LINUX MINT 21.1 Vera is WINDOWS, and I'm fine with that!

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Take a look at Kasm, a self-hostable service to let you stream any desktop, OS, or app to your browser: www.kasmweb.com/community-edition

[@anonymous76]

Small edit error at 0:59 to 1:05 Kasm

[@EndeavorBlack]

I promise i will! But can you in return take a new look at ubuntu touch ? I bought a google pixel 3a just for it and it is unfortunately a disappoinment :( I need android apps and i just cant get them.. Waydroid doesn't work. Not from waydroid helper and not by terminal install :( I WANT SO BADLY to be able to use ubuntu touch on a daily basis. I need a good browser with adblock, i need protonmail, a working maps, and signal + whatsapp. Do you have any suggestions ? 😅😊 Btw, i watch all your videos! And love them, love you love the content and how you've done them 😊

[@EndeavorBlack]

Also, the tuxedo link is missing from the description 😊

[@cheebadigga4092]

I tried self-hosted kasm about a year ago and I was surprised how well it worked (with Linux stuff). It can only get better!

[@אליסףאשכנזי-ס3ע]

Can you please do a comparison video between Linux Mint and Ubuntu Cinnamon? I really don't know which one should I use

[@BrodieFairhall]

Mint is what I move older family and friends to when they ask me to fix their 10yr old bloat and malware ridden windows PC. Now it's just going to be even easier!

[@cameronbosch1213]

Sadly, I do think Cinnamon needs Wayland support soon. Even Xfce & MATE have preliminary Wayland support in the works.

[@xellaz]

Yea I did this too to some of my coworkers that has crappy Windows laptop. They said they didn't care what OS as long as they can use it. Surprisingly, they often likes it once they get the hang of it. They mostly just use the browser anyway.

[@victoriap1561]

same

[@brentsummers7377]

Yep! I have been using Mint Cinnamon, Mint XFCE, and Xubuntu for years. I look at other distros by running them from a USB but Mint or Xubuntu are the daily drivers.

[@marlowencna]

Super effective! Its either Mint or Lubuntu for me

[@martinus9755]

I love Mint's default look (specifically the Mint-Y variants) but what I love in general is the freedom of configuration that the Mint devs have made available to us.

[@CesarPeron]

You stole my icon 😂

[@cianmoriarty7345]

HOW? I have modified the bloody kernel but have given up more than once trying to get something I assumed would be a trivial customisation in both Cinnamon and Mate. Case in point trying to get it to just stop trying to decorate and manage a window.

[@alexanderbaumann7902]

Yeah, I've tried a lot of distros and UI's and always come back to mint even as a person who hates 'old' looking desktops. It's by far the most stable on both desktop and laptop and the customising istn't as overloaded as KDE enviroments

[@dietrichdietrich7763]

They should remix it to more a greener version of the current look then it would be just so perfect.

[@CoreDump451]

I am actually a huge fan of Mint-X and I highly appreciate that the Mint team has kept it maintained all these years. Maybe I am old or nostalgic, but I really like older interfaces, especially when they use that grey gradient, like older versions of MacOS and some older Windows applications did. For example, I also really like the Greybird theme for XFCE and the older ElementaryOS theme a lot more than the modern look you see on Windows or Mint-Y. Basically, I really like Skeuomorphic themes. I know that I am in the minority, though, so I would never demand that distros switch to older looking themes, but I appreciate the ones that maintain these themes. I was disappointed, for example, that Ubuntu MATE dropped a lot of the older themes in the last two releases, but I completely understand it. I think the modern look looks fabulous on smartphone operating systems like iOS and Android, but I prefer older looking themes on my desktop. The other exception has been the new GNOME Adwaita in GNOME 43 theme, and themes that are heavily based o it, like the Ubuntu (GNOME) 22.10 default theme. For some reason, I find it absolutely beautiful. I am not sure what it is about it, but I like it.

[@postmodernist1848]

Honestly, I kinda liked the green theme aesthetic. It felt unique and original. You knew you were using Linux Mint. Of course, it's just the defaults that changed. Linux is free as in "freedom" after all

[@deusexaethera]

The green theme would've been better if it had actually been mint colors instead of dirty bathroom colors.

[@ghosthunter0950]

​@@deusexaethera top comment right here. that green is awful. no offense to the devs, they're doing an amazing job but they need to choose their colors better.

[@PDD555]

Fr. I like all the other changes, but having a light theme with blue just feels so wrong. I get they probably are trying to emulate windows 11 but w11 doesn't even look good in my opinion

[@ValseInstrumentalist]

I have to agree whole heartedly. It's my favorite color, but besides that, it feels like a great UX color. Especially with dark themes. Light blue and white is so tired. It's been the default color scheme of so many UI's for decades. Black and green looks crisp and new to me.

[@supercellex4D]

@@ValseInstrumentalist black and purple is a good one, I run either black and green or black and purple, one KDE config I ran green and metallic and it looked amazing

[@Watchandlearn91]

Linux Mint is the distro that "just works" for most people. It often has older packages and doesn't support the newest standards (lack of Wayland support is a big example of this) but for me has always been extremely stable and required fewer tweaks out of the box to make everything work. For this reason, it is still probably the best OS to put less tech savvy friends and family on to get them away from malware and bloatware ridden windows systems.

[@freetobe3]

Cinnamon devs aren't sold on Wayland yet so that's why they haven't added support to it. MATE has early Wayland support and it's based on much older code that went through a lengthy porting process to GTK 3. KDE Plasma went from barely logging into its Wayland session to being moderately stable for most use cases in a couple years.

