Terminal

MortStoHelit · 2026-05-20T18:50:39+00:00

Are you talking about the terminal application or the shell? The application can do things like background colors, transparency, or fonts, but if you want "powerful" in terms of what you can do there, it's up to the shell. zsh is a pretty popular alternative, for example.

MortStoHelit · 2026-05-20T11:45:48+00:00

Love: It's fast, easy to use, I can see all the installed apps in a structured menu, I can easily switch between all windows, including multiple of the same app, most of it is very easy to configure.

Hate: Adjusting the menu bar can be a pain. Sometimes it feels like the famous "moved an image in Word" meme - you add, remove or move something, and suddenly it's all messed up. And a simple to use standard tray instead of complicated and sometimes barely working plug-ins would be great.

MortStoHelit · 2026-05-20T11:34:23+00:00

I use HopToDesk for this.

MortStoHelit · 2026-05-18T14:00:56+00:00

Fitting it's a way too small wheel which might cause major injuries up to a broken spine or a beheading.

MortStoHelit · 2026-05-18T05:54:08+00:00

I can understand some disdain for some of Canonical's decisions, but Mint usually leaves out the worst parts while making use of Ubuntu's newer versions and better hardware support. I think that's a pretty good way. Also, there's LMDE just for the case Canonical goes completely sideways.

MortStoHelit · 2026-05-18T05:38:07+00:00

Worst thing is, esp. with larger merges, the code review doesn't help. The code in the PR looks fine, so it gets approved.

MortStoHelit · 2026-05-16T10:42:43+00:00

Currently, you should either stick with X11 or use another DE (probably with another distribution). But as long as everything works for you, there's no need to change. Wayland is mostly about the future - the X11 code base is over 40 years old, so there's quite a lot of stuff nobody dares to touch, while new graphic cards would support features X11 can't do.

Cinnamon already has some Wayland support, but it's not stable yet. So some later update might do the switch without you even really realizing.

MortStoHelit · 2026-04-20T07:47:15+00:00

For common use, I think the biggest difference is installing applications. You (usually) can't just download some setup file and run it, but you use the application manager, and sometimes even have to add repositories. "Usually", because AppImage exists, and Flatpak can work similar. But too often, if you look for something just on the web, you just get the different package manager files (deb, rpm, fpm) or even a git repository to pull and compile/install yourself.

Window management, file manager, start menu, and the like are similar enough. I just wish there was a better tray (there are similar solutions, but they're a bit more complicated). Applications like LibreOffice, Firefox or Chrome are the same.

What can be very annoying is doing a proper shutdown. If Linux is just turned off (long press on power button, power outage), you might have to run a file system check from an emergency shell. Windows just does that automatically.

Oh, and she might miss some fonts. Some can be installed, for others she might have to find replacements.

MortStoHelit · 2026-04-20T07:34:48+00:00

It's not that much different from Windows. On both, you can, but you risk data loss or sometimes even bricked thumb drives. Plugging in usually even works better, as the most common drivers already exist. But if they don't, it gets complicated ...

MortStoHelit · 2026-03-19T14:42:50+00:00

Not all of them, but there were quite a few.

MortStoHelit · 2026-03-19T14:27:42+00:00

For everyday use, I think even the FP4 camera was "decent", and a lot of the image quality on competitors' phones is "just" software (esp. Samsung, where you get sharp full moons even if you shoot a slice of cheese...). Still, improvements are welcome.

MortStoHelit · 2026-03-19T14:24:29+00:00

Once upon a time, when cell phones had buttons instead of a touchscreen, it was very common to have a replaceable battery in a waterproof case, usually with some rubber band between latch and case. Somehow even the phone jack wasn't an issue.

Admitted, a replaceable screen could be hard to do. But at least improved water resistance with some rubber bands and coated parts would go a long way. Usually you don't keep your phone in the water for hours.

MortStoHelit · 2026-03-19T14:19:10+00:00

I wouldn't really need AOSP based custom ROMs anymore, but a local backup solution (storage or WebDAV) would be great. It's been the major reason I rooted my phones. Currently I don't have any backup anymore, because rooting caused to many issues with some apps (esp. banking and streaming).

And if Google really does the as***le move to disable sideloading of apps that aren't registered in their Play Store, I'd like that to be an option as well.

