Windows 11 - and why I don't see a point in upgrading

[andyprough]

I must never use the terminal, even for administrative tasks, in Linux Mint Debian Edition. I am as afraid of it as Jez. Cinnamon, the desktop environment which comes with LMDE, lends itself to window frames that behave as one would expect. One can even style it to look like Aero.

I've never used Mint, but I've heard that Cinnamon Mint is very comfortable for people used to Windows 7. So that's definitely another one worth trying.

[Night Wing]

I must never use the terminal, even for administrative tasks, in Linux Mint Debian Edition. I am as afraid of it as Jez. Cinnamon, the desktop environment which comes with LMDE, lends itself to window frames that behave as one would expect.

I use Linux Mint 21 (Vanessa) Xfce. Many people coming/came from Windows 7, they like the Cinnamon desktop environment. I tried Cinnamon and I did not care for it. Tried Mate too and same result, I just didn't like it.

But I tried Xfce and it felt very comfortable for me coming from Windows 7 and that was using the "Live" version. So after playing around with Mint with Xfce, I installed it on my hard drive and have never looked back. That was way back in January of 2013. So if you like LMDE with the Cinnamon desktop, you might want to give Linux Mint 21 (Vanessa) Cinnamon a try.

As for the Terminal. I am not a fan of the linux terminal because I am a non-technical user in Linux. Not a power user. (The same was true for Windows 7 which also has a terminal which I never used). I never had any problems using Windows 7 and never had any problems using Linux Mint.

Since I have been using Linux Mint since January of 2013, I have used the Terminal a grand total of 6 times in the last 9 (now almost 10) years. That is "LESS" than "one time" a year.

Three of those times came in 2013 when Mint changed something and my ISP didn't make the same change. So subtract this minor glitch and it comes down to just using the terminal 3 times in the last 9 (almost 10) years.

So for me, the Terminal is the software of last resort to fix a problem in Mint if I am boxed into a corner and must use the Terminal to fix the problem. But the people at the Mint forums are great in helping people out when it comes to using the terminal.

The user in the Mint forums, Karlchen" spoon fed me" when I had to use the terminal since he gave me the code and all I had to do was copy and paste the code into the Terminal, follow the prompts and my problem was solved.

[jez9999]

I never said I was afraid to use the terminal, far from it. I've had to use the Linux terminal a lot over the past 20 years. I just don't like it. Having to google for an hour, read a bunch of docs for each program, figure out the intricacies of that vi decides to use as its weird shortcut keys, you either love it or hate it. A lot of Linux nerds love it. And then they tell you you should love it too, and if you don't, piss off to Windows. Not great.

Far too often the Linux attitude is "the GUI isn't working? Well, that was meant to be configured via commandline anyway. Use the commandline."

[Likestofish]

Mint might be a bit easier at first for recent Windows users, but I've found MX to be a little more rewarding after getting used to it. The GUI has greatly improved over the years, and most users probably never open the terminal itself anymore. That said, probably even fewer Mint users ever touch the terminal.

Long-time Linux users would simply fly using either Mint or MX if they so desired.

Glad I escaped the changeover to Windows 11 at work; didn't care for 10 as it was.

[Tharthan]

Linux Mint Debian Edition

What is the difference between the Debian Edition and the non-Debian edition?

Does it incorporate a substantial amount of Debian code?

I ask this because, after consulting with a number of users on this forum, I have concluded that some form of Mint is probably going to be the operating system that I switch to (since Lubuntu, from what I have heard, seems to have gone in an unpleasant direction).

[Night Wing]

Linux Mint Debian Edition

What is the difference between the Debian Edition and the non-Debian edition?

I'm going to take a shot at this. Just keep in mind I'm a non-technical user.

LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) is based on Debian with the Cinnamon desktop environment. Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu with the Cinnamon, Mate and Xfce desktop environments.

Speaking for myself, if LMDE would come with an Xfce desktop environment (and it currently does not), I would give LMDE a look see since Xfce is my preferred desktop environment for any linux distro.

[Moonchild]

Not sure so correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Night Wing is on the money.
Ubuntu is based on Debian, but tends to push the envelope more towards the bleeding edge and has custom changes to it. Mint-Debian would be based on ubuntu's roots and be a more stable/mature base to build Mint on but potentially missing some of the latest shinies Ubuntu might have.

Aside from that, I was hoping this wouldn't drift into another Linux distro A vs B discussion but it seems we ended up there anyway

[Blacklab]

Some recent 'thoughts from Chairman Clem' ... answering this question in the Linux Mint blog on 03Feb22 (my précis):

"...what are the peculiarities that make Ubuntu LTS your first choice in place of Debian Stable? The list of packages from Debian and Ubuntu repos seem to be quite similar… curious to know what is the Ubuntu “added value” on top of Debian?"

Clement Lefebvre's response: https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=4276#comment-277907

(Above link to Linux Mint blog found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxmint/comm ... nt_distro/)

Clem had another go at answering same question in September 2020: https://fossbytes.com/linux-mint-founde ... -lefebvre/

Extract from FossBytes interview above. Clem Lefebvre said... "People can use LMDE if they want, but it’s done more for us than to attract users. If somebody is confused as to which to use they should definitely use Linux Mint (Ubuntu edition), that’s where our main focus is, that’s what most of our users use and that’s what has all the bells and whistles."

[pubpub]

being both a Windows 7 and Gentoo GNU/Linux user I don't get the command line hate/fear, but I don't wanna get into that, people's opinions on the subject rarely change
instead, I want to recommend Windows AME (short for ameliorated) to all the windows 10+ users that are mad about telemetry and windows downgrades from ten onwards
Windows AME is a set of extensive modifications done to Windows 10 which you can either do yourself to your own copy of it or download an ISO with them from the developers
I recommend doing them yourself because, as much as I trust them, running a copy of a propietary OS some stranger gives you is extremely spooky. It is also good so you get to understand step by step exactly what you're doing to your system and opt out of some of the modifications if you wish to
the (most important) things that you change from the base Windows 10 experience are:

• windows update is completely gone, and all the stuff that depends in it is gone as well
• the file explorer is back to the win7 version
  telemetry is completely gone too
• you can have local accounts without yanking the internet cable out during first boot
• directx 12 mostly works (a non-zero ammount of games depend on small game-specific updates distributed exclusively through windows update) so most games work with it

there's plenty of other stuff, that's just what I can recall
also, before it is mentioned, yes, the developers did have some legal trouble with microsoft, but that was because of them distributing copies, and I don't know how that ended up but you don't need a pirated copy to do the procedure, you can do it on a legitimate copy of windows no problem

I don't use Windows AME because I found out that I can do everything I can't do on Windows 7 anymore on Gentoo GNU/Linux

[jez9999]

being both a Windows 7 and Gentoo GNU/Linux user

Do you not find the concept of 2 clipboard buffers jarring when you come from a Windows environment? What you 'paste' being different depending on the means by which you paste?

[pubpub]

I rarely come up against that as an issue, I mostly take advantage of it by having two things available on either ctrl+v or shift+insert, but I do understand how this may sound as cope
it's something you accept just as you accept windows needing to reboot when installing certain software or updates, while linux only really "needs" to reboot when changing to a different kernel version (live kernel patching is a thing)