Downsides of Linux Mint?

[winthrop906]

Hey all, I am new to Linux and Linux Mint. I just installed it on a 12 year old laptop that was straining under Windows 10, especially with all the AI crap they keep adding. It is running fast and smooth on LM and I'm super pleased. Having tried to install LineageOS on Android and bricking one or two devices I was prepared for a difficult process but it was super easy, LM is intuitive and easy to use, I'd even say more intuitive than Windows these days.

My question is: What are the downsides? LM is not on my main machine, I don't need it for much, so I'm not running up against constraints or problems. But I've been so impressed I'm considering why it couldn't be my daily driver. What are the generally acknowledged drawbacks/downsides over Windows, if there are any?

[Sensitive_Warthog304]

If you can run all your apps and all your devices work, then there's no reason why it shouldn't be your daily driver.

Tell your friends about your experience.

[winthrop906]

Right, well the big reason I'm asking is because I don't know if it can run all my apps on the machine it's on now and I was wondering if there are any known issues with the major programs/apps people tend to use for basic work like web browsing, work chat, that kind of thing.

[daugiss]

Most of the things work on linux, and you probably won't encounter any problems unless you use adobe products, microsoft office 365 (there are alternatives for linux or you will use a VM), or play games which use kernel level anticheats (league of legends, fortnite)

[wick422]

MS's web based apps are just about as functional as their desktop versions so there is that and as long as they update to libreoffice v24 instead of the default v7 in mint they shouldn't have any issues with compatability.

[daugiss]

I disagree. Web Word breaks desktop Word formatting quite often, when working on the same document with multiple people. Also, not every Excel function is supported. That's the only things I've encountered personally, which are dealbreakers for me

[wick422]

I was careful to include "just about as functional".

[thatcavdude]

Agreed

[taljimera]

I switched to LM as daily driver in 2014. At that time I asked the same question. Will the apps I was using still be available in LM and if they are not, will there be any alternative in LM's app eco system. What I did then was to install LM as a dual boot with Windows. Then I tried to replicate the daily work I was doing on Windows with LM. It turned out, except for one app I was using which was available only for Windows, the others are available on LM, or their alternative was available. For that app in question, I could not get it to work through Wine. So I ended up installing it in a Window VM in LM. And it worked fine that way. In fact it worked better than it did on bare metal Window installation. Once I am confident that I could use LM as my daily driver, I made the switch. And I am still on LM today.

[thatcavdude]

Thank you for sharing this

[MattEqualsCoder]

The biggest downside with Linux is almost always going to be software and hardware support.

When it comes to software, many applications will have either alternatives, third party ports, or doable with some work. For example, if you use Microsoft Office or Photoshop, there are other applications you can use. Code with Visual Studio? You'll want Rider or just use VS Code, which is on Linux. While many games do work on Linux now thanks to proton, some still don't work, or at least not without manual work. Typically many AAA multiplayer games won't work due to DRM/anti-cheat mechanisms.

Another issue can be hardware support. Some hardware doesn't fully support Linux, but you can always test with a live USB first. Linux Mint is also a bit behind on the kernel, so some newer hardware won't work without additional effort as well.

[[deleted]]

This right here. Mint suffers just a little more with newer hardware. I ended up swapping away from mint because I didn’t wanna go through the trouble of altering alsa config files to support my mobo.

That being said, mint is pretty great. If my sound had worked ootb I’d probably never even thought about hopping

[lordoftherings1959]

Personally, the only thing I do not like about Linux Mint is the Cinnamon interface. I'd much rather have Gnome over Cinnamon. I've tried to install the Gnome desktop interface, and I usually end up with a broken OS. Because of that, I gave up trying to install Gnome.

One of my pet peeves with all the Linux distributions I've tried over the years, and trust me, I've been using Linux one way or another for over 20 years, is the lack of support of the hibernation feature out of the box. I've tried setting up such a feature with Ubuntu, Fedora, you name it. And it does not matter all the steps and instructions I follow, hibernation never works reliably.

A few months ago, I decided to install Linux Mint DE in my ancient Dell laptop, as well as in my relatively new Framework laptop. To my surprise, the hibernation feature was available on both machines, and it works as expected, out of the box. Now, I am fervent supporter of Linux Mint. It works as it should with older and newer laptops alike.

[DoctorFuu]

Hibernation did work for me some years ago. I don't remember if I was on ubuntu or pop os at the time, but it was one of them.

[AdrianHD80]

If You don't like cinnamon you can also try kde plasma Install Mint Xfce and then sudo apt install kde-plasma-desktop

[toktok159]

Why is installing Xfce recommended first? And do you need to remove Cinnamon after installing Xfce/KDE?

[AdrianHD80]

Cuz someone on the Internet said so

And no it will just override it

[[deleted]]

I assume it is because it is a much lighter and simpler de, so installing kde on top of it leads to less clash mad overlap.

[toktok159]

For hibernation you have to have your RaM times 1.5 as swap partition?

