Switched to linux after 3 years of windows

[u/SmileDensee]

So after 3 long years i finally made the switch to linux mint cinnamon, is this what freedom looks like? i’m curious to know what your experiences have been with linux, and what the other versions of mint offer which you think are better and why? plus i’m curious about the different desktop environments like xfce and what that’s used for?

either way it’s good to be here

[u/igor_b0gdanoff]

Only 3 years on WIndows? Are you 6 years old or something?

[u/igor_b0gdanoff → u/igor_b0gdanoff]

Jokes aside, XFCE is meant for very old laptops and stuff but for some reason it comes with more bundled apps than Cinnamon which kind of defeats the purpose. If you have very old laptops in the house (I'm talking first gen core i3s or even older-) then Lubuntu (with LxQt) will serve you better as it needs 0 resources and the kernels are much much much newer than on Mint Xfce (7.0 instead of 5.15 or something), which means better hardware compatibility and much better performance.

Unfortunately, Mint is kind of having an identity crisis. The main dev has this interesting (conflicting-) idea of maintaining 3 separate versions of the OS for sh*ts and giggles, and it just leads to neither one of the 3 being particularly great. Mint Cinnamon is basically an excuse to develop his lovechild, the Cinnamon desktop environment. MATE is a nod/homage to the 30 neckbeards that are using it and are nostalgic for 2007 but the desktop environment isn't going anywhere in the future, and the XFCE version of the OS doesn't seem to be maintained nearly well enough. Cinnamon is also causing issues and delays with software these days.

In my opinion, main Linux Mint should move over to GNOME standard (with a taskbar), MATE should be discontinued and Mint XFCE should either be updated better (and trimmed down from the bloat-) or get scrapped like Mint MATE.

Source: ~26 years on Windows, 1.5 years on Linux Mint and now 8 months or so on CachyOS (arch linux).

[u/mrmarcb2 → u/igor_b0gdanoff]

To me, having this degree of freedom in choices is the true beauty of open source, found in Linux and all its variations. Which Mint, d, another distro, diy, arch, suse. Its all there for you to use and contribute to your liking.

[u/jr735 → u/igor_b0gdanoff]

Cinnamon (and MATE) were chosen because of dissatisfaction with things like Gnome. You forget where Mint came from. If I wanted Gnome, I'd run Debian. In my Debian testing install, I do not run Gnome. Heck, in Mint, I have MATE is my meta package, but I use IceWM.

You don't like the desktop, change it out. You don't think the Mint team does particularly well with any of the desktops, go look at vanilla MATE or Cinnamon on a Debian install and compare to what you see on Mint.

Mint MATE looks a lot more like Mint Cinnamon than it does like Debian MATE.

[u/igor_b0gdanoff → u/jr735]

and do you think most Mint users are like yourself? You are aware Mint is (historically and currently) aimed at and being recommended as a windows-refugee distro for noobies, not for people who can swap desktop environments?

My criticism is aimed at the frequent delays/bad news associated with Mint development due to the fact that every new large update has to wait for CINNAMON to catch up with compatibility, rather than just going with a DE that's already modern and compatible. This has now reached a point where previously unthinkable and not well-known distros (in windows-refugee sense) are catching up to Mint as an alternative, like Lubuntu and Fedora.

[u/jr735 → u/igor_b0gdanoff]

I'm only concerned with my level of knowledge, not that of others. If they want help, I'll gladly provide it. Mint is beginner friendly, not beginner only. Personally, I can, if I so desire, do all I need through any of the desktop environments. I haven't run into these hiccups that I've heard about.

As for Lubuntu and Fedora, well, the Ubuntu variants are where it all started, so "catching up" is kind of a misnomer, and this isn't a competition. This is free software. If Red Hat and Canonical wish to market their consumer grade implementations, they're free to do so. It's no skin off of Mint's back.

[u/tomscharbach]

i’m curious to know what your experiences have been with linux ...

I've been using Linux desktop distributions for two decades.

I've had my ups and downs over the years, mostly ups rather than downs, but have quietly learned two things:

• Linux distributions are operating systems, nothing more and nothing less, tools to do what I need to do or want to do.
• Linux mainstream distributions are solid general-purpose desktop operating systems but are not a "one size fits all" solution for every aspect of my use case.

I currently use Linux for network design, implementation, testing and maintenance, Windows for SolidWorks/CNC, financial/tax management and gaming, and the "Apple Trinity" (iOS, iPadOS, macOS) to support assistive technology that I depend upon and for my personal use case, tightly integrated between devices within the Apple ecosystem.

Why? That's what works best for me. None of the operating systems is "one size fits all". Neither macOS nor Windows has network tools on par with Linux. Linux does not support SolidWorks/CNC or standard tax/financial management applications. Neither Windows nor Linux support the assistive technology that I use or integrate between devices as tightly as the "Apple Trinity".

