Hello fellow linuxers
I am kinda confused as to why certain Linux distros are mentioned in in every others post while others seems to get litten attention or are being bashed at worst. People advertise for Mint because it’s so easy to use, while I personally miss it’s benefits over Ubuntu.
Personally I used KDE Neo for some time and switched to Fedora 42 a few weeks ago. It has all the same tools as basically every other distros. What is missed is not necessary or available. I can also seamlessly manage my proxmox server through ssh and fish and take up minor programming tasks on python or arduino.
Am I missing something important, or just seeing a loud minority with very specific requir?
Why are there so many different types of bread at the store? Or mustard, ketchup, milk…etc.
It’s mostly personal preference and reputation. Ubuntu has a shit reputation right now because of some poor decision making, and Fedora has a solid reputation and doesn’t cause problems.
That’s pretty much it.
Why are there so many different types of bread at the store?
Welcome to Germany
Honestly, I don’t think it makes a huge difference for desktop users. I use Nobara because it has built in comparatively out of the box. I also run Fedora 42. All work pretty well.
That’s why we call them flavors. People like certain flavors. It doesn’t mean the nutrition is any different or that you need to always use only whatever flavor is somebody else’s favourite. The lovely thing about Linux is the freedom to choose and to try different things to find what works best for you personally. There’s no organization trying to shove certain tools and principles down your throat for profit. It’s literally just personal preferences and they’re all equally valid choices. We try to make recommendations on things that might be easier to grasp or might suit a person’s situation better but really they’re all just flavors and they’re all good for the people who like those flavors.
usually mint is focused on because it’s a simple enough ui for those new to linux. it doesn’t mean other distros are forgotten. it’s usually just for those not familiar with linux or coming from a different OS.
Mint also doesn’t install snap when you want to install an apt package, nor put Amazon ads in your search box. GNOME is also just a horrid experience for someone who’s transitioning from Windows.
But that’s kind of my point. I don’t understand/know where the simplicity comes in. My experience from Fedora and Ubuntu is: Install is straightforward and almost identical between both distros Login Done
To me, mint is a bloated Ubuntu (no offense for those who appreciate it)
Fedora doesn’t enable non free repositories by default, and that’s a big deal for new users. Telling someone they need to run commands in the terminal to get their nvidia drivers, or even get youtube working is a problem.
They do for some time now, at least on both workstation and silverblue you get prompted on the first boot and a reminder after a while on gnome-software
I’ve installed fedora thrice last year, and each time, I’ve had to enable rpm fusion in the terminal and download ffmpeg to get youtube to work. This is something that can’t be fixed afaik, because it’s a copyright issue.
iirc one of the biggest differences between Ubuntu and Linux Mint is the store that each distro uses.
This link describes it better than I ever could: https://linuxmint-user-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/snap.html
TLDR: There were backdoors and weird behind-the-curtains stuff going on with Ubuntu’s store, so it was axed by the Mint team.
What is missed is not necessary or available.
For some people, the differences can be deal breakers. Nix is interesting, but I won’t likely move away from Arch because access to the AUR is more valuable to me.
A lot of it is momentum / inertia? (I can’t think of the right word).
Basically, Ubuntu was the distro for years. It was the one that just worked and was easy for new users. It built on Debian’s stability and made everything easier. All the beginner guides and how to guides were written with Ubuntu in mind, so lots of new users switched to it too.
Mint built on Ubuntu’s success, and made things even easier for people switching from Windows, by doing things like putting the start menu in the same place, and making everything look familiar. Because it’s based on Ubuntu, the guides all still work too. As Canonical started making unpopular decisions with Ubuntu, Mint took the lead as the distro to switch to.
Now, other distros like Fedora, and DEs like KDE have caught up, and even passed Mint for ease of use, that history is hard to overcome :)
Old school user here, back in 2005ish Ubuntu was straightforward, even had “wubi” to install it as a windows app, the site was friendly and easy to navigate (compared to Debian’s). Another big plus, they shipped the distro CDs for free worldwide, which was a big deal while I was stuck on a shitty ADSL connection that had constant drops.
Mint came a bit later and the big plus was OOTB codecs support. Back in the day that was one of the first walls most users came across, while Ubuntu pushed for a paid mp3 codec (fluendo?) Mint had most audio and video codecs working right after setup.
The UI wasn’t that different between the two, considering Ubuntu was running gnome2 (what mate immitates nowadays)
Honestly the difference on the whole is preference. Maybe the availability of things in the repo but with flatpak that feels less important than it did a few years ago. I run Fedora on my laptops and bazzite on my Ally
