The Most OVERRATED Linux Distros

[@TheLinuxCast]

I'm now on Ko-fi! You can support me over there: ko-fi.com/thelinuxcast

[@tlumme]

wanna do video of the annoying *.sudo_as_admin_successful* file in home directory :D did *KISS principle* got kicked out? .. kernel panic :D

[@Little-bird-told-me]

_Someone has a habit of trashing every Distro except their current one, until they jump ship, again._

[@Langley_Tech]

My personal opinion about linux mint, it's a good way for users more comfortable with a windows experienced background to dip their toes into linux. I agree with your manjaro point. Keep up the good work.

[@dannyize]

@@PeterHonig. Which distros do you like? Assume that airing your opinion would not violate your principle of impartiality and reveal an empathic character flaw.

[@hamobu]

Years ago Mint used to be Ubuntu with proprietary codecs. Back then, Mint was the last distribution that I wanted to use. It was a derivative of derivative. However, i tried it, and holly sht everything worked right after the install. I didn't have to work on it to make it work right after installing it. This was very attractive to someone with a job and a family

[@PriestApostate]

Sooo, it is attractive to someone with a life?

[@sale666]

@@PriestApostate yes if you install ubuntu than spend 200h fixing random crap from a clean installation and loosing nights just to make simple shit work but noooo ubuntu decides it will eat your soul! Than yes someone with a life will like it!

[@vk8a8]

@@PriestApostateoh definitely. If you have a life, linux mint is for you. Otherwise, use arch or gentoo.

[@PriestApostate]

I'm currently dealing with Rocky 9 on my desktop (originally I intended on studying for RedHat cert - but with their actions last year, I dropped that), and Debian 12 on my laptop... Aside from getting the wireless working on the laptop, I haven't had much by way of major issues - at least, aside from making dumb mistakes!

[@balsalmalberto8086]

​@@PriestApostate If it doesn't work for example crappy tp-link wifi cards, the bleeding edge version Linux Mint with the newer linux kernel works out of the box and is stable.

[@tmptodelete]

I'm far from Linux Mint fanboy, I don't even use it, sticking first to Fedora, then Ubuntu. But I can see the appeal of Mint. Let me explain. Ubuntu, whenever we like it or not, is the industry standard, when it comes to Linux. I'd say 95% of cross-OS desktop software (Windows + Linux) is developed primarily for Ubuntu, then ported to other distros, likely Fedora/RHEL. And that's why Ubuntu is the base for SO MANY Linux distros - including Mint. The sheer amount of software, support in forums, everything. There's so much documentation, that even a complete rookie when they encounter a problem on Ubuntu/Ubuntu-based distro can fix it. Other thing - Ubuntu is heavy. For older laptops (and I really mean older, like 2nd gen Intel Thinkpads) installing it is no better than Windows. I tested it on my SO's laptop, performance was utter shit. But if you want an easy distro for a casual user, with aformentioned support of community, installed on such old laptop - Mint is the way to go. It's in my opinion a standard distro to revive old PCs for our non-technical family members, who just want to browse Facebook and watch something on Netflix. Third reason - Ubuntu is controversial. It's run by a company, they made a lot of bad/weird decisions over the years, losing users and their trust. Now they push Snaps, which are not the best out there. Mint on the other hand is... It just is. Developed by group of passionate people, funding is 100% transparent (each blogpost states who donated how much, and I think it's AWESOME). It's "your friendly neighborhood Linux".

[@epecwokhay]

Totally agree about Ubuntu being the standard; with the AI/ML craze going on, most of those guides are written for Ubuntu. Even Nvidia's supercomputer (Selene) currently ranked #9 on top 500 super computer list runs on Ubuntu.

[@chrisg6091]

For older machines I urge you to check out Bodhi Linux. 1. Ubuntu 22.04 based 2. Moksha desktop (fork of Enlightenment) 3. Extremely light weight full gui desktop.

[@ericcurtin412]

I've worked in 4 different companies that heavily use Linux, in all these companies the standard has been RHEL or a RHEL clone like CentOS. So I think this is debatable. If we are speaking about Desktop standard, Ubuntu could be regarded the standard (ignoring SteamOS).

[@alexandermelbaus2351]

Been using Fedora since Fedora 17. I am not a fan of Ubuntu at all and fail to see the appeal; Actually I was disappointed that this was commonly the distribution people were first exploring for a desktop, though not so much for enterprise.

[@crism8868]

I once heard someone call Mint "Ubuntu with sane defaults" and I love that definition. It is a beginner's friendly distro that doesn't put up with Canonical's nonsense, to say all it does is change the desktop environment is a bit of a disservice I'm not even mad btw

[@eps-nx8zg]

I always thought the point of mint was to get rid of ubuntu spyware and try to be windows. But personally it was so out of date that my computer can't even install it.

[@crism8868]

@@eps-nx8zg Fair enough! It does ship with an older kernel by design, switching to a newer one is trivial but must be done after install

[@northwanderer800]

matt is right but mint is still nicer than ubuntu .. although i would argue with debian 12 you may as well just install that tbh

[@warthunder1969]

Not entirely mad no. Granted its Matt he always loves to bash on Linux Mint when he gets the chance which I think at times he can come across as a bit harsh. I've been using it since 2015 and its a solid rock for me (the Debian edition too) unlike pretty much every other distro I've used.

[@warthunder1969]

Other than from an Edge ISO that's fair @@crism8868 . Its not made for bleeding edge hardware. Though considering most modern hardware can boot on 5.15 kernel + makes it alot easier to boot and then just install a newer kernel

[@jotix2570]

NixOS is excellent, but not for regular desktop users... NixOS is a reproducible distro, so... ideal for corporate use, for an entire team of developers, for example. So ... "but this worked on my machine" or... "this worked last week" or whatever exuse is no longer a thing with NixOS.

[@ratio4life]

exactly. have used nixOS for the past couple months and fully agree.

[@SifatSifat12345]

If it wasn't for Linux Mint, I'd have never use Linux on my computer. I tried probably every single major Linux distros, and not even a single one feels as complete, easy to use and polished all at the same time as Linux Mint. Yes, it doesn't use the latest and greatest Linux technologies, but what it does, it does it best!

[@frostrune]

Same here. My network card won't work anywhere but on LM (relatively modern 2017 mobo). I also daily ran Fedora but it always had problems and once completely broke down by faulty sys package that caused kernel panic right after boot.

[@Masta_E]

I use EndeavorOS(Arch) because I game, but like you Mint is why I even gave other distros a chance, and if it wasn't for the fact I game and need the more up to date dependencies and apps I would 100% go back to Mint and love it. In my opinion it is the best distro overall, everything works, it's smooth, and looks nice in a boring kind of way. I keep a thumb drive with Mint in my bag and install it all the time on old computers and for those wanting to try linux. It just works and is polished and I cant give that same praise to other distros, as good as they are. I love Arch and am learning to love Fedora for what they are but...Mint is just the perfect package.

[@lanacan13]

It's the same thing except for me it was OpenSUSE and in a CD within a Tech Magazine mid-2000s.

[@michealrosen]

Linux mint is what ubuntu used to be, it's a starter operating system for new linux users, its easy for windows users to switch to linux mint, ubuntu used to be that but now due to the snaps direction is a mess, I'd never advise a new user to use ubuntu but I'd advise mint.

[@Linuxdirk]

This! I would always recommend it for beginners.

