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An OS should GTFO and let you get on with the business of doing shit on your computer, Linux Mint does that nicely. 🐧
except it doesn’t. Fixed release model quite easily gets in a way of doing shit. Need to add a PPA into config for each separate package you need the latest release of, or simply because the package itself is absent in the normal repo doesn’t help either. And don’t get me started on troubleshooting after “doing shit”.
Something like fedora does a much better job if you prefer fixed release, but if you like to experiment and “do shit”, arch derivatives like Endeavor or Cachy are just better suited for you. All of the above also have a much nicer documentation than Mint.
For most people, especially those who want to migrate from other OS, micromanaging package versions is not part of doing shit.
well, it apparently was an issue for me on Mint, when i just switched from windows.
I might misremember things, but i believe some Microsoft stuff was inside PPA, so for someone just switching from windows it’s actually more likely to delve into the apt fuckery.
Noob distro btw
I also had the same experience with Mint having outdated packages. And at that time I was a Linux noob so I figured I’d just wait until Mint updated their shit.
Well days turned into weeks and then about 3 months later, still with no updates from Mint, I jumped ship to Fedora. Which Fedora was nice but then I hopped to Kubuntu and now I’m on CachyOS.
I see all of this Mint hype and while I do love Cinnamon; I would never put Mint on my own devices going forward. It’s definitely a distro I would put on my mom’s laptop or a grandparent’s device. But their release schedule is abhorrent.
Well, I switched to Linux to get away from Microsoft bullshit so I never tried installing any of their stuff but I can see that being an issue for some people.
+1 for Fedora being the best distro for getitng out of your way so you can get on with doing stuff.
I mean, literally Linus himself runs Fedora for this very reason.
Didn’t he recently switch to something else? I forget what. Maybe I’m misremembering.
Didn’t hear about it, at least recently when Linus Torvals came to Linus Sebastian (aka Linus Tech Tips), they were still discussing Fedora
I probably misremembered.
I thought it was in that that he mentioned he’d recently changed to something else.
Maybe crossed wires in my memory. Ugh, I don’t wanna go rewatch that… fun as it was.
Only because it’s easier and faster to install new kernels with. Otherwise, I suspect he doesn’t much care about gaming or other more “normal uses.”
lol, didn’t know that
In the context of the comment, “do shit” is explicitly not anything to do with the OS or packages or repos.
yeeeeeeees! (or Fedora)
I’m a relative basic bitch, I don’t want to spend forever in terminal. Mint has been a god send and I’m so happy I left windows for it. A special shout out to steam for being the goat and making what little gaming I do easy.
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.
I use Debian as my daily driver for at least a decade, but I still recommend Mint because it has all the good things about Debian with extra.
Debian developers just push out kernel updates without warning you about any possible system incompatibilities, so for example if you have an Nvidia GPU you might get a notificaton to “update” and a normie will likely press it only for the PC to boot to a black screen because Debian pushed out a kernel update that breaks compatibility with Nvidia drivers and does nothing to warn the user about it, and then a normie probably won’t know how to get out of the black screen to the TTY and roll back the update.
I remember this happening before and I had to go to the reddit for /r/Debian and respond to all the people freaking out explaining to them how to fix their system and rollback the update.
Operating systems like Ubuntu, Mint, PopOS, etc, will do more testing with their kernel before rolling it out to users. They also tend to have more up-to-date kernels. I had Debian on everything but my gaming PC that I had built recently because Debian 12 used such an old kernel that it wouldn’t support my motherboard hardware. This was a kernel-level issue and couldn’t be fixed just by installing a new driver. Normies are not going to want to compile their own kernel for their daily driver, and neither do I who has a lot of experience with Linux.
I ended up just using Mint until Debian 13 released on that PC because my only option would be to switch to the unstable or testing branch, or compile my own kernel, which neither I cared to do on a PC I just wanted to work and play Horizon or whatever on.
Can always sid (or ceres)
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.
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.
my sentiments exactly
Why? It is a great distro for new beginners. Ofc is not the only one.
Its nice if you aren’t on a laptop and need Wayland.
@ekZepp For me, it’s Debian. It always just works.
Unless you need nvidia drivers from this century
That’s okay. Thanks to their insane pricing caused by covid, followed by more insane pricing caused by the AI bubble, many people are still running cards not getting any new drivers anyway.
1080ti still works great
Don’t forget NFTs!
Regular crypto pump scams before that too.
Fuck nvidia
Amen
I daily drive LMDE with a 4070ti super, works perfect. I do use the proprietary drivers but I hardly ever have issues.
i might try various other distros for my desktop usage. But for my home server it will always be Debian. Rock solid.
Same. EndeavourOs on the desktop but the rest of the Homeland is Debian.