[@Watchandlearn91]

@@freetobe3 Yeah and I understand the Cinnamon devs to a certain degree. Wayland is not a proper replacement for X in some use cases (remote sessions is one example where it lags behind) and they have taken forever to even get close to feature parity with X. Also the devs of wayland seem to fight adding anything to it. If you’re a desktop environment that prides yourself on making everything work out of the box, you would want to make for sure wayland was good enough. For example if someone has fractional scaling enabled on Wayland on Gnome and the app isn’t updated to use it yet, it will use Xwayland and the text is fuzzy to the point of being unusable

[@rijaja]

I appreciate Mint's new look since that's what we have to use at school but I don't think they should have gone blue. A more vibrant green would have made it look not only as good, but also a bit more unique. It's important not to scare away potential users with a completely different layout but if it doesn't visibly change anything they might as well not reinstall their OS.

[@roundabout-host]

Lucky you, you have to use Mint at school We have to use Windows but I really just switch to another computer when I need Window$

[@rijaja]

@@roundabout-host I mean I'm a computer science student so that helps, but also I didn't tell the full story. 2/3 of the time we're on PCs that have a windows/mint dual-boot. The remaining 1/3 we're on fucking macs. I have now managed to install everything I could possibly need on my laptop, including scripts to access my SMB drive, because I'm not touching these anymore.

[@elizabethrose4171]

You can change the theme try candy icons and sweet mars or sweet purple mint looks 100 times more beautiful than windows and doesn't stop working after the annoying updates

[@hanro50]

You can just change the theme.

[@SandsOfArrakis]

@@hanro50 that's what I've done. Breeze icon pack and Adapta-Nokto theme make for a real nice and clean dark interface.

[@ricardog.s2505]

I love Linux Mint so much, it was my first real Linux distro (currently in Ubuntu) and I will still recommend it to anyone so these changes were for the better to modernize and feel the OS smoother, now the only things that Mint lacks IMO are Wayland support along with Pipewire

[@cameronbosch1213]

Wayland support needs to happen ASAP!

[@nextstudiodev]

Can I install pipewire on mint?

[@araozu]

I'm sure Mint uses pipewire? I was looking for a distro with pulseaudio and tried Mint, it used pipewire. I don't know if there's still distros that use pulseaudio

[@bigtastyben5119]

Mint has pipewire installed by default now

[@feschber]

@@araozu why would you want Pulseaudio though?

[@ArniesTech]

THANK YOU! "Defaults matter". Oh how sick I am of all the "yeah but you can change that later". Huge dealbreaker for any normal user 🙏

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Exactly!

[@edmundt.buckley6858]

Again, nonsense. How many distros sell themselves on their customizations.

[@everydaycommentator6036]

What do you mean by normal user? Someone who's used to mint or someone new to linux?

[@talkysassis]

@@everydaycommentator6036 The 90% of users who barely knows how to send an email as Norman group said. Those users will never change their defaults, don't care about privacy, don't care about FOSS philosophy and don't care about code at all.

[@everydaycommentator6036]

@@talkysassis How would this be a dealbreaker for such users?

[@TazerXI]

I think some ideas I got when watching this: 1. I get they want to be really stable, but I think it might start to hurt them, from not moving to Wayland or touchpad gestures. Perhaps when the change to Wayland happens, they can add gestures. They don't want to be left behind, when I chose Fedora initially for my laptop, because Gnome's touchpad gestures are soooo smooth, good and intuitive. On a "traditional" desktop, it may be more difficult to map specific gestures, but not having them hurts laptop experiences. 2. Perhaps merge the driver manager, software store, and update manager into one, with 3 tabs at the top or something. It seems a bit convoluted to split these apps out. 3. I am mixed on the re-branding. I think the blue is better, but the green was part of Mint's personality. I just also hope people don't get lured into a false sense of security by assuming Linux works like Windows when presented by a Windows interface.

[@lmnk]

As someone who loved green Mint UI I say it's kinda disappointing they decided to ditch it in favour of blue, because it's a more usualnaccent colour. Still, its not a big problem to change it back to green

[@roundabout-host]

Wayland is dangerous. You can't restart your desktop without losing your windows.

[@TazerXI]

@@roundabout-host well it will mature over time, especially as X get less and less support. Perhaps not even right now, but maybe starting out testing these things with a beta, letting people get a hold of them and seeing how things go and if it fits the mint experience. It gives peoe the option to have a more advanced desktop, while average people who won't care still benefit from the stability of current versions.

[@cameron7374]

Ok, but: for the most part Linux does just work like Windows when you make the UI the same. All the stuff under the hood doesn't actually matter if you just want to run programs and use the internet. Which I feel like is all that a computer needs to do in most cases.

[@TazerXI]

@@cameron7374 Well perhaps, but what I mean is: Where are settings located, and how to change some of them are different Installing apps through the package manager instead of an exe The file structure being centred around the home folder for the user, whereas on Windows it is there, but I feel like more people know about the C:\ drive. Drives not using letters, and being mounted at a folder Although slight changes, to people who have used Windows a lot like Linus (LTT), even slight changes can throw you off. I used Ubuntu based distros for ages, just because Minecraft came as a .deb that worked like a .exe, and I didn't even consider opening the software store. People don't complain about moving to Mac OS, and needing to get used to new things there, because they expect things to be different, of course they will be. But on Linux people complain things are difficult when they are easier, and are just not what you are used to.