[@Tennouseijin]

As a long time Mint user, I have to agree on it being a protest distro. I switched from Ubuntu to Mint precisely because Ubuntu was heading in a direction I didn't quite like. I tried Debian but found it had some default settings that seemed quite bizarre to me, to the point I would have to configure a lot of stuff to get it to work the way I wanted, and then I tried Mint and found it to be very close to what I wanted by default, requiring less tweaking than Ubuntu (where I would have to disable anti-features) or Debian (where I would have to make things work which didn't work by default). I guess I like protest distros, as I once gave Void Linux a try because I heard systemd is controversial and deviates too much from the Linux philosophy, so I was hoping to switch to a non-systemd distro just in case, but ultimately I got discouraged by the amount of work needed to make the system do what I wanted. Or at least, I wasn't getting anywhere in a timely manner and had to go back to Mint just to get other stuff done. Now after years of using Mint, I'm considering giving Debian another try, mostly because I'd like to try a rolling distro, but being so familiar with the Debian branch of Linux distros and with their package management, I'm not sure I could easily switch to something too different. So I found Debian testing can be considered a rolling release of sorts, which might do the trick for me. I just wonder if my reasons for wanting to try a rolling distro make sense or if I'm doing something wrong xD - my reasons being that so far, I rarely find time to reinstall my system from scratch, so I tend to sit on the same install for years. Usually I used to pick LTS distros for that reason, assuming I can sit on them for, say 4+ years, without having to reinstall. And of course I did try 'dist upgrade' but I always run into problems and every time I tried I had to revert. So I tend to sit on 'old distros' and as a result, waiting years for a good opportunity (i.e. enough free time) to do a fresh install (and configuration which is the most time consuming part, getting a freshly installed distro to do all the things my previous old distro could do), and it tends to cause me problems when I try to install modern software, which often isn't found in the old repos, but workarounds would often cause me more trouble than it was worth. And sometimes I just couldn't find good workaraounds (like when some software is only provided as a snap or flatpak, neither of which I've been able to get working on my years old distro xD ) So I was thinking maybe a rolling distro could be the answer. But then maybe the problem is that I am doing something wrong and, e.g. a better way would be to figure out why my dist-upgrades fail. In any case, no hard feelings for 'hating' on Linux Mint. Not going to unsubscribe :P

[@AliensInc.]

Can't say I agree about Arch. It's the only one that is usable on my older laptops, sure I tried others and rip stuff out but that's even more work than to add the things you want in Arch. I use Arch btw and for now I won't leave it.

[@anonymouscommentator]

and because you found a niche use case it means it cant be over hyped? like he said at the very the beginning of the video over hyped does not mean bad, it simply means the fanbase is pushy and annoying.

[@meltingphaserecords]

It's great that you state your points of view. But don't worry we will still using Arch btw... 😂

[@meltingphaserecords]

KISS 💋

[@LawlessNate]

Some guys are car guys. They want to modify everything about their car because that's what they're into. Good for them. Some guys just aren't car guys. Vehicles are just a tool to get from point A to point B. That's fine. It's the same for Linux. A significant portion of the Linux community is super big into customizing their operating systems. It seems a like of Linux users are more into the operating system than the software they're actually trying to run within it. They're like car guys in that respect, and that's fine. However, there is something really nice about the hands off, just-works-out-of-the-box functionality of Mint. Mint is for someone who doesn't want Windows or Mac, but does want an operating system that just works without having to fiddle with anything. I'm that rare Linux user who doesn't know much of anything about how to use the terminal or even the basic ins and outs of how one Linux distro compares to another under the hood. I have, however, tried a few different distros (like Pop OS, Fedora, Mint, and Steam OS). Only Mint and Steam OS have worked 100% correctly out of the box with no Linuxing required to fix some basic function that somehow broke. Every other distro gives me some kind of issue. Pop OS's software distribution was constantly glitching out, and installing one of the programs removed my ability to play sound from files that were on my computer (although video games and videos played off web browsers continued to work just fine). Fedora had Firefox bugging out in that almost every time I opened a new tab it would open it in a new window and the original tab(s) would crash. I'm pretty familiar with Firefox, and I've never had any issues like that on any other computer or distro I've used. Mint just works. I can (and have) slapped it onto old computers and it just works. I can (and have) slapped it onto computers for other people and they don't need some huge tutorial on how to use it if they're already familiar with Windows XP/7/etc beyond showing them the software manager (which is objectively easier than hunting down .exe files from the internet). To me, an operating system is like a toilet. I couldn't care less how it works; I just want it to work with me having to fiddle with anything. Mint does this whereas, at least in my experience, most other distros don't. Steam OS deserves a mention because that's the only other distro I have experience with that also just works.

[@basilcat3111]

To be honest, the top 5 distros i would recommend for people both advanced and new: Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Debian, Fedora, and openSUSE. The others on the other hand... Mx: Nice distro but they still don't have a clean way to upgrade to a new major version. Manjaro: Even if the distro isn't as unstable as many people say, i am concerned about the team behind it. Elementary OS: Like MX, requires reinstall to use a new major version. Plus, the devs are very toxic. Arch: Won't use it as a daily driver because i don't want my system to be breaking unexpectedly. Plus, the arch community looks down on people who use other distros. Its one of the reasons why i didn't want to switch to linux. Solus: Even if the leadership has changed, i will never use it as a daily driver. BTW, this is what i say after 2 years of using linux.

[@retrocomputeruser]

In my opinion, Mint is one of the best for new users to get a feeling of what Linux is about and a soft transition from that evil M$ OS which takes away almost all of your rights of software and your own hardware if you read the EULA.

[@MrAndrewKeyboards]

Agreed with ElementaryOS, and I will add something to your comments: It's beautiful, yes. But it is extremely buggy and that thing made me drop it same day i installed it.

[@TheRosswise]

I used to obsess myself with finding the right distro for me, until I realized that distros are just basically taking one of the big three and configuring it for a specific use. So to me the choices are between Debian, Fedora and Arch considering that the entire Linux world revolves around those three. Arch is a no-go because I don't like constantly working on my OS every time an update breaks something. So its really between Debian and Fedora.

[@meskes4059]

As it has been since the beginning of time. Debian and Red Hat

[@nhefner]

I use Arch for the excellent documentation. Dont really care about the other stuff people like about Arch. I use flatpaks for most of my gui apps. Pacman has most of the packages I need and the AUR is nice for those few things I cant find a package or flatpak for. Great video as always!

[@grants5036]

Came here to say this. I'm not an Arch user, but I can't count the amount of times when I found the information I was looking for on the Arch Wiki.

[@Masta_E]

@@grants5036 The wiki really is so good.

[@scottsearer6201]

May ask what you think of the Mint LMDE OS?

[@jonaskeepauthor1935]

I think you hit the nail on the head with people being passionate about their first distro, I still have fond memories about red hat Linux even though it was discontinued 20 years ago. However, I would argue that most people aren’t enamoured with their distro, they’re enamoured with the desktop environment. In my opinion mint is a good distro not because of the distro, but because of cinnamon, since that is available on many other distros there really isn’t anything special about it any more. I used to say the same about elementary but they screwed up by getting political.

