• Unauthorised User@lemmy.mlEnglish
    2·
    6 days ago

    I admire how Linux Mint makes it easy to set things up for the user’s liking. Also, it gives so much confidence to the end user in learning the new platform.

  • texture@lemmy.world
    21·
    6 days ago

    imo the rumor that mint is the easiest is harmful to the whole ecosystem. it implies there arent countless other easy distros and stifles accurate choices for many new people.

    • Digit@lemmy.wtfEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      Yeah.

      “Just use mint” became a lazy retort to new users seeking help in picking a distro, and those being asked getting tired of it.

      Dozens of viable candidate distros, many of which may fit each user better per their unique needs.

    • ekZepp@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      11·
      6 days ago

      Why? It is a great distro for new beginners. Ofc is not the only one.

    • Strider@lemmy.world
      141·
      9 days ago

      From the bottom of my heart fuck rolling releases. Never worked for me (nobody get worked up please, ymmv).

      • gustofwind@lemmy.worldEnglish
        91·
        9 days ago

        lol it’s funny how proactively defensive everyone is about their distro choices

        I use a Mac for my server 🤓

    • mybuttnolie@sopuli.xyz
      11·
      9 days ago

      I’ve been living with fedora (ultramarine) kde for a while now because people praised fedora so much, but i think mint still wins. and i chose ultramarine because am a noob, don’t sue me.

      there are many little things that just don’t work and i seriously can’t figure out. here’s a few: discover fails to update the system and i always have to do it manually from the terminal. wine is broken, it literally can’t run anything i throw at it that worked on mint. plasma theme customization is somewhat broken (also custom themes prevent updating…). using alt key in games run with wine causes some annoying notification sound (not in system keyboard shortcuts). often keyboard leds stay on when system suspended, system can’t be woken up from keyboard. can’t use flameshot with kb shortcut.

      this isn’t a hate comment though, a lot of things are better than i had with mint cinnamon. i do like how it’s a lot faster than mint when under heavy load, autosuspend actually works, no issues with screen not waking up. currently my media pc with mint can’t update because all sources are unavailable and it has some conflict with python3 which it won’t let me uninstall (which i suspect would be unwise, idk)

      • gustofwind@lemmy.worldEnglish
        17·
        9 days ago

        I can only recommend regular Fedora because I have a feeling you just wouldn’t have those issues but I am not a doctor.

    • satanmat@lemmy.world
      5·
      9 days ago

      Kinoite Ride or die

      FOR ME it does the things I need it to do; and it works; and hasn’t blown up my house yet so 🤞

  • Kaiserschmarrn@feddit.org
    502·
    9 days ago

    Man… I just fucking love CachyOS. I switched from Win11 a few weeks ago and up until now it is just a great experience.

  • Geth@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    473·
    9 days ago

    Mint has been glazed since the beginning of time. Not a single laptop or computer I have ever owned has worked out of the box with it. As opposed to alternatives like Ubuntu or Fedora. I must be the single most unlucky person in the history of Linux.

    • Zron@lemmy.world
      44·
      9 days ago

      I’ve had the opposite experience. Mint has just worked on literally every piece of hardware I’ve ever owned.

    • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
      16·
      9 days ago

      Is it always a new laptop/computer?

      I’d be suspicious of Mint on anything brand spanking new (and hence only recently fixed in a lot of packages).

      • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
        4·
        9 days ago

        Is there any company out there that sells PCs with Linux pre-installed? I make a ton of money selling custom built PCs that have Linux pre-installed and tested.

        • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
          8·
          9 days ago

          Several. System76 (the cosmic dev) is a major one, literally making the distro just for their laptops.

          They’re mostly white boxes though. I don’t any and manufacture their own hardware (except Framework possibly???)

        • gustofwind@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          9 days ago

          You can find Linux models from dell lenovo and I think even hp but you gotta search for them

          There are also some specialty companies that make Linux desktops and laptops but you also gotta really seek them out

          • eli@lemmy.world
            1·
            4 days ago

            And to clarify, it’s pretty much only Ubuntu that is the Linux option with the standard SI’s. And I’m pretty sure it’s standard Ubuntu with gnome, not Kubuntu or being able to select a different DE, etc.

