I’ve been having a big think over Linux distros. See, I’ve been looking back at my still-new Linux experience of nine months, and wondering how my own journey can help other people get started with FOSS operating systems. Whenever the topic of a Windows refugee-friendly OS came up, I would recommend Linux Mint because, first, it’s the one everyone says, and second, it was the Linux OS that I started with, fresh off Windows.
I always follow that up with a comment about how you don’t have to stick with Linux Mint if you don’t want to. You can do what I did, which is to dip your toe into the Linux distro water and find something that suits you better. But if I’m setting up Linux Mint as “my first Linux distro,” why not just skip the middleman and get right into the distros that have a bit more meat on them?
I don’t get why everyone and their mother has to shit on Mint. I started my Linux journey on servers, but my first home computing distro was Ubuntu 16. It wasn’t what I needed so I stuck with Windows 10. After migrating my homelab server to Almalinux 9 and realizing how much better life could be if I just purged Microsoft from my household, I installed Linux Mint on my laptop and have used it ever since. If I had any less of a warm welcome into Linux for home computing, I might have just stuck with Windows 10.
I consider myself somewhere between a layperson and a power user. I’m pretty comfortable with BASH since I work with servers a lot, but low-level stuff is still black magic to me. I’m aware that KDE Plasma has a ton of cool bells and whistles (I use Nobara on my gaming rig), but other than KDE connect for sharing clipboard, I don’t really need any of that fancy stuff on my laptop. And I think the typical layperson probably won’t even set them up in the first place.
I think Mint gets shit on because it’s based on Ubuntu (which already gets shit on a lot) and only gets a new release when the Ubuntu LTS does, so it’s kinda out of date.
Rolling release distros get recommended over it a lot because having a newer kernel gets you better gaming performance and a lot of the techy people who’d even care about switching, also like gaming. And nowadays, immutable distros get recommended a lot so you can’t fuck things up with a weird config change. Mint just doesn’t do anything significantly better than any other distro, it’s lukewarm.
I don’t think the desktop environment actually has much to do with why people dislike Mint. It’s just fine IMO. I’ll take it over Ubuntu, but these days I’m on OpenSuse Tumbleweed. Rolling release, and comes with snapshots configured straight out of the box so when I fuck something up, it’s fairly quick do undo.
I think the problem here generally stems from the view that a system which is explicitly not Windows should be suitable for “Windows refugees”. (Haiku would come to mind sooner than Linux, but I don’t want to open that can of worms here.)
Mint isn’t “like Windows”, not even Zorin is “like Windows”. No operating system (except perhaps ReactOS) that isn’t Windows aims to provide a good sanctuary for “Windows refugees”. The expectation that a Linux distribution must be “suitable for Windows users” will lead to many more disappointments.
Bill Joy (google him if necessary) once said (quite rightly):
What was the goal of the Linux community–to replace Windows? One can imagine higher aspirations.
Take Linux for what it wants to be (a free implementation of parts of V7 UNIX for reasonably modern systems), and you’ll immediately be less disappointed.
(Disclosure: As far as Linux is concerned, I currently only use Gentoo myself—not because it’s great for Windows users, but because it’s a great Linux distribution.)
A distro for Windows refugees isn’t an exact copy of Windows. They can stay on Windows for that.
It is the Linux flavour that is the easiest to use after working with Windows your entire life. It should have all the advantages a Linux system brings, but have the same type of logic how UI is organized as Windows, and offer the same advantages.
Like out-of the box drivers that work on every hardware. A setup with easy to understand questions that aren’t technical. A file system with similar structure. A GUI setting menu where the most used settings can be changed without opening a command window. …
A file system with similar structure.
There is no Windows-like file system fully supported for / as far as I know. You can’t have C:\ on Linux.
A GUI setting menu where the most used settings can be changed without opening a command window. …
That’s not really distribution-specific though. All GUI configuration tools I know are distribution-agnostic.
I think for the users that they’re talking about would mostly care that the directories in
/home/tux0rare organized the same as they would be in
C:\Users\tux0r\But… that’s already the case pretty much. Most distros have default directories like Downloads, Documents, Pictures, etc.
That’s not really distribution-specific though. All GUI configuration tools I know are distribution-agnostic.
But they usually get bundled with a desktop environment and the default desktop environment is usually shipped with the distro.
Personally I think Plasma does this configuration stuff well, better than Windows. I haven’t really used anything Gnome or Gnome-based (Cinnamon, MATE) recently so I don’t know what they’re like these days.