[@Scrumpylungs]

I really don't understand the Arch reasoning. You say the AUR is fantastic, but Arch is the most overrated distro just because of what... memes? I mean, there's also *zero* mention of the Arch wiki, which for me is one of the other best things about Arch linux. In fact, the top 4 on the list is basically.... distros that have big fanbases. It isn't at all a commentary on the distros themselves, or breaking down some myths behind *why* they are popular. Sure, if it was a case that any of them were very highly rated because of some gimmicky feature, but are actually very unstable then yeah - they would be overrated, but I don't think that's the case for any of them. Granted I can't comment on NixOS as haven't tried it yet but..... neither have you?? Ridiculous list with very little worthwhile critique tbh

[@michael_tunnell]

Very interesting take and I think you make a lot of good points. Arch Linux is probably the most overrated because of how far the meme has traveled. Manjaro used to a solid argument but now that Arch has their own installer and Manjaro has had multiple instances of forgetting to renew their SSL Certs as well as other things, I think calling it overrated is fair at this point. The way you ended the video was funny too

[@ByThisShallAllMenKnow]

I had used Mint for a few years after Ubuntu because I was tired of Ubuntu making you do things their way. Mint was great, easy, and reliable. After a long stint back on Win 7, I went to Manjaro because I figured I would want something with more customization (rather than a new Windows OS) and I would say it has been interesting. I am enjoying it because it's forcing me to learn stuff about how all the things work (and don't) as opposed to holding your hand most of the time, like Ubuntu and Mint. That's where the Arch-based distros don't provide much in terms of ease of use, but If you want to learn it's a great way to go exploring. I don't think there is anything wrong with recommending Mint to a new user, for that purpose it definitely not 'pointless' in my opinion. I think I'm going to try an LMDE install to mess around with and to program in, maybe just on VM.

[@natekmbowie]

I disagree on Mint, but using the same reasons as mentioned in the video that give me a different conclusion. It takes a stable base and a full repo, then tweaks it to be easy to use out of the box/intuitive. A new user isn't going to want/know to change a desktop (I got nothing against Gnome, though it's not for me - but it's certainly less intuitive than other desktops) or add flatpaks in addition to the standard repos, and that could be the difference between a huge hassle and no issues at all. Mint also avoids telemetry doesn't have/never had integrations with stuff like Amazon. Honestly if I were to make a top three distros for personal desktops that cover almost any hardware/use case Mint would probably make the top 3 (my other two being Debian and Arch). My 2c anyway.

[@Chrisg457]

I use Solus on my Gaming rig because it games like a dream pretty much out of the Box. Then I run Linux Mint on one laptop and Void on another. Linux Mint for the win on stability.

[@TheDrunkenAlcoholic]

Unfortunately Matt doesn't have much experience with SoluOS so I would take what he says with a grain of salt. you are right tho SolusOS is a hidden gem that games like a beast

[@thestreamer1481]

1:47 solus OS 3:50 elementary OS 6:12 manjaro 8:40 mint 13:47 arch

[@themisterchristie]

Fairly accurate list. Linux Mint is a great intro to Linux for new people, I use it daily, but it isn't always the best. It's a great stepping point and I'm sure a lot of people move from it to other distros that fit their needs. I stick with it because you have a lot of the conveniences of Ubuntu without some of the cruft of Ubuntu. Don't get me wrong, Ubuntu is great also, was my first regular distro. My Linux Mint started as the XFCE version but now, use AwesomeWM instead. A lot of distros, especially the ones here on the list, have their rabid supporters and deserve to be on the list. Some of the old school distros, like Slackware and Debian, would have deserved to be on this list when I first started with Linux as their fan base were really rabid, like the NixOS fans you mention. If you weren't using their distro you weren't a real Linux user. Haven't seen that much from Debian or Slackware fans in recent years.

[@trendshunter]

Except for Manjaro's case, I agree 100% in the rest of the cases. Instead of Manjaro I would have put Artix or Endeavoros...I don't know And in Arch we are overestimated we are the fans, which we believe ourselves better than the rest of the people who use Linux

[@dod_ytent9984]

For work (my work at least) i can literally install mint and start working the minute it installs. Neither ubuntu nor debian gives me that. You Matt, made me sad 😢

[@TheLinuxCast]

Never said mint was bad. Just that it isn't for me and I think it's overrated. overrated!=bad.

[@dod_ytent9984]

@@TheLinuxCast LOL. Not dissing u mah man. Mint just became a goto choice for my line of work. Just seeing it in a list of distros with sort of a "negative" undertone. But yeah, thats linux, we all have our own needs and thus our own opinions. BTW I liked your video 😁

[@OpenBASED]

I am a lurker that barely comment on videos, but I started laughing as soon as I'll saw the Mint logo, never fully understood why Matt dislikes Mint, for me Mint is for when you don't want a "headache". I do not use Mint, but knowing that it is there is a good feeling. Oh and the fact that Matt had to say "trigger warning" in the beginning just goes to show how weak minded some Linux users are, I just like people with different opinions even if it go against everything I personally think, that's how we move forward. Best thing about this channel is that Matt isn't afraid of giving critique, and that you can't say about a lot of the other Linux channels on this video platform.

[@kringkingen]

What about EndeavourOS? It's also Arch based with delayed releases. Would you compare it with Manjaro?

[@alexstone691]

I've successfully decoupled myself from distros by using distrobox and flatpaks so now i could probably use whatever i want and not really feel the difference, which honestly i would recommend everyone cause it reduces amount of distro-specific frustrations

[@alexstone691]

@@exnihilonihilfit6316 You do you

[@Eyuphuro]

Debian is the only community distribution with legitimately justified reasons for its existence. The rest is bullshit. ❤

[@Masta_E]

Nah, there is legit reasons to use other versions of linux. I will agree that nearly all branches are not needed but Debian, Fedora, and Arch all have a legit place and use case. Edit* Honestly I could see an argument for only NEEDING Debian and Arch but Fedora is a great middle distro and getting wild popular for a reason.

[@Wonderingax]

Linux Mint is the best, its what the linux world should move towards, a very familiar, complete, plug and play experience with a team that also cares about FOSS and the community. Its exactly what we need to improve Linux, a strong convenient streamlined solution.

[@pavan5395]

i enjoyed rage watching this xd

[@gregcampwriter]

I use Mint because it provides a Windows 7 feel while working, and I see no reason to move to any other distro. Ubuntu reminds me of Windows 10. That's what sent me to Mint.

[@thomaslechner1622]

WIN 10 is great too, in comparison to WIN 7. I am saying this as a linux guy, who does not like Dollarsoft Corporation and it's telemetry policies at all! From a purely technical perspective, 7 and especially 10 are VERY good and stable, even compared to Linux.

[@gregcampwriter]

@@thomaslechner1622 Windows 10 is a sack of fetid dingos' kidneys after the bacteria have had some days to produce a lot of decay gases. And in terms of stability, I'd rather invest all my savings into a fund tied to the ruble.

[@Tzalim]

You call Linux Mint overrated? Really! Simply the best for everyone, beginner to advanced.

[@josephlh1690]

Right?! I would have put Ubuntu at number two instead. Linux mint would probably end up as an honorable mention if I were to make a list of my own. It's great but there are a few alternatives out there that could be argued as being comparable in quality.

[@errorsofmodernism7331]

Excellent info. Linux Mint is Windows 95 for Linux.

[@hopelessdecoy]

I'd say Windows 7 if we're going to compare, since it's pretty loved and 7 is much more stable and compatible than 95.

[@basilcat3111]

Linux mint is the reason why many windows users actually consider switching to linux.

[@anonamouse5917]

Linux Mint is not for 'new' users as much as it is for people coming from Windows. That's why it has a look and feel that is close to Win7. The user nightmare known as Windows 8 was the best thing that ever happened to Mint.