            So it’s an option…but not something I’d seek out from Dell or HP specifically.

            • gustofwind@lemmy.worldEnglish
              2·
              4 days ago

              True but you can still save the money on the MS license and then just install whatever you want

              • eli@lemmy.world
                1·
                4 days ago

                Oh for sure. Kind of forgot about that.

                I usually build my own PCs, or I buy certified refurbished systems from eBay, so I usually don’t pay the Windows tax(or its baked in).

                But definitely a good option to get something for cheaper, I do wish more systems had a Linux or no OS option.

                And even if I plan to use Windows on a system, I usually re-install Windows anyway. Can’t be too careful with what has already been installed on something.

                • gustofwind@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  2·
                  4 days ago

                  Official lenovo eBay store 💘

                  I dual boot anyway so it doesn’t really matter and as shitty as MS is i find having it to be valuable nonetheless but i suppose it’s trivial to just run activation scripts

    • tym@lemmy.world
      9·
      8 days ago

      I’ve had 0 issues with mint OOB… less than Ubuntu. Guess I got lucky regarding hardware compatibility.

    • LumiNocta@lemmy.zip
      3·
      9 days ago

      I used it on an HP elite X2 and everything worked, touchscreen and it’s specific screen cover/keyboard

      It’s weird tho because I didn’t expect that at all.

      • 0x0@infosec.pub
        5·
        9 days ago

        Most distros works out of the box with that weirdly enough, only one I’ve had issues with was debian and the pen, but that worked itself out straight away after updating it

    • Crozekiel@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2·
      8 days ago

      Sorta same, but my problems expand beyond just Mint… I had a lot of problems with Ubuntu several years back, so I was convinced to switch to Manjaro. That was an absolutely unabashed fucking nightmare. I thought I was either cursed or just too stupid for Linux for a while. I still don’t know if I just got very unlucky or if I was/am too stupid for the distros that everyone shouts praises from the rooftops for… I stumbled into Garuda Linux and it has been a dream come true.

    • comfy@lemmy.ml
      1·
      8 days ago

      In the past 5 years I’ve only ever had minor issues*, like a power button light not being on. But as a developer, I’m aware my hardware choices are more likely to be popular with other developers who would have already noticed and fixed issues.

      * excluding on niche distros, like Puppy ones.

    • Deathray5@lemmynsfw.com
      1·
      8 days ago

      As someone who runs a small volunteer run IT support group that tries to suggest Linux I’ve found that I often need the Ubuntu PPA to get Qualcomm WiFi cards to work.

  • kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de
    38·
    9 days ago

    There is no one reliable distro. Mint, itself is based off Ubuntu and also releases LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition).

    If reliablility is measured in terms of how stable a distro is, then likely Debian with it’s conservative approach to packaging updates comes to mind (No wonder large number of distros are based off Debian only).

    I would even argue as long as someone isn’t messing with a niche distro such as KDE Neon( meant to showcase KDE packages) or Linuxfx (or whatever it has renamed itself to, one of the few shady ones IMO ) or Trisquel OS (a GNU certified distro where running into dependency hell isn’t new); it will suit user’s case.

    Debian, Slackware, Void, Zorin, even rolling release like Arch (basically any one that meets the user’s use case is reliable)

    • woelkchen@lemmy.world
      201·
      9 days ago

      I would even argue as long as someone isn’t messing with a niche distro such as KDE Neon

      KDE Neon is dead because its developers found out that putting an add-on repository on top of Ubuntu is not reliable at all. That’s why KDE Linux is now in development.

      • [object Object]@lemmy.world
        51·
        9 days ago

        Is there a writeup about their problems with Ubuntu? Adding repositories to Debian and/or Ubuntu is how plenty of software is distributed, so I’m surprised to hear they’re unhappy with it.

      • djdarren@piefed.socialEnglish
        2·
        9 days ago

        I used Neon for a while, discovered that KDE were letting it go, and switched to Kubuntu. I love Kubuntu.

  • HexagonSun@lemmy.zipEnglish
    35·
    9 days ago

    Went back to Mint a few times but ultimately I like Plasma over Cinnamon, so Debian it is!

