I hate when people here complain of "bloat" since often it just means "there's this one thing I don't use and it irrationally offends me by its existence".

You can uninstall just about anything you don't want. So very much not like Windows in that regard.

Are you running out of space? Out of memory? Or simply offended that some functionality you don't like exists?

Give us some examples of boats. My laptop runs Ubuntu 24.04, and it has been running smoothly, using only 1.2 GB of RAM after booting.

Can you give some examples of the bloat?

When I first switched to Linux 18 months ago everyone raved that mint is the easiest most user friendly windows like operating system and I would be best of using that one.

I hated mint, and having now done 12ish total Linux installs I have enjoyed everything else I have used significantly more. Anything running kde plasma seems to actually be the most windows like for new users, best I can tell.

The number one culprit of undesirable cornering behavior is incorrect tire pressure.

You can use Linux Mint Debian Edition instead

I have little love for Canonical, but I wouldn't go that far. What makes an OS 'the Windows' of something is in my eyes the heaps of useless surveillance, which ubuntu lacks.

I've been using opensuse tumbleweed for quite some time on my systems, and been pretty happy with it, in case you need an endorsement.

You only noticed recently?

I think a lot of the hate is snaps. Ubuntu has pushed a technology on the users that is unpopular before (Unity) and largely ignored the criticism, which is a Windows-like behavior. I can attest that snaps really sucked on old hardware when they first rolled out. I haven't really used Ubuntu since 22.04, so I can't comment on the current state of snaps, other than to say that a buddy swears they are way faster now. It's a rock and a hard place situation for Canonical though, because if Firefox from apt crashes, Ubuntu gets hate, not Firefox.

Debian (sic Armbian, Dietpi) user here. I don't have this problem.

I understand why people choose to leave Ubuntu and of course am OK with it. I for example don't like Snaps, too.

I have been visiting and leaving Ubuntu for 15 years and now I'm back again (coming from years of Fedora).

I wouldn't say it's more bloated, nor does it require more resources. But I prefer the adapted Gnome version where you can minimize windows and everything is a little less hassle (in my case configuring the printer).

In your case, I'd try out Fedora. Its installation is quite minimal.

Linux Mint is generally less bloated than Ubuntu. For instance, is comes without snap (at least it used to. I'm not aware if things changed). If you want to discard Ubuntu totally, there is Mint Debian Edition. That's it. You don't want the struggle with getting used to fundamentally different distros like OpenSUSE or Fedora. Trust me.

Of course I don't planning any switch. For me it works perfectly. Access to one of the biggest repo, constant support, Ubuntu PRO with extended support timeline, snaps with needed software, flatpak near that all for missing software plus I building my own repo with COSMIC desktop. I have everything for my workflow. Why switching? Btw. I don't see any bloat here. With minimal install it comes with minimal set of packages. Just a most required one.

You'll be fine with Mint. Even the Ubuntu based one. Just keep a separated partition for /home, then jumping ship to LMDE becomes trivial.

People were moaning about bloating with Breezy Badger back in 2005. And yet....

CachyOS is what Mint thinks it is, and could be if they didn't go the debian route. It's practically as easy as Mint, infinitely more performant, and likely runs whatever you want (though switching to appimage packages instead of deb packages for random internet software does indeed feel worse.)

Your least friction option to switch to assuming you're already on Mint, will be LMDE.

i went from Mint to LMDE,

by bloat I assume you mean it installs software you don't want ?