[@tubeincompetence]

I have to ask I guess. Did Arch get hard to install att some point? Tried it about 20 years ago and I dont remember it being hard then?

[@splits8999]

@@tubeincompetence it's pretty hard for beginners, if you don't have any experience with partitionning, drivers, bootloaders, etc.. you will learn quite a bit

[@jeffreyjohnson3600]

It is true what you said about Manjaro if you use the AUR. It is more unstable than Arch Linux if you use the AUR because of dependency issues caused by delayed updates. So, if you use the AUR and you have auto-updates turned on for the AUR, your system will be extremely unstable.

[@zgames9400]

My experience with Manjaro could be described as anything but stable. It broke after trying to update it. People really like Mint in your comments but it hasn't been a great experience for me. Funny thing, I had some things work better in Manjaro than in Mint. It's funny because Manjaro ended up so broken I had to wait over 10 minutes for the desktop to load.

[@phant0]

Mint was my Linux entry drug. It was a safe place to start learning without the frustrations of things not working out of the box. I ultimately switched to OpenSUSE a month later because I realized that I wanted a distro meant to run KDE Plasma. But I don't think I would have known what I really needed without having that safe, easy and approachable base to start and learn from. I might still be on it had it had adequate support for KDE Plasma as I miss some of the tools it had. Whether Mint is truly more easily approachable than some other distros to a newbie or not, I have no idea. Could I have just started straight with OpenSUSE as a complete noob? Maybe. But Mint's reputation as a good beginner distro is what motivated me to give Linux a try. And that's worth something.

[@amelliamendel2227]

Have they figured out self executable installation packages yet or is it still like you hafta get down on the keyboard like your fix'n to launch a space shuttle just to install something, genuinely curious? Just wondering cuz I haven't tried to use it in like a decade.

[@jeffreyjohnson3600]

I recently installed Arch. I had heard for so long how hard it is to install. But it is not really difficult at all, and I am not referring to using helper apps to do the install. It is how I had installed linux many many years ago. I had thought that I would have to edit or add configuration files galore, but no. Setting up an Apache web server or setting up a mail server is so much more difficult than setting up Arch LInux.

[@AZSprocket]

Arch and the like basically being a fire hose of updates (and bugs) is why i would recommend either Tumbleweed, Fedora, or Debian Stable.

[@Linuxdirk]

I used Arch (Arch Linux ARM) on a very old Raspberry Pi till the hardware died, I use it on my home server to run Docker, I use it on my main PC for everything, and I use it on a laptop for everything but being mobile. I never had any real issues I was not able to handle on my own or by asking in the forums or reading the wiki. It clearly has its moments when it comes to updates ("manual update intervention needed"), but running Arch on multiple devices for 10-15 years now I cannot really complain.

[@raineyjayy]

I like Manjaro.A star trek analogy: If Arch is "To boldly go" Manjaro is "2nd contact mission". You can push aur's and such one off, but I think most of us are just daily driver "cool this has been tested a few weeks it should be ok" kind of folks.

[@lawrenceshadai4966]

I am a former Linux Mint user who moved on to Debian for his own reasons. Regardless, I cannot accept Linux Mint as "overrated" for one simple reason- it does what it sets out to do and does it well. Add in the many happy users and you have to measures that shows Linux Mint does stack up.

[@Shine0064]

I personally don't use Mint (have installed it and did some basic configuration on it before though), and I have to agree here. Mint is the entry point for many into Linux, it's meant to be easy to get started with, and it's meant to be similar to things like Windows. Without Mint, the Linux community today would be much much smaller still. Linux really needs this ease of access.

[@233kosta]

Honestly, I'd recommend fedora to a n00b. With gnome or.KDE, it's almost equally robust. So far it's the only distro that's survived long-term abuse by myself. Whatever those devs did to keep it from offing itself every other day given the sh!t I put it through - it's worked. I hope they carry on doing it. Debian and its derivatives last about two weeks (sometimes two hours...) under these conditions. I think their version of stability boils down to refusing to let the end user easily change anything of importance, and assuming they know exactly what they're doing if they push on and try the hard way. Also what "stable" distro's users celebrate "surviving" a major update, as if that shouldn't be the default? Anyway, sh!tting on debian aside, Manjaro lasted most of a day...

[@MatthewBeckwithkodahScripts]

to me the purpose of linux mint is to convert windows users... and yes.. to protest ubuntu, I'll agree with that. And to your comments about how arch has been mucking up the updates (grub etc.) this of course is where we see something like manjaro shine due to its own testing before letting the updates out... that aside, love the video brother! P.S. I know you know the points I made but you asked and I wanted to interact! P.P.S NixOS is so much fun! I can't wait till you try it and I'm really looking forward to your long term updates on tumbleweed!

[@shailmurtaza9082]

Great video. I didn't took anything personally. Have used many distros and here are my thoughts about it. Solus is not going to use serpent os but using their package manager. They switched because eopkg was built using Python2 which is not supported anymore. Devs says that they could have built new one using Python3 but serpent os package manager is already there. But other things you are talking about are very true. For arch it is not just about aur, rolling release or difficult to install. It is that you setup your own distro from very basic thing and end up learning alot + aur + rolling release + great support + experienced community. I don't think it is true but lets say linux mint is a protest distro. What makes it overrated? I mean they are just doing things differently and many people do not like Canonical's decisions. I would say it is very good distro to switch from Ubuntu

[@kebman]

My dad was this IT guru in the 60's and 70's. He kinda still is, but today he swears by Mint and wouldn't be caught dead using Windoze. Me, the rebel son, ofc uses Windows for most things lol. And OS X xD And then I use Linux for fun and servers. Edit: Yeah I use Arch btw. Edit2: FFS my dad used punch cards! What a legend!

[@StraungeYT]

The points you make with Arch are 100% correct. That’s why I use EndeavorOS, it’s literally just arch but you don’t have to shove your own head up your ass to get into a bootable os ESPECIALLY if you have an nvidia card

[@thelanavishnuorchestra]

I played with Solus and one of the things I was immediately skeptical of was that they had their own package manager that meant you were tied to their repositories and it was not particularly big. So, it was a quick, interesting but nope. This was early days and I'm glad they've at least had success with Budgie, which was actually kind of cool. Also, agree with you on Mint being useless.

[@AshenTech]

you can install another package manager from the store, i have used both also used the guide to repack some stuff, it was not hard, it would be nice if their manager just let you toggle support for at least one of the standard package types, hell RPM would work... (what i repacked and installed from for that app, that was later added to the default managers lists...) i do agree for people who are going outside the norm, another distro may be a better choice, but for your average desktop user, its far more solid in my exp then most, hell if my father can use it for 3 months on an old A8 laptop, and just comment how much faster solus plasma is vs 10 on the same hardware... and only complain when i let it slip... it wasnt windows but linux... thats impressive..the man is VERY stuck in his ways and fears change... the fact that most of what he needed to do was just supported out of the box or by the hand full of apps i had to install.. was genuinely just a huge time safer... there are alot of distros out there i just dont understand the reason for... solus at least i see the niche its managed to fill and can commend them for how quick and easy it is to get setup and working and how well it runs even on OLD AS HELL hardware.. its impressive to me at least, because there are distros that run worse then win10/11 on the same hardware... way worse infact... and not many run better... hell..it worked better for gaming then pop os, thats only reason to exist seems to be so we have a distro with nvidia drivers built in... sure you gotta install that driver from soft center...but... its not like thats a hard thing to do... a few clicks and its done... in a pinch it took me less then 15min to install solus plasma and get it setup and gaming on my system with a 1070 in it, worked amazing, i was back in game in raid and got windows working after raid was over for the night(updates installed as we were playing and it crashed on forced restart, rollback was gonna take longer then installing solus so.. yeah..