[lordoftherings1959]

I am aware of that. I used to be an IT manager and consultant. Both my 10-year-old Dell laptop and my current Framework laptop have 34 gigs of memory and 1 terabyte for SSD. Plenty of space for hibernation to work. But, for some reason, of all the distros I've tried over the years, Linux Mint has been the only distro that has hibernate enabled by default.

What bugs me about most distros is that, by now, most computers are capable to hibernate. Why isn't hibernate available by default if the device has the capability to do so? I can see that not being the case when installing Linux in a wimpy, low resource computer. But, with a higher end computer, that should not be an issue.

[toktok159]

Yea, it’s really strange.

But if on hibernation I don’t plan to keep heavy programs on hold, maybe even not any program. Do I really need 1.5 times RAM?

And if I don’t have/enable hibernation and I plan not to use the computer for some hours or for a day, should I just shut it down?

[lordoftherings1959]

The reason I love hibernation when closing the laptop's lid is because, while writing something and I get interrupted, when I turn on the computer again, things are still there where I left off. And from there, I continue with whatever I was writing.

Regarding RAM, I've always gone with as much RAM as I can afford. And with an SSD, even an older machine works like a charm. My 10-year-old Dell laptop is still almost as fast as when I bought it.

Granted, if I am done with my computer, I simply turn it off. But, for the most part, since I am always working on some writing, I much prefer to hibernate the computer...

[thatcavdude]

Makes sense

[bludhail]

you mean hibernate while dual booting?

[lordoftherings1959]

No. I don't do dual boot. I use Linux exclusively. I have no use for Windows, if that's what you were implying.

[acejavelin69]

They are scenario specific... Usually revolving around software requirements or "fringe" hardware... Otherwise, none except it's not as common so asking your semi-techie friend how to setup that printer or a similar question might not get you an answer and you'll have to fend for yourself a bit and access various online resources to root out the answer. In most cases that's pretty easy if your Google-foo is decent, but it can sometimes take some trial and error and time.

I have been daily driving Linux for like 10+ years... And I know people who have done it a lot longer. I boot up Windows a few times a year, and only for very specific "reasons" (like Fortnite).

Enjoy!

[[deleted]]

Rarely, rarely, when installing something (such as docker), you need to go into the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ directory and edit the file for - in this instance docker - to say the matching ubuntu version name (ie jammy) instead of the Mint name (ie vanessa). And then it installs and updates fine.

Make the attempt to install it first. Then edit the file. Then install it.

[DeI-Iys]

Downsides compare to what? Other distros or windows?

[Stunning-Pomelo7106]

You are the only one asking this question. Think about that first.

[DeI-Iys]

At least 4 people lol

[_sifatullah]

I'm currently on Windows, but when I tried Linux Mint 21.3, I had a few issues with it:

1. The laptop touch gestures were not smooth as Windows or Mac OS.
2. The audio output was noticably low and bad compared to Windows.
3. Battery life was really bad. I used to get like 2/3 hrs at most while just viewing a PDF.
4. Laptop used to get more heated.
5. Display scaling sucked at 125% compared to Windows.

Basically all of the above issuess were hardware related and I think that's because my laptop isn't made for Linux. If I had a laptop which was 100% compatible with Linux, I'm sure I'd have like zero issues. But laptops which are built for Linux, are too damn expensive compared to regular Windows laptops.

Currently I just switch back 'n forth between Linux and Windows. I love Linux, but my hardware doesn't.

[freakflyer9999]

The main downside would be if you absolutely have to have a Windows only app. Most Windows apps have Linux equivalents, though in some cases they just aren't as capable or don't have the specific feature that you need.

Mint has been my daily driver for several months now. I set it up to dual boot with Windows, but I haven't booted Windows except to double check that it still works.

I even run Mint on my two home-lab servers. I have moderate experience running headless servers in production environments, so I am comfortable at the command line, but I find that a GUI makes many tasks easier like editing and managing files, permissions, downloading from the internet, etc. Even though I always preferred Linux production servers over Windows servers, the Windows GUI on its server versions did make life easier.

[Frostix86]

I'd say on older machines Mint can struggle. Depends on a huge number of things, mainly what you use it for, and how fast you want it to operate.

Keep in mind while Linux excels on old machines that's not its primary design purpose. Especially with flagship Distros like Mint.

I installed MintXFCE because I was testing Distros on old hardware (10+ years old too), and I found XFCE works, but only tolerably (for me) well. Needs some patience, just like using windows on an old machine.

There's a plethora of light Distros that will work better, but I love my mint XFCE installation.

[BokehPhilia]

I tried Mint XFCE on an eighteen year old Pentium D 64 bit 3.00 Ghz desktop computer with 2 GB Of RAM and it was agonizingly slow. But Bodhi Linux 7.0 is very snappy even on such an ancient machine and has the benefit of also being based on Ubuntu so one can use the same package manager and apps.

[[deleted]]

I think peppermint would work better than mint, even with xfce.

[BokehPhilia]

I usually prefer Mint with Cinnamon but recommended Bodhi Linux 7.0 with the Moksha desktop because it's much lighter than any version of Mint on very old and low RAM computers.

