Yes, I know