The vast majority of users don’t need “more meat” in their OS. They need stability. Linux Mint works great on that front, I don’t see the need to loose focus with multiple new distros. Not everyone needs to jump distro every month.

Disclaimer: i’ve been using Linux Mint for over 10 years without ever hopping to something else. And I’m a software engineer, not a casual user.

I don’t get why everyone and their mother has to shit on Mint. I started my Linux journey on servers, but my first home computing distro was Ubuntu 16. It wasn’t what I needed so I stuck with Windows 10. After migrating my homelab server to Almalinux 9 and realizing how much better life could be if I just purged Microsoft from my household, I installed Linux Mint on my laptop and have used it ever since. If I had any less of a warm welcome into Linux for home computing, I might have just stuck with Windows 10.

I consider myself somewhere between a layperson and a power user. I’m pretty comfortable with BASH since I work with servers a lot, but low-level stuff is still black magic to me. I’m aware that KDE Plasma has a ton of cool bells and whistles (I use Nobara on my gaming rig), but other than KDE connect for sharing clipboard, I don’t really need any of that fancy stuff on my laptop. And I think the typical layperson probably won’t even set them up in the first place.

I think the problem here generally stems from the view that a system which is explicitly not Windows should be suitable for “Windows refugees”. (Haiku would come to mind sooner than Linux, but I don’t want to open that can of worms here.)

Mint isn’t “like Windows”, not even Zorin is “like Windows”. No operating system (except perhaps ReactOS) that isn’t Windows aims to provide a good sanctuary for “Windows refugees”. The expectation that a Linux distribution must be “suitable for Windows users” will lead to many more disappointments.

Bill Joy (google him if necessary) once said (quite rightly):

What was the goal of the Linux community–to replace Windows? One can imagine higher aspirations.

Take Linux for what it wants to be (a free implementation of parts of V7 UNIX for reasonably modern systems), and you’ll immediately be less disappointed.

(Disclosure: As far as Linux is concerned, I currently only use Gentoo myself—not because it’s great for Windows users, but because it’s a great Linux distribution.)

Are there actual computer scientists with some hard evidence what works when switching OS? Because this article is just making stuff up to say anything, ie filler content/debate.

Much as I love KDE’s beautiful themes, Mint is just… easy. I’ve spent so many years hunting dependencies like lost scrolls in ancient tombs and beseeching ancient wizards of the right incantation to fix my Bluetooth that I just quit. As soon as it stopped being broken, I stopped trying to fix it. Mint hasn’t broken on me. Everything works exactly as intended, right out of the box, with few exceptions.

I have been dreaming of this day for ten fucking years. For now? Hon, I am good. I’m not having to spend hours digging for old posts on AskUbuntu or some other forum for the solution to errors no one else has had since Obama’s era.

I would recommend Linux Mint because, first, it’s the one everyone says, and second, it was the Linux OS that I started with, fresh off Windows.

Both are bad reasons to pick a distro to recommend. Better reasons would be

1. You got some experience with that distro and you’re willing to help the newbie in question, with issues that they might have.
2. The distro offers sane out-of-the-box defaults and pre-installed GUI software.
3. The distro is reliable, and won’t give the newbie headaches later on.

why not just skip the middleman and get right into the distros that have a bit more meat on them?

Because a middleman distro is practically unavoidable.

You don’t know the best distro for someone else; and if the person is a newbie, odds are they don’t know it for themself either. So the odds the person will eventually ditch that distro you recommended and stick with something else are fairly large.

Cinnamon vs. KDE Plasma

I have both installed although I practically only use Cinnamon (due to personal tastes; I do think Plasma is great). It’s by no ways as finicky as the author claims it to be.

Plasma is more customisable than Cinnamon indeed, but remember what I said about you not knowing the best distro for someone else? Well, you don’t know the best DE either. You should rec something simple that’ll offer them an easy start, already expecting them to ditch it later on.

So, why don’t I just recommend Linux Mint with KDE Plasma? Well, the cool thing about abandoning Cinnamon and embracing KDE Plasma is that it unlocks a ton of distros we can pick from.

That’s circular reasoning: you should ditch Mint because of Cinnamon, and you should ditch Cinnamon because it allows you to ditch Mint.

Bazzite, Novara, CachyOS

Or you can install all those gaming features in any other distro of your choice.

Isn’t he actually talking about the DE and not that much about the distro?

I think it really depends on the type of refugee we’re talking about here.

If they’re interested in tinkering, the starting point doesn’t really matter that much. Just let the refugee know that distrohopping is allowed. If you hear that some new distro has an awesome feature, give it a go.

If we’re talking about a person who hates tinkering and tweaking, the first distro suddenly begins to matter a lot more. That’s the distro they will be stuck with for several years, so Mint is definitely a solid option. Actually, most distributions that are Debian or Ubuntu based should be fine.

I use Fedora myself but for people new to Linux I still usually recommend Ubuntu. I know it’s likely to stick around because of the company backing and if an application is built for Linux it’s pretty much guaranteed to work on Ubuntu. I’m sure Mint is great too but for a beginner I want the distro to be as well supported as possible.

Once they get the hang of open source and develop a healthy hate of Snap I drag them down into my Fedora cave though.

I’ve used Mint, popOS, and some others. I always recommend new people use the desktop version of Bazzite now.

It’s super newbie friendly. So much stuff is installed and set up for you that the average person won’t even need to touch command line. Also, the Bazaar has pretty much anything someone would need for day to day stuff.

Obviously, if you are the type of person to make serious changes at the OS level then it’s not great for that, but most people just need something to browse the internet, play some games, and maybe do some word docs and stuff.

I’ve seen a similar thesis in video form yesterday, I feel like in both cases the author forgot the fear they had before making the choice and think that sidestepping the solution to that part is no biggie.

But we’re talking about people who are afraid of a black box where you type text, they need as little friction as possible.

Hindsight is 20/20

I will move to KDE when they add cross app online account support. Specifically being able to sign into my Google Calendar and getting my appointments and scheduling thing from my PC without using a browser.

Until then gnome/Cinnamon is my de

is Mint still using old kernels? That could hurt hardware compatibility especially with newer hardware

Because switching from Windows can be intimidating and Mint is the literal opposite of intimidating. It’s boring, simple, and clean, thus the perfect stepping stone. At least, it was for me and quite a few others I know. I still install Mint first on new hardware

As long as people are moving away from Windows and Mac, who cares? You’re never gonna convince most people that their OS should be interesting and worth talking about. Take the W.