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On mint for a while now, people usually call mint a newbie distro, any reason to "upgrade" to a different distro? (lemmy.world)
submitted 6 hours ago by to c/linux@lemmy.world
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Hi, how's it going? I've been daily driving mint with i3 for a while now, (takes like 500mb idle ram) but I always hear mint being called a newbie distro, I know arch is harder to set up and more customizable for example, but overall im wondering, in which cases one would go from mint to another distro? what can make other distros "better" than mint? i'll end up using a window manager (i3 or if thats not availible some other lightweight one) so differences in desktop environments i dont really care that much about

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[–] 14 points 5 hours ago (8 children)

I literally don't know the differences between distros

Its just what they come packaged with. Its all the same kernel. Do you like the software Mint comes with? Have you felt a need to replace a bunch? Does your computer do what you want it to?

Thats really about it. Debian is "good for servers" because it comes with software for running servers. Kali is "good for hackers" because it comes with software for hacking. Mint is "good for newbies" because it comes with software newbies expect.

Thats really pretty much it. Theres nothing stopping you from installing the software you want. If you start to feel like your distro has a bunch of stuff you dont need, then maybe you can look to other distros that dont come with that stuff.

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  • [–] 1 point 38 minutes ago (1 child)

    Uh, there's definitely some different kernels. Cachy etc apply a lot of patches focused on speed and performance. That said there are other distros that offer the cachy patched kernel.

    There are also server focused kernels. There is a ton of stuff "in the kernel" whether it's applied to yours is a different question. So it's not that simple.

    But with flatpak etc, I'd say the real choice these days is immutable, stable, or rolling.

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  • [–] 6 points 5 hours ago (3 children)

    Even if the distro has a bunch you don't want, uninstalling is pretty easy now with the package managers I've used. Just strip some things away and see if that's good first.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

    Also good advice.

    If your computer runs smoothly and youre not having a bunch of headaches, you're generally better off tinkering with what youve got than going through the hassle of installing a whole new OS.

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