There's no reason to use Linux Mint

[volteos]

I don't understand why people use Linux Mint, an antiquated OS. People talk about the Cinnamon desktop, but my sentiment is why would you use it when Ubuntu has Cinnamon.

I get being a beginner/distro hopper, but it really doesn't make sense to use anything else other than Ubuntu if you're going to use their repo base anyway. I don't know, I guess I can see it philosophically, maybe they don't like corporate distros, or maybe they don't like snaps (to be frank I like snaps a lot more than flatpaks). But the bottom line is at the end of the day to me, Linux Mint is pointless.

When I started, I recall about 5 years ago, I kept switching to different OS not knowing that the only major real difference was really just the politics and desktop environments. I think a lot of newcomers are unaware of this fact and keep thinking that some how Arch is going to be vastly different as an overall experience than OpenSuse or Fedora...when they virtually use the same sort of packaging scheme.

On top of that I can truly say that the best environment I've ever worked with is GNOME, and only two systems come into mind for me philosophically as a superior choice. The first system is Ubuntu, because everything works on it, I like snaps, I just wish they worked with my custom theme, never had a bad experience with snaps either. The second system is Manjaro, which is what I deem the more "non-corporate" distro because you have a vetting system that's handled by the community, and they're not psychotic about code of eihics and stuff like that. Other than that, it really sucks seeing people fall into a hivemind that Linux Mint is somehow a gamechanger, when it's really just Ubuntu.

[1fallen]

We just say use whatever works for you. I can see your a passionate desktop user.

Possible flamebait....

EDIT As long as your happy I don't see why you care what anyone else uses!

[volteos]

Well the reason I care is because a lot of critics say that Ubuntu is the devil and that it's bad, when it's not. I don't think these critics have any idea of what they're talking about, or at the very least are not adept at using the Linux ecosystem.

[1fallen]

I wouldn't get all hung up over any "he said she said" crap, again if your happy then all is good.

Perhaps they are just as passionate about Mint as you are with Ubuntu. Win Win!

We here in UF hear those kind of things daily and after 19 years worth, it's now just a shoulder shrug and move forward in a positive manner.

[paulycalvin]

I personally agree. Linux Mint kind of sucks. A person can take gnome shell with extensions and do exactly what mint does but way better.

[TheFu]

Well the reason I care is because a lot of critics say that Ubuntu is the devil and that it's bad, when it's not. I don't think these critics have any idea of what they're talking about, or at the very least are not adept at using the Linux ecosystem.

Different people have different pain-points. If Ubuntu works great for your, fantastic.

I switched away from Ubuntu desktops around 2019, while still keeping the Ubuntu base. The DEs weren't to my liking. My choice. Not yours.

When snaps became more and more mandated by Canoncial, most of them either didn't work on my NFS-mounted HOME directories or they were interfering with my sandbox programs that I wanted to use for security reasons. After always removing all snap infrastructure, then installing a package only to find that it was a snap and brought back all that formerly removed infrastructure, I was unhappy. I shouldn't have to fight with my desktop for programs to work. The snap team has suggested a few workarounds for people in similar situations. They are cumbersome. Much easier to just avoid snaps and that means choosing a different distro.

While there were lots of options, the easiest was Mint. I loaded up Mint Cinnamon and used it about 2 hours before deciding it wasn't for me. I added my WM and purged the Cinnamon DE, but kept everything else and have been happily running 21.2 --> 21.3 for about 18 months. No more fighting with snaps. That alone is worth the change to me. When I got a new-to-me laptop, I loaded Mint 22. Under it, everything "just worked". LUKS encryption, networking, audio, touchpad, webcam, mic, they all worked. I'd expect the same would be true with an Ubuntu flavor, but I did test 24.04 with XFCE and LXQt DEs (I hate, hate, hate, hate, Gnome). XFCE crashed taking the entire OS down within 10 minutes. LXQt was stable, but still felt bloated to me.

Wayland .... don't get me started on Wayland breaking my workflows. Tested it a few weeks ago with 24.10 and it still didn't work for me. My multi-system workflows were broken. I use about 5 systems concurrently, daily, constantly. I don't even consider them different computers for the most part, because they are fully integrated on my workstation screens in the native method that lets me treat each window like it were the same system.

So ... you do you and feel free to share your work-arounds for the different issues and I'll do me trying to avoid any need for work-arounds from the OS. Being different is fine, right? If we were all the same, we'd all use MacOS.

[TheFu]

I personally agree. Linux Mint kind of sucks. A person can take gnome shell with extensions and do exactly what mint does but way better.

Don't confuse the DE with the OS. Please. A DE is just a set of regular programs running on a window-manager, running on a display server, kicked off by a login manager. All of them are "applications", not an OS.

[Rubi1200]

Don't confuse the DE with the OS. Please. A DE is just a set of regular programs running on a window-manager, running on a display server, kicked off by a login manager. All of them are "applications", not an OS.

+1

Excellent point and one we should all take note of when "bashing" different distros.

[Tadaen_Sylvermane]

I'd just like to highlight that Cinnamon was made and managed by the Mint people. So you wouldn't have Ubuntu Cinnamon without Mint. Just because "anyone" can do it doesn't mean "anyone" did. The Mint people made it.

And as far as antiquated some of us like stable reliable software instead of newer stuff. Less surprises to screw with our workflow. I went back to Debian Bookworm myself and it + distrobox == zero problems.

Of course this is a moot point if I took the trollbait...

[1fallen]

I'd just like to highlight that Cinnamon was made and managed by the Mint people. So you wouldn't have Ubuntu Cinnamon without Mint. Just because "anyone" can do it doesn't mean "anyone" did. The Mint people made it.

And as far as antiquated some of us like stable reliable software instead of newer stuff. Less surprises to screw with our workflow. I went back to Debian Bookworm myself and it + distrobox == zero problems.

.

+1