Hey guys! I’m getting into the open source world and for years, i am finally hoing to try Linux! However, i see a lot of complains about Ubuntu and i just dont know why. What are you guys complains about Ubuntu? My next PC will come with Ubuntu. Do you guys think i should use Mint instead? Need help.
Mint is based on Ubuntu LTS (long-term support) releases, unless you go with LMDE which is based on Debian. There is not a major technical difference but there are political differences between the projects.
The main reason to go with Mint instead of Ubuntu is if you prefer Cinnamon over GNOME as I do, and want a distribution built around the Cinnamon desktop environment.
When Windows was my primary OS, I always used to lean towards Mint over Ubuntu on my laptop. Ubuntu never seemed to click for me and I’d revert back to Mint each time. Then in April 2025, I installed EndeavourOS as my daily driver and have really liked it. I don’t miss Windows now.
It’s really a personal preference. Download some LiveCDs and try them all, lol.
Use whatever feels comfortable. Both are fine. People are complaining about micro annoyances that should not really affect you at first.
When you get comfortable with Linux, you’ll also get to pick sides in micro battles like KDE vs Gnome, vi vs emacs, systemd vs sysv, flatpak vs snap and all the other wonderful my-side-is-better-than-yours fights.
flatpaks are objectively better though.
The only real issue with Ubuntu is it uses Snap app store instead of Flathub app store.
Flathub has more apps, is faster, and has some minor security improvements. Linux Mint uses Flathub.
HOWEVER, you can add Flathub as additional source in Ubuntu app store app, and use Flathub exclusively.
In that case, no real difference between Ubuntu and Linux Mint other than UI.
Ubuntu is fine, though with the recent rewrite of coreutils I’d be concerned about stability and bugs. That said switching distros is pretty easy, trying other distros in a VM is easy too. I always keep my data on another disk so it’s never affected if I break something. I recommend Mint (LMDE version) and Fedora Desktop with whatever desktop environment suits you.
My only issue with Ubuntu is that snap feels fairly clunky. That’s why I moved to fedora. Also, definitely worth looking at pop os. But, all of them come down to personal preference
I think these days, Linus Torvalds moved to fedora
Genuine question: Am I missing something? I use Ubuntu and never use the Snap store. I only use the apt repository to install applications I find online. What is the advantage of Flathub over my current setup?
Sometimes even if you use apt, you’re really using the snap store. I believe Firefox is one such example.
This is mostly why I switched away from Ubuntu as well, I prefer flatpack. But again this is a minor thing that if you are just switching you shouldn’t care about I think.
Second the rec for Pop OS. It’s basically Ubuntu without Snap (with some other differences as well, of course). Cosmic is pretty nice though I encountered a few show-stopping issues on my office PC that pushed me off it. They may have been fixed by now, though.
Debian+KDE for me, though. Using it in the office, at home, and on my portable mini-ITX streaming box, and it does everything I ask of it without getting in my way.
Both are a good as entry points ! But from what I have experimented with my friend and family that are also transitioning to Linux, Mint (Cinnamon version) is the best entry point you could dream of. They took the best from Debian and Ubuntu (not snaps obviously :p), and their desktop environment (Cinnamon) really does a great job at making you feel at home from the start when coming from Windows. Everything works out of the box.
Ubuntu is fine. Mint is fine. If you have a newer device id pick ubuntu over mint. Its a matter of preference. If your next PC comes with ubuntu use that and see how you like it. If you dont try out mint, try out fedora KDE as well.
I think most of the complaints are about some choices Canonical (the stewards of Ubuntu) have made in the last few years. Most notably recently is the change from gnu coreutils to the rust uutils coreutils rewrite.
