Linux Mint Tips & Tricks

Linux Mint tutorial, covering desktop customization and scaling, menu functionality and configuration, fonts, using Microsoft web apps, Timeshift, and NVIDIA graphics drivers.
Linux Mint can be downloaded from: linuxmint.com/download.php
My video “Linux Mint Survival Guide #3: GPU Drivers & Printing” is here: • Linux Survival Guide #...
The link for Microsoft Office web apps is:
www.microsoft.com/microsoft-3...
And you can find my review and guide to Linux Mint 21 here:
• Linux Mint 21: The Bes...
For additional ExplainingComputers videos and other content, you can learn about becoming a channel member here: / @explainingcomputers
More videos on computing and related topics can be found at:
/ @explainingcomputers
You may also like my ExplainingTheFuture channel at: / @explainingthefuture
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:52 Customization
04:19 Menu
07:21 Fonts
11:36 Microsoft 365 Web Apps
12:56 Timeshift
15:09 NVIDIA GPUs
17:11 Wrap
#Linux #LinuxMint #explainingcomputers

[@energymarketchile]

As an IT person, I've been exposed to almost all popular desktops: Mac, Atari, Windows, Linux, etc. My favourite has been Linux Mint since its earlier versions. One of the best, if not the best Desktop OS currently. I've helped many people to discover Linux, too. Thanks, Chris, for making this excellent tutorial.

[@brunob.7792]

c'mon man, it does not have comparison to windows ecosystem quality...you know that....why you keep saying linux is better?

[@dermond]

​@@brunob.7792because he likes Linux, me too

[@ExplainingComputers]

I think in terms of desktop and menu customization and function alone, Linux Mint Cinnamon beats Windows 10 and 11 hands down (and I use all three most days).

[@John.0z]

@@brunob.7792 For myself - because I have a Linux machine that has been running at 100% 24X7 for nearly a year. And that reboot was caused by a power interruption. When using Windows, it does well to manage a week without something needing intervention. By the way, my experience spans from IBM OS360, CDC Kronos, DEC RSX, PDP Unix, Fujitsu OS4 F4 mainframe OSs, then all the "favourite" MS variants (with increasing numbers of gaps out of disgust). I am much happier with Mint Linux on my main machine than I was when I ran Windows. Don't ask my opinion on Win10!

[@simonzinc-trumpetharris852]

@@brunob.7792 Because it is. Windows is full of unnecessary junk and inefficient coding. I dumped it years ago.

[@Bhethar]

I think the EU should push for Linux to be adopted more in work and school environments. Linux was historically considered hard for beginners but OS like Mint really make it easy to switch over. What’s best, Linux Mint is free, safe, easy to use and open source.

[@stuartm5745]

Here's a little tip that applies to the Linux terminal: When the terminal asks for operator input, for example "Y/n" to ask for "yes" or "no", often the choice will have one upper-case letter, which signifies that that is the default choice. If the default is what is wanted then it is not necessary to enter any text - just press "Enter" to select the default choice (see 8:43). Sometimes both choices will be shown lower-case. In that case there is no default and the choice must be entered (case insensitive).

[@elorrambasdo5233]

TIL why the y is Y

[@kote315]

Fun fact: on Russian and Ukrainian keyboards, the English key "y" (which means "yes") corresponds to the Russian letter "н", which means "нет", i.e. "no"😄

[@hopelessdecoy]

I didn't know this! Great tidbit!

[@nickf3242]

Man. Sometimes it pays to read the comments. Excellent tip:)

[@bramfran4326]

Well, I though it was capital Y because they were thinking that a new sentence begins inside the square brackets. In all honesty, how I am I suuposed to guess this?!

[@gregcampwriter]

I've been using Cinnamon Mint for over two years now. The few problems that have come up have been easy to solve, and for the most part, everything just works. Using my computer is no longer a battle. It's instead a partnership.

[@anthonymccarthy4164]

As I turned on my computer this morning I thought, I think I should go back to Mint and here's the verification of that. It reminds me of the story of the old Maine farmer who went into a computer store, having decided it was time he learned about these computers. He asked the eager young salesmen to show him his best computer. "This model is so up to date that it can answer any question." If you stump it, it's free. "Ha," the farmer thought, " he said, "Ask it where my father is." The salesman typed in the question and the answer came back, "He's fishing on Moosehead Lake." "Ha," the farmer said, "My father was buried in the Pine Hill Cemetery nine years ago." The salesman was nervous and said, "Maybe if we ask it more specifically." "Ask it where Ethan Sumner sr. is." He typed it in and the computer said, "Ethan Sumner sr.'s buried in the Pine Hill Cemetery and your father just caught a trout. "

[@Beryesa.]