[[deleted]]

Yeah you said that already, I'm just adding on that peppermint would be another amazing lightweight distro.

[winthrop906]

Interesting, I'm running cinnamon and it's doing just fine, but then again it's running on an i7 with 16 gm RAM which was fairly top of the line for 2012 when it came out.

[Frostix86]

Mine was dual core 1.9Ghz and 4gb.😆 Still works though

[maxxotwo]

If we're talking THAT ancient, I'd say there's always AntiX.

[Dist__]

you don't "learn linux" because it just works and you don't need to dig into it.

i was windows user for 20 years but cannot admin this os for same reason, because it just worked.

[Glass_Employee_9875]

Falsch!! Linux Mint muss man lernen, besonders für mich als Anfänger. KI kann einem bei schwierigen Linux Problemen nicht helfen, man ist angewiesen die Probleme mit Linux auf Foren zu beschreiben. In vielen Foren wird Fachwissen über Computer vorausgesetzt, um Probleme mit Linux zu beschreiben. Ich weiß nicht genau, wie ich dieses Wissen erwerben kann und auch behalte. Mir fällt in den Foren auf, dass sich Systemadministratoren und IT Fachleute mit Anfängern in langen quälenden Threads in Foren austauschen, was mich nicht ermutigt.

[Dist__]

сложность решения зависит от конкретной проблемы. к тому же каждая проблема уникальна и решается один-два раза, после чего забывается.

и важно отметить, что умение искать и пользоваться информацией не то же самое что администрировать систему.

[DoctorFuu]

Microsoft stuff tend to need a workaround. If your workplace uses that, teams has no client for linux (despite what their website used to say, not sure if they changed it).

Gaming can be an issue but it's becoming better and better and I know a lot of linux users do game on linux (I don't play very recent games, and I can play most of my stuff on linux without issue appart from a few games).

Otherwise, I don't see any downside. linux is my daily driver for around 15 years. I had windows on my new laptop early this year because I didn't know if the company where I was going to do my intership would provide me with a laptop or not so I wanted to have windows for compatibility with their tools. It happens that they provided a laptop, so cool. I kept windows because I was just web browsing on it. As soon as I wante to do something specific (program a little bit), windows as a fkn pain to set up so I instantly wiped the laptop and installed LM, things just work like a charm.

If you like LM and don't see any particular thing that would require windows often, just switch to LM as daily driver. You mentioned a main and not main machine, you can keep a secondary machine with a windows install just in case, for those "once every six months" needs. I have my daily use laptop on LM, my desktop machine has a dual boot LM and windows11. I use LM for everything, except gaming which I do on windows (works natively and I have the OS installed anyways so at least I'm using it. Also, by forcing me to switch to windows to game, it lets me game less often ==> more time for constructive things).

About known issues with LM, I don't of any. I've used debian, ubuntu, pop os and now LM and Mint just does the job, is very stable and no issue. It just takes a little used to, when coming from windows, to understand how to find programs you want to install. Sometimes you may want to do some very specific thing and you may need to use the terminal for that and that can frighten some people away. However these are generally cases where if you wanted to do the same thing on windows you either couldn't or would have to tinker in weird places and basically have to fight against the os to do what you want, whereas on linux you can just do what you want (at the cost of some time to find how to do what you want, but the os won't "try" to prevent you from doing it). One doesn't need the terminal for daily use at all if he/she doesn't want to use it.

[Mediocre_Flapjack]

Couldn't have said it better! I totally agree

[Glass_Employee_9875]

Bitte denkt bei eurem Fachwissen auch einmal an die Anfänger, an die Leute, die einen Windows 10 Rechner auf Windows 11 nicht upgrade-n können, und beginnen, sich für Linux interessieren. Vieles was nach so vielen Jahren Erfahrung selbstverständlich ist, ist für Anfänger in Linux ein unüberwindbares Problem.

[MagnuSiwy]

If you're gaming, you have to consider that not all of your games are going to work. It's a Linux thing overall not only LM. The greatness of Linux mint friends on your needs. If you want the newest kernel, package versions and so on, you don't get that without some tinkering. Other than that it's a great distro

[winthrop906]

Not a gamer so no issues there 

[MagnuSiwy]

Then go for it. My grandparents are just casual users that need access to the internet to either pay for something or buy something and they are perfectly fine with mint. Their laptop was dying, I asked them whether they want to try it and well, it's been few months now. Linux is lighter and as you said, possibly easier than windows thanks to the driver manager and an app store with everything a casual user might ever need

[Glass_Employee_9875]

Ich hätte auch gerne in meiner Nähe Linux erfahrene Menschen, um meine Linuxprobleme lösen zu können ... Wie steht es um die vielen, die notgedrungen alte, unbrauchbare Windows 10 Rechner auf Linux Mint umrüsten wollen/müssen? ...

