked before? Is there like a catalog of commands and how do I learn how to use them?
You ain't never going to play all those Steam games anyway.
You can install Mint alongside Win in a dual-boot configuration ... then you can switch to it to figure out the gaming situation. (You just need to learn how to do that dual-boot install carefully. I recommend reading in the LM forums to learn that: https://forums.linuxmint.com/ ) OR you can install LM on a second drive, as many have.
Not all of your games will work on linux but thats not a linux problem but a game developer fault. You cant do anything about that by switching to a different distro. Especially those fps games with intrusive kernel level anti cheat will never be supported. Go to protondb and look up all the games that you need and see what works. I personally made the switch and simply stopped playing those that doesn't as for each that doesnt work theres a dozen of them that does. Proton really is a godsend.
And installing anything on linux isnt such voodoo magic that you have to worry about. For example flatpak lets you do "flatpak install something" and everything is done without you opening your browser and downloading stuff, going through a lengthy annoying installer. If you want to completely avoid opening terminal then some have appstore like discover on nobara which is simply microsoft store but actually usable. For those that arent on repo you can still download a package and install like windows. Linux really isnt that hard and i would even say its easier than windows if you get one of stable ready to run distros that simply works without any tweaking. It took you years to get used to windows so everything different looks difficult when it just takes a month or 2 to get used to it. If you dont want to make the jump then dual boot it and use it for a while till youre ready to remove windows completely.
Steam itself works fine on Linux. I don't think I have a single game in my library that doesn't work. I'm using Arch (btw) and I've found that for my use case (internet browsing and video games) that I haven't had any major issues.
The two issues I do have are:
- If I go too long without updating then package dependencies get screwed and its a headache to fix. -Downloaded applications need the console to allow them to be run. (This is just a single command I have sticky noted to my monitor.)
I still have my Windows install (dual boot) as a just in case backup, but its been months since I've used it.
It looks like world of tanks at least works on Linux fine. I haven't tried it, but it's rated as gold.
https://www.protondb.com/search?q=World of tanks
As for stuff in the terminal, if you ever need to use it, you'll probably be able to find what commands you need online and copy/paste. There are a lot of thing you can do in the terminal, but it isn't required much. As for installing software, it's significantly easier and more convenient than in Windows. It works more similar to Android or IPhone, where there's a shared place to get them from and they will all be updated through that as well, instead of having to launch the application and have it check for updates, download/install them, then relaunch.
Wait, people think anything besides an official Ubuntu flavor is leaving Linux?
Let me raise you: Pop!_OS
Maybe they changed it, but when I tried it they didn’t setup a boot loader by default
they definitely have every time I've installed it you may have just hit install to partition instead of erase drive or something by accident
During install that fucked me up. I found out I only could boot pop os only when booting win 10 bootloader. After bricking distro, moved on to mint.
Can you opt out of snap on Ubuntu? I've heard some system and essential apps use it, so it might break stuff if you do
If you're basically recreating Linux Mint from scratch, yes.
Linux can be heavily modified, and removing Snap from Ubuntu is no exception. But it's an involved process.
Can you opt out of snap on Ubuntu?
For now. I'm 100% convinced Ubuntu will move to a fully Snap model leading up to 26.04, basically making Ubuntu Core the mainstream version.
And you will have to install many widely used apps like Firefox manually via a PPA or compiling from source.
Serious question , my laptop is getting old. 7-8, years now I don't want to put money in tech for w new one. I want to use it with Linux , as I just use for very Norma stuff and Zero gaming. My use cases will be use of office, use if browsers, simple image editors, pdf reader and manipulation, copying images from to and from HDD , copying media to HDD etc. Connecting iPhone, android for file uploading download etc.
I don't want hassle of
- Find a reaposiroty, install an extra ackages except for softwares
- Give any command viq terminal. 3.find any dependency for ANYTHING
- Use it as regular person
What Linux will just work? I mean simple install and start using.
Mint.
Not worth it, especially trying to get ITunes to work
None of the usual big distros is gonna force to do any of that. Try Mint or Ubuntu, you're gonna be absolutely fine
In my newbie experience, the answer is: No.
There are still random snags and blocks to things you will probably expect or want to be able to do.
That being said, it's sooooo much better than is was. If those snags are minor and not irritating for you, you'll be able to work around them, I think.
