Are you sick of paying for Windows just so you can remove that annoying watermark and
set your own wallpaper? Or maybe you just don't want Microsoft tracking you or you represent them
for constantly trying to force you to use Bing? Linux Mint might just be the operating system for
you. And unlike other Linux distributions that can have a fairly steep learning curve,
Mint bills itself on being very easy to migrate to, even if you've only ever used Windows.
But is it right for you? And what should you know before taking the plunge?
The first most important thing to know is that Mint comes in three different variations that
are officially called flavors, which, I mean, makes sense for an OS called Mint, right? You've
got Cinnamon, which is a full-featured operating system and looks the nicest. Mate or Mate,
which I think is what it's really pronounced, which has fewer features but is faster and more
stable, and XFCE, which is even lighter than Mate. I was kind of hoping that there'd actually be
flavors, you know? Like, we've got cinnamon. Why couldn't we have had like, I don't know,
cherry or blueberry or like chocolate? Oh well. Anyway, for most people, cinnamon will be the
way to go. With the other two flavors, more for users needing extra stability for some specialized
applications or for folks who are running very low-spec hardware or, I mean, just plain prefer
the older style interfaces. In fact, Mint actually recommends just four gigabytes of RAM
and 100 gigabytes of free disk space for optimal performance. So, yeah, even Mint Cinnamon is
not at all hard to run on any reasonably modern computer. And it can be a great way to breathe
new life into an older PC that you just have lying around. Setup is also pretty similar to Windows.
You just create a bootable USB and insert it into your PC and start it up. And then you follow the
instructions and you're done. Although we're not saying that Windows is a bad operating system,
I mean, I would, Mint does actually have the advantage of being generally more stable than
Windows. For starters, there just aren't as many pieces of malware written for Linux out there in
the wild. And Linux doesn't just give programs run by the user the same permissions to go meddling
around in the file system that Windows can, at least not by default. But Mint specifically has
another trick up its sleeve to make it more stable. Mint's update cycle tends to be rather
conservative. So the odds of an update wreaking havoc on your system are quite low, especially
if you use the Mate or XFCE flavors. The tradeoff is that some of the very newest hardware or software
may not work as intended if you're an early adopter. But for most casual users, it shouldn't
be an issue, especially if you use flat packs. But it's not just about stability. It's also about
usability. Mint has support for all the major modern audio and video formats. Just make sure you
check the box to install the relevant codecs automatically during installation. As far as
doing things outside of a web browser, Mint comes with a well regarded software manager that lets you
download tens of thousands of programs for repository, kind of like the App Store or Play Store,
or I guess even the Microsoft Store for Windows, except you'll actually use this one. These aren't
just Linux substitutes for well known programs either. There's Steam, Blender, and Skype,
all available on Linux as well. And as in Windows, there are quite a few user friendly customization
options to make the OS look and feel the way you want. But even if you change nothing,
Mint does have a similar feel to Windows out of the box with a taskbar and start menu. So you'll
probably won't be left scratching your head as to how to accomplish most basic tasks. Even gaming
is surprisingly doable on Mint, as Steam has thousands of titles compatible with Linux and
Mint's driver manager will also keep your graphics card drivers up to date. To top it all off,
Mint functions without collecting your data like Microsoft's face criticism for doing
in recent versions of Windows. But remember that as popular as Mint is, we're not necessarily
saying to go out and immediately ditch Windows. I mean, remember that Mint is still a fundamentally
different operating system. And there are some Windows programs that just do not have Linux
equivalents, unfortunately. So if you really do need to run one of those applications,
you'll need to use some kind of compatibility layer or emulator even and performance with
those can be hit or miss, although Wine has gotten pretty good in recent years.
Similarly, although Steam now has an impressive library of Linux compatible games, many others
do not play nicely with Mint, especially if you're trying to use a different installer such as
Origin. So if there's a title that you really want to play, check to ensure it's supported
before taking the minty plunge. Anti-cheat is still a big problem. There are even some games
that have Linux versions that are actually fairly buggy and Linux users who know their stuff will
want to use the Windows version in Wine or Proton to get around this. But what about Ubuntu,
another free Linux distro that many have also lauded as being friendly for beginners?
Like Mint, it's also quite popular and is what Mint is actually originally based on.
But it has a few quirks that are leading us to recommend Mint instead if we were picking between
the two for, you know, the beginner type of user. Ubuntu's user interface is much less
similar to Windows than Mint, so it might take a little longer to get used to. And it also collects
telemetry data that might make it less appealing to folks concerned about privacy. Ubuntu also has
a walled garden of sorts in their software distribution platform called Snap. Downloads
from Snap often take a little longer to run as they contain extra files that should allow them to
run on any Linux distro. It's not a bad idea, but this means that you get less control over
exactly what is downloaded to your PC. Snap is also controlled by Canonical, the company that
develops Ubuntu, which has made lots of Linux enthusiasts concerned that Ubuntu might become a
walled garden of sorts. So if all of this has made you decide to hop on the Mint train, I wish you luck.
But don't expect it to make your computer smell better. Only RGB can do that. Thanks for watching
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