[@MG6960]

Linux Mint has always been my go-to Linux distro. I daily drive Mint and always recommend Mint to people who ask for a Linux distro. Congratulations Mint team

[@claudio.corona]

I love everything they did to the distro. I simply love it.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

I truly think it’s a good change as well

[@blue_mustang_]

Mint always looked like sh*t this new version looks just amazing.I'm seriously considering switching to Mint

[@tf2368]

@@blue_mustang_ Mint are the best in the world at what they do

[@claudio.corona]

@@blue_mustang_ do it. It's the best out of the box experience in Linux.

[@sher1x165]

​@@blue_mustang_ Maybe not Mint, but Cinnamon itself so great lately, besides there is no Wayland support yet..

[@sergiogiacomosammartano7623]

For 2 decades I have been a Windows only user, despite trying now and then a few Linux distros such as Ubuntu, Fedora and Manjaro without ever sticking with them for very long. The thing is, I always felt that something was either wrong, unpleasant or not easy to use with those OSes. Until February 2019, when I tried Linux Mint for the first time. Oh, boy, what a discovery that was. Everything just worked either out of the box or after downloading the first few updates and, most importantly, everything in Mint felt immediately familiar and natural to use (at least for a long time Windows user like me). After reigniting my interest in Linux, the discovery that I could easily and happily use Linux Mint as my daily driver pushed me to give other distros another chance. I thus tried Zorin OS, Elementary OS, CentOS and again Fedora... but in each of those operating systems, either something didn't work for me (or my hardware), or I felt - again that old feeling - that something was a tiny bit off, amiss, or just a bit too difficult to use or to get used to. And I kept switching back to Mint over and over again, until I decided that "distro hopping" was fun, sure, but not really something I was looking for, nor needing in my daily life. And here I am, nearly 3 years later, now a stable Linux user with no regrets (despite keeping a second laptop with Windows installed on it, just for a few spacial use cases), always interested in the news from the Linux world an its community, getting more and more convinced that the upgrade to the version 21.1 will be a good and interesting improvement for my little laptop, just waiting for the canonical 2-3 weeks post-release delay time (just a good general practice for any newly released product). I must say, Linux Mint is probably the best "access door to Linux" for people who would like to try something else than Microsoft, or maybe just want to try learning a UNIX-based operating system (Apple OSes are Unix too, after all, just not open source, nor free). Personally, I am using it for everything: office productivity, programming, data analysis, and even gaming (yes, gaming: nowadays it works better than most people usually think, thanks to Steam, Proton, Lutris, etc.). So, I can only recommend Linux Mint, and strongly so, to any sort of potential users! Just give it a try :)

[@wraithblastalx6466]

yes, user friendlyness. A huge step in the right dirrection for boosting desktop linux popularity. Slowly but surely , linux is quickly starting to look more and more like a viable alternative to windows.

[@miroslavstankov7919]

Mint. It works out of the box, it's stable & easy to use, and it can do anything any other Linux distro can. Now it even looks decent. What's not to like there?

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Absolutely!

[@affegpus4195]

not green enough

[@Stripes404]

some stuff, but pros outweigh cons

[@WolfRites]

If I'm being completely honest: this new theme blows anything else linux has out of the water. It's clean, and professional looking. It frankly makes other themes/desktops look a little ridiculous/cartoonish, which is kind of hilarious, considering the focus of some of those projects. Two thumbs up to the Linux Mint theme from me.

[@MotownBatman]

I've been on the Mint Train since version 3. I've themed it for years to fool my Parents & my children to think its WinXP or Win7/10.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Mint is fantastic!

[@deusexaethera]

You must have an incredibly unobservant family. How do you explain the lack of drive letters in the file explorer?

[@AM-tu1rc]

The idea of Linux Mint as a "Beginner Distro" is ridiculous to me. Mint has almost perfected the out-of-the box "Year of the Linux Desktop" scheme that everyone clamors for, and nothing else compares to the ease and feel of Linux Mint. If being an "advanced Linux user" means wasting time grappling with slow package managers or things breaking all the time, etc. etc. then that's one opinion, but the way I see it, the real advanced Linux user will choose a distro that allows them to be as productive as possible without having to duct tape everything together constantly.

[@motoryzen]

Who cares if it's labeled as a great beginner distro or the one size fits all one. It doesn't defeat the point that it has consistently proven to be one of the top 4 windows - tp - Linux operating systems of all time for easily more than 5 years straight now. Just because someone else calls it a great beginner distro doesn't discount it any as being a worthy " now you can switch to Linux" distro too

[@steventechno]

Linux Mint is (CLASSIC) Windows. The ones we miss the most. I KNEW Cinnamon kinda felt similar to Windows 7/XP in a way... makes sense!

[@mirage809]

Mint is what it has always been. A rock that you can always rely on to be solid and a welcoming place for people wanting to give Linux a go coming from Windows. I personally liked the minty green theming. It was a unique branding. Blue is kinda the default colour for most computers. Good that we can still go back to the green accents. Wayland support is something I'm rather curious about as well. X is perfectly fine, but you are right; Wayland is ready. Even on Nvidia from what I hear. Been using it full time personally and the only issue I've ran into is Discord screen sharing not working from the native Discord client. (This is not a problem with Wayland, but a problem with the Discord client. Apparently they simply never turned on the right Electron features to make it work. I'm hoping that they'll boldly announce it working at some point. Maybe Steam Deck adoption rate makes them take notice.)

[@Gibom]

As someone who likes vibrant color, the old themes are far better to me. Not only do they look nicer, but you can also change the accent color occasionally, which gives your whole system a fresh coat of paint. Glad that there are still enough other people who want to keep that look.

[@Blueeeeeee]

I really love the Cinnamon DE, to me it's the perfect balance of stability and customisability ! i think it's really an underrated DE, you should give it more love !

