6 ms·

Whos using Mint these days anyway ?

by m00dy 11y ago

cfontes 11y ago
I am not one, but lot's of people. Most switched off from Ubuntu, landed a stayed there.
- Ygg2 11y ago
  I've found Xubuntu to be a pretty decent albeit simple environment. Runs great on my VM too.
  - raverbashing 11y ago
    XFCE gets simplicity right, as opposed to Gnome or Unity
  - samuell 11y ago
    Indeed. I never got why people are not just sticking with Xubuntu. It is the most solid, reliable, balanced and beautiful distro I have ever tried. Everytime I tried something else, I finally came back to Xubuntu, and try to remind myself to never switch away again.
    - cowl 11y ago
      Maybe because the company behind Ubuntu has practically declared the desktop dead and we want a desktop that is really a desktop and not some future(already dead)fantasy all in one? Yes Xubuntu is a desktop but i'm not waiting around for the axe to fall and try again to force unity on everyone... I had to change once, better change to distro that is commited to the desktop.
    - ergo14 11y ago
      Because some things are broken in xubuntu - like wacom tablet configuration is missing :(
- mkesper 11y ago
  Why not choose Debian then?
agumonkey 11y ago
A lot of people according to http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity. I was surprised to see Mint take the first spot.
- Brakenshire 11y ago
  I really don't see how distrowatch indicates anything, why would people using a system go to that site in particular? The latest wikimedia statistics from the middle of 2015 have: * Linux Other 2,170 M 0.84% * Linux Ubuntu 1,238 M 0.48% * Linux Fedora 53.6 M 0.02% * Mac PowerPC 49.7 M 0.02% * Linux Mint 6.4 M 0.00% * Linux Mips 4.6 M 0.00% * Linux SUSE 3.9 M 0.00% * Linux Debian 3.1 M 0.00% etc http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/squids/SquidReportOperatingSystems.htm http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/squids/SquidReportOpera...
  - agumonkey 11y ago
    Indeed I never considered better sources.
  - mayhew 11y ago
    Those stats are very unreliable. Most Linux web browsers (including Chrome) do not send the specific distro they're being used on. Ubuntu patches Firefox to include Ubuntu in its User-Agent, but most other major distros do not.
- hvis 11y ago
  I imagine distrowatch.com attracts a certain kind of audience.
deckiedan 11y ago
I am at my home workstation - I don't much like ubuntu, am generally happy with debian or fedora, and have played with arch, gentoo, and others, but had heard good things about mint "just working" so thought to try it out. It installed really smoothly, and was really quick and easy to set up for me, and my not-so-techy wife. It installed the nvidia drivers when I asked it to without having to touch the commandline (there's a "drivers" or something like that tool in the system settings). I'd had some problems with them before on a pure debian install, so I was quite impressed. In general, it was a pretty good experience. I'm thinking I may well switch over to fedora at home though. With my home machine I want something that just works, that I don't need to go faffing with config files any more. I have enough of that at work.
red_admiral 11y ago
Ubuntu refugees like me. I not only don't like the new UI (and amazon shopping lens) but there's also hundreds of little things like gnome2 gedit having a usable search/replace dialog box as opposed to the gnome3 thingy-in -the-corner. Also I like to be able to take a theme and modify components one by one like changing the colour of title bars or the font in menus without having to wade through 2k lines of CSS and non-existent documentation and then spend half an hour debugging why it's changed things all over the place. The v3 theming interface might as well let theme creators use obfuscation DRM to prevent users from modifying their themes.
- codeisawesome 11y ago
  Amazon lens turned me off of Ubuntu (and towards Mint) more than anything else. I lived with many bugs in Ubuntu. But the day they decided to corrupt it with pre-installed $$MEGACORP$$ stuff, even if it's uninstallable (and sharing my data of searches on the UI no less!!), is the day I swore off Ubuntu. Too bad.
mathnode 11y ago
The poor saps who have it recommended to them or installed for them. It's a desktop environment theme at best, and could be packaged as such. Maintaining a distro for general consumption (it's pitched to new users as "Windows like"), is very hard work and carries a lot of responsibility.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- ZenoArrow 11y ago
  > "It's a desktop environment theme at best" Cinnamon is more than just a desktop theme, and Mint is more than just Cinnamon. Worth looking into it further.
weavie 11y ago
Me... I had been using Arch and FreeBSD for a time because I felt it was what serious programmers had to use. Then one day after FreeBSD refused to boot up again I figured I was bored of messing about in recovery mode yet again so I just thought I would give Mint ago. 20 minutes later everything was up and running. Since then I haven't been able to find the time or the will to spend a whole evening setting up my machine to change back.
- feld 11y ago
  Genuinely curious how you managed to make FreeBSD fail to boot up? :-)
  - weavie 11y ago
    I installed XMonad. Can't remember the exact sequence of events, but I think whilst messing with the config to set it as the default desktop it crashed and could only boot into recovery.. It would probably have been an easy fix, but I really just wanted a working machine quick.
callinyouin 11y ago
I am, although I use the Xfce version. Back in the day, before I learned to program, I used distributions like Arch, Slackware, Gentoo, etc. that generally required manual configuration and knowledge of the system and Linux in general. I realize this seems backwards, but these days I'd rather spend my time developing things than configuring my workstation. My interest in computers has moved from administration to creation, and using an operating system that takes care of the former allows me to better spend my time doing the latter. That said, in light of Mint's issues I'm seriously considering moving back to Xubuntu or some other disto that has Xfce as a first class citizen. I'd be interested in suggestions.
hotcool 11y ago
I am. I've tried dozens of Linux distributions (sadly, this isn't an exaggeration) and Mint is likely the easiest and fastest one to set up and start being productive with. When my daughter asked what Linux distro she should install on her laptop, I didn't hesitate in recommending Mint.