Another tip for desktop customisation, you can just log out and log back in instead of rebooting! It'll still restart the whole gui.

[@ExplainingComputers]

A very good point. :)

[@PaulRandle-sc8qk]

... and on a default setup you can do that with [CTL-ALT-BACKSPACE] {password} [ENTER] instead of going through the menus.

[@randyvanheusden732]

I am a IT person and have been working with computers for 50 years. I have worked with nearly every OS that you can imagine even before DOS, OS/2, and Windows. I am a Linux Mint MATE user, and appreciate the video here. I will be looking at many more like it.

[@YoStu242]

I also installed Mate edition and was wondering about strange taskbar behaviour. For example when I have applications A and B open (app A on top) and I click start menu open, after that I can't click straight to app B on the taskbar but it starts flashing app A and I have to click that first. Is it normal for Mate taskbar work like this? To me it feels a bit restricting.

[@delayedcreator4783]

@@YoStu242 started using mint mate the day before yesterday , i switched to mint cinnamon yesterday, i feel like mint mate is a bit unstable compared to mint cinnamon , just my opinion

[@YoStu242]

@@delayedcreator4783 Yeah I think I'm going to switch to Cinnamon too because there's too much weirdness going on with Mate.

[@technoWZ5598]

As a daily Linux Mint user, I find this incredibly useful!

[@CCoburn3]

I use Mint because it works right out of the box. I realize that some applications (such as video production) require changing the look of the interface. I’m glad Mint allows that sort of thing, even though I don’t use the options. And it’s great to have a video showing how it is done in case anyone wants to make changes.

[@NoirpoolSea]

Could you elaborate on the video production angle? I'm helping a friend transition over from Windows and a video editor is what he most needs. (He previously used Vegas Pro under Windows..)

[@hectorruiz5270]

@@NoirpoolSeaI second this request

[@fiafan]

Please tell Mr. Scissors that we are glad he is safe and well and I hope he recovers quickly from the evil sticky tape incident!

[@thesaigoneer]

Finally a distribution review that adds value instead of just blabbing about. Clarifying, with useful tips. Even for me, the not-using-Mint-anymore user. Thanks a lot Christopher!

[@dylanwilsonYT]

Very useful video Chris! I've been daily driving Linux Mint for just over 6 months now, it's a really great operating system and never interrupts me in the way that windows does.

[@ohrun3106]

I agree, and also the fact you can run it straight off a USB drive on other PCs.

[@fredwupkensoppel8949]

I'm a sysadmin. I've done my fair share of distro-hopping when I first started using Linux (way before my career) and now together with my professional training, I can in theory use whatever Unix-like, Unix-based or whatever OS to do my job BUT I use Mint on my work laptop because I need something that just works without hassle.

[@nickf3242]

I've converted a couple of my older netbooks to Linux Mint after upgrading to an SSD based on your past videos. As a lifetime Windows user, I find Mint very intuitive. I'm excited to transition more and more to open source and alternative options to the large corporations and embrace the community driven world. I can't wait for more Risc-V stuff in the future! This video was a great addition to arsenal of education content. I still learned something even if it was a small setting in a menu I was unaware of. Thank you sir for your contribution to the community:)

[@BendyLemmy]

If you install Mint with BTRFS on your system drive, snapshots are instant and are restored instantly with a reboot - since using BTRFS I now keep 3 HOURLY snapshots, as well as a couple of daily and a weekly snapshot too - in addition to a daily backup via rsync to my storage disk.

[@cstuartcook9390]

I'm watching this on a Dell laptop that Ive had for 5 years. Its been useless taking forever to load up and constantly running updates slowly. Loaded Mint Cinammon and have done more in the last week on it than Ive managed in the last five years. It does everything I want it to do brilliantly. So easy to modify and personalise. Still like my Mac as well but this is just fantastic.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Fantastic.