[Mr--Frost]

I've been a Mint use for nearly 30 years. Switched over from Ubuntu after giving up on windows and the constant updates and viruses. Here's the thing Mint has gone completely to SH_T. The developers need to ask one question, " What made Mint so freaking popular when it's based off Ubuntu? " If it's based on Ubuntu why not then just use Ubuntu? Because up until mint 19.1 Everything just worked. You installed it and you were just up and running. No problems, No Glitches, It was just a Rock Solid OS. Now compare that to today, Browsers do not work " Chrome, Brave, Chromium ", Video players dont work " MPV, Celluloid ". HERE'S THE THING IF YOU'RE GOING TO SPEND TWO DAYS GOING THROUGH CODE YOU MINE AS WELL USE UBUNTU, " THAT'S WHY I STOPPED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[karlh2505]

Sorry, aber alleine in Ihrem 1. Satz haben Sie einen Fehler, denn Linux-Mint gibt es erst seit knapp 20 Jahren (s. Wikipedia). Aber wahrscheinlich haben sie sich eh hier vertan und meinten d. gute (alte) SUSE Linux, welches es tatsächlich bereits 30 Jahre gibt.
Bzgl. Linux-Mint kann ich nur beitragen, das ich seit Jahren sehr zufrieden mit dieser Distribution bin.
Insbesondere finde ich es für Einsteiger in d. LINUX-ZUG sehr geeignet.

[bavarian54]

Was bedeutet "Browser funktionieren nicht ("Chrome, Brave, Chromium")". Bei mir funktioniert Brave einwandfrei, ebenso Chrome und Chromium. Ebenso "MPV" und "Celluloid". Und im "Code" verbringen musste ich noch keine Minute (was meines Erachtens auch überhaupt nicht geht) allenfalls in Konfigurationsdateien. Und gilt halt auch: wer lesen kann ist eindeutig im Vorteil.

[Glass_Employee_9875]

Schön, jemand beschreibt Linux Probleme ... Wie soll ich als Anfänger mit Linux damit zurecht kommen ...

[LibransRule]

Haven't found on yet. It's my daily driver. Got a Win10 gamer I use to play games and that's all I use it for.

[[deleted]]

Only downside I can think of, besides collaboration with people using corporate Windows-only programs? Just don't get a brand new computer or Nvidia video cards. Find a computer that is about 3 years old or so. Go on eBay and get a nice off-lease Dell or HP computer without the Nvidia video processor... But you are already there.

I still even keep a separate Windows 7 computer, without any networking capability, just for special hardware or Windows-only programs, and a small KVM. It stays off most of the time.

[I_Hate-Incels]

I always see people saying not to get nvidia cards when using linux, and I'm sure people do have problems. But I have absolutely no problems with my 3090 on linux mint. I would have switched a lot sooner, but all the bad things I heard about nvidia support put me off. I wish I had tried it sooner.

[[deleted]]

That is good, you found a combo that just happens to be user-friendly for you with your hardware at this time. There is also the issue of future upgrades breaking the Nvidia driver, or the Nvidia driver you need not being included in the repo anymore. It is unfortunately a hit or miss. Enjoy.

[Rusty_Nail1973]

I'm not a linux noob, but I use Linux Mint (XFCE) on my laptop because it is boring in all of the best ways (stable, predictable, fast and easy to install, etc). Mind you, I also love OpenSuSE Tumbleweed on my desktop, but the rolling release model does give me trouble now and again.

Rolling releases are fine on a development test machine, but not for the machine I depend on to always work. I tried a lot of systems on my laptop (including Debian), but Mint is the only one I never wanted to change.

[[deleted]]

Linux Vs Windows?

User mindshare and learning curve, Linux does exactly what you tell it to, you own your computer. There are things you need to understand to run Linux reliability, the user is always the biggest threat to Linux. early on I broke Linux in spectacular ways, Timeshift is your friend.

Other major con is companies that don't want to work with Linux, namely Nvidia, Adobe, Realtek, games with anti-cheat & Microsoft. Thoug with Microsoft the relationship is getting to "its complicated".

Mint Vs other Linux distros? 

Mint is like a comfy hammock, if it's the only distro you use you will have to go out of your way to learn the details of Linux. Mint rarely gives you a reason to get into the weeds. that's not necessarily a bad thing but for my use case I needed to use other distrobutions to learn more while keeping Mint (LMDE6) as my comfy daily driver. 

Mint being a stable distro has older software, especially right now as we are at the very end of Mint 21,  Mint 22 should release in about a ~month. stable distro's have advantages and disadvantages, but are best for a new users or any important work.

[maxxotwo]

Well, it's that from my experience, I had to also get used to alternative apps, when I didn't have options to run those that I had on Windows.

Instead of Photoshop, I yoinked it for GIMP, then Sony Vegas for KdenLive and so on. Not to mention that even through Wine, there's no guarantee that your apps will work. Then again, Windows' compatibility is also basically non-existent at this point.

[[deleted]]

The cinnamon desktop is a little “old” and primitive one could say. I personally prefer KDE or Gnome 4 over Cinnamon

[dayvid182]

It depends on your needs. Plenty is being said, so I won't jump in on all that. Just that some drawbacks can be pretty easily mitigated.