Whos using Mint these days anyway ?

by m00dy 11y ago

Whos using Mint these days anyway ?

cfontes 11y ago

I am not one, but lot's of people. Most switched off from Ubuntu, landed a stayed there.

Ygg2 11y ago
I've found Xubuntu to be a pretty decent albeit simple environment. Runs great on my VM too.
- raverbashing 11y ago
  XFCE gets simplicity right, as opposed to Gnome or Unity
- samuell 11y ago
  Indeed. I never got why people are not just sticking with Xubuntu. It is the most solid, reliable, balanced and beautiful distro I have ever tried. Everytime I tried something else, I finally came back to Xubuntu, and try to remind myself to never switch away again.
  - cowl 11y ago
    Maybe because the company behind Ubuntu has practically declared the desktop dead and we want a desktop that is really a desktop and not some future(already dead)fantasy all in one? Yes Xubuntu is a desktop but i'm not waiting around for the axe to fall and try again to force unity on everyone... I had to change once, better change to distro that is commited to the desktop.
  - ergo14 11y ago
    Because some things are broken in xubuntu - like wacom tablet configuration is missing :(
mkesper 11y ago
Why not choose Debian then?

agumonkey 11y ago

A lot of people according to http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity. I was surprised to see Mint take the first spot.

Brakenshire 11y ago
I really don't see how distrowatch indicates anything, why would people using a system go to that site in particular? The latest wikimedia statistics from the middle of 2015 have: * Linux Other 2,170 M 0.84% * Linux Ubuntu 1,238 M 0.48% * Linux Fedora 53.6 M 0.02% * Mac PowerPC 49.7 M 0.02% * Linux Mint 6.4 M 0.00% * Linux Mips 4.6 M 0.00% * Linux SUSE 3.9 M 0.00% * Linux Debian 3.1 M 0.00% etc http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/squids/SquidReportOperatingSystems.htm http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/squids/SquidReportOpera...
- agumonkey 11y ago
  Indeed I never considered better sources.
- mayhew 11y ago
  Those stats are very unreliable. Most Linux web browsers (including Chrome) do not send the specific distro they're being used on. Ubuntu patches Firefox to include Ubuntu in its User-Agent, but most other major distros do not.
hvis 11y ago
I imagine distrowatch.com attracts a certain kind of audience.