[@badaburner]

I have been using Linux mint for over 10 years now. It is very matured setup. And it works right first time and every time

[@mimireich]

I recently restarted my Linux path. I'm using this Linux Mint and thanks for the tutorial sir :D

[@Musicman-50]

I'm a retired Network Administrator and started using Linux Mint a couple years ago. It's an excellent distro. But I had no idea how customizable it was. Thank you for this eye opening tutorial. As always your videos are very much appreciated. 👍😊

[@frankfriedlos3721]

I think that "if it ain't broke don't fix it" is sound advice not only for video drivers, but throughout Linux, especially if you're a novice or you can end up spinning down a very deep dark rabbit hole. I speak from experience.

[@klaxoncow]

I think the thing with Linux, for users that like to tinker, is that because it's open source, you absolutely can. If you want to customise it, you can. If you want to mess with the config files, you can. Heck, if you want to dive into the source code and recompile your own kernel, you can. There are no locks nor limits with open source. It's all there, and it's all yours. BUT, of course, just because you can, does not mean it's wise to do so. You play with this, you play with that and, oh dear, that's not what I wanted at all. Umm, why is it so unstable now? Now that I've changed that, I don't like it, so how do I change it back? I'm halfway through this process, but now I don't know what to do. You're right. The "tinkering" rabbit hole with open source software is, basically, a bottomless pit, if you let yourself fall down it. "I just wanted to change the size of my icons. I'm now the chief maintainer of XWayland. Somehow. Send help." Yes, the first Linux distro I had, I hacked and reconfigured to death. It was very unstable. So I blanked it, reinstalled the distro and now I don't change anything about the default "out of the box" configuration unless I really have to. (But, that said, I don't mess with things on my home machine. Because the other good thing with Linux is, if you've got a spare machine, then let that one be the one where you mess around and break everything to learn what's what. What's that crude saying? "Don't shit on the floor where you live". Your daily driver? Don't mess. Your spare "lab" machine? Mess all you like, break it and just reinstall again.)

[@christopherjackson2157]

If it ain't broke.... Just wait until next major update lol The number of times I've had to repair nvidia graphics drivers after an update.... On all flavours of linux

[@frankfriedlos3721]

Quite so. I made a USB stick full install as my experimentation platform.

[@lesliedeana5142]

When I can get mint running on aPi 5, life will be complete!

[@happy_apple]

you cant run mint but you can ubuntu

[@ExplainingComputers]

Yes, ARM Mint would be nice. :)

[@SchoolforHackers]

I’d be an instant adopter.

[@RoboNuggie]

Some very useful tips there Chris, thank you! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Greetings, and thanks for your support. :)

[@freckhard]

Changing UI configurations don't necessarily need a reboot - right clicking the taskbar → investigate errors → restart cinnamon mostly does the trick :-)

[@srtcsb]

Mint has been my daily OS for a while now. This is a very nice resource for customizing and tweaking it. Thanks for another great video Chris.

[@WalterW]

Mint is my favorite distro. Thanks, Chris

[@gaptastic]

I currently use Pop!_Os on my system76 laptop. I've used Mint in the past and really liked it. After watching this video, if I ever have to rebuild my laptop I think I'm go back to Mint with Cinnamon. That menu is awesome! Thanks for sharing!!!

[@alanthornton3530]

Hi Chris a happy Sunday to you. I've used Linux Mint for several years now but you've shown me tips I'd never come across before so thank you for that! Timeshift I use regularly it's helped me out of a hole several times in the past. Now I always take a manual snapshot especially before updating the Kernel or Nvidia drivers. I had a system crash a few weeks ago caused by a new Kernel, it didn't take long to restore & switch back to a previous kernel :) One tip: after a Timeshift snapshot you can double click in the comments field & label it as a reminder. All in all an excellent video!!

[@johnbee1574]

Iv been using Linux mint for years , mainly thanks to this channel.

[@davidwayne9982]

I just came back to MINT after "distro-hopping" for a LONG time.. (years) and switched to LMDE6 and just LOVE it.. so much nicer than the original mint I started on LONG time ago.. THANK YOU- needed this.. I lost an eye recently- haven't fully adjusted yet-- so MISSED some of the things you pointed out.. THANKS AGAIN... your videos are always PERFECT-- simple- straight forward- NOT wordy or full of fluff and chatter.. just precise instructions said simply and directly... GREAT VIDEOS..