And the wider community can be friendly and helpful, though not always empathetic / fully understanding of the lack of Linux knowledge you might be starting from, (again) in my experience.
Haven't tried to print anything yet either...printers always seem to Bork on nearly every OS...
Edit: first installed Linux mint this week on a dell XPS laptop.
I'd recommend you just try one of the mainstream distros with gnome or KDE. Something like Ubuntu, mint, fedora etc and see if you like it. There's going to be a short period where you'll need to adapt to the new environment, but you'll be fine afterwards.
Get a Thumbdrive and flash it with Ventoy, load it up with every ISOs you want to try and vive each one a go, the one that works nest for you, is the one you keep.
iTunes will probably be the toughest. I lean on iTunes for syncing files, media, local backups and if I had to ditch Windows tomorrow and decided Linux, I would set up iTunes in a Windows VM since I don’t think there’s any other workaround currently.
Does Mint support arm64 yet? I would be ecstatic for a mint VM in parallels on my MacBook but last time I tried I couldn’t I don’t think. Stock Ubuntu is just.. okay but I always loved the out of box experience and look and feel of mint it was my choice for dual booting years ago on old windows laptops
Why don't Windows/MacOS need snaps/flatpak?
Because every app gives it's own installer and annoying "Please update!" popup
linux mint is based
on my office machine: I have Ubuntu(23.10) in its full glory. it is a good distro. I really enjoy gnome shell with Wayland.
on my home machine: I won't let a single proprietary prpgram exist on my Debian. and the only wm would be i3(with xfce as a backup, and as a source of other common programs like terminal).
I've used mint in my university(default distro there), which I also enjoyed for its familiarity to users coming from proprietary operations systems.
my foray into GNU/Linux(from w*ndows) was thanks to Tails, which made me appreciate how different an OS can be(actually, my first computer had Ubuntu 4.10. the computer lasted for less than 2 years. hence I don't count it).
and I've also helped many friends set-up distros like zorin and peppermint.
at the end of day, no matter the distro, it's GNU/Linux. and that's all that matters.
I've tested over 40 Linux distributions over a long span of time, but I've never tried Mint. The reason being that all three times I've read something nice that inspired me to try it again the download hashes don't match, and we find out their servers were compromised. How's that going?
In 5+ years of OSS, only once have I even heard of hashes not matching and a build server being compromised, and it was fixed within 30 minutes. It was also a very big deal.
Basically, what you're saying and what a quick search on Google shows seems to suggest user error.
Lol, well there's no way I can "prove" it not having taken screenshots and archived them. It's been well over five years since the last time. I'll save you the humble boast, but no user error here regarding verifying ISOs.
So Mint is Ubuntu based right? If Ubuntu screws up even more doesn't that affect Mint as well?
Mint removes everything that makes Ubuntu bad and they have a version with the same features but Debian based and because Ubuntu is pushing snaps so much they have been thinking of making LMDE (Linux Mint Debian edition) the new default
What if I don't like the windows start bar feel of Mint?
@beeng @RmDebArc_5 I'm not a Mint user, but you can switch it out for an Openbox/Tint2 config pretty easily (I think!).
I’m really enjoying zorin right now.
TBH, ElementaryOS is going to look most familiar to a lot of users.
Does that not look far more like MacOS than Windows? Most people would come from Windows one would think (at least outside the US at least).
It looks like MacOS and Windows 11. So that’s everyone.
I never understood the "hype" around mint
Perhaps it's not a hype, Linux Mint is just the closest thing to what Ubuntu was like once.
Agreed. I was recently prepping a laptop to give to my mom, and planned to put Ubuntu on it since, y'know, it's "linux for human beings". I hadn't used Ubuntu Desktop in years, and was blown away by how unintuitive everything felt in the GUI. nothing behaved how I expected (this isn't to say it is inherently bad; this is just my experience).
Tried Linux Mint XFCE instead and was instantly relieved that it was a similar user experience to Windows (since that's typically going to make things easier for beginners).
It's also my go-to distro if I have a machine lying around that's in-between tasks and just needs a general-purpose OS for the moment.
Ding ding ding
I'm a Linux veteran and just slapped Mint on my Surface because I want something that just works before I start tinkering.