[@walkman1269]

I feel that LMDE is the way forward for mint. I use mint. I'm am adult. I changing to LMDE over time. I dumped windows for mint after 20 years. It took me 2 weeks to get it figured out. I subbed after you knocked mint. There's a thing called emotional maturity, Any man that thinks he's got it figured out is a fool. Listen to others and learn. I try many distro's virtually. I like KDE Plasma on whatever. I'm still learning and mint enabled me to keep working while learning. I use computers as a tool to get WORK done. I need it to work when I need it to work including any learning curve.

[@Brett-ws5eo]

I distro hopped until finding mx linux and everything just felt right to me.

[@happylinuxguy]

Ubuntu was great with gnome 2. (yeah, going back a ways) Then they released their own garbage interface (Ubiquity?) because gnome 3 was (still is?) garbage also. Mint came about and released a usable interface, with the same stability, compatibility, ease of use as ubuntu. But also able to use for advanced users as well but without all the hassle of other distros. There's no reason to get pissed off because someone uses a different distro. Like you, I like opensuse. I used it long ago and actually had a dev on the forums help me get a wifi driver tested and commited in the kernel for my particular hardware. It already had the driver that worked, it just wasn't tied to my hardware automatically in the kernel. I thought that was super cool to get that level of support.

[@linuxrant]

elementary impressed me with picture in picture mode much long before youtube and other video services implemented this feature. I was awed by the feature I didn't know I needed.

[@hdkv]

I scrolled thru comments and haven't found anyone telling that the real purpose of Linux Mint is to develop Cinnamon, so here is this comment for you

[@goldholder8131]

My mannn this is a fire list. Never could get behind the OS people were always stuck up and pushy about. Hey, do you think you could make a video on how to EASILY and simply make a local APT repository for Offline updating? That'd be awesome, thanks!!

[@robertgoodwin9426]

My wife was 80 Years old when her Win laptop disk drive died. I gave her Linux Mint Live on a DVD disk while waiting for a replacement drive. That was 3 years ago. She is still using Mint today to watch and download Christian videos, play solitaire and occasionally research something to satisfy a curiosity about something. No need to say I have been using Mint for many years.

[@mjdstratocaster9716]

Linux Mint on a home NAS? Well that's what I did. My needs are simple. Run some dockers and receive backups from my other boxes. If I run something like TrueNas, I'm a newbie. If I run Mint, I'm a seasoned veteran, been in the Debian/Ubuntu/Mint rabbit hole for a long time. So, install Mint Mate Edition, run some cli commands, edit some config files, no big deal. I mostly admin the system with cli, but sometimes it's really convenient to have the familiar gui desktop. Works "super good enough" for me.

[@Scoobin]

As a Manjaro user, this is actually a good list IMHO (none of my preferred distros work on my system). For the life of me I cannot understand Mint. It does a few things well, but when I tried it in it's early days, it was so outdated and each package update had a safety rating from 1-4. That probably seemed like a good idea but what a headache having to decide if it was safe to upgrade each package on the system.

[@paherbst524]

linux mint is ubuntu done sane. it doesn't use snap, and it has better desktop options. i'm a long-time linux user, bounced everywhere. but since i use my computer to do work, i need something stable, and mint does it right.

[@tridens6708]

As a beginner coming from w10 don't know Linux Linux mint Debian Fedora openSuse hard to use for new user?

[@electricalbatross5797]

I think the most offensive part of calling Elementary OS overrated is that implication that it's rated highly in the first place >.> Oh I use Elementary btw.

[@har168421]

Arch is overrated because meme and (perceived) mean. Arch is underrated because community, wiki, pacman, AUR and paru. The most underrated overrated Distro.

[@dermond]

I kinda see Fedora and Arch overrated. I used them and it was like any other Linux distro, wich is cool, but people put them like having superpowers 😅 I'm still a Debian and Ubuntu derivatives user, but I'm still using Arch on my Netbook because it's truly lightweight.

[@ratfuk9340]

I genuinely have no idea what ppl are talking about when they say arch is unstable. Yes it's rolling release but it's not untested, I've never had inconsistencies with the packages in the arch repo. Sometimes programs that I've installed outside the official repos don't work bc they look for outdated shared objects or something like that but 99% of the time just recompiling will do the trick. When it doesn't symlinking usually works and if that also doesn't then you downgrade and wait a few days. That's it, 100% of all my "problems" caused by "bleeding edge" software have been fixed with these 3 things. This is not an arch specific thing either so arch isn't any more unstable than any other distro. What's more sensible to say is that new libraries can "break" (though not really) software that look/need the older libraries and as far as I can tell, that's what ppl mean when they say arch is unstable. And that's just a really stupid thing to say. Anecdotally ppl (inlcuding sometimes me) blame the distro for some weird configuration issues or other user errors when it really isn't the distro's fault and you just didn't rtfm.

[@Peter-iw3ob]

Arch is basically bleeding edge debian with a different package manager

[@Shine0064]

Same can be said about pretty much any distro... that's the point. It's still Linux. The difference is mostly just what package manager is used (also changeable, but will introduce issues and/or is a pain to do), and what software and repositories for said software you start out with. That's it, it's still just Linux.

[@theaninova]

I love NixOS, because it's incredible for tinkering. I've done unspeakable things to it, and have failed to get it to an unrecoverable state. You can try dumb things on your machine that you rely on, break your environment, and revert everything and keep going where you left off within minutes. The fact that I can have my system in a git repo is incredible. It's a distro that really just feels like my last distro because I can do everything I want safely without risking my entire system. But I wouldn't push it on anyone because it requires time and dedication, and frankly not everyone has "configuring my system" as their hobby.

[@yrjo5050]

Powers that Be in my workplace kindly allowed me to have a Linux work machine. That's Linux Mint. I must confess I was at first a little annoyed, but lately I'm pretty happy of it. Flatpaks and normal packages works great and developing software is a breeze thanks to Ryzen 7, lots of memory and easy going operating system.

[@swagmuffin9000]

i thought your opinion on mint was interesting. never thought of it or heard anyone call it a protest distro. not sure if lmde was out at the point of this video, but what's your opinion on it? my mom uses it and i use it for school. i also agree with your arch opinion and strongly dislike manjaro. great video btw!

[@theshowmanuk]

I've been using Linux since 2010, loved Ubuntu at the time but moved to Mint (Mate) and have been using that ever since. Now am distro hopping like crazy, it's great fun. Mint (love mate, hate cinnamon) stays my daily driver and would still recommend to new users. Having fun with Ubuntu Sway, probably moving to Debian or NixOS (or both) soon. The point is that we have the choice, that's the best news. Like this channel, carry on speaking your mind.

[@mrright1068]

Not everyone wants to spend all day tweaking the os many of us have work to do and need a gui for it. The terminal is good to have but should not be required as often as it is.

[@viken4385]

You should do more videos like this with controversial content, watching your videos and the comments below, I couldn't help laughing several times, man I can feel your struggle. Good video

[@charleshowse3942]

Here's something to wonder about. Why don't more distros issue UPGRADES when a new release comes out? They could even combine the new release iso with the upgrade; giving the user a choice to install or upgrade.

[@walkergrae]

I like Linux Mint quite well and agree with your point as I've been using LMDE 5 as my main OS since it dropped.

