One can argue that Linux Mint isn’t that up to date. But in my opinion, it’s up to date enough.
It’s new enough that you’re not living in the digital medieval era, and at the same time, any software installed is for the most part mature, well tested, and stable. And I find that more important than bleeding edge versioning.
And on the few occasions where I need something newer than what can be found in the standard repos, there’s always the option of building from git or adding additional sources.
I’ve been a linux user off and on in varying capacity since the 90s, combined with some FreeBSD, but linux was only a secondary OS on my desktop until I made the complete switch once I saw the trajectory of Windows 8.
Mint reminds me of how Windows 7 was designed: Simply a good OS.
Source: I bought a brand new Lenovo Legion autumn 2024, and the GPU needed a very recent nvidia driver, which in turn needed a newer kernel than what was available by default. I had to install a mainline kernel, and download nvidia driver from their site. Took maybe 30 minutes to get it up and running properly.
Yeah but it’s harder when something else is incompatible, like WiFi on a laptop, or Ethernet on a desktop. Not so easy to update the kernel without internet. I wonder if it would be possible for the installer to include multiple versions of the kernel to choose from.
One can argue that Linux Mint isn’t that up to date. But in my opinion, it’s up to date enough.
It’s new enough that you’re not living in the digital medieval era, and at the same time, any software installed is for the most part mature, well tested, and stable. And I find that more important than bleeding edge versioning.
And on the few occasions where I need something newer than what can be found in the standard repos, there’s always the option of building from git or adding additional sources.
I’ve been a linux user off and on in varying capacity since the 90s, combined with some FreeBSD, but linux was only a secondary OS on my desktop until I made the complete switch once I saw the trajectory of Windows 8.
Mint reminds me of how Windows 7 was designed: Simply a good OS.
Yes too up to date can be a downside for most, I want stability and just want my OS to be there and do its thing with a monthly or so update I run.
I think it might give you problems if you try to install it on brand new hardware though, because Mint uses an older kernel by default
Yes, but it’s easy to work around.
Source: I bought a brand new Lenovo Legion autumn 2024, and the GPU needed a very recent nvidia driver, which in turn needed a newer kernel than what was available by default. I had to install a mainline kernel, and download nvidia driver from their site. Took maybe 30 minutes to get it up and running properly.
Yeah but it’s harder when something else is incompatible, like WiFi on a laptop, or Ethernet on a desktop. Not so easy to update the kernel without internet. I wonder if it would be possible for the installer to include multiple versions of the kernel to choose from.
You’ve never had to bike over to a friend’s house 8km away to download a modem driver and copy it onto a floppy, and it shows.
That’s just the way it’s always been, regardless of OS.