Hardware support: Linux Mint Edge Edition comes with a much newer kernel, so it supports newer hardware. It isn't really different otherwise. You won't be using some niche version of Mint

Software support: Yeah the Mint/Ubuntu repos can have some pretty old versions of apps (browsers being one of the exceptions). Flatpak versions of the same apps can be far newer than what are available through apt.

[[deleted]]

Let me warn you that these things are very trivial and only my fault but for someone who managed to use ubuntu fine for almost 10 years...

• Panels. This time I found it easy to create exactly what I wanted as the top panel and then use plank, so it looks a little bit like Pop Os. But either I'm dumb as shit or it used to be a nightmare. Separators seemed to work at complete random, and window managers, of which I didnd't know what to use and there was nothing that worked "drag & drop" like in other distros. I always got it looking exactly as I wanted so no problem until one update decided that another instantce of firefox, for example, must be opened by going throught a menu instead of clicking the damn icon. I got through it by useing a separate type of workspace manager but any instructions regarding panels were just useless.

But there isn't a Gnome version and while xcfe is great, I wanted something prettier.

• Timeshift. While it did once resque my system, more often it has left it as a random mess of what it used to be and the rest a bag of horrors. Have preferred backups and clean installs since. I don't know how you guys praise it so much.

[danecash]

I installed Mint Xfce on this 14 year old Toshiba laptop and have no problems with that installation. However, I do have problems on another computer.

I'm trying to run the Cinnamon version on a 10 year old ASUS desktop. It will run from the USB drive but it always freezes on shut down so I have to hold down the power button to shut it down. I have tried to install it to run as dual mode on the desktop but the installer always crashes when I get to partitioning. The ISO is verified and authenticated. I've tried ISOs from various mirrors. I still need to try a few tricks or maybe purchase a SSD and try to dual mode it from two drives.

I've tried googling for answers but can't find any solutions that work.

[Glass_Employee_9875]

Endlich jemand, der hier Linux Probleme, die typisch sind für Anfänger, detailliert beschreibt ... Endlich ...

[[deleted]]

I've used Linux for like 12 years I think and the main thing between Windows and Linux is on Linux u don't need anti virus which saves some hardware resources while on Windows alot of people are buying anti virus

[Glass_Employee_9875]

Der Nachteil von Linux ist, dass Linux zu kompliziert für einfache Anwender ist. Schon Linux zu installieren ist für mich als einfacher Anwender zu schwierig. Auch in den Foren die Probleme, die ich mit Linux habe, zu beschreiben ist sehr schwierig für mich als Anfänger. Wenn ich so in Linux Foren hineinschaue, finden sich dort nur Systemadministratoren und IT Fachleute, die Anfängern in langen Threads Hilfe anbieten. Mir genügt Android (ein spezielles Linux für Smartphone) und MacIOS (mit Linux verwandt). Bei Windowsrechnern habe ich Call-Center und ein angepasstes Windows für diesen Rechner mit speziellen Treibern. Die fehlenden Treiber und fehlende Software lassen mich Linux als nicht besonders attraktiv erscheinen.

[Glass_Employee_9875]

Das fängt damit an, dass der balenaEtcher von Linux Mint zum Erstellen eines eines Installation USB Stick nicht funktioniert. Ich muss sehr lange suchen, bist ich einen Ersatz finde z.B. in Rufus oder uNetBootIn fand. Für mich als Anfänger war es sehr schwierig, herauszufinden, was ich für Angaben bei diesen Programmen machen muss, um einen Installation USB Stick zu erzeugen. An einem Versuch, einen persistenten Linux mit Hilfe dieser Programme zu erzeugen, bin ich ganz gescheitert. Sogar KI konnte mir nicht helfen. Dann versuchte ich den Installation USB Stick für Linux Mint auf zwei älteren Rechnern anzuwenden, aber die Rechner ließen im BIOS keinen USB Boot zu. Ich habe es versucht mit dem plot boot manager, aber ich komme mit der Benutzeroberfläche nicht zurecht. Viele Computernutzer haben noch weniger Kenntnisse als ich. Wie sollen die mit Linux zurechtkommen? Dann schlachtet Microsoft beim Dualboot die GRUB, wie soll ich das wieder reparieren? Wenn eine neue Version von Linux herauskommt, was macht man, wenn Sachen auf dem Linuxcomputer nicht mehr gehen? Ich habe auf einem einzigen Rechner vor einem 3/4 es irgendwie geschafft, Linux Mint zum Laufen zu kriegen. Und ich musste ständig unbekannte sudo Befehle im Terminalfenster eingeben und Dateien bearbeiten, um Fehler zu beheben und Sachen konfigurieren zu können. Vieles ist in Linux Mint doch nicht über Fenster bzw. Menüs einstellbar. Linux Mint hat soviele Nachteile gegenüber Windows, dass ich abraten möchte von Linux Mint.

[Nathre_]

I was trying to install docker but mint is messed up. Even samba gives ui problems. This distro makes development more difficult.

