• archonet@lemy.lolEnglish
    0·
    17 days ago

    Mint is (subjectively, for 90% of people), because something a lot of Linux nerds seem to forget is that the average computer user does not even want to think about their operating system. 90%+ of people who use a computer want it to turn on and just work for the things they want to do, and for like, 99% of the time, Mint has been just that for me for a solid year and a half. I adore it for that reason, and wish more Windows users would just try switching to it. I understand the apprehension not to, having tried other distros over the years (and having fought with Bazzite on my steam deck on multiple occasions), but it really does “just work”.

    like I get it, some like to fiddle-fuck with their OS, and that’s cool, but that does not appeal to the majority of people and pretending it should is asinine. Some of us want to view and use our computer as an appliance/a means to an end, not a project in and of itself. When I used Windows and had issues, you know how much fun I had digging around in Event Viewer, or Group Policy Editor, or Regedit or Control Panel dicking around with things? Zero. Zero fun was had. Same amount of fun I have dicking around with Linux. I want my computer to turn on, do what I tell it to, nothing I don’t (this is the sticking point that got me to leave Windows), and god damnit if it breaks it’d better be as easy as googling an error message (which, Mint also has enough reach/widespread use that it usually is). Anyone who disagrees, I applaud your patience, but that is simply not the way I and most other people operate.

      • archonet@lemy.lolEnglish
        0·
        17 days ago

        you must’ve not seen Mint in a long time if you think it looks like Windows 95, I’m using it right now and it looks much nicer.

        Further, that’s really not the cutting dig you think it is. Windows 95, for all its boxy, gray 90s aesthetic, was a very clean UI with minimal bullshit. If you like ricing your desktop/want it to look fancy, great, I’m happy for you. Most normal users, on the other hand, really don’t care how their OS looks as long as they can find what they need to. For normal users, the OS should be an invisible plinth that other programs you actually give a fuck about sit on top of. Mint stays the fuck out of my way to that end impeccably well.

        • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
          0·
          17 days ago

          I was kind of kidding, I just think it’s wild that out of all the options, mint is recommended 9/10 times

          • Zink@programming.dev
            0·
            17 days ago

            I think it makes some sense once you take a look at the big picture. Mint has been around for a very long time and has become one of the most popular distributions on its own. On top of that, it is designed to be an easy turnkey system for inexperienced linux users.

            That alone would gain it plenty of recommendations, but ubuntu would probably still be the top recommendation. However, the same thing that made it good — Canonical and its resources — is also the thing that drove away the Linux enthusiasts that recommend distros to new users.

            So you take Ubuntu, the user friendly distro built on one of the sorta OG distros (debian), strip out the proprietary stuff that annoys the Linux community (snaps etc), and make it even more user friendly while removing none of the Linux goodness, and there you have Mint as the obvious recommendation.

            Hell, I’m a computer person and I happily use Mint on multiple computers daily.

  • over_clox@lemmy.world
    0·
    17 days ago

    We need a healthy mashup OS between TinyCore, KolibriOS, ReactOS, and TempleOS, then I’ll be happy.

      • over_clox@lemmy.world
        0·
        17 days ago

        I’m not even sure if this is satire or not, but is that even doable? I mean I’ve tested both FreeDOS and ReactOS before, but do they play well together somehow?

        Side note, I’ve also tried KolibriOS before, amazing project for its tiny size, still have it on physical floppy disk right now even.

          • over_clox@lemmy.world
            0·
            17 days ago

            Gotcha, no worries 👍

            Future goal, emulate Linux (any version that might work) under KolibriOS.

            I think that’s actually doable, to some extent… 🤷‍♂️

        • hexagonwin@lemmy.sdf.org
          0·
          17 days ago

          That’s like asking if MS-DOS and WinNT work well together. I guess they can both rw off FAT32 and run on x86-32…

          • over_clox@lemmy.world
            0·
            17 days ago

            Hey, there actually are NTFS drivers out there for MS-DOS/Win3.11, I’ve used that for data recovery when neither Windows NT nor Linux could access the partition.