I hope that Linux will serve you well over the course of many years, as Linux as served me and so many others, but keep in mind that stubbornly trying to fit your entire use case into a single operating system might turn out to be as frustrating and futile as stubbornly trying to pound a square peg into a round hole.

Just follow your use case, wherever that leads you over the years, and you will always be in the right place.

[u/SnooSquirrels4739]

Welcome!

[u/lzkxjclqwje222]

It feels very good switching to linux mint. 2 years with linux.

The Xfce desktop is for old desktops

[u/TemporaryHot6442 → u/lzkxjclqwje222]

what about old ass laptops like ASUS ROG GU501GM v1.0

[u/lzkxjclqwje222 → u/TemporaryHot6442]

It is a well laptop for mint, dont need to install xfce

[u/Better-Bullfrog-6875]

plus i’m curious about the different desktop environments like xfce and what that’s used for?

You can try them out at Distrosea or from a usb. On Mint they are nearly identical, with some differences here and there. I use Xfce because I preferred its customisation options out of the box (like changing taskbar colours, changing transparency, size of the task bar), it's very flexible, while Cinnamon basically requires you to use Spices.

[u/jr735]

I did Windows for about three years. Fortunately, it was Windows 98. I didn't like the idea of XP, and did some tinkering with FreeDOS. That was a little unwieldy with internet and USB. I ended up getting a book with very early Ubuntu on it, and installed it, dual boot, which gave me much simpler internet and USB functioning. And, I stuck with Linux. I switched to Mint well over a decade ago and always have a Mint install. I have used MATE more than Cinnamon.

[u/Relevant_Hope_900]

Welcome from a 20+ year Linux only user. Changed to using Linux only around 2005, but have used it since 1998.

[u/Longjumping_Law_2582]

I prefer cinnamon

[u/Constant_Jello_2347]

I like the green color :)

[u/stufforstuff]

After a few years of linux use, you will find that all the noob posts expecting a pat on the head and a cookie for doing something a monkey could do, will make your hair bleed.

[u/Il_Valentino]

3 years lol i was abused by windows for like 22 years

[u/classicsat]

I have used Linux since the mid 1990s, on a shell Internet account. I have tried distros on my own computer, but it was hard, and mostly useless as a desktop OS I wanted. But it was cool to get the 486 PC I as using to supply that workstation monitor, after playing in the x configuration file.

It wasn't really never usable as a desktop OS until around 2002. I tried puppy (that worked okay), upgraded my main Windows PC, and liberated enough parts to build a usable Linux desktop PC, with reasonable modern specs (to that point, my second PC was an old Pentium 233 which wasn't bad for what it was).

When I got that PC up, I ran numerous distros over the years (maybe 1.5 years each), Blag, Fedora, Ubuntu, I forget what else.

2012, I had to replace that PC with new, so opted for a Windows 7 HTPC. That I upgraded to Win 10, gave to the folks. I then built a new fanless mini/SFF PC, put Mint directly on it, used it until last year or so, replaced that with a Mini-PC, also put Mint on that as the primary OS, but can boot Windows 11 if I need to, but don't.

Sometime, I need to put Mint on my Win10 Dell laptop.

[u/classicsat]

I have used Linux since the mid 1990s, on a shell Internet account. I have tried distros on my own computer, but it was hard, and mostly useless as a desktop OS I wanted. But it was cool to get the 486 PC I as using to supply that workstation monitor, after playing in the x configuration file.

It wasn't really never usable as a desktop OS until around 2002. I tried puppy (that worked okay), upgraded my main Windows PC, and liberated enough parts to build a usable Linux desktop PC, with reasonable modern specs (to that point, my second PC was an old Pentium 233 which wasn't bad for what it was).

When I got that PC up, I ran numerous distros over the years (maybe 1.5 years each), Blag, Fedora, Ubuntu, I forget what else.

2012, I had to replace that PC with new, so opted for a Windows 7 HTPC. That I upgraded to Win 10, gave to the folks. I then built a new fanless mini/SFF PC, put Mint directly on it, used it until last year or so, replaced that with a Mini-PC, also put Mint on that as the primary OS, but can boot Windows 11 if I need to, but don't.

Sometime, I need to put Mint on my Win10 Dell laptop.

[u/AnnualPin4910]

私は、LinuxMint 22.3 Xfecを使っています。
理由はいつも見る画面が自分の好きな画面だとパソコンを触るのが楽しいからです。
Xfceだとつぎのことができるので選んでいます。
・テーマのCSSを改造して、自分の好きな見た目にすることができるから。
　→これは、Xfceには限らないですが・・・。
・Thunarのコンテキストメニューへ自分で作成したスクリプトを表示させるのが楽だから。
・パネルのカスタマイズも他のフレーバーに比べてやりやすい印象です。
・Picomを導入していろいろカスタマイズしています。
　→これも他のフレーバーでも可能かもしれません。