[@shenidan2023]

Another excellent video describing some key features in a super quick and digestible format

[@happy_apple]

i use linux mint as my daily driver.thank you

[@user-gz9mw3yr2x]

Chris thanks linux mint is a very solid community base DE and indeed they deserve a special place among people !

[@FalconWing1813]

Thanks for the Tips on the windows fonts. Always had that issue when going from Linus to Microsoft OS with documents. Huge help.

[@jinty83]

Fantastic video Chris, I loved the how you covered all of the different ways you like to setup the system and the various options Linux Mint has for doing so. I have installed it on quite a few pcs for friends after their windows installation was slowing things down. It runs extremely well on systems 10+ years old, especially if you add a cheap 2.5" ssd. I run it on my laptop as it is so stable and I use the online office apps for work files that require compatability. I'm glad such a distro exists as it has definitely made it easier for many people to cross over into Linux without having to completely change the way they work. This video will hopefully be one that many refer to when trying Linux Mint for the first time. It's a great tutorial. 😄

[@Matt-kl1pg]

A note of caution on using Timeshift: The snapshots take up a LOT of room, so only keep as few as you really need. I made the mistake of asking it to store too many and it completely filled up the hard drive, to the point where it wouldn't even boot up linux because the drive was completely full. Thankfully I still had my install USB to hand so I booted from that and fixed things. Nowadays I prefer to just to backup important files to USB, rather than using Timeshift, and if ever the whole system goes wrong I'll just reinstall from fresh. FYI I'm using it on an old laptop with a small HD, but I guess I'm not the only one out there who uses linux on an older laptop. You do what's best for you, but just keep an eye on how much space your backups are taking up. EDIT: With hindsight I realise that I was probably not using the correct settings for my computer, so perhaps this is a cautionary tale to read the helpfile before diving in.

[@bramfran4326]

Hehehe, happy little accidents of computing 😁

[@OzzieKev]

Better to backup to an external drive. The first snapshot save the entire internal hard disc. Subsequent snapshots add new and changed files, taking up minimal extra space.

[@mimimmimmimim]

One more thing. USB flash drives nowadays, errr, do not trust them. Those FTL bugs are everywhere, I encrypt everything I write on the drives so when it comes down to RMA I am able to.. You pay premium for a 256 GB drive which is not even 256 and you end up with a read only key chain toy.

[@brunoais]

Unless you use in Btrfs mode. In which case it only uses exactly as much as it is necessary for the whole data.

[@gelfling6]

You can set Timeshift to output the backups to an external drive. my main drive is a 640gb which I have yet to fill past 25%, but an external USB 4tb . NEVER trust a SSD for backups.

[@skf957]

Another very useful and informative video Chris - thank you. Around 7 months ago I made the switch from W10 to LM - and find it an absolute joy to use. To me a big difference is that Windows seems to exist for the benefit of MS first and foremost, whereas everything in Mint is for the benefit of the user. No bloat, no ads, no directing me to crappy online accounts, no telemetry - the list goes on. Although I've wanted to get away from Windows for years, a problem for me was my reliance on Outlook and a historical .pst file of almost 11GB. To get around that I run W11 as a VM using VirtualBox on Mint - but only every couple of weeks or so when I need (REALLY need) to access an old email. Then I'm straight out and back to the sanity and simplicity of LM.

[@mikerothery]

Why not move all the data in your PST files to work under Thunderbird. Thunderbird is available on all platforms so even if you ever had to go back to Windows, you wouldn't be stuck in that Outlook trap. Thunderbird is continually being updated. I think thatit is well worth the effort of migrating from Outlook to Thunderbird - I did it years ago - even before I moved to Linux. It is messy using a Virtualbox just to run your email applications. I also moved away from Virtualbox to KVMs - Chris - how about a video on KVMs using VirtManager as opposed to Virtualbox.

[@skf957]

@@mikerothery Apologies, I should have been clearer. I do use (and like) Thunderbird as my "live" email client on LM. The W11 / Outlook / VirtualBox is just for referencing old emails if and when required. I did look at converting the entire .pst file to Thunderbird, (running under W10 at that point), but despite the docs saying it can be done, it actually can't. Well, I couldn't. I got to the point of having to go via a middle-man piece of s/w, and gave up as I had no confidence in it being reliable for something of that size. I very rarely need the old Outlook emails so my current setup seems to work pretty well for me. But I appreciate your input.