IMO Mint with its Cinamon or MATE desktop environments, or anything Plasma based would be fairly easy for a lifelong Windows user to pick up.
when people say “like windows” they mean that if you are coming from windows things will be where you expect them to be and things will (on a surface level) work how you would expect them to work
if you are coming from windows things will be where you expect them to be
This is something that Linux neither can do nor (in my opinion) should try to do.
mint (or cinnamon specifically if you want to be annoying) by default has the equivalent to the start menu in the bottom left, exactly where it is on windows. the taskbar is along the bottom like it is on windows. the taskbar (on the surface) functions like it does on windows. the application menu is similar enough to windows that windows people can find where things are easily, because they are where they expect them to be. the default file browser looks and behaves (on the surface) like windows explorer.
The vast majority of users don’t need “more meat” in their OS. They need stability. Linux Mint works great on that front, I don’t see the need to loose focus with multiple new distros. Not everyone needs to jump distro every month.
Disclaimer: i’ve been using Linux Mint for over 10 years without ever hopping to something else. And I’m a software engineer, not a casual user.
Because switching from Windows can be intimidating and Mint is the literal opposite of intimidating. It’s boring, simple, and clean, thus the perfect stepping stone. At least, it was for me and quite a few others I know. I still install Mint first on new hardware
Warning, this is my opinion:
No, a distro with a modified depricated non-upstream window manager is not a good introduction to Linux.
I am looking at you Cinnamon. Cinnamon is for Linux users who don’t want to use Gnome 3 or KDE Plasma, I think.
I always recommend Fedora to newbs and Debian to newbs with existing Linux knowledge, because all the desktops are as close to upstream as possible. This is why I cannot recommend Ubuntu or any Ubuntu based distro for the desktop. ubuntu-server can ve good enough on servers only.
Cinnamon is the reason I don’t recommend Mint to people, but it’s mainly because I don’t like it. The default UI has so much wasted space it’s revolting, they tried to get the windows XP/7 feel with the app launcher and ended up with blocky, boring blank space.
Unless someone is familiar with MacOS and wants to use something similar w/ GNOME, I’ve only been recommending KDE spins or distros with it as default.
I’ve been using Linux for more than 20 years. I’ve started with Ubuntu, then I’ve used Arch for a long time, then back to Kubuntu, then… I’ve recently switched to Mint.
I need to do work and not worry about anything: Mint is super clean, fast, with old school GNOME vibes (GNOME 3 is utter shit).
Would you say Linux Mint is … refreshing?
I’ve used Mint, popOS, and some others. I always recommend new people use the desktop version of Bazzite now.
It’s super newbie friendly. So much stuff is installed and set up for you that the average person won’t even need to touch command line. Also, the Bazaar has pretty much anything someone would need for day to day stuff.
Obviously, if you are the type of person to make serious changes at the OS level then it’s not great for that, but most people just need something to browse the internet, play some games, and maybe do some word docs and stuff.
As long as people are moving away from Windows and Mac, who cares? You’re never gonna convince most people that their OS should be interesting and worth talking about. Take the W.
As long as people are moving away from Windows and Mac
If people don’t like it or Linux Mint doesn’t meet their needs, they will go back to Windows or switch to MacOS. The article points out that there may be better stepping stone distros these days
I guess I had a kneejerk, a lot of times when someone starts up like this it always feels like a veiled “people don’t like my favourite one” type of thing. He’s pretty even handed and nuanced beyond that, credit where credit is due.
I’ve seen a similar thesis in video form yesterday, I feel like in both cases the author forgot the fear they had before making the choice and think that sidestepping the solution to that part is no biggie.
But we’re talking about people who are afraid of a black box where you type text, they need as little friction as possible.
Hindsight is 20/20
I strongly dislike how the zone is getting flooded with “now it’s not X, but Y” in terms of distro recommendations.
Not knowing what a distro is and where to start is one of the main issues with people who may want to switch to Linux but don’t know how to do it. If Mint getting called out as a good place to start allows them to switch, then they should install Mint. If Ubuntu is all they have heard of, and it makes them try the switch, then they should install Ubuntu. Tbh, the only really dangerous approach is starting with something like Arch which, despite fantastic documentation, is probably more likely to turn new users away.
Don’t let perfection be the enemy of progress. Someone who starts from either Mint or Ubuntu or whatever can distro hop later. Let’s not muddy the waters even more for our would-be Windows refugees.
If the majority of Linux users had your mentality, we would have passed “the year of Linux” a decade ago.
Install the distro your Linux using friends use.
Install the distro with the coolest default wallpapers.
Nyarch Linux it is then for me
Hannah Montana Linux it is then.
Default? I think the first thing I did once I settled down with my current setup was find a background of my own liking, not something curated. And it’s all mine; no one else has it.