[@tonigon5767]

I've used Mint for a very long time, maybe since 2011, It was still available in 32 bit then. I has ALWAYS worked for me.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

It’s a fantastic distribution, rock solid!

[@cardboardturtle5470]

after diving so deep into using arch and window managers and such im kind of tempted to move back to a stable, just werks, normal distribution. If I ever rage-quit my current install I think Mint will be where I retreat to

[@redrick7369]

Mint has all the stuff I liked about the windows interface, while actually being a pretty useable OS. It's got where Mint is easier to set up than windows.

[@9255223]

I’m currently using Windows 10 for gaming, but I always sing Mint’s praises whenever I can. It helped me in finishing my accounting degree when a W10 update and a forced compatibility issue on my Mac caused me to install Linux Mint 19 on a tablet hybrid. Later I was so ticked off with Apple that I forced a Mint installation on my iMac. Fan didn’t work, but my time running Mint Cinnamon was awesome. ….maybe I’ll give Mint a go this weekend (New Year’s). I use Opera as a browser, iTunes has a web app, the Proton project is doing really well (Steam), I’m no stranger to WINE, and I cleared some space on one of my NVMe’s (the other is my W10 launcher). I think I’ll try it out. Thanks, Linux Dude!

[@slighter]

Dual Boot is the way to go, just give it a try. Maybe you end up only using Mint in the end.

[@sevenfacedsin]

For iTunes and Apple Music, the Cider project works incredibly well on Linux. I use it daily. Can’t praise their dev team enough.

[@zebop917]

It’s certainly true that the “look” of a distro can put you off. When Win XP was end of life I looked for a Linux distro to install on a Thinkpad T60. I tried Ubuntu but it just looked horrible at the time. Changed to Mint and haven’t looked back since. Mint has always looked good enough to me but the main point is it has always just worked. Now running 21 on a 2018 Inspiron and looking forward to getting this upgrade done.

[@PhoticSneezeOne]

Nothing better than a Linux Install for parents and non nerdy friends/family members. Since i switched them all away from windows my amount of time and energy i had to spend to keep them all running was reduced dramatically.

[@experimental0000]

"the default look is completely different" Yeah, now it's more of the Adwaita that is everywhere. Not that Adwaita is bad, but when it's pushed as the default appearance in everything GTK based, it gets really old. I liked the minty green color that they've had ever since the beginning of being a green-themed Ubuntu spin with just the proprietary codecs being the only real differentiation. And I do agree that I'm one of the few that's annoyed with Mint losing it's identity that its had for ages. Honestly, if you want a Windows clone for the UI, Zorin fits that a bit easier OOTB and be less confusing as a whole. (then again, the default KDE Plasma is close enough/closer in UI for Windows converts IMHO). Great coverage as always Nick! Keep being awesome! 🙂

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Thanks! I’d say Mint still has the advantage over Zorin in terms of sheer number of graphical utilities

[@cameronbosch1213]

Try Feren OS.

[@zil6470]

Thank you for your work and this video! I agree and encourage Linux Mint to be like Windows (ui/ux), like ZorinOS. It'll help new users to transition easier and faster from windows ! In the End, people can customize LinuxMint as they want and, new users won't feel daunted by a weird UI/UX ! Keep up the good work!

[@sigh-cosis]

I was wishing they would update the default green theme to be more modern but I guess going with a Windows-like feel is a choice I can respect. Mint has come a long way in the last few years and something I have been trying to get my parents to try since they are starting to be annoyed with Win10. Maybe this will be enough to push them in the right direction

[@vwbug1975]

My first Linux was Redhat back in 1997 or 98. But I've been using Mint since version 6, and still use it as my primary OS at home and at work. I dual boot for times when only Windoze will work, but Mint does just about everything I want and need.

[@westiesworld4u]

I've been a Linux Mint Cinnamin user for 10 years and still love it. I also have a computer running windows 7 but Linux is my favorite by far. Cheers

[@gbusse]

Great in depth look and review of Mint 21.1 Nick. I may actually send this video to some people who are getting frustrated with Windows. Thank you!

[@metal_kitsune]

I always change the theme when I install Mint anyway so it doesn't mean anything to me but I see the advantage for people switching over from Windows. It makes it feel comfortable out of the box for new users. I like that.

[@randomname2437]

Mint is definitely still mint, and the new theme is good! But the old theme is too cozy for me to leave!

[@costascostas1760]

I have kde on my desktop (ubuntu studio) and I prefer the mint desktop I have on my laptop :) it doesn't feel or look old, it is just perfect. I made the tray icons central and put the panel on top but that's about it.

[@petslittleworld]

I have always liked LinuxMint not just because of all the meaningful changes they make but also for giving the users the options to revert(keeping the legacy themes, PPA, Flatpak support etc) or make changes to their linking from simple to use GUI. Also the upgrade process in the point versions are usually flawless.

[@cameronbosch1213]

I would have left Linux Mint back in version 19... (They removed KDE Plasma from their supported flavors and actually got a notable number of users upset and they left.)

[@MasterPJ86]

All the new featurs of Mint 21.1 Vera are already in LMDE 5, it got the Cinnamon 5.6.5 update since a few day. It has everything you mentioned, just the new Driver manager is missing (it was nevere included in the Debian Edition). A VERY solid choice as well, probably even better than the Ubuntu version for stability reasons.