            Very little surprises me anymore, and I have no idea what all tricks FreeDOS and ReactOS have up their sleeves.

    • msage@programming.dev
      0·
      17 days ago

      Fucking Astolfo in there… this is just too good.

      Thank you for this, you’ve made my day.

      I didn’t really like Gnome, but one day I might spin up a VM for this.

    • aMockTie@lemmy.world
      0·
      17 days ago

      Holy shit I lost it after Material UwU. The system requirements and FAQ (including a famous Torvalds quote) were excellent highlights as well.

  • mmmm@sopuli.xyz
    0·
    17 days ago

    Why is Tux flipped, is this some sort of subliminal message? Is BigTech behind of this meme?

    • Natanox@discuss.tchncs.deOPEnglish
      0·
      17 days ago

      Oh, oups. That’s a remnance from a meme I made a few minutes earlier. However now Tux is looking towards the text, therefore this was all planned.

  • digger@lemmy.ca
    0·
    17 days ago

    You don’t need to ask, because they will tell you their thoughts regardless.

    Just switched to NixOS recently, after years on LMDE.

    • joby@programming.dev
      0·
      17 days ago

      Yeah. “I use OpenSUSE tumbleweed, but have reasons I’ve been thinking about switching. I consistently hear that mint is a good place to start, or maybe pop!os if you’re looking to run games”

      I don’t actually even say the first sentence unless the question was “what do you use?”

      Sometimes, if it’s clear they’re trying to revive very old hardware I might help them search for something built around being lightweight.

      I’m mostly happy with tumbleweed, except that I have the nvidia repo set up and am convinced that it’s causing issues. One of these days I’ll look into how to try the nouveau drivers and/or how to get from my current setup to dualbooting pop!os without disrupting things I need for work.

      Also, an update straight up broke emacs while i was in crunch time once, but I learned to be more careful about my update timing.

      • Zink@programming.dev
        0·
        17 days ago

        Games run great in Linux Mint.

        Mint also has a GUI driver manager that makes it really easy to see and change which nvidia driver you’re using.

        • joby@programming.dev
          0·
          17 days ago

          That’s good to know, thanks. I don’t get asked for Linux advice that often, but I’ll just recommend mint unless there are extreme hardware restrictions (which I’m sure mint can work with, but I’ve looked for whatever modern lightweight-focused distro is when it’s a concern)

      • swelter_spark@reddthat.comEnglish
        0·
        17 days ago

        People having problems on Tumbleweed almost always seem to be using Nvidia, KDE, and/or Wayland. That’s what I’ve noticed based on official forum threads, anyway.

        • joby@programming.dev
          0·
          16 days ago

          Yep. I got a thinkpad a couple years ago that was enough of a deal that I forgave its nvidia GPU. I followed the documentation on how to connect a repo controlled by nvidia, and since then: a) the actual GPU appears to be used, but b) maximum brightness on the screen is significantly dimmer, and games run worse than they did when the GPU wasn’t actually used.

          And also I use KDE. I’m still on X11, though, so I didn’t complete the set.

            • joby@programming.dev
              0·
              16 days ago

              I haven’t, but a colleague (small all remote web dev outfit) plays rocket league and had said that pop!os has felt great for games without having to tweak anything. Meanwhile, I tried to play through cult of the lamb while some friends were all playing through it and it wasn’t playable

      • Nick7903@feddit.dk
        0·
        17 days ago

        My guy just uninstall the Nvidia driver, it will fall back to the driver in the kernel, which is the Nouveau driver.

        • joby@programming.dev
          0·
          17 days ago

          I’ll try that soon. Tbf, it’s absurdly easy to roll back with snapper if I make a change and it’s not better, I just haven’t gotten around to it.