[@momentomori1747]

I'm curious about what makes it better than the Ubuntu based version.

[@walkergrae]

@@momentomori1747 Can't really say it is actually better than the Ubuntu based Mint. Personally it feels better. Likely just a bias against Ubuntu, which I did use for a while. That and I'm already on Debian base so if the Ubuntu base does go under I don't need to worry about it. That and I like Debian base but too lazy to deal with pure Debian installs. I also like Sparkylinux to a degree as well. I backed up my files, wiped my drive and did a fresh install of LMDE 6 last weekend. No real difference other than being able to pull Riseup VPN directly from the software manager. But it has a better feel to it. Maybe because I've gotten comfortable with it and need very little tweaking to the interface to make me happy. So no real logical argument to use LMDE over anything else.

[@kuroneko9710]

Not everybody looks at OS as a toy to play with. By default one should install OS, forget about OS and start doing the real world work using a set of applications. This universal truth predetermined the success of Ubuntu. Lately Mint replaced Ubuntu. It is as simple as that. Not everyone has the time and desire to play with different operating systems and Linux distributions all their lives.

[@elyassaa6136]

I did a fair amount of "distro hopping" in the past few months, and everytime i try out a new distro i just end up going back to linux mint, i just love it's simplicity, how reliable it is and how hassle free it is, i don't care about having the newest shiniest thing, i just need a computer that gets out of my way and actually let me get stuff done without having to fight with it all the time.

[@David_Quinn_Photography]

Mint is my go-to laptop distro its just simple and really allows you to just install it and go, it gets you set up with timeshift for a recovery point (it is not a backup), it uses my favorite desktop environments and best of all its super stable it may use outdated packages but if its for a basic user then who cares.

[@donaldmickunas8552]

I’ll preface this by saying that I’m different. I agree that Linux Mint simply works. While I don’t use Linux Mint as my daily driver, I keep a usb stick with a Linux Mint ISO on it. I’ve used the live version in so many ways over the years because it simply works. I tend to use OSs like Arch, Void Linux, Slackware, OpenBSD, FreeBSD. At one point a few years ago, my computer would get so messed up that it wouldn’t install anything except Linux Mint. So, I’d install it, boot it, then install what I really wanted over it.

[@TheDotBot]

@@mspenelopy Funny that, LMDE was the only distro that I actually managed to completely hose beyond all redemption. Granted, that was more than ten years ago, I was still relatively new to Linux and didn't know what I was doing. I've hosed Arch several times, but I so far I've known what I've done and how to fix it. I'd still recommend Mint to anyone wanting a clean and trouble-free experience, though, not just beginners. I don't agree with the idea that there are beginners' distros, just distros that are good for beginners. Any Linux is as advanced as you want to go with it.

[@TheDotBot]

AS/400 and Linux? I never realised they could be combined... I love these rambly linux life stories so here's mine: I started on DEC stations using some DEC "distro" of BSD Unix, all terminal, grep, and vi were all I could remember from that time. When I later moved back to Linux, Ubuntu Karmic so 2009-ish, it took a while to get back into vim, but back in the day vi was (still, like 15 years later) the new shiny replacement of ed, haha, God I'm old. I started the business I'm still in on a used Atari ST1040. It started munching floppies, so I took the plunge and upgraded to a used laptop with actual MS DOS and a 10 MB hard drive. Well this was East Germany so relatively new tech, my colleagues were still using typewriters and some were writing their bills by hand. I managed all my contracts and billing with batch files then, must've been the early to mid 90s. Then there was a Windows interlude of maybe 15 years of boredom and frustration and BSODs and a growing dislike of MS, and now I'm managing all my contracts and billing using bash files. So not that much has changed really.

[@YrmiZ]

Yeah and these days Flatpak solves many problems on LTS distros if you need something newer than repo package. I use Mint or Debian on my laptops and Arch on my gaming rig only beacause it gives latest kernels and mesa stuff without messing with repos.

[@KyzerSusie]

Love how some people here are saying Mint is a distro for those who are 'new to linux', 'beginners', etc. That's just not the case for me. I'm nearly 70, picked up my first home computer 40 years ago, and started tinkering with Linux back in the late 90's. I've tried over two dozen distributions over the years, and used Ubuntu either in a dual-boot capacity, or as my full blown OS for around 10 years. In 2015 I picked up a refurbished laptop, threw Mint on it, not because I'm a Linux newbie, or beginner, but because I was no longer pleased with Ubuntu, and it just worked. That laptop is still running Mint as are the two desktops I have. I don't care for bells and whistles, I just want my OS to work, do what I want/need it to do, and doesn't require a lot of mucking about to get it fine tuned. Bottom line, use whatever Linux distro you want, and feel comfortable with. No way I'm ever going to use Windows again.

[@ugly717]

Also the whole attitude of "X distro is for newbies/beginners" is embarrassing. People should promote the idea of new users. The amount of elitism among Linux users is holding Linux distributions back

[@WildMidwest1]

I agree with all above comments. Human nature is to pigeon-hold things. With so many distros in existence I can see the point of pushing new OS switchers into Linux Mint. But the distro should not be classified as a “beginner’s Linux” in a pejorative way. It is a highly polished Linux with relatively few rough edges.

[@MegaLokopo]

It is a distro that is good for people who don't want to have to tinker, which makes it good for beginners, but that doesn't mean it is bad for experts.

[@MegaLokopo]

@@WildMidwest1 I don't think many people think of it as beginners only, when they say it is good for beginners.

[@franky_lion54]

Mint is solid ,stable and it works well.On my Thinkpad ist Mint My Daily driver.On my 2 nd HD ill Play around with FreeBSD and so im happy with.

[@robotglock6909]

An Arch user, Gentoo user and Nix user enter a chat.....We only know because they announce it to everyone within their first 3 messages.

[@nobodyimportant7804]

It is hilarious that people find Arch difficult to install. Nix? Nix is for people who want their job to be to maintain their distro 24/7

[@xorda1337]

I use Arch btw XD

[@frustratedalien666]

I mean, if we go down that route, Ubuntu is Debian, just packaged in a more approachable manner, or at least that is what it used to be. My wife's been happily running Mint through most of her grad school career and that's definitely proof that it works really well for beginners. Most Windows users who only care about having a system that works and seems familiar to them would be turned off by Gnome based DE of Ubuntu. Mint's Debian Edition is also not too bad, though I run vanilla Debian on my systems.

[@wisnoskij]

Ubuntu is Debian packaged in a less approachable manner. Mint is just Debian packaged in a more approachable manner.

[@marasion0862]

The desktop environment is not tied to the distro. Ubuntu has different flavors featuring different desktop enviornments, and there is an Ubuntu Cinnamon flavor available

[@marasion0862]

@@barkbark2275 Are you serious? Just because Canonical collaborates with Microsoft?

[@daviddavidson9137]

Indeed, debian and arch are the only real distros that matter.

[@arnox4554]

I would like to add a small note that Ubuntu, and by extension, any distro that it's based on, is NOT based on Debian Stable. Maybe it used to be back in the day perhaps, but whatever it was, Ubuntu is now based on Debian Unstable and Debian Testing. Yes, even their LTS edition. If you want Debian: Enhanced Edition these days, you need to use MX Linux. Ubuntu isn't gonna cut it. Mint does offer a true Debian edition, but it's such a barebones offering compared to MX that you might as well just use vanilla Debian at that point. MX Linux is the way. Or AntiX for old PCs. That works too.