[@ryandouglas7464]

I am having problems with LMDE now. Switching back to adwaita cursor works but that horrible new cursor reappears when hovering over keepassXC😠

[@DistrosProjects]

@@ryandouglas7464 Log out and back in

[@ryandouglas7464]

@@DistrosProjects tried that, didn't work, though there is apparently a command that can fix it

[@DistrosProjects]

@@ryandouglas7464 you might have to do something if it’s installed through flatpak, but idk

[@jpmyers6950]

I did enjoy it. This version of Mint is really great. I've been using it for about a week. It's super slick and snappy. It's kind of hard to describe, you have to kind of just try it. It's not your father's Mint. Also I have to say again, my HP scanner/printer just worked. I usually have to install HPLIP and jump though a bunch of hoops to get the scanner to work. I'm staying with this version of Mint for a while. One negative I miss night light. There is a chrome plug in for color temp. Great video Nick!

[@boydw1]

I think there's a couple of different colour temp apps out there. I'm using QRedshift on Mint 19.3

[@jyudat4433]

I love linux mint and used it for a good year and a bit before eventually switching to fedora. Mint really is a good gateway for newcomers to Linux (like I and many others were)

[@CTimmerman]

Why did you switch to Fedora? I never could get Fedora's login background to not be plain gray.

[@jyudat4433]

@@CTimmerman I switched at first out of necessity actually, because I had an amd apu laptop that wasn't yet supported on mint. The graphics acceleration would refuse to offload to the integrated gpu. I discovered that Fedora was everything that I wanted from mint too, due to the much much newer packages. Pro Tip: Install the Cinnamon spin of Fedora and you'll get the same login screen that mint does ;)

[@CTimmerman]

@@jyudat4433 Nice tip. I did the same from Ubuntu to get a USB dock's ethernet port working, but it turns out a kernel update would have saved me a night of fixing Grub. Kernel updates should not be manual.

[@Crackalacking_Z]

I like the lack of gatekeeping in this video. There is a time and place for Mint. Users will know, when they've outgrown it and want/need to move on.

[@vcrbetamax]

I like how looking more drab was a barrier to getting new people to try mint. “Look I know my old laptop will be faster… but it’s not ugly enough. It confuses me”.

[@williamnessanbaum7464]

Hello Nick! Both Mint and Zorin are both being developed in Ireland. I'm wondering if the two dev teams would ever come together to form a new distribution and a new company?

[@famousmwofficial8046]

I don't like them both but having them both develop a single product makes me love the idea. I believe less distros but still open source is the way forward

[@williamnessanbaum7464]

@@famousmwofficial8046 Without question... If I'm not mistaken, Nick even discussed the idea of too many distros (fragmentation) scaring away would-be users away from Linux.

[@deusexaethera]

If I had a choice between Mint or Zorin I'd choose Zorin. Mint is too close to being Ubuntu with a different desktop environment, and one I don't like as much anyway. That said, Zorin has put a ton of work into making GNOME work kinda like KDE when they could've just used KDE to begin with, so they're both kinda pointless. Just use Kubuntu -- or even Debian KDE. Debian KDE isn't hard to configure nowadays either, and it's a root level distro.

[@famousmwofficial8046]

@@williamnessanbaum7464 it is true its really confusing to give so many options to users who just want to use there computer and get on with their lives rather than stress about distros, packaging and different desktops.

[@famousmwofficial8046]

@@deusexaethera isn't Zorin based on Ubuntu?

[@vedderfan87]

Honestly, I couldn't be bothered about Wayland support in Mint. The last time I had to worry about anything connected to screen and rendering was when I had screen tearing issues about 5 years ago. That's it. X11 works perfectly fine. Mint moving to Wayland would be one additional thing to debug when something breaks.

[@gregcampwriter]

I have been using Mint for a year and a half since it's a FOSS version of Windows 7 that actually works without arguing with me. It lets me get work done without having to treat my computer as the object of my activity.

[@marlonese]

I like Vera because they're finally updating some of the visuals of Mint which is very necessary in my opinion. My biggest issue with Mint is that it feels great to use but it looks like an OS from the XP / Vista era which is just outdated for 2022.

[@marlonese]

Before anyone comments this, yes I know you can make it look modern because it's Linux but my point is that it shouldn't look outdated out of the box. It's fine if an operating system doesn't visually appeal to someone out of the box, but it shouldn't look like it's decades old. I think the best example I can give here is Zorin, you may not like it's look but it looks super modern out of the box.

[@bertnijhof5413]

It still looks like XP/Vista, changing colours does not change it.

[@FireFoxDestroyer]

that was my biggest gripe too!

[@dewanata_armoon]

@@bertnijhof5413 the dekstop panel need remake actualy,

[@Azmodaeus49]

Exactly this

[@brianwashburn5583]

Excellent video! I like how you keep moving and there's no pregnant pauses in your videos. You present a lot of useful information really fast. As for Mint, it's been my favorite for a long time and this version is even better. I personally love the new look.

[@decrobyron]

Many Western users don't know this. Linux Mint is the easiest Linux distro for CJK(Chinese, Japanese, Korean), Vietnamese and Thai writing. I failed this task on many so-called beginner friendly distros or took quite a time. Linux Mint did not even involve any goggle search and done easily with required one time logout. Every step is prepared and written clearly on setup menu what to do. Does not give much option for writing converter but I can change later. Other distios does not give much informations at all or too many options to choose. Also loves the software center. How would I know which program is available and how to install/uninstall if someone is Linux beginner? Also one best thing of LM is not using the Apple like Activity bar or Dock. LM devs know how to keep things simple and just works without cluttering UI.