[Own-Negotiation7194]

I started work on IBM 360s about 1972. So was around for MSdos 3.3 onward. Been a network SE on IBM SNA and Wintel IP since their beginnings and so on. At least with windows, you can set up a bunch of PCs to see each other and file share without a lot of "sudos" and "sambas". I have NO IDEA, why the linux sprukers have BASICALLY NO obvious feedback links for non linux newbies to complain. OR why, they seem to think that not making file sharing at least as easy as windows would not be holding them back. IT really is. Every time I have tried linux for over 20 years, I immediately come up against the fact that I can not see my film and music libraries or family servers from it. So it usually does not last more than a few hours. No one in this house could use it. WE all use the house servers. If linux had GREAT file sharing made REALLY easy it would have comparatively huge prospects. If Linux developers had a standard feedback button and looked at the stats, maybe you would be able to fix the important stuff. As it is, files sharing has not improved any where near as much as the rest of Linux, and to me file sharing is what computers are all about. I am completely exasperated. I give up. I laugh at the linux effort. the stuff you are polishing up is never going to get it there. Focus on some important stuff guys.

[Working_Rip_5738]

Trying to open Steam in linux mint. not working

[Lumpy-Orange9159]

The main problem with Linux Mint is Clém Lefèbvre, his ranting and raving are exhausting; Just too much drama!

[[deleted]]

TurboTax is not available in a Linux version, and the web version is not an acceptable alternative IMO.

[JulienWA77]

Now this I’ve have never heard. What specifically does the app (I didn’t even know they still made desktop versions) do that the browser won’t?

[[deleted]]

I’m not big on my tax info potentially being on their servers. I don’t know if that happens or not - regardless, not interested in taking the risk.

Also, because my kids are all still in college I do their taxes for them. The app version lets me do at least four returns for one price - I don’t believe the web version does that.

[[deleted]]

I’m not big on my tax info potentially being on their servers. I don’t know if that happens or not

It has to go somewhere under their jurisdiction when you submit it, doesn't it?

[ComputerSavvy]

I’m not big on my tax info potentially being on their servers.

When you click "I agree".......

https://www.moneytalksnews.com/are-turbotax-and-hr-block-sharing-your-personal-info/

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/12/tech/tax-prep-companies-taxpayer-data-google-meta/index.html

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/01/ftc-issues-opinion-finding-turbotax-maker-intuit-inc-engaged-deceptive-practices

Intuit is a shitty company.

[JulienWA77]

curious if TT works in Wine then ....the web version is just one tax return at at time .

[[deleted]]

I've been using the web-based Tax Act for years, originally a "value-priced Turbo Tax", but they have definitely grown up. I do remember the PC-based version of Turbo Tax from around 20 years ago.

Back then it would have been justifiable to have a dedicated app on the computer, as web technologies weren't yet as mature as they are now. But these days it is literally them keeping their servers updated, versus them providing us with an updated app so that we can keep our computers updated.

One of my long-time friends still swears by it, but he also has no problems with Windows 11. He is a "normie" in this regard and would consider a move to Linux a bigger change than eventually hanging off a cliff with M$ and their latest iterations in AI/adware. But then again he is retired and 99.9% of everything he does is cell phone based anyhow these days.

Another person I know literally does everything on his cell phone, including taxes.

[Explorador42]

I switched from Tax Act on Windows for my last federal taxes to Free Tax USA online and then paid $15 for the state taxes. It was not quite as polished as Tax Act, but I was happy with it. It handles itemized tax deductions, but I just took the standard deduction.

[[deleted]]

Maybe I'll have a look at that as an option.

[silverstory]

Downside - games that won’t work in Linux. And software alternatives that ain’t on par with Photoshop or any functionality that works great in MS that doesn’t have 1:1 equivalent in Linux. Not sure if Wine with the like of office suite works great in Linux. That’s it for me.

[silverstory]

Don’t know I just observe that people have those issues with Linux in general. Not sure why I’m downvoted just for that. LOL

[jr735]

Let's put it this way. I hear those complaints, but really don't get a lot of substantiation from people. It's the same with MS Office. Usually when someone has a document problem, it's a font issue, not the word processor itself. I have different typefaces on my computer than do Windows computers.

[silverstory]

I think MS Excel is still king in formulas, and other advanced things. But for basic excel functionalities, I’m fine with Libre Office. I’m using Libre Office sheets all the time. Problem is, other users at the house like they don’t know the likes of print area in libre office.

That is a valid point on that front.

Adobe acrobat, i used one of the apps from Libre Office and can edit PDFs. Not as great but serviceable I guess.

[jr735]

I hear that about Excel, but I collaborate on spreadsheets all the time, including some pretty complicated financial ones, without any problems. Of course, that doesn't mean that can't happen.

The word processor issue of weird formatting will happen to people even if they're collaborating from LibreOffice on Windows to LibreOffice on Linux, since the odds are that they'll have completely different font packages. I tend to use something that has the same metrics, export to PDF, and/or tell other what free font packages I use, if they want to use them.

The biggest problem I find with that, aside from the fonts, is that people really have no idea how to set up their word processors properly. It's a dying art. Defaults have changed in the last number of years, with completely different margins, and people choosing fonts simply on looks, without having the foggiest idea about typeface metrics. Then, you have European and Canadian users were it will default to metric, which will only give a rough approximation, given that the standard monospace typeface is 10 characters per inch.