[@huljaxful]

Linux Mint should switch to LMDE being primary and probably be the only version. I can agree on that. The only thing i kind of don't like is constantly calling it begginers distro. I understand it is exactly that but it's so much more. The distro with the most sane default too. Cinnamon is seriously the most underrated de in my opinion. I like to distro hop and have found many other distros that i can use as daily driver. Fedora until the shitstorm, Debian, pop!_os once they come back eith cosmic de. But mint will be mint i guess 😂

[@archpenguin6646]

I concur , switch to Debian as a base right away!

[@steinbauge4591]

Mint should make a Devuan edition or one with init choice.

[@fge00]

They have a LMDE version that was excellent last time I tried it.

[@pantarei.]

They probably will, but it is not the time yet. LMDE has no "drivers manager", so for nvidia users it is not much different than pure Debian. Give them some time.

[@Tehstroyer]

Surprised at the mention of Solus. To be overrated you have to be rated in the first place. Joking aside, I always thought of them as being in the same category as KDE Neon - more of a testbed for Budgie (which I like) than a normal distro. Well, until the split at least.

[@nosotrosloslobosestamosreg4115]

I ditched Ubuntu-bloated Linux Mint for Linux Mint Debian Edition. I do not use Arch btw.

[@FOSSuser]

I would rather other buntus did like mint with a debian edition. It seems nice to me

[@seraph1969]

Mint is something that a truly new user that is coming from windows can easily tackle. Way back when, I didn't understand about desktop environments vs distros and such. I wanted to try a Linux OS, and Mint was familiar to me as it looks like windows. Gnome was a new scary thing back then to me. Mint is like training wheels, useless to someone who knows how to ride, but can give confidence to those who cant.

[@curtprasky3440]

It depends on the user and what the user actually wants to do with the computer. My first home computer came into my life when I was in my mid-thirties. The only operating system I was familiar with at first was DOS 3. After a year or so, I finally got my first Windows computer, Windows 3.1 and I played with that for a while and became very frustrated with Windows, particularly after I got my first Internet account, a call-up service that logged you into a Unix server. That is when I first became aware of LInux and wanted to check that out, say around 1996 or 97. The first Linux system I had was Caldera Open Linux which I got in the back of an O'Reilly computer book on a cd. At that time, the first thing that got installed was a compiler and attendant libraries, because the whole installation was from source code which had to compile. Now, this was all automated, if you followed instructions you would do okay, but it was time consuming and you had to wait for around an hour or so while everything was compiling, but you could play Tetris onscreen while you waited. Arch has got nothing on that old Caldera distro. Gentoo might match that experience even today. Maybe I'll give that a try one day. BUT, if Linux Mint, as it is now, were available to me back then, and it was the first Linux system I had used, I would probably have stuck with Windows. Because the very things that frustrated me with Windows, Mint mirrors. I wouldn't have seen the point in making the switch.

[@hamobu]

Mint is not just easy but also problem free. Back in a day mint used to come with proprietary codecs that you would have to install separately on other distributions. If you are busy and you just want a home computer, why would you use anything that's harder than Mint?

[@curtprasky3440]

@@hamobu That depends on how you define problem free. All the problems I had with Windows, I had with Mint. It's too slow, programs take forever to load. These are reasons I left Windows. Why would I use a distro that didn't solve the problems I was having with Windows? Of course I wouldn't. From my perspective, Slackware is problem free. Debian is problem free. Mint is not.

[@Tennouseijin]

From my experience - Mint isn't problem free, but most problems I've run into I was either able to solve, or were non-critical problems. And I've had worse problems on other distros and on Windows, where I would spend days trying to get something important to work with no success. As for desktop environments, for me I like the MATE environment, and - perhaps wrongly? - I assume picking a distro that officially supports MATE is probably going to be less prone to problems than picking a distro that doesn't and then installing MATE by hand. In any case, I've often run into situations where I had to install KDE because I wanted some apps that had it as a dependency, and this sometimes led to weirdness, and always led to massive 'waste of disk space', so I assume installing a distro that has some other desktop environment by default, and then trying to install MATE and uninstall the default one might lead to problems, but leaving the default one installed might also lead to problems, so I just prefer picking a distro that does support MATE out of the box.

[@curtprasky3440]

@@Tennouseijin When it comes to desktops, I used to default to KDE early in my Linux journey, but later explored other choices. I’m currently using Xfce4 on Debian. I believe that’s what I was using on Mint as well. I’m comfortable with stand-alone window managers such Qtile and Openbox. I’ll probably use Openbox when I get around to replacing my Mint disk with Slackware.

[@leemanwrong]

Linux mint is a great replacement for windows users. I like to get old laptops and give them to kids and linux mint is the distro i always install as its easy for them to learn to use.

[@thomaslechner1622]

Introducing Linux to kids is a very laudable effort!!! GREAT!👍👍👍

[@leemanwrong]

@@thomaslechner1622 Yeh these old laptops have no hope of running windows but run linux just fine plus i hate microsoft 😂

[@Karhald]

On the other side of that, I just put Mint on a couple of old laptops that my parents (76 years old) wanted to watch KZbin videos on when they are having fun with their after-retirement hobbies. Dad needed something a little more specific in his woodshop, so I put LinuxCNC on that one. Not looking forward to troubleshooting that one, I don't know anything about CNC machines.

[@leemanwrong]

@Epicyoutuber0 It depends on your personal requirements. I just show the kids how to use the free online version of office which works well for them.

[@OldieBugger]

I know, I came from Windows when they were aggressively pushing W10. I took Mint, because it is easy to learn. Why bother with something cryptic when there's easier possibilities available?

[@derekr54]

This video gave me a good chuckle and that is far better than taking everything too seriously.Keep up the great job you do Matt you always keep me riveted to your vid's.

[@MrFreeGman]

I'm not really feeling you on your criticism of Mint. Every distro could be argued to be a "protest" distro. Don't like something? Fork it and change what you want. That's 99% of distros. Very few introduce anything unique or new. Linux Mint is basically a non-sucky version of Ubunutu, and that's why it's great. (and unlike most other distros, it actually does have some unique features, like Cinnamon).

[@colbybraden]

Hilarious! Glad you left Debian alone :)

[@zizlog_sound]

Your comment is redundant for couple reasons: Debian is one of the longest existing distros, it is independent and runs on many different platforms if not all you can think of. Like a one stop shop, :-)

[@RoelandJansen]

But it is overrated.

[@idontknow390]

​@@zizlog_soundbut it be mad outdated and most of users know nothing about there computers

[@dovedozen]

​@@idontknow390u gotta stop by the debian forums and set your eyes upon some help threads sometime; ppl there know things about their computers i never even heard of before

[@darmoed_phantorm]

Debian is for old pc

[@bhill6923]

The thing about NixOS is there's such a learning curve to it before you can even understand what all the hype is about. You basically have to learn a new programming language to take full advantage of it (eg knowing how to create a flake). Downloading packages via the config file and system roll backs were as far as I got, and those alone weren't enough of a sell for me. My system doesn't break often enough for it to be a problem. It may be a cool OS once you understand it, but I haven't got that far yet.