[@JeremiahK]

I've been using Linux since '99. Slackware was my first distro, downloaded package by package over dialup. Over the years I've tried Arch, OpenSUSE, Ubuntu, Fedora, Red Hat/Centos, Debian, etc, etc... I've used suckless's minimalist dwm, Plasma, Gnome, Unity, XFCE, Mate, etc. etc. After trying almost everything, I always come back to Mint w/ Cinnamon. It's been my daily driver since LM14. While beginner friendly, it's not just for beginners. It's laid out very well and comfortable to use.

[@mrmaymanalt]

I honestly love the changes, even the striped folder, although I kinda disagree with the cursor (you can easily change it anyway). Typing this comment from Linux Mint 21.1 Vera!

[@edmundt.buckley6858]

I feel that calling Mint "Windows" is an insult to a superb distribution. It does not track you, or try to sell you anything.It just works out of the box. It's one of the most stable distributions out there, and has been my distribution of choice for 8 years now. The fact people are worried about looks strikes me as just ridiculous, actually; especially given how the customizability of Linux distros is always touted. Would the same nonsense be said of KDE or Garuda? Or Fedora, for that matter? Mint is not Windows, nor is it Ubuntu; it is the labor of love Clem has gifted us. ;-)

[@AM-tu1rc]

The reason I am using Linux Mint is because Cinnamon supports Fractional Scaling out of the box. This works great on my 1440p display! I could not get Fedora XFCE scaled properly for the life of me and I'm too busy to deal with Arch so back to Linux Mint it was and oh boy it is even better than before.

[@nextstudiodev]

"I'm too busy to deal with Arch!"

[@riseabove3082]

@@nextstudiodev That is a good tagline - I like it.

[@rachdaadilla1201]

It just works! Whenever I have a printer, whether its wifi or cable it just works! No terminal line or adding cups it really just works 👍😄

[@The_Frustrated_Optimist]

I love this update. I've hopped around a lot but I always seem to come back to Mint. Ubuntu base is needed for a couple things I use, but I don't care for vanilla gnome and KDE is kind of buggy. I also just love the new visuals for Vera.

[@bragefuglseth3505]

Ubuntu doesn’t use Vanilla GNOME, though

[@The_Frustrated_Optimist]

@@bragefuglseth3505 I sometimes forget that. Ubuntu was first gnome thing I ever saw, and still the most talked about. Meant to say, I don't go for ubuntu gnome.

[@cameronbosch1213]

@@bragefuglseth3505 Correct. Though you can install a vanilla GNOME session on it.

[@dragomirmari]

Mint Vera!! My daily distro. Polished and stable, I really like it and it made me donate some money to them!!!

[@Kiyuja]

I'm using mostly Windows but I do have a Mint Cinnamon version here from 1 or 2 years ago. I liked the experience of Mint, it was really easy to use, sure you had to relearn a handful of things but thats to be expected. Back then I compared it a lot to MacOS but I guess Windows 11 looks like that too now. I love the concept of package managers and the customizability, which this version still has. I just wish a lot more apps would be available on Linux but there is nothing Linux can do about it. I would love to see a feature that lets you organize subfolders by their size, which is a feature Windows doesnt have in 2022. Even though you can right click-> properties and let Windows calculate the size for you and it drives me nuts

[@CTimmerman]

You mean a free tool like SpaceSniffer?

[@stevejarvis186]

Thanks for a great video. Im just looking to take an old laptop from Windows to Linux and learnt a lot from this video

[@pinko7429]

I always thought the green looked fine. I wish the colours were more muted tones. Overall though this really doesn't matter that much because you can just change it to green or whatever

[@cfbmoo1]

Mint has been rocking my 4th gen i7/nvidia, 7th gen i7/nvidia, and now my full AMD gaming systems. Photo editing in Gimp, Libre office document work from posters to spreadsheets, and gaming with Steam, GOG, Minecraft java, etc. The only thing it hasn't done is send me ads like Windows has been doing once in a while lately as well as sending me unexpected updates. I can easily live without those since this is MY computer and not Microsoft's. Even have access to dev tools on here with compilers for C, C++, Java, COBOL, etc. It's nice to have a general purpose computer that isn't a SaaS appliance.

[@robgrune3284]

Mint is very good, except for those who have 4k monitors. Mint lacks sufficient scaling, so fonts and menus appear microscopic on 4k.

[@BWGPEI]

Have 21.1 running on the test bed system. It is , very thankfully, still GNU Linux. So all of the goodness is still there, even if the other half laments the lack of desktop icons. Can't please everybody, grin. Happy New Year Nick!

[@GibusWearingMann]

I'm astonished that people are apparently upset with this. Isn't attracting people used to Windows (like me!) and getting them to switch the literal point?

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Yeah!

[@benji-menji]

There are probably a lot of people who will say this but I'll say it too for redundancy. Manila is just what folders in real life are colored so that isn't a windows thing.

[@techguy3236]

I believe Linux Mint is addressing user friendliness issues that other distros have refused to do which has lead to them not taking away market share from Microsoft Windows. I believe Linux Mint and Chrome OS Flex has a big chance of taking market share when Windows 10 support ends since Microsoft so far has not demonstrated any willingness to lower their minimum system requirements on WIndows 11.

[@blackadder4590]

Use the 'Rufus tool' and you can upgrade your PC with Windows 11 without the minimum system requirements. My PC runs faster than before with Win10. My PC has just an 4th gen Intel Core i5 and no TPM. The Rufus tool removes the requirements from the Windows 11 ISO image so you can upgrade without any problem.

[@wyterabitt2149]

@@blackadder4590 Sure, but those requirements are not fully enforced in terms of using Windows anyway. The issue is Microsoft can, at any point they want to, stop offering updates to any unsupported hardware. Maybe they won't, but you have no inherent right to those updates if you decide to run on hardware not listed.