    • bisby@lemmy.world
      143·
      9 days ago

      You do know that you don’t have to change distros to change DE right?

      • HexagonSun@lemmy.zipEnglish
        10·
        8 days ago

        Yep. I was using Plasma on Mint for a while but the consensus was you’re best off using a DE officially supported by the distro.

        Never encountered any issues personally up to that point, but seemed to be the majority opinion when I researched it.

        But my most recent switch was from Endeavour, so made much more sense to install Debian 13 than to Install Mint and then immediately switch DE.

          • HexagonSun@lemmy.zipEnglish
            1·
            7 days ago

            Well, context is everything. Obviously there’s no single best distro for all use cases.

            This is a 13 year old MacBook Pro, with ancient Linux-hating hybrid Nvidia/Intel graphics that needs an NVRAM modification and vga_switcheroo to do things like video acceleration properly.

            And not my main computer, just for learning Linux and playing some old games.

            So Endeavour worked great, but seemed like ultimately a computer that old is probably best off with stability and minimal updates rather than being bleeding-edge and subjecting it to gigabytes of updates each week.

      • ITGuyLevi@programming.dev
        8·
        8 days ago

        I absolutely loved the release of LMDE, it’s just what I like though, the simple intuitive interface of Mint, without dealing with Canonical’s bullshit (really sour about snaps, ignore me lol).

        Edit: picked back up my phone and reread what was on the screen when I realized you probably meant desktop environment and not Debian Edition when you typed DE.

  • Zink@programming.dev
    32·
    9 days ago

    I never left!

    I think I’m just old enough, have fiddled with my PC enough times in the past, have enough other shit to do, and get enough coding and troubleshooting experience at work that I look at the quest to find my spirit distro and think “that’s a youngster’s game.”

    Or, you know, maybe Mint is already my spirit distro and I am experienced enough to not fix what isn’t broken!

    • HugeNerd@lemmy.ca
      8·
      9 days ago

      Ah that explains it, I no longer understand a single thing about computers or what people do with them anymore. You’ve explained it perfectly.

      And here’s the thing: I don’t even want to know. It’s not like I’m trying to understand but can’t, I just don’t care. I don’t get it.

      People with 100TB home servers, people with 3D printers and boxes filled with trash, endless upgrades for no visible change, etc

      I don’t have a single need or want that ends with “I need a new computer”.

      • Zink@programming.dev
        8·
        9 days ago

        I completely understand the sentiment!

        I am still into some tech and “new computer” type stuff. I am about to install a bigger/faster drive in my PC and set up my Home Assistant server. That PC is already my Jellyfin server. I am also in the middle of building a brand new PC for my kid, which will also run Mint, lol.

        But I spend time only on the things that I’ve learned really matter to me, and not on all the things you’re “supposed to” mess with in your home lab that you obviously have.

        You know the meme (or meme category) where it’s a resume or linkedin profile where the recent work history goes something like Senior Network Architect, then Goose Farmer?

        I may literally have a 3D printer still in the box, and PC & networking parts all over the house, but my daily routine is embedded linux C/C++ sr developer by day and animal tender on the evenings and weekends, lol.

    • Digit@lemmy.wtfEnglish
      3·
      8 days ago

      Some reasons

      • Package availability
      • Preconfiguration curiosity
      • Features (e.g. USE flags, different inits, musl, package manager speed, newness vs stability, different core utils, etc)
      • Reliability
      • Education
      • Community

      But yeah… It’s a mite silly to be distro-hopping just to try different desktop environments.

      Methinks several still-new users are yet to realise the desktop environment and distro are not tied together, and nearly all distros offer nearly all desktop environments to install, just one command away.

      It gets even more fun when exploring all the window managers, not just the few desktop environments. And… there be ways to ease that exploration even further.

  • Brusque@lemmy.world
    21·
    9 days ago

    Just switched from Mint to CachyOS due to some upgraded hardware and it’s been pretty nice so far. Mint will stay on all my other devices though.

  • lmuel@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    21·
    9 days ago

    Yup, I do regular distrofuckery on my spare pc but Mint is just a rock solid option for me, great distro, feels good.