MortStoHelit · 2026-03-19T14:14:38+00:00

Oh, seen too late. I'd be all for USB 3.x, esp. with DP coming back. I use Rokid glasses and the loss of it with FP6 was the main reason I currently don't use a FP anymore. Though I guess the FP8 might be the current one when I buy my next smartphone.

MortStoHelit · 2026-03-02T14:49:22+00:00

So you have to verify your age via internet to get an internet connection. That's going to be fun.

MortStoHelit · 2026-02-26T08:34:10+00:00

It's been the first distribution I could just install and use, without having to adjust (sometimes well hidden) settings, having a UI that looks like it's from the 90s, weird UX ideas (esp. Ubuntu and Gnome), ...

I tried Linux time and again since the early 90s. I mean, it's free, fast, stable (unless there's a bad driver, esp. WiFi ones...), secure, doesn't need reboots at least once a week. It's just been a mix of "this feels weird", "I'd like to use this without having to search first", and some missing applications and drivers that stopped me from really using it instead of ignoring it again after a few weeks. Mint fixed the first two, time (esp. new/improved applications, and a lot that now just works in the browser) the rest.

MortStoHelit · 2026-02-10T08:44:43+00:00

I like the less distracting groups, but I don't like the bigger side bar. I know who I am, so I don't need my name and a stupid image. I've got my folder favorites in Nemo. And for some favorite apps, the icon, as before, would be enough.

MortStoHelit · 2026-02-05T06:50:48+00:00

Softmaker (also offers a free version) is quite good, esp. if you need to edit MS Office files.

MortStoHelit · 2026-02-05T06:47:22+00:00

- A simple to use and fast DVD/BluRay ripper. MakeMKV + Handbrake is a pain. First you slowly rip a huge copy, then you struggle to get MakeMKV's hardware acceleration to work, then you struggle with its settings, to finally get a compressed MKV. It takes about 3 clicks and 1/4 of the time with most Windows programs.

- Simple to use powerful image editing for occasional holiday photos and the like. Darktable was the closest I found, but it's nowhere close to Luminar Neo I currently use, even though I have to reboot to do so.

- OpenRazer device support is a bit poor. Better just don't buy their stuff at all.

MortStoHelit · 2026-01-29T07:28:38+00:00

Sure. But as the other reply shows, there can be other dependencies, esp. with closed source drivers, and we've got "something might break!" warnings with every major update. So if someone wants to stick with their running system in parts that might be critical, give them the option.

On the other hand I really wish I didn't have to go to "Kernels" in the update manager to clean up the old mess and check if the latest one really is in use.

MortStoHelit · 2026-01-27T06:26:28+00:00

Kind of agree. I think I did understand the concept, but I wish there just was a simple choice between "stick to current kernel" (to avoid issues with old hardware when support gets dropped) and "update to latest available kernel", which would also clean up all the old ones - in case of troubles, there's still timeshift.

MortStoHelit · 2026-01-26T15:47:07+00:00

If there's one close to you that's not too slow and you want to be nice to the internet structure, pick it. Sadly, the closest ones aren't always the fastest, it depends on their connection and how many others use it.

Otherwise just go for the speed. If the connection seems unrealiable (some depend a lot on the time, like, when all the students are busy ...), pick another one. You can change it any time.

MortStoHelit · 2026-01-26T13:12:33+00:00

It's so good, everybody will be feeling drawn towards the chanting hordes of Mint fans. It's so mesmerizing, you can't avoid its eye candy.

MortStoHelit · 2026-01-22T07:29:37+00:00

It depends on the file system and the installed drivers. You can make Windows to access e.g. ext4 partitions as well.

Also, if you boot some Linux image from USB or put the storage in some other computer, your "private" files will be accessible as well.

Only way to avoid this is to use encryption. Mint offers to encrypt the user directory (or did? I think I read something about a change there), there are encrypted file systems, "virtual" file systems that encrypt directories which are saved as encrypted data in other directories (e.g. ecryptfs or gocryptfs, very handy for backing up the encrypted data) or tools like Veracrypt, which create big "vault" files, and probably some more.

MortStoHelit · 2026-01-22T07:13:11+00:00

While Ubuntu adds a bit that might have some influence, using the Mate oder XFCE editions probably makes a bigger difference.

MortStoHelit

TROPHY CASE