[@0guiteo]

I love Mint and use it on most of my machines. The university I work for, and a different one my wife works for both require Windows or Mac to connect to Electronic Medical Record databases. So, we have to have a couple of Windows machines for that purpose. One disappointment is the discontinuation of 32 bit support - I have 19.3 on some old machines, and use them regularly....

[@CountShasha]

You are right about the look of mint, when I first wanted to try Linux I opted for Manjaro despite people telling me to go for Mint just because how ugly it looked to my eyes. RN I am not using Linux after a number of problems people pointed out with Manjaro, but when I do dual boot again I will for sure try Mint this time, it looks so much better.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

It definitely looks great now!

[@CountShasha]

@Furz You have to understand I basically know nothing about Linux, I try to use Foss apps whenever I can for privacy reasons, but I am not a 'Linux' person if that makes sense. I realised that except gaming I can basically do everything else on Linux hence I decided to dual boot, which means I wanted something that just works and I do not need to go into terminal. Of the few suggestions I got Manjaro looked the most pleasing to the eye hence I went for it.

[@MrBoboka12]

I'm 1 of those "switchers" and its very good that they did that. Made the change a breeze and never want to look back at that crappy bloatware. Beside a few (3 maybe) games which I dont play anymore since years do not run, but all the important things are available and work very well.

[@merciless972]

Just updated recently. Loving it so far. I feel for gaming is much better. Previous mint would had issues bringing the game forward. But haven't had that issue on this version of mint

[@neurobioboy]

We can criticize windows and macOS on many points... But when it comes to aesthetic they have money and skilled employees and are good-looking. So if there was one thing to copy from them, it’s definitely the look. Mint is still an awesome distro. My favorite one.

[@vcr_DRIFT]

i see i opened youtube at the right time

[@andreamaisto]

🤣

[@animegamer3336]

Me too

[@eloquenthillbilly]

A good friend of mine is color blind (red/green... I think, don't ask, I don't know, health stuff is Voodo calculus on LSD to me). He took one look at old Mint, installed Fedora instead, and had me walk him through the 3rd party repo circus to get Fedora normie ready. He's always gravitated to things with default blue themes, I've heard they're easier for folks with color issues. This is a good move on the Dev team's part.

[@S7EVE_P]

Mint runs on anything, no need for expensive german laptops lol

[@JeffHeon]

Heck I’m a MacOS user and I settled down on Linux Mint Cinnamon after distro hopping. It’s just so nice and polished. I even preferred it to Ubuntu and Elementary OS which are more Mac like.

[@HellDuke-]

I still stand by my opinion that it's worse to point people to Linux that looks like Windows on the surface. It does not help them use it and confuses them when stuff doesn't work as they expect it to.

[@TheLinuxEXP]

Yeah, I can understand that as well

[@playtester6635]

While I do think there is a place for Mint and the direction they are taking. I do think you make a good point and it is one that deserves to be repeated.

[@jesse7631]

I am running Linux Mint 21.1 and am super pleased with it's clean updated look. It is the only Linux distro I can consistently use the dark scheme in. I am loving it so much. And I have run everything - Arch, Debian, Ubuntu... et. al.

[@thetower8553]

I'm not a fan of these kinds of changes, but I understand they're trying to appeal to people coming from windows who want to try Linux. So if this helps get more people into the community I'm all for it.

[@paherbst524]

I don't understand the world where default colors might be holding something back.

[@deloller2452]

I could not switch to Mint because of colours ; they were so unappealing

[@TheLinuxEXP]

People coming from windows are not necessarily familiar with the fact you can theme a desktop, so some assume the default color is the only one you can get

[@Dark_Jaguar]

Personally I always thought a deeper forest green would look lovely in Mint. Not super saturated and not "muted", just deep. That said, I'm not a fan of "rounded corners" on every UI element these days. Yes on things I actually physically touch so corners don't dig into my hands, no on things I will never touch.

[@flemtone]

XFCE is working on wayland support so maybe Linux Mint XFCE edition will get some love in that area soon enough.

[@jamessmith1652]

I love XFCE I was wondering how it is on this update.

[@cameronbosch1213]

I think MATE too.

[@jamessmith1652]

@@cameronbosch1213 good point am interested in that too. Ma-Tay as they say ;)

[@ThePandaGuitar]

Love Mint 🍵 Works out of the box, super fast, familiar interface, and all the Linux tools

[@TheNumbersPerson]

Mint's setup is perfect for anyone switching from Windows, and these changes just reinforce that. Those of us familiar with Linux should all know that a distro makes little difference with how much you can customize the look and feel of any distro to match your own personal preference and needs.

[@fizzystream8868]

mint is what i chose because of the simplicity and similarity to windows. finding a windows 7 start menu applet when i was configuring stuff made it even easier to get used to.

[@dragonballjiujitsu]

I'm not sure the last time you used Windows but Linux Mint doesn't look anything like Windows. Maybe a little like Windows XP or Win 7 but nothing in the last 7-10 years. This is a much needed upgrade to the default look of Mint but Windows 11 still looks a hell of a lot better. Linux Mint is still a much better OS if you aren't into gaming.

[@strlke]

Im a new linux user switched to linut mint couple days ago, :) im so glad i never used any software that doesn't support on linux, i only have struggles with davinci resolve, lutris for fall guys and fortnite didnt worked i only play those cus of friends btw, lacks controller support and configurations also my ps5 controller has delay 8bitdo doesnt have support, and minecraft bedrock launcher has small issues, also link non steam games to steam is confusing, other than that im satisfied !! And looking to learn about linux and programming/coding :) Im 14yo btw tysm for your news vids

[@ledennon]

I've noticed no one cares about supporting a better *font rendering* beyond Ubuntu. That's quite shocking for me.