deckiedan 11y ago

I am at my home workstation - I don't much like ubuntu, am generally happy with debian or fedora, and have played with arch, gentoo, and others, but had heard good things about mint "just working" so thought to try it out. It installed really smoothly, and was really quick and easy to set up for me, and my not-so-techy wife. It installed the nvidia drivers when I asked it to without having to touch the commandline (there's a "drivers" or something like that tool in the system settings). I'd had some problems with them before on a pure debian install, so I was quite impressed. In general, it was a pretty good experience. I'm thinking I may well switch over to fedora at home though. With my home machine I want something that just works, that I don't need to go faffing with config files any more. I have enough of that at work.

red_admiral 11y ago

Ubuntu refugees like me. I not only don't like the new UI (and amazon shopping lens) but there's also hundreds of little things like gnome2 gedit having a usable search/replace dialog box as opposed to the gnome3 thingy-in -the-corner. Also I like to be able to take a theme and modify components one by one like changing the colour of title bars or the font in menus without having to wade through 2k lines of CSS and non-existent documentation and then spend half an hour debugging why it's changed things all over the place. The v3 theming interface might as well let theme creators use obfuscation DRM to prevent users from modifying their themes.

codeisawesome 11y ago
Amazon lens turned me off of Ubuntu (and towards Mint) more than anything else. I lived with many bugs in Ubuntu. But the day they decided to corrupt it with pre-installed $$MEGACORP$$ stuff, even if it's uninstallable (and sharing my data of searches on the UI no less!!), is the day I swore off Ubuntu. Too bad.

mathnode 11y ago

The poor saps who have it recommended to them or installed for them. It's a desktop environment theme at best, and could be packaged as such. Maintaining a distro for general consumption (it's pitched to new users as "Windows like"), is very hard work and carries a lot of responsibility.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
ZenoArrow 11y ago
> "It's a desktop environment theme at best" Cinnamon is more than just a desktop theme, and Mint is more than just Cinnamon. Worth looking into it further.

weavie 11y ago

Me... I had been using Arch and FreeBSD for a time because I felt it was what serious programmers had to use. Then one day after FreeBSD refused to boot up again I figured I was bored of messing about in recovery mode yet again so I just thought I would give Mint ago. 20 minutes later everything was up and running. Since then I haven't been able to find the time or the will to spend a whole evening setting up my machine to change back.

feld 11y ago
Genuinely curious how you managed to make FreeBSD fail to boot up? :-)
- weavie 11y ago
  I installed XMonad. Can't remember the exact sequence of events, but I think whilst messing with the config to set it as the default desktop it crashed and could only boot into recovery.. It would probably have been an easy fix, but I really just wanted a working machine quick.

callinyouin 11y ago

I am, although I use the Xfce version. Back in the day, before I learned to program, I used distributions like Arch, Slackware, Gentoo, etc. that generally required manual configuration and knowledge of the system and Linux in general. I realize this seems backwards, but these days I'd rather spend my time developing things than configuring my workstation. My interest in computers has moved from administration to creation, and using an operating system that takes care of the former allows me to better spend my time doing the latter. That said, in light of Mint's issues I'm seriously considering moving back to Xubuntu or some other disto that has Xfce as a first class citizen. I'd be interested in suggestions.

hotcool 11y ago

I am. I've tried dozens of Linux distributions (sadly, this isn't an exaggeration) and Mint is likely the easiest and fastest one to set up and start being productive with. When my daughter asked what Linux distro she should install on her laptop, I didn't hesitate in recommending Mint.