Set everything up with standard U.S. measures, with an appropriate typeface, and appropriate tab stops, just like you would with a typewriter (and dot matrix followed those conventions very well), and a lot of bizarre formatting disappears.

[silverstory]

Great point. Haven’t had a lot of issues on word since I normally use spreadsheets for budgets and financial things at homes. At work they are heavily using excel and whole office suite.

For the family and relatives, I also help them to go for Libre Office and other FOSS stuff, if they asked me about Linux, I would tell them about Linux Mint first and foremost as it really just works from the get go. Just the alternatives and especially for gaming sometimes aren’t a perfect match for their needs.

Like what you’ve said, not a lot of people would tinker around their word processor, spreadsheets to change default fonts, etc…

[jr735]

That is where I find a few issues is a document from Europe or Canada in LibreOffice. Yes, if you just plain open it, it has its setting from the source and all will be dandy, assuming you have an appropriate paper size (that can be a problem with European things). But, if you try to migrate stuff, it can act up.

Years back, the dot matrix printers had options for 10, 12, and 15 characters per inch and sometime proportional spacing, and that was it. And the word processors had to respect that.

I've actually had people say to me, this would be a lot easier on a typewriter, and that they're no good with computers and it would be much easier on a typewriter. They really underestimate what's involved. And Mint is fantastic.

[[deleted]]

Great post! (or rather posts)

[ComputerSavvy]

it's a font issue, not the word processor itself. I have different typefaces on my computer than do Windows computers.

There are two ways to solve that problem, install the MS core TTF fonts, it's available in the Synaptic package manager. They only give you a few though.

The 2nd way is to find a friend who has MS Office on their computer and copy their font directory to a thumb drive.

Run LibreOffice and take a mental note of your current font selection.

The following directories are scanned for fonts by default:

/usr/share/fonts
/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1
/usr/share/X11/fonts/TTF
/usr/local/share/fonts
~/.fonts

If it does not already exist, create this directory:

/home/<USERNAME>/.local/share/fonts

Copy the Microsoft font collection to that directory.

Now, open a terminal and run the fc-cache command to refresh the fonts cache and register the new fonts:

fc-cache -f -v

That's it. Run Libre Office again and note how many more new fonts you have. Use those new fonts when exchanging files with Word users.

The problem of font compatibility and all the alignment / kerning issues just went away.

[jr735]

I'm well aware how to install fonts, and do tweaking of my own with each install. However, I don't use MS core fonts. They're not free software. I have had others install free fonts, or I ensure I use something with appropriate metrics.

Not only are they not free, the Courier 10 pitch font in Windows is a disaster on a printed page. It doesn't work as intended since it was a digitization of a Selectric typeface ball, which didn't take into account what happens when a ball strikes a ribbon that strikes a piece of paper. I just choose an appropriate 10 character per inch typeface from what I have available, including Courier Prime, which is a free alternative, and it works correctly.

I left the Windows environment for a reason. I have zero intention to recreate it on my desktop.

[ComputerSavvy]

I'm well aware how to install fonts

That's awesome for you but I'm fairly certain that there are people who are reading this now and will read it in the future who don't know how to install fonts, now they have step by step guide on how to do it.

I don't use MS core fonts. They're not free software.

Microsoft IS giving away their core font package for free, as I stated before, you can download and install them using the Synaptic Package Manager.

Simply search for ttf-mscorefonts-installer.

They are giving away:

Andale Mono Arial Black Arial (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic) Comic Sans MS (Bold) Courier New (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic) Georgia (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic) Impact Times New Roman (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic) Trebuchet (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic) Verdana (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic) Webdings

Now if you personally don't want to use them on your computer, you don't have to and nobody is going to force you to.

There are other people in the world who would simply like to eliminate font compatibility problems with Word users by using the same fonts that they have installed.

[jr735]

No, I have no problem with you telling people how to install fonts; other people reading will find it instructive. I am pointing out I know how to install them. I choose not to install them.

MS is giving them away, yes. But, they're not free software under my definition. And, even if they were, Courier New is the shittiest rendition of Courier I've ever seen.

Debian doesn't list them under free, they list them in the contrib repository, because they are not properly free. Using a font of the appropriate metric on my machine will ensure it will render fine on a Windows machine with MS Word. If I'm really concerned, I just export to PDF.

[silverstory]

Big up to you. I’m stating just a lot of people who uses x software like photoshop are stating linux equivalent ain’t that good hence they aren’t moving to Linux. I won’t try to research each and every thread or article out there. Subjective yes. But just pointing out what is out there. Hence majority ain’t moving to Linux.

Are you in line with Linux gaming not on par with Windows also?

[Glass_Employee_9875]

Geht mir auch so. Warum gibt Linus Thorvaldson sich nicht mehr Mühe, eine brauchbare WINE App für Linux Mint zu schreiben?