[@lyiusapangolin]

As someone planning to move to LMDE soon and away from windows, this video is extremely helpful. I am so happy that installing fonts on LM is as easy as it is shown in this video, because it means installing all the fonts I already use will be very straight forward! I love the customisation options shown, though I would likely have to look through them myself to see what I would use in specific. I also like how you showed both the terminal and package manager ways to install specific programs, it helps show that the terminal isn't nearly as complex as it seems. Snapshots are incredible, and will help tons for ensuring that there's always a restore point.

[@awesomearizona-dino]

i just installed Linux Mint last week, these are great tips. thanks Chris.

[@TomMannCenturia]

I've been using Linux Mint on my old Laptop for a few years and its very user friendly, i don't really miss windows at all now. I learnt a few new useful tips from this video, so many thanks.

[@JohnMatthew1]

Thank you for this video. I've always been a fan of Mint, but never really used it all the time. This video really helps.

[@trevorford8332]

Another excellent video, Chris!! I just had to reinstall Mint a few days ago, the trouble I had with the secure boot was when I went to reboot the OS, it wouldn't recognise any of my hardware until I issued this command "sudo grub-install /dev/sda1 --no-uefi-secure-boot" but had leave the secure boot on for it to work, thank god, 😊

[@dovix]

My favorite distro! Thank you for the tips, some really looked useful and I would definitely use them!

[@CARLiCON]

excellent LM tweaks, thanks EC!

[@StanSnaps]

Thanks Chris, big help for this new Linux Mint user.

[@AMDRADEONRUBY]

Nice just in time for the new video about good old Linux Mint have a nice one!

[@cerescop]

Good information, thanks for making this video. I went to Linux Mint on one of my computers and have been enjoying the time I spend there.

[@santiagosatori]

I learned a few things I didn't know. Thanks!

[@johncundiff7075]

I'm currently using the "Dual Boot" Windows and Linux I saw in one of your previous vids. I find myself wanting to use Mint more and more!! Many of my computer customers are also getting more and more used to Mint. Slowly but surely, people will see the sensibility of Linux!!! Thanks for all you do Sir!

[@VinylRescue]

Thank you for the Font installation!! In the past couple of weeks I've made Linux Mint my main OS and Windows 11 my secondary.

[@marcdraco2189]

Happy Sunday Chris. Might I ask if you could do a video on "Clear Linux" (what another distro)? It's not that I'm a distro-hopper but Clear only works on Intel processors and it runs very quickly indeed in my experience compared to other distros and Windows (naturally). It's rolling and doesn't support a huge amount of software but the important ones for power users (development, office, Blender, etc.) are all there. The speed different is truly palpable.

[@YanFei-zi7mm]

Thanks - the TTF part is great.

[@i.setyawan]

Nice one, Chris! As a Linux user who's just recently went back to Linux Mint, I do find this video useful. I 'left' Linux Mint a couple of years ago due to some instabilities I had with, I think, Mint 20. I switched distro but later found out that in my case the instability could be corrected by using certain boot options. After 21.2 is released, I decided to test those options on a Mint live session and found that it seems to work also. I'm now back to Mint and so far my system has been rock solid. Please do give us more on this topic.

[@mikefinn2101]

Nice update and new information Peter thanks for your hard work and learning the new tips to share with me and others. Very Kind of you.

[@ryanqvincent144]

Excellent techniques to customize the 'usability' and backup of Linux Mint. Really useful. Thank you. :)

[@warrenscorner]

I abandoned Windows when they came out with Vista. What were they thinking? I switched to a MacBook Pro which worked well for a long time. Every upgrade of the OS seemed to make my 2010 MacBook Pro run slower and slower. I then decided to load Linux Mint on it and to my surprise I have a functioning laptop again. Thank you so much for the Linux videos.

[@jpmyers6950]

Great to see someone like you using Linux Mint. I think it's a superior distro. Thanks for the great video.

[@chriholt]

Excellent tutorial Chris, thanks so much!

[@MiBaLinuxTech]

Great tutorial again. Thank you!

[@MrWobble666]

Thank you. I use mint on a old Dell laptop that was given to me. I've just learnt a couple of font and scaling tricks that make it much easier to view and use. Got to get around to taking the plunge and using it on my desktop PC sometime soon. Cheers!

[@dang48]

Great tips and thank you for this clear and easy to understand tutorial.

