Hes done other similar videos in the past such as this one..... So he has a track record of recommending and showing people how to stop using Windows...... And he does it all without deleting his desktop environment....... Shocking I know.......

Yeah, there's quite a few of such videos on yt, which is definitely a good thing.

As far as I can tell, the only people watching them already use Linux, that's not a very good thing.

Thank you so much for the video link.

Quoting: PenglingLinux Mint is used for the example, and installing it is shown from start to finish - along with how to start getting into Linux gaming, of course!

This might be slightly off-topic, but do people think Linux Mint is a good distro for gamers? In my opinion, it's a fantastic distro for people who aren't big on computers, but I think their more stable kernels are more of a hamper than a help.

Of course, with the new Linux mint news it's better, but I don't think I'd recommend it for a gamer, I'd probably say Pop!_OS or the latest ubuntu.

Quoting: NathanaelKStottlemyer

Quoting: PenglingLinux Mint is used for the example, and installing it is shown from start to finish - along with how to start getting into Linux gaming, of course!

This might be slightly off-topic, but do people think Linux Mint is a good distro for gamers? In my opinion, it's a fantastic distro for people who aren't big on computers, but I think their more stable kernels are more of a hamper than a help.

Of course, with the new Linux mint news it's better, but I don't think I'd recommend it for a gamer, I'd probably say Pop!_OS or the latest ubuntu.

Pop!_OS is currently based on 22.04 and has been for several years while they work on getting COSMIC out this year. I don't know if it has newer kernels than Linux Mint. When COSMIC is out, I might recommend it.

Ubuntu is less friendly when it comes to installing .deb packages. You need to use the command line for that. On both Debian and Linux Mint, there's a graphical program for installing .deb packages. Linux Mint also has Flatpaks setup by default, so it's a lot easier to install them than on Ubuntu. Snaps also caused weird problems for me on 22.10, as much as I tried to use them as a normal user would. Snapd would interrupt updates and installs.

Also...the Ubuntu installer straight up failed on me last month, which was the first time I tried to use it in several years.

Fedora isn't a good recommendation because of all the setup you need to do as a beginner. openSUSE isn't bad and is quite beginner-friendly but it's a little obscure. Also, the graphical package managers sometimes fight each other. Manjaro, Arch, Garuda, Nobara, and EndeavorOS are not good choices for a beginner. Debian is...fine, but has ancient kernels.

Linux Mint is the only logical choice for a beginner in my opinion. I hope Mint has Wayland sorted out next year, which is hopefully when the last major blockers for Wayland (HDR/CM protocol) have been removed. The stable kernels are also certainly a hindrance, so it'll be good to see them sort that out.

Quoting: pleasereadthemanualPop!_OS is currently based on 22.04 and has been for several years while they work on getting COSMIC out this year. I don't know if it has newer kernels than Linux Mint. When COSMIC is out, I might recommend it.

So Pop!_OS gets kernels pretty soon after they release, not to mention most of the system utilities. It's a rolling release, basically with the core packages. It's a bit frustrating, though, because I find the extensions they layer onto gnome laggy and I wish I could just get a newer DE

I seem to recall that mint is also based off of the 22.04 base (unless you get the Debian edition) I still think Ubuntu would be better than mint for new gamers who can perform some of the more complex features. I don't think Mint's a bad choice, I've just heard that it plays it safe and then doesn't have the bleeding fast improvements that gamers would appreciated.

Quoting: pleasereadthemanualUbuntu is less friendly when it comes to installing .deb packages. You need to use the command line for that. On both Debian and Linux Mint, there's a graphical program for installing .deb packages. Linux Mint also has Flatpaks setup by default, so it's a lot easier to install them than on Ubuntu. Snaps also caused weird problems for me on 22.10, as much as I tried to use them as a normal user would. Snapd would interrupt updates and installs.

Also...the Ubuntu installer straight up failed on me last month, which was the first time I tried to use it in several years.

Fedora isn't a good recommendation because of all the setup you need to do as a beginner. openSUSE isn't bad and is quite beginner-friendly but it's a little obscure. Also, the graphical package managers sometimes fight each other. Manjaro, Arch, Garuda, Nobara, and EndeavorOS are not good choices for a beginner. Debian is...fine, but has ancient kernels.

Linux Mint is the only logical choice for a beginner in my opinion. I hope Mint has Wayland sorted out next year, which is hopefully when the last major blockers for Wayland (HDR/CM protocol) have been removed. The stable kernels are also certainly a hindrance, so it'll be good to see them sort that out.

It looks like we're left with only one option for Linux noobs who don't want cinnamon, NixOS. Joking. Partly. Nix OS was actually pretty easy to set up, you just have to figure out nvidia and you're good.

Last edited by NathanaelKStottlemyer on 9 April 2024 at 1:03 am UTC

Quoting: NathanaelKStottlemyerSo Pop!_OS gets kernels pretty soon after they release, not to mention most of the system utilities. It's a rolling release, basically with the core packages. It's a bit frustrating, though, because I find the extensions they layer onto gnome laggy and I wish I could just get a newer DE

Oh, good to hear. I heard from a friend running Pop!_OS that it was stuck on an older DE because S76 is rightly focusing on COSMIC (I am certainly excited about that), so I assumed it extended to more than that. When I uses Pop!_OS, I found the extensions got in the way of the core GNOME experience and when they brought out the COSMIC UI for it, I felt like it ruined everything that made GNOME great. The Activity Overview is GNOME's killer feature, and they basically killed it.