[@NabekenProG87]

It's just another distro. But for someone like me who constantly bricks their OS, it's a godsent

[@asdfghyter]

for me one of the nicest things is the flexibility and hackability: since it is a hybrid source-binary distribution (source with binary caches), you can easily change any existing package and it will rebuild it from source with the new build instructions. this combined with the reproducibility means i can distribute these tweaks and make it easy to install for others as well and optionally have my own binary cache for it. (so yes, the main benefits come if you’re a programmer) now, you can get some of these benefits with the AUR and similar systems, but you can’t easily tweak every single aspect of your system the same way with those. in arch there’s a large distinction between the system packages and aur packages compared to specifically arch, i’m just happy that my system doesn’t constantly break and that i’m not forced to upgrade my whole system at once if i don’t want everything to be completely broken. so you get many of the benefits of arch without many of the issues. but yes, the downside of a steep learning curve is indeed a huge downside! and there are still many things that don’t work easily on nixos sorry for the unprompted essay and so confirming the stereotypes about nixos users 😅

[@miguelvp417]

​@@NabekenProG87 😂 I can relate, and I think that's why it got me really excited

[@cyberzombie038]

It gets even more complicated if you're trying to install a desktop environment from a minimal setup.

[@cebruthius]

You don't need fakes to benefit from NixOS coming from conventional distros.

[@EarlOfBurl]

I put Mint on my wife's slow Celeron Laptop. It's easy to understand, to maintain and to grasp. I'm al with you, Matt, that they should switch to Debian. If you ditch Snaps anyway you can get away with flatpaks and Mint/Debian-Repos. Ubuntu isn't that much recent anyway. But still: Mint-Cinnamon is still a great and easy experience for new users and I know a few who're using it for years now.

[@jothain]

But Debian tends to have very old stuff in their repos. I fully understand why they use buntu repos.

[@EarlOfBurl]

@@jothain don't care and flatpaks. ;)

[@jothain]

@@EarlOfBurl But that also fights a bit against noob friendlyness they're after at. I like flatpaks for some, but I'd sure as hell wouldn't like to have everything on them as they take ston of space (cough..snaps...buntu) :)

[@EarlOfBurl]

@@jothain We aren't living in 2006 anymore where a few MBs can cause a problem. Even the big ones (compare Libre office for example) aren't that much of a difference. It's installed around 200-ish MB. Not anything to care about really.

[@jothain]

@@EarlOfBurl 200mb? My flats took like 5-30gigs. It's beginning to be pia to update as I don't have fiber. Heck my laptop that has like 15 apps Flats take about 5gigs of space. ie. Scummvm deb 100Mb's vs Flat 300Mb's and it's very conservative package. Every single Flatpak upgrade for me is counted in gigs, not megs. It really blows the lid when you get GTK and Qt apps installed.

[@1monki]

At this point, I think Vanilla Gnome is accomplishing what Elementry set out to do. As a long-time Mac user, I tried Elementry OS but found it lacking. While different from a Mac UI, Gnome has a similar coherent/minimalist approach to UI. It's a good DE for people who don't want to theme and retheme their desktop but only want a stable background for their work.

[@karenwang313]

Once I got to used to gnome, it was difficult to use anything else, except for my MacBook.

[@stephenwilson0386]

On Manjaro - if you want the benefits of Arch (rolling release, software availability) and more stability, I'd argue that openSUSE Tumbleweed is a much better choice.

[@karabaja4]

The reason why Mint is good is because it's way more polished then majority of other distros. In my experience, things "just work", and there are way less issues or weird errors out of the box than in Ubuntu or other distros. The reason why Arch is good is not the AUR, but because it's relatively stable rolling release distro in which you build your system from the ground up, which gives you a complete understanding of how your system works. No other distro (except maybe Debian) gives you that.

[@Sgt_Sot]

Don't forget Gentoo and LFS

[@CTimmerman]

Gentoo and Slackware are also pretty much Linux from scratch.

[@AlanDike]

There's always LFS linux...

[@roxsonixx]

Arch is the only distro I have used where the overwhelming majority of software I have used "just works" once installed.

[@traveller23e]

Arch is good because it forces you to understand what you have on your computer at the beginning and you _have_ to decide what programs you want (e.g. if you want a WM, which one?). But then once you have it set up it's super well-documented and a ton of programs work out-of-the-box. I only have one program I didn't write myself that I had to install from source (I created a package for it, but didn't publish), and that one isn't available anywhere except in source form.

[@Evanmarc1981]

I’m surprised by the hate on NixOS. I just switched to Linux from Windows and have tried a bunch of distros , but ended using NixOS because of its approach on installing and uninstalling apps. Is it the community that’s the problem or the distro itself? Honest question.

[@sachinchaudhary1310]

nothing he is just angree or bullied by users nothing more

[@Kneedragon1962]

"Mint is meaningless" ~ Ok, fair call. I came to Mint because Ubuntu came to Unity, in about the middle of 2010, and locked off the use of all other desktops ~ which pissed me off. So I went to Distrowatch and looked, and the num 1 distro was Mint, and Mint had a new thing called Mate, which was a re-birth / fork of the gnome2 desktop. Sold! That's so exactly what I was looking for. Downloaded, installed, and I have been a happy user ever since. If people want to use the Cinnamon edition, that's fine. Some people say Cinnamon is more Windows like. I don't know about that, the thing I like about Mate is how much like Win-95 ~ '98 ~ ME ~ 2k ~ XP it is. Unlike something like KDE Neon, or gnome3 ~ Mate is a completely familiar environment.

[@alex146]

When I started my Linux journey I was distrohopping a bit. Nothing satisfied me. But then I installed Arch and I'm staying there for years. I don't understand why I should change my distro. It is just a fantastic choice for a desktop. The only thing I'm interested in trying in the Linux world is NixOS for my servers for work. I think both of them deserve its popularity

[@donaldmickunas8552]

Matt, Interesting video. I would say that every distro is probably over rated by its fan boys. Personally, I don’t care what you or anyone else thinks about the distro/OS I use (Void Linux & FreeBSD). What I use is based on personal preference, taste, and use case. What I might consider to be good, someone else will consider to be horrible. Arguments over such things are a waste of time and are non-productive IMO. I wondered if Arch would make the list. It would be vastly entertaining to see how Matt, the die hard Arch fanboy, would have responded to this video. You have grown a lot since those days which is to your credit. Take care and keep the sunny side up.

[@BonFromageTech]

I started my Linux journey with Mint. I did try Ubuntu at first, but I didn't like the UI, so I lived on Mint for a few years. I think it gets labeled a "beginner" distro because someone who's new to Linux can install it and not really have to think about it all that much. The Cinnamon desktop is clean and functional (I'm using it right now on my Debian 12 install), and things just work right out of the box with Mint. Perfect for beginners, or someone who just wants a solid Linux system. I do agree with most others here that LM should just make the Debian edition the default. I've used both versions and had no issues. Plus, if they have to strip so much out of Ubuntu (no snaps, different UI, etc) why not just skip those steps and go straight to the source? PeppermintOS did that recently, I ran that in a VM and it works great.

[@robertbrenner610]

I agree with this list for the most part. IMO the worst aspects of Solus were lack of communication, even before the recent outages, and the ridiculous policy of not updating the ISO images. Manjaro just breaks and its Plasma theming has lots of visual conflicts and bugs. Mint is near perfect, it's getting long in the tooth in some aspects, but the team is very responsive to users, so i expect it will catch up in these areas. Arch is a pure hobby disto - like building your own kitchen table or hi fi amplifier - you may well end up with a superior product, but a lot of labor is needed to get there. Have not used NixOs. In general, one-step developed Fedora or Ubuntu distros are the best bet - Mint, Pop, Ultramarine, Tuxedo, etc -just because they're easier to use than the prime.