[@henrik2117]

Yet another great vide! Thank you for sharing these tips and tricks 😊

[@extremelydave]

Another awesome and useful video from Mr. B. Thanks for sharing your expertise Chris!!

[@jamesprocter102]

Great Job, Another wonderful video showing how easy and helpful linux can be for everyone.

[@gerrycrisostomo6571]

Very useful tips and tricks indeed. Thank you very much.

[@davidhamm5626]

I really like the tip for the USB file transfer....it will save a lot of time.

[@dm747]

THANK YOU! This was very helpful for me.

[@synapse-anonymous]

explainingcomputers is like a 2012ish style youtuber! i love it

[@johnsonlam]

Thanks for all the tips.

[@ahmseb]

I'de like to to your great video a simple information you can install multiple fonts at once to your linux system by simply creating a folder in your home folder with name .fonts and make sure to add the dot before the word fonts then copy all of your fonts there and they shall appear in your fonts list. Finally thank you Chris for your great videos it's my favourite weekly routine watching them, keep on good work.👍

[@martyburgess341]

Thank you for the info! You reminded me to check in on my Time Shift. I had wanted to create a new schedule but never got around to it till now.

[@donporter8432]

Well done, Sir Chris!

[@min1te]

This was helpful, thank you.

[@phrankus2009]

Thank you, Chris .. Not only for the useful tips but, also, for your confident faith in this practical distro. After about a year of research, my familiarity, with the overall landscape and plethora of popular distros has left me too confused to make a confident decision, as to a trustworthy daily driver. I am, now, confident in adopting MINT, because of my faith in YOUR pragmatism and experience. THAT, alone, is, by far, the most important and useful takeaway, for me and, all the rest, is just chocolate icing, on this layered torte. Many thanks, again, as chocolate is my favorite! I can now move on, with far less "doubtful anxiety" and THAT, Sir, is sincerely appreciated!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for this. And I am replying from my Linux Mint daily driver. :)

[@jasm817]

Excellent 👏🏻.. very helpful! .. Well done in demonstrating just how well this particular Linux distro is .. New life to an oldsr system ✌🏻

[@thewatcher5271]

Hey Man, Somehow This One Slipped Through The Cracks. I Have A Computer Running It Through Our Old TV (To Make It Smarter) & It's Never Missed A Beat. Thank You.

[@igorperuchi2114]

Some of the shortcuts shown in this video do work at least partially in Linux Mint with Xfce. Thanks for the video, professor!

[@ExplainingComputers]

You're welcome! :)

[@ClaytonLivsey]

I always wanted to get into linux mint!

[@jmileshc]

Marvellous tips.

[@cuspajzz]

As always great content 😀👍

[@legojenn]

I love your channel for the novel (to me) topics, but even when you cover things that I think I know, there is still something new. With my Mint install, I changed the desktop to a solid Windows NT turquoise and then install the apps I need and mounted my Google drive. Thanks aain!

[@rickster2317]

Excellent Reference video Chris! As always! This will go in my bookmarked "Reference" library as do many of your videos. As Windows keeps getting less and less software and hardware friendly, Linux Mint keeps getting more attractive. Thanks for all your hard work, and very useful videos.

[@ericlawrence366]

Well said Rickster2317, As always, great reference material from Chris.

[@isaactitus5014]

Thanks for this vidoe you just showed me so very valuble tips I didnot know about.

[@laurencejohnson4106]

Useful tips!👍👍

[@andymouse]

I never new that about jam...cheers.

[@LinuxWorld.]

So nice work. Tnx a lot 👍🔥

[@mukkaspec3333]

Nice Mint run through.

[@perrymcclusky4695]

Definitely useful information. Looking forward to your next video!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Greetings Perry. :)

[@perrymcclusky4695]

@@ExplainingComputers Always a treat to be greeted by you! Wishing you well.

[@TruthProvider]

There is a good community of helpful people on the Linux Mint Forums. I get lots of tips from this forum -- lots of knowledge there.

[@fbushphone]

Really useful to me as I've just installed the 32bit version on an old Dell machine to replace MS Vista to show my grandchildren Python programming. Thank you for sharing.

[@guntcheck]

For dual boot, I would add 2 bits of advice. 1) Turn off Windows fast boot, it can lock the windows drive as read only when in Linux. 2) run the command to make Linux use the system clock the same way Windows does. If you don't, then everytime you go back to Windows, the time will be out of sync. The command is 'timedatectl'

[@Bob-1802]

Aaaah! Thanks! I had the same issue, Windows showing the wrong time when I boot it. I never bother to investigate further as I boot Windows once a month.