For those that care, all zero of you, it’s a bunch of frames from a cool star field animation, timed to rotate to the next every few seconds or so. Because I could not find anything that would simply play a video as a background, I made something that worked. If that’s not Linux level, I don’t know what is.
I care about star field animations friend. Good work on making it work!
Thank you! I switched to Linux last year after a few years of flirting with the idea. My main work computer is a 2011 iMac and I got really tired of not being able to run some things and the whole planned obsolescence aspect despite the hardware being perfectly serviceable. So, I went and, I kid you not, borrowed Linux For Dummies from the local library. Prior to this I had no idea what a shell was or even a “distro”. And, honestly, the For Dummies book over complicated Linux a bit. It front-loaded everything and made it way more intimidating than it needed to be (and I’ve been using computers since DOS days and built a PC back in 2000). Which I feel like a lot of Linux guys do as well.
Realized that Linux was lots of things and felt a pull toward Ubuntu, I installed it on the iMac and was instantly in love. After a few months, though, Canonical started pulling some nonsense and making changes to my system with updates like they were Apple. So I hopped over to Mint as I kept reading about how great it was and how “it just works” (a sentiment that brought me to Apple back in 2005). Now I stick Mint on everything. I kind of want to distro hop for the fun of it, but I’ve tested a few on distrosea and haven’t really found anything that draws me away from Mint. Yeah, I’m a bit of a normie. But normies deserve better OSes too!
Totally. Linux is (in part) about choice. If you like Mint, use Mint.
I’ve been a Linux user for 5+ years and played with a bunch of different distros. I have Arch (btw) on a laptop that I don’t have to depend on. But my gaming rig is still running Pop. Why? Because I like it and it’s stable. A bonus that it’s now bundled with Cosmic, because I like Cosmic too.
But at the end of the day, it’s true that you can kind of do anything with any distro. The package manager is one obvious difference. I do like Pacman (from Arch) more than apt on Debian derivatives, but like, it’s just a package manager. Not worth changing a comfortable system over.
Don’t listen to people who say you can’t run a “beginner distro” until the end of time. If you like it, you like it.
Much as I love KDE’s beautiful themes, Mint is just… easy. I’ve spent so many years hunting dependencies like lost scrolls in ancient tombs and beseeching ancient wizards of the right incantation to fix my Bluetooth that I just quit. As soon as it stopped being broken, I stopped trying to fix it. Mint hasn’t broken on me. Everything works exactly as intended, right out of the box, with few exceptions.
I have been dreaming of this day for ten fucking years. For now? Hon, I am good. I’m not having to spend hours digging for old posts on AskUbuntu or some other forum for the solution to errors no one else has had since Obama’s era.
I always hate it when people seem to try making the decisions for others based on what they use.
It was bad enough when Ubuntu was losing faith with people because of its poor decision making, now we got you here saying Linux Mint is not the answer?
Confusing people on an already confusing mess on which distro to choose when leaving windows is not how you win favorability with linux. Mint is the choice because it is not pitching freshly disgruntled Windows users into steep learning curves from the get-go. If you push them into something like Arch, you’re going to have people both pissed at Arch and at you for making their experience miserable.
Mint is the one I’ve used the longest and for some reason keep coming back to, so its still my jam, even if its a little basic.
If it works and doesn’t cause any friction, I see no reason to not use it.
Mint on my game PC and Debian on my laptop.
I think it really depends on the type of refugee we’re talking about here.
If they’re interested in tinkering, the starting point doesn’t really matter that much. Just let the refugee know that distrohopping is allowed. If you hear that some new distro has an awesome feature, give it a go.
If we’re talking about a person who hates tinkering and tweaking, the first distro suddenly begins to matter a lot more. That’s the distro they will be stuck with for several years, so Mint is definitely a solid option. Actually, most distributions that are Debian or Ubuntu based should be fine.
Are there actual computer scientists with some hard evidence what works when switching OS? Because this article is just making stuff up to say anything, ie filler content/debate.
See, I’ve been looking back at my still-new Linux experience of nine months, and wondering how my own journey can help other people get started with FOSS operating systems.
An expert opinion, fantastic. 🍿
I think it’s a valid opinion. Getting a journeying newbie’s perspective is as important as what a 20 year vet might say IMO
Both groups aren’t immune to getting lost in the sauce.
It’s a journeying newbie, as you said. One person, who happens to have a large audience through their writing. That’s not a good reason to discourage people from using the most popular distro out there…
As someone considering Win to Mint, why do people keep saying it’s basic? What would I be missing? I need the computer for playing games, some hobby media work, internet.