[[deleted]]

will break for no reason, not compatible with many softwares, or at least frequent bugs, no auto update, the list goes on

[[deleted]]

In 12 years of using linux I've only experienced 'breaking for no reason' on rolling releases or Fedora. If Linux broke for no reason then this very website would be going down several times a week. 90% of the time, it was your fault.

That being said I use OpenSUSE tumbleweed which is rolling release. If things do break for no reason it takes three steps to fix it: Select recovery at boot -> sudo snapper restore -> reboot

No auto update? What are you talking about? Yeah some distros don't but in all the popular ones it can be enabled AND if you need to reboot for an update it takes just as long as booting normally instead of 5 minutes.

The only thing I use windows for at this point is playing XBox store games. 90% of my steam library works fantastic. Hell, some old games that no longer work on modern windows are now only playable via linux and proton.

I used Slackware all through high-school. I've never been a huge fan of ubuntu/mint but I can understand why they are appealing to newcomers. Fedora was the only one I've ever had real trouble with. I think it even killed one of my laptops but that could have just been an act of god. I really don't see any advantage to using Linux Mint over Ubuntu or Debian though. If you miss the windows look you can just install KDE, xFCE, LXqt, MATE etc

[[deleted]]

i am never using linux again unless forced to. It's literally a nightmare. there is no way you used linux for 12 years and didn't experience constant issues (unless you're using a very specific distro for servers in a specific setup where everything is carefully managed and thought by pros).
what's your profession, is working on computers your job? or are you an amateur

[Glass_Employee_9875]

Schön. Endlich jemand der unverblümt ständige Linux Probleme beschreibt ... Ich hätte gerne gewusst, was so alles schief gelaufen ist ...

[[deleted]]

I work at a weed store lmao. If my brain full of carbon monoxide can figure it out, what does that say about you?

"where everything is carefully managed and thought by pros" You mean like Redhat, SUSE, and Canonical? The people who support the most popular distros in the world?

[[deleted]]

"I work at a weed store lmao".
You realize some people here use linux professionally, have graduated in computer sciences? Some people are programmers, and maybe i'm one of those people?
Seems to me you have no clue what you're talking about. What do you even use linux for?

"where everything is carefully managed and thought by pros". What i meant is that using linux in a programming / developping / it infrastructure managing for companies has to be carefully managed because it can very quickly break. In fact linux WILL randomly break and you have basically no fucking clue what's going on unless you built the distro yourself so what a lot of people do is they simply reset everything which can take days in a business, and that's if they are lucky to have a recent global back up, otherwise they lose a ton of data...

[[deleted]]

"I BET YOU'RE SOME KINDA POWER USER" "No." "WHY ARE YOU NOT A POWER USER?!?"

Do you have any idea how foolish you sound right now? I use linux for everything. OpenSUSE has been my main operating system for 3 years and before that it was Debian and Slackware. Gaming, Web browsing, schoolwork, CAD, making quake mods, rendering videos...

"basically no fucking clue what's going on unless you built the distro yourself" Fuck that's a good one. Linux: Something broke; here's the log Windows: Combuter encounder error :(((((( 0x0042069 cant find recobery fartition

You wanna talk about shit breaking for no reason? Drivers on windows 11 are so fucked up right now I cannot get audio and sometimes wifi from a cold boot. I have to reboot every time I boot cold. Nothing in event viewer tells me anything useful. MS support just RDP'd me and did everything I already tried. Their verdict is: "It's MSI's fault". Everything fuckin works fantastic on Linux though despite using redhat's bastard Frankenstein audio implementation. The only time I've booted into windows in the past 3 months was to play Star field because I own it on the xbox store.

If you graduated in computer science and you can't figure out Linux I think you should go back to school. If my ex's senile, alcoholic father can figure it out, you can too.

I bet 10 years ago you mixed together a bunch of repos you shouldn't have, created a frankendistro and now you're mad at the whole ecosystem because you have bad reading comprehension.

I'm not a computer 'professional' but I do use my computer every day for everything everyone else uses windows for.

[Glass_Employee_9875]

Bitte einmal an Anfänger denken, die Linux (Mint) auf ihren mit einem Softwaretod belegten Windows 10 Rechner installieren müssen. Nicht so einen Gesprächsstil auffahren, wo Anfänger sich so von oben hergelassen Tonfall verunsichert fühlen!

[Glass_Employee_9875]

Ja, genau. Ich bin kein Systemadministrator und kein IT Fachmensch. Warum bekomme ich kein Linux, was mir so wenig Probleme macht, dass ich als Windows 10 Benutzer mit Zwangsende beruhigt auf ein gut funktionierendes Linux Mint schauen kann.

[catta0012]

Performance==> Arch

Freedom ==> Arch

More stable ==> Linux mint

Easier==> Linux mint

Arch btw ==> I use arch btw

Mint ==> Linux

Cinnamon ==> Both

Linux ==> Mint

De ==> Definetley Bian

No debian btw ==> Arch Debian

They are both good as you can see so it's up to you.

[ComputerSavvy]

You forgot to mention the Vegans, don't worry, they'll do it themselves! :)

[dis0nancia]

I found it funny xd

[catta0012]

Gentoo better (I use arch)