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Are you sick of paying for Windows just so you can remove that annoying watermark and

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set your own wallpaper? Or maybe you just don't want Microsoft tracking you or you represent them

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for constantly trying to force you to use Bing? Linux Mint might just be the operating system for

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you. And unlike other Linux distributions that can have a fairly steep learning curve,

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Mint bills itself on being very easy to migrate to, even if you've only ever used Windows.

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But is it right for you? And what should you know before taking the plunge?

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The first most important thing to know is that Mint comes in three different variations that

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are officially called flavors, which, I mean, makes sense for an OS called Mint, right? You've

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got Cinnamon, which is a full-featured operating system and looks the nicest. Mate or Mate,

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which I think is what it's really pronounced, which has fewer features but is faster and more

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stable, and XFCE, which is even lighter than Mate. I was kind of hoping that there'd actually be

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flavors, you know? Like, we've got cinnamon. Why couldn't we have had like, I don't know,

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cherry or blueberry or like chocolate? Oh well. Anyway, for most people, cinnamon will be the

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way to go. With the other two flavors, more for users needing extra stability for some specialized

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applications or for folks who are running very low-spec hardware or, I mean, just plain prefer

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the older style interfaces. In fact, Mint actually recommends just four gigabytes of RAM

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and 100 gigabytes of free disk space for optimal performance. So, yeah, even Mint Cinnamon is

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not at all hard to run on any reasonably modern computer. And it can be a great way to breathe

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new life into an older PC that you just have lying around. Setup is also pretty similar to Windows.

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You just create a bootable USB and insert it into your PC and start it up. And then you follow the

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instructions and you're done. Although we're not saying that Windows is a bad operating system,

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I mean, I would, Mint does actually have the advantage of being generally more stable than

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Windows. For starters, there just aren't as many pieces of malware written for Linux out there in

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the wild. And Linux doesn't just give programs run by the user the same permissions to go meddling

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around in the file system that Windows can, at least not by default. But Mint specifically has

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another trick up its sleeve to make it more stable. Mint's update cycle tends to be rather

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conservative. So the odds of an update wreaking havoc on your system are quite low, especially

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if you use the Mate or XFCE flavors. The tradeoff is that some of the very newest hardware or software

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may not work as intended if you're an early adopter. But for most casual users, it shouldn't

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be an issue, especially if you use flat packs. But it's not just about stability. It's also about

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usability. Mint has support for all the major modern audio and video formats. Just make sure you

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check the box to install the relevant codecs automatically during installation. As far as

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doing things outside of a web browser, Mint comes with a well regarded software manager that lets you

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download tens of thousands of programs for repository, kind of like the App Store or Play Store,

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or I guess even the Microsoft Store for Windows, except you'll actually use this one. These aren't

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just Linux substitutes for well known programs either. There's Steam, Blender, and Skype,

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all available on Linux as well. And as in Windows, there are quite a few user friendly customization

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options to make the OS look and feel the way you want. But even if you change nothing,

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Mint does have a similar feel to Windows out of the box with a taskbar and start menu. So you'll

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probably won't be left scratching your head as to how to accomplish most basic tasks. Even gaming

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is surprisingly doable on Mint, as Steam has thousands of titles compatible with Linux and

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Mint's driver manager will also keep your graphics card drivers up to date. To top it all off,

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Mint functions without collecting your data like Microsoft's face criticism for doing

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in recent versions of Windows. But remember that as popular as Mint is, we're not necessarily

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saying to go out and immediately ditch Windows. I mean, remember that Mint is still a fundamentally

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different operating system. And there are some Windows programs that just do not have Linux

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equivalents, unfortunately. So if you really do need to run one of those applications,

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you'll need to use some kind of compatibility layer or emulator even and performance with

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those can be hit or miss, although Wine has gotten pretty good in recent years.

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Similarly, although Steam now has an impressive library of Linux compatible games, many others

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do not play nicely with Mint, especially if you're trying to use a different installer such as

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Origin. So if there's a title that you really want to play, check to ensure it's supported

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before taking the minty plunge. Anti-cheat is still a big problem. There are even some games

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that have Linux versions that are actually fairly buggy and Linux users who know their stuff will

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want to use the Windows version in Wine or Proton to get around this. But what about Ubuntu,

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another free Linux distro that many have also lauded as being friendly for beginners?

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Like Mint, it's also quite popular and is what Mint is actually originally based on.

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But it has a few quirks that are leading us to recommend Mint instead if we were picking between

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the two for, you know, the beginner type of user. Ubuntu's user interface is much less

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similar to Windows than Mint, so it might take a little longer to get used to. And it also collects

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telemetry data that might make it less appealing to folks concerned about privacy. Ubuntu also has

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a walled garden of sorts in their software distribution platform called Snap. Downloads

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from Snap often take a little longer to run as they contain extra files that should allow them to

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run on any Linux distro. It's not a bad idea, but this means that you get less control over

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exactly what is downloaded to your PC. Snap is also controlled by Canonical, the company that

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develops Ubuntu, which has made lots of Linux enthusiasts concerned that Ubuntu might become a

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walled garden of sorts. So if all of this has made you decide to hop on the Mint train, I wish you luck.

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But don't expect it to make your computer smell better. Only RGB can do that. Thanks for watching

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guys, like, dislike, check out some of our other videos, comment with video suggestions down below,

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and don't forget to subscribe and follow.