I switched to mint for a few months to have the same thing I recommended my friend, I decided to switch again to something i consider bdtter for me.
There’s nothing wrong with mint, at most you’re missing a thing or two that are part of other base distros that you can add on your own, it’s preference, that’s all
Technically there can be some performance gains on a different distro but then you have to do tinkering and stuff. If I had to keep maining mint I wouldn’t mind at all (and some things are way easier and painless).
One thing: browsers have had some issues in every distro I tried other than cachyos, nothing major but a bit of frame drops here and there
You’re not missing anything. Mint is perfectly good for the vast majority of users.
Linux distros are a bit like vehicles. For most people, a Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla will do everything they need. But if you go onto forums of car-enthusiasts, you can probably find thousands of voices that say those vehicles have such low horsepower, or they’re not perfectly streamlined, or arguing about the buttons on the seat belts. Things that the average user doesn’t care much about.
I started 20 years ago with Slackware, tried out FreeBSD, and a number of others. I switched to Mint as a daily driver years ago. These days I found what I like (CachyOS), but I’m fairly knowledgable and quite comfortable on the command line, which is definitely not the case for most newer folks.
Mint is a great distro. When I put it on my wife’s laptop, literally everything worked right away. Have fun!
It’s not that people generally say “basic” … they say “boring”. It’s designed to just work and be stable with some nice features but it has a slower release speed and the dev, intentionally, keeps things slow so that they can polish up all the features before they go mainstream on it. So it isn’t doing anything revolutionary and it isn’t giving you bleeding edge everything… it’s just nice and stable. It’s become one of top recommended distros for a reason.
The main hiccups I see with it is that they are lagging behind on Wayland support… which is slowly becoming the defacto standard for desktop display tech. If you aren’t really up on the x11 vs wayland debate… this likely isn’t even an issue for you. Suffice to say they’ve tried to hang back on x11 for a while, which is the older but much more thoroughly tested way of doing the user space display. Secondly would be… because it’s a slow burn on updates, you might not get the latest greatest updates for the kernel with the display drivers. So for gaming that could make things a little more finicky. People do use it for gaming… so don’t think it can’t be also used for that, just might run into hiccups.
Good thing is you can test it out, and if it doesn’t work out, try something else.
Dude, “boring” is what I want from an OS. No surprises. No sudden changes. I’m 40.
Exactly. Like I said… it’s a top recommendation for a reason. There’s still tons of bleeding edge stuff to play with… but Mint has really nailed down “here… this will install painlessly, and your laptop is going to work fine”.
Then I especially recommend Linux Mint LMDE edition. It’s built on Debian, which is known for its stability, instead of on the flashier Debian-derived Ubuntu.
I’m looking forward to the day LMDE just becomes the only Mint flavor and they ditch the Ubuntu middleman entirely. They haven’t said thats their goal with LMDE, but given the trend of other distros swapping to Debian from Ubuntu (VanillaOS as another example), it wouldn’t surprise me.
Thanks!
Not much. Mint generally works very well. It’s not bleeding-edge fresh and is based on Ubuntu. I don’t think it would cause you to be unable to do any of your use cases any more than any other Linux distro - like the kernel level anti-cheat thing for games, or Adobe Creative Suite products. Doesn’t matter which distro you run, those things ain’t gonna work.
I was the same as many others here, started my journey on Mint. I eventually moved to Fedora because I like KDE and wanted quicker package updates and stuff.
Pro-tip: if you need the Adobe suite, give Affinity a try. It works perfectly well on WINE, there’s even a ready-made AppImage on GitHub so you don’t need to configure anything. Just click and run.
Mint is fine, there’s nothing to worry. Complaining about linux distros is just a long tradition in the community, you will get used to it
By basic they mean boring. Its programs tend to be slightly older but more stable with new releases coming during patches and major version changes. However, that also prevents programs being broken by someone pushing an update that isn’t done cooking.
I use mine for gaming, programming, art, basic internet usage and have had zero issues so far. The software center, used for getting new programs, is extremely easy to use and snappy. The default programs are all tried and tested, and the cinnamon desktop is very windows like.
I will say I have been using linux for a few years now and only have amd hardware when it comes to my cpu/gpu. Not sure if Nvidia plays quite as well with it but mint is a great place to start for most folks. If not the best part of linux is that you have plenty of other easy options you can try and nearly all totally free!
I have moved two computers from Windows into Mint this year. One worked without any issues. One had a strange WiFi problem with a super old wifi chip but I bought an adaptor for less than $20 that fixed it. Both computers connect to my printer better than with Windows. Which was a present surprise.