[@shib5267]

or make windows use utc like a normal person. It's gonna mess with your cronjobs otherwise

[@terrydaktyllus1320]

The last thing I would do is suggest that anyone new to Linux tries to build a dual boot system - if you end up trashing the Windows side of your PC, you will end up blaming Linux for it and probably never try it again. I've used Linux since 1996, my distro of choice has been Gentoo Linux for 20 years now but when I help newbies build systems, I normally recommend Mint to them. It's perfectly possible to have a good Linux experience on any Core 2 Duo or better machine with 4GB RAM from 2007 or afterwards, bearing in mind that there is the "lite" version of Mint with XFCE desktop. Getting hold of such a machine can be done cheaply, many people may have such a machine in their attic or loft, and if you build such a machine then you can take time learning Linux without affecting your daily driver machine which can continue running Windows as long as you need it to.

[@KomradeMikhail]

@@terrydaktyllus1320 Did you watch Chris' previous video right here on this channel from about 2 months ago, all about setting up Dual-Boot ? It's not like back in the old days on Legacy BIOS, when you had to chainload the Win bootloader through Grub bootloader from an extended FAT partition on a primary drive with MBR. These days you can have Linux and Windoze live completely separately, on two different drives and never see eachother. It's literally as simple as install each OS to it's own unique physical drive. Switch between them using your UEFI Boot Manager.

[@terrydaktyllus1320]

@@KomradeMikhail My recommendation to newbie users as a Linux user since 1996 myself remains unchanged - despite your protestations to the contrary. If you disagree with me, so be it.

[@mauriceelliott5902]

Very useful video. Fairly new to Linux Mint and your tips have shown me how adaptable in OS it is, especially how the desktop can be modified. Thanks again. Will keep referring back to this video. Maurice from Malvern UK.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for this. Good luck with Linux Mint. :)

[@Colin_Ames]

A very useful guide!

[@muddyexport5639]

Thanks Professor. I also use Linux Mint. Distro hopped when I first moved from Windows. However, the more I read and watched videos it became apparent to just pick one and customize it to my liking. I liked the familiarity of Mint and have been using since 2016. (I will still spin up a VM and load a different distro just to see but I always return to the daily Mint/Cinnamon driver and be productive vs a snoop :~)

[@graphitepencil]

Excellent, thank you very much.

[@thabophadi]

Linux mint, a perfect daily driver indeed to be considered 😮, thank you uncle Chris😊

[@fatbeard8072]

I knew everything on this video and still had fun watching. Thank you! I have been a LM user since Win 7 was no longer supported. I used LMDE 5 and as of last week, been on LMDE 6 "Faye". LMDE 6 has even finally corrected some issues I had on 5 even though they were tiny issues, like sound on Pandora, had to use Pulse Audio app every time or I'd get crackling and popping sounds. All so VLC mint system or flatpak would get my fan's going non stop till I ended the player, but everything would work still. Note: A Difference between LMDE and LM, is that in LMDE, there is no Driver Manager. WHICH is no big deal, you can everything via terminal if you know were to look. I use LMDE 6 on my main PC desktop, but my laptop and or laptops I help others with, I put on Fedora, works way better on Laptops for some reason.

[@Maxume]

It would take some really catastrophic event to make me hop to another distro from Mint. For me, the strength of Mint lies in the little optimizations and quality of life improvements that the Mint team does to the distro. Personally, I prefer the XFCE flavour as it integrates seamlessly for me in terms of muscle memory, when jumping between Windows and Linux machines.

[@limpa756]

I wish they'd hurry up with getting it in wayland, XFCE is so much better and far more modular than mate and cinnamon but it lacks a lot of nice modern features

[@markconger8049]

Your tip is especially noticeable on other distros that use Cinnamon such as Debian 12. It is lacking some of the finer points present in Mint.

[@aspiring_millionaire]

This is fantastic, thanks for the video :)

[@aspiring_millionaire]

@_Explaining_Computers. ❤

[@thewillsfamilyaccount6486]

nicely done!

[@bnewland1958]

Thank you for the Mint review. My current workstation is Ubuntu so my next build will be Mint. I really like the menu and sizing options.