I changed one of my PCs over to Debian this month, and I was surprised at how smooth it is. I guess I was expecting it to be way more barebones. I don’t know if I need more than this!
For me it’s Mint Debian Edition.
@teft Yeah, I’ve been tempted to take a look at Mint DE. If I ever try another distro on something I will def check that out.
It’s great, well worth a try. Stable, functional and compatible, just how I like it.
LMDE is excellent and I’ve been running it since it first came out… whenever that was! Very underrated distro!
Damn, no way… I just randomly found these DVDRs tonight while clearing out some boxes. My original LMDE install discs… 15 years whaa!
Why that and not standard Ubuntu-based Mint? At minimum you lose PPAs and the Driver Manager. What’s the upside?
I dislike ubuntu. I don’t care about ppa since i’ll just compile anything not in the repos. Same with drivers but i haven’t needed any weird driver in years.
Thanks!
I’ve been running sid on my personal laptops for more than a decade. Can’t imagine doing anything else
I run Debian, super happy with it (also have tried Ubuntu and Steam OS/Arch, liking both). As a noob, what would/could I expect gain by distro hopping?
If you are happy with Debian, I’d say stay with it. I have tried many distros but I like Debian and return to it for most of my devices. Sometimes Debian will have older versions of software if you use stable, I don’t really mind personally
Thats what LMDE is for, Linux Mint Debian Edition. Been my daily driver for years. Otherwise I use vanilla Debian for all my server and headless stuff.
Same. It’s like coming home.
Switched my gaming PC over to Arch a little while back but the server’s always going to be Debian.I use arch btw
Arch is on my gaming pc and is alot of fun, but I must admit my old reliable is straight Debian, after hopping through a couple of Debian based distros, I tried straight deb and agree it just works. So it’s installed on anything I don’t wanna tinker with
@ForgottenUsername I “use arch btw”
😅
Fedora
From the bottom of my heart fuck rolling releases. Never worked for me (nobody get worked up please, ymmv).
lol it’s funny how proactively defensive everyone is about their distro choices
I use a Mac for my server 🤓
you’re also not gonna like it when i roll up THESE SLEEVES TO THROW HANDS!
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)
I can only recommend regular Fedora because I have a feeling you just wouldn’t have those issues but I am not a doctor.
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 🤞
Yes.
Man… I just fucking love CachyOS. I switched from Win11 a few weeks ago and up until now it is just a great experience.
I tried twice to install it- a ryzen 360 was stopped dead by this bug: https://old.reddit.com/r/cachyos/comments/1pag639/rdseed32_error_and_sddm_fails_to_start/
Figured that out and ran into the touchpad not working after sleep.
A 9300H+1650 never made it past this: https://discuss.cachyos.org/t/the-installation-of-cachyos-always-aborts-due-to-chwd-error/16754/3
0/2, cannot recommend
Ditto had it on two computers, works great
I found CachyOS while trying to figure out the best OS for my handheld. Was on bazzite before that. I ended up loving it so much I installed it on my laptop and desktop too.
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.
I’ve had the opposite experience. Mint has just worked on literally every piece of hardware I’ve ever owned.
Is it always a new laptop/computer?
I’d be suspicious of Mint on anything brand new (and hence only recently fixed in a lot of packages).
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.
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???)
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
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.
True but you can still save the money on the MS license and then just install whatever you want
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.
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
I’ve had the exact same experience.
I’ve had 0 issues with mint OOB… less than Ubuntu. Guess I got lucky regarding hardware compatibility.
Same. Works everytime without special modifications, configurations, etc.
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.
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
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
I used Neon for a while, discovered that KDE were letting it go, and switched to Kubuntu. I love Kubuntu.
Kubuntu comes with mandatory Ubuntu enshittification, though. All official Ubuntu flavors do.
I mean, yeah, sure. But I like it.
Try out fedora if you ever get tired of snaps and other bs.
Otherwise, if it works, good for you
Other than snaps, what else are they doing wrong?
Other than snaps, what else are they doing wrong?
That link comes up with an error. Do you know which software it is that is/was in the universe repo?
That link comes up with an error.
Probably because you use a client that tries to open the link locally. OP deleted the post and that’s why Lemmy cannot open its comments any longer, hence the Mastodon link that works fine in a web browser.
Do you know which software it is that is/was in the universe repo?
Pretty much everything except the base OS and Gnome.
Arch is pretty reliable
It’s super reliable
It is the only reliable
Went back to Mint a few times but ultimately I like Plasma over Cinnamon, so Debian it is!
You do know that you don’t have to change distros to change DE right?
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.
Willingly switching from Arch to Debian says a lot about a person
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.
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.
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!
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”.
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.