The only reason I'm hesitant to recommend it is the same reason I'm hesitant to recommend Linux Mint: it's a fork of a mainline distribution. Ubuntu itself is a fork, but it's fair to say it has established its own identity with all its own infrastructure. Mint has been around longer so I trust them more, but I have barely used it myself except in a VM for research. I know at least two people who use (or have used) Mint and really like it.

Quoting: NathanaelKStottlemyerI seem to recall that mint is also based off of the 22.04 base (unless you get the Debian edition) I still think Ubuntu would be better than mint for new gamers who can perform some of the more complex features. I don't think Mint's a bad choice, I've just heard that it plays it safe and then doesn't have the bleeding fast improvements that gamers would appreciated.

Ubuntu was the first distribution I used, and it stopped booting within a month. Last time I used it in a VM, I liked it, but Snapd prevented me from updating the system. Last time I tried to install it on bare metal (last month), it failed to install. The Snap Store is policed poorly, too. Hopefully that last item, at least, will change.

I would love to recommend Ubuntu but I have yet to have a consistently good experience with it... I can at least say Mint has been a good experience in a VM, and Pop!_OS has been a pretty good experience on bare metal over the course of a few months. But if I had to choose between Pop!_OS and Mint right now...I'd probably still say Mint. Next year, probably Pop!_OS.

Quoting: NathanaelKStottlemyerIt looks like we're left with only one option for Linux noobs who don't want cinnamon, NixOS. Joking. Partly. Nix OS was actually pretty easy to set up, you just have to figure out nvidia and you're good.

I was seriously considering moving to NixOS from Arch...but it seems like too much work. I hope the next time I try Fedora it's a less awful experience. As much as I want to move away from Arch, I have yet to find anything else that "just works".

Quoting: NathanaelKStottlemyer

Quoting: PenglingLinux Mint is used for the example, and installing it is shown from start to finish - along with how to start getting into Linux gaming, of course!

This might be slightly off-topic, but do people think Linux Mint is a good distro for gamers? In my opinion, it's a fantastic distro for people who aren't big on computers, but I think their more stable kernels are more of a hamper than a help.

Of course, with the new Linux mint news it's better, but I don't think I'd recommend it for a gamer, I'd probably say Pop!_OS or the latest ubuntu.

I switched from EndeavourOS to Mint about a month ago and ive been gaming without issues....... And I even have an Nvidia card to make it an even worse experience........ But I will admit I am not the "typical" gamer....... My system is quite old and I dont play a lot of newer games and most of my gaming is done in emulation....... I dont play multiplayer games at all...... All of my gaming is done in single player........

The newest game I play is WRC 10 from 2021.......

Ive really been enjoying Mint so far........ I could definitely see that there *might be* issues if you used the latest and greatest hardware or played the newest of new games that require the most up to date drivers because of the older Kernels in use.........

But for my use case though it has been pretty flawless.......

Quoting: NathanaelKStottlemyerThis might be slightly off-topic, but do people think Linux Mint is a good distro for gamers? In my opinion, it's a fantastic distro for people who aren't big on computers, but I think their more stable kernels are more of a hamper than a help.

Of course, with the new Linux mint news it's better, but I don't think I'd recommend it for a gamer, I'd probably say Pop!_OS or the latest ubuntu.

I've missed the whole conversation by now, but I'll just add my bit anyway.

I use Mint (I went from using Kubuntu in 2007, then Xubuntu from 2008 to 2023, then Mint Xfce from then to present after some issues with Xubuntu that forced the change) and I've been big on computers since I was around 6 or 7 years old (I'm 40 now; Started with a Commodore 64 and loading games from cassette-tapes! ), and I've done a bunch of gaming on it. That said, my main requirement in anything computing-related is for things to just work and be stable so that I can get things done - I'm entirely a portables person, so I'm pretty used to that approach by now!

I'm much like my good friend Spider, above - newer games generally don't offer a lot for me, so I really don't need to deal with all-singing-all-dancing latest-and-greatest tech and kernels. The sorts of games I play don't tend to have high system-requirements even when new (the newest PC games in my library are 2023's Super Bomberman R 2 and 2024's Ekans, neither of which are heavyweight stuff by any means), and other than that I do a lot of emulation. Mint's more than ideal for that and from what I've seen plenty more besides, and I think it's a perfectly fine recommendation as a starting-point or a long-term prospect - and as the video notes, users may well find that they want something else as they gain more experience, or they may not.

Quoting: pleasereadthemanualI was seriously considering moving to NixOS from Arch...but it seems like too much work.

I almost switched my System76 laptop to nix, except I wanted to have the official distro for the computer. NixOS requires a different sort of mindset, but it's actually quite easy, I was happy with it, although I think it'd do much better as servers or other rock solid systems than something you want to make a lot of changes with.

The one amazing thing about NixOS, however, is you can have stability without old packages.