I’ve been using Linux Mint since forever. I’ve never felt a reason to change. But I’m interested in what persuaded others to move.

  • AVincentInSpace@pawb.socialEnglish
    843·
    11 months ago

    Every couple of years I think to myself “You know, I can’t actually remember why I don’t like Ubuntu. It must have just been some weird one-off thing that soured me on it last time. Besides, I’ve got N more years of Linux experience under my belt, so I know how to avoid sticky situations with apt, and they’ve had N more years to make their OS more user friendly! I pride myself on not holding grudges, and if this distro still gets recommended to newbies, how bad can it possibly be, especially for someone with my level of expertise?”

    And then I download Ubuntu.

    And then I remember.

      • AVincentInSpace@pawb.socialEnglish
        572·
        11 months ago

        Admittedly, it’s been a few years and I’m coming due, but let’s see what I can remember…

        • apt will brick itself if it gets interrupted mid transaction with no clear recourse apart from a total reinstall, so try not to get greedy and Ctrl+C if it looks like dpkg is hung
        • trying to install any software that isn’t already packaged explicitly for Ubuntu is a nightmare because there is no equivalent of the AUR for people to push build steps to and you’re quite often left guessing what dependencies you need to install to get something to compile
        • snapcraft, need I say more? Firefox takes several minutes to start up, we don’t talk about disk usage, installing a package with apt will sometimes install the snap version anyway requiring a Windows-registry-edit-esque hack to disable, and the last time I checked in, the loop devices it creates didn’t even get hidden in the file manager.
        • I’ve also definitely encountered my fair share of bugs and broken packages which are always fun to fix
        • Exec@pawb.social
          152·
          11 months ago
          • apt will brick itself if it gets interrupted mid transaction with no clear recourse apart from a total reinstall, so try not to get greedy and Ctrl+C if it looks like dpkg is hung

          You can dpkg -r the package you tried to install then apt won’t complain about missing dependency packages for your app as it won’t be marked for to be installed

          trying to install any software that isn’t already packaged explicitly for Ubuntu is a nightmare because there is no equivalent of the AUR for people to push build steps to and you’re quite often left guessing what dependencies you need to install to get something to compile

          There isn’t a big global community repo per say like aur but anyone can host their own repos with PPAs, you just need to add them to your lists

          Most apt quirks are there with Debian too, not just an Ubuntu thing. The rest of the things you mentioned are fair.

        • mwguy@infosec.pub
          6·
          11 months ago
          • trying to install any software that isn’t already packaged explicitly for Ubuntu is a nightmare because there is no equivalent of the AUR for people to push build steps to and you’re quite often left guessing what dependencies you need to install to get something to compile

          In fairness it does have the PPA system which predates the AUR and does provide a good job of providing third party amd semi-third party software.

          But you’re right that Ubuntu has sold out on building snaps for software instead of ppas.

        • ditty@lemm.ee
          1·
          11 months ago

          That Ubuntu would install the snap version of certain apps when I installed them directly in the terminal was the main reason I left Ubuntu after a few years. So annoying!

        • someacnt_@lemmy.world
          1·
          11 months ago

          What do you recommend for ubuntu alternative? I want to leave for something else, but I also want all my programs to install and work fine. If an app supports ubuntu, would it support debian as well?

      • GnomeComedy@beehaw.org
        1·
        11 months ago

        On 22.04 LTS, you can’t even open Firefox if you’re using NFS/Autofs home directories.

        How is that not taken seriously as a major bug?

    • UprisingVoltage@feddit.it
      185·
      11 months ago

      Recommending ubuntu to newbies is the product of either incompetence or malice when Mint, zorin and nobara exist

      • Rustmilian@lemmy.worldEnglish
        112·
        11 months ago

        I wouldn’t recommend Nobara, maybe in a few cases but otherwise it’s not the best to enter into Linux with.

        • Keith@lemm.ee
          2·
          11 months ago

          Totally agree, are difficult to do and require following complex instructions on their Discord server (that you have to pay attention to)

        • UprisingVoltage@feddit.it
          32·
          11 months ago

          Would you mind to explain why? I have yet to try it, but the concept seems nice: predisposing a set of tools useful for linux gamers/creators for those who are not technical

          • Rustmilian@lemmy.worldEnglish
            6·
            11 months ago

            While it has a bunch of patches that can boost gaming performance and such it’s stability takes a hit in some areas. It’s also not quite as user friendly as other options. It can be better for those looking for a fedora base if that’s what they prefer, tho.
            It’s also extremely opinionated & while it’s a great fit for those who have a matching use case, for general uses it’s a bit too opinionated.
            It’s neither the worst, nor the best. It just highly depends on use case.

            • UprisingVoltage@feddit.it
              3·
              11 months ago

              I’ve watched a few comparison videos, and the performance gains are negligible when compared to other common distros, so that’s definitely not the point in installing it.

              The good part about nobara is the set of tools that come preinstalled and the wecome program which lets you update the system, the drivers and the codecs.

              Nothing you couldn’t replicate in a few minutes on another distro of course

      • Jumuta@sh.itjust.works
        61·
        11 months ago

        i don’t like how Ubuntu feels (gui) so idk about cli issues

        it’s not a problem with Gnome btw, it’s just the colours are yuck vomit and snap 🗿

        • IndefiniteBen@leminal.space
          1·
          11 months ago

          Ah yeah, I’ve never used the GUI for long enough to care how it looks, and no snap in CLI.

          Good to know if my company forces my work laptop to windows 11! (I will not use an OS without a side taskbar)