My anecdote, granted I'm no Linux master: I recently went into a distro rigamarole, installed openSUSE, Manjaro, etc, before arriving to Mint, because I could not find one that handled my CPU and graphics and drivers setup without significant effort.
Then I installed Mint (avoiding Ubuntu and its Canonicalness), and setup was very simple and everything worked out of the box. I could run Steam with external GPU without going through many workarounds or setup using nvidia prime and launchers and so forth
Stylistically I also like cinnamon, but Mint mainly was just so low hassle and simple I have to give it props for that
It's just the easiest distro to get into coming from windows/mac. It's more lenient about the third party/closed source software that people might be familiar with, lots of GUI tools including the Software Center that makes it easy to install things, and plenty of flavors to suit whatever feels most natural to you. It's got a nice GUI installer and live version that is sure to make people feel more comfortable about installing an OS if they've never done it before, and it's not at all fussy about the hardware it runs on. It's also rock solid as far as I've experienced. And, of course, it has the benefit of accessing the huge amount of software that supports debian. Also, owing to its popularity, the community is very active and welcoming to newbies.
When I was first getting into Linux, I was definitely more experimental and tried out Fedora just to get as far from Windows as I could. Now I'm not so adventurous and just want something that provides as similar a workflow as possible to the workflow I have to use at work with windows. So it goes that, when setting up a new laptop where I want an OS that just works, I reach for Linux Mint.
Software install tool on Mint is so much faster and more intuitive than the abomination I'm using on Nobara. I appreciate their efforts to make a gaming distro and I recommend it but if you want polish and more GUI tools, Mint works.
cool newbie distro that looks similiar to windows and doesn't do the bad shit Ubuntu does. That's it, it's not for everyone.
I haven't used mint in a while but did for a few years. The out of the box experience (at that time) was better.
Article from 2011:
Linux Mint 11 is a very respectable and speedy distribution and is comparatively very media friendly and easy to use out of the box for newcomers. These qualities likely have contributed to the operating system’s place on the Top 5 Linux Distribution list.
https://pcper.com/2011/11/linux-mint-rising-in-popularity-and-surpassing-ubuntu-for-top-spot/
More contemporary Mint users chime in here with why they prefer Mint:
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=383991
Take a hugely popular distro which alienates some some users with some issues or unappealing GUI choices, Mint comes along and polishes it further and you end up with a distro that is just perfect for that niche.
I think quite a few Ubuntu users migrated to KUbuntu or Mint when Canonical made Unity the default (in Ubuntu 11.04).
I remember trying Ubuntu Unity, back when I was wondering if I could be a good idea to switch Linux. But I had no patience at the time for the buttons on the opposite side of the window. I can't stop thinking that if it wasn't for that, things could have been quite different.
Yeah I'm with you. In my case I can't get around the cinamon gui which ... reminds me of Windows 98, sorry :(
(yes, I know, calm down, I know I can install whichever interface I want but from my experience it just causes problems and at that point I might aswell just switch the distro)
Option: Mint KDE and Mint xfce. It isn't only Cinnamon
Long time Mint user here. Switched to them ages ago because they didn't try to "revolutionize" the desktop in the whole Gnome 3/Ubuntu Unity era, and the OS was close enough to Ubuntu that instructions and software for Ubuntu would run on it. Since then, it's only been getting better, and they haven't been accumulating drama (Snap, telemetry, whatever Redhat is doing, etc.). like the more popular distros have been.
I'd recommend it to new people because it Just Works, has flatpack support, is similar enough to Windows and the many Ubuntu-specific instructions in the wild apply to it.
When I convicted my dad to switch to Linux it's what I've given him, and he's been very happy with it, so I guess it's just that it isn't a pain for a noob and it works a lot like windows
I used it when it became super popular, I installed Mint/Cinnamon, after a few months I switched to MX Linux Xfce and using it for 5+ years now.
Mint is polished for new users, not power users.
Curious what things you found less polished for power users?
My approach is: use the GUI if it's easy, otherwise, use the command line.
Is there some level of power user beyond that? Using cat to write kernel modules in binary and load on the fly? (I kid...)
It has all the goodness of Ubuntu without the noise. A common sense UI with solid default options and great customizability.
I have tried a lot of different distros and Mint is the one I keep coming back to. I run it on my daily driver laptop, my gaming rig and my media center in the living room with MythTV. Could not be happier.
Ubuntu, Mint, openSUSE.