[@David_Quinn_Photography]

I like Mints new look, I had no issues with the green and grey but now I can say it looks more like windows then ever before.

[@MarkHobbes]

Cinnamon should change the way it presents the themes, I mean... It looks so much bloated. If you have installed a lot of themes, it will show a big windows blasting you with all themes? (Tbh, it actually already looks like this). Why not showing each theme by name and when clicking them you select the specific color of it or its variations?! I consider it's about time for them to change the way its shown. I also think the Welcome window should have shortcuts when clicked go straight to the right category in the system settings like happens with others categories screen.

[@qbus371]

I am using Mint for 2 years already. Don't feel like the change of default theme and folders was good. You can change it, but most people just stick to defaults and the newest don't match Mint in my opinion. New accent colors are fantastic and they look great though. Wayland and Pipewire would be better additions but I feel like it may be at least 4 years until we see any progress with that given how up-to-date packages are in Mint. Good thing we have Flatpaks and AppImages now.

[@hanro50]

Also tbf. The mint-x theme is still there for anyone that misses the older look and feel of mint.

[@yourfavouritenerd]

I ran Manjaro on my home desktop PC for a year, but switched back to Windows 10 a couple of months ago and this makes me want to give Mint a try soon

[@dr.ichduda5617]

The Linux look: I started with this Mint 21.1 Cinnamon "my Linux career". Seeing Your video, I'm glad to have not got the oldfashioned look of earlier editions. Starting 3 weeks ago from MS Win10 to Linux, I'm exited: I was amazed at how uncomplicated it was. Thumbs up for the developers of the system.

[@Bunstonious]

I used Mint for ages, but I think my biggest issues with it are: - Like most Debian / Ubuntu based distros, some of the packages are very old - I want a change from Windows interface - Package manager is kinda 'eh' That being said, FLATPAK ALL THE THINGS! I love more integration of flatpak because this may solve the aging apps if more devs use it.

[@IanSlothieRolfe]

I've been using Linux mint on my computers since 2011 mostly using LXDE then switching to XFCE when Maya came out in 2012. I don't see why anyone should be "annoyed" by a new default look if you can, indeed, switch back to the old theme. I tend to use whatever is default and tweak things I don't like. I currently have Mint 20 Ulyana XFCE (based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS) so maybe its time I upgraded....

[@rightwingsafetysquad9872]

So they switched from Spearmint to Wintermint. Not sure why, but blue with red and amber accents always looks cleaner and generally better than any other primary UI color. A welcome change, if a bit boring.

[@SandsOfArrakis]

I've revived my good old 2014 Mac Mini. With its 2.6 GHz i5 dual core CPU, 8 gb of RAM and 1 tb mechanical hard drive. I've added a 250 gb SSD to it connected through an USB 3.0 enclosure. Installed Linux on the SSD and I've placed /home on the internal hard drive. Dual 27 inch monitors connected to it, both 1920x1080. And the Mini has turned into a very decent Office computer, running Mint 21.1 with the Cinnamon desktop. Next to Office work, its also more than capable to handle Netflix and the like or listen to music. Not too shabby for a nearly 10 year old system, which Apple itself has basically written off.

[@igavinwood]

I know this is months old now, but please keep this content up to date. Windows 10 is now at end of life, which means a lot of people will be forced to Windows 11. It hasn't got a good rep even in the Windows community. I also believe that more people will be take a stab at Linux, so it needs to be good experience from the start. Mint is often the one reccommended. Plug'n'play, Set and Forget. This is really important. You will not get a second chance to impress. Also important is linking gaming to the ecosystem. It's a major hook for people sticking with Windows. MS know this, which is probably why they are breaking the bank to buy all the studios. Thankfully there is Proton, but honestly, studios need to feel the pull from more Linux users to go native.

[@cryptic_daemon_]

I started using Linux Mint after installing as my family media server, and to say it "just works" is an understatement. Its just so easy to use, and now just started using it on my main machine after facing some issues with pop os, and I might start using it from now on, assuming i dont distro hop again xD

[@lokelaufeyson9931]

i did change the accent colour to blue in my pc but it was a personal choice (i love blue against black) but the rounded corners and such is no need.. i use my computer as a tool mainly so its not that much need to add extra bling more than the colour change. The windows details and menus is a issue but i can remove them still.. i didnt leave windows to use another "windows" system. I hope that XFCE keep it minimal even on the new version, i dont like the connamon and mate due to windows 10 start menu and such.

[@mrjh8467]

Refreshing and positive take on the new release of LinuxMint!. Thank you.

[@cornjulio4033]

I just installed Mint 21.1 on my new "24/7 NUC" ... after Watching your PopOS video I decided for Mint. Thank you bro.

[@agoniavr]

I'm not a heavy Mint user but I always had some version of it on my lower end computers, expecially because there's still 32bit versions, but I recently tried installing it on a Fujitsu mini-pc I have to play with at work(I'm in IT) and I just installed this new version. Given that I used to select the dark theme with grey icons, and I wish these new icons came in total grey too(not just the stripe), I really enjoy this release! It's the same old Mint but looks better and more modern, at least to me, basically everywhere. As said it's not usually my main distro on my powerful computers but it's so light, cohesive and has this "just works" vibe that I might consider switching to it, and I'll also install it on a couple friends computers soon to have them try it since they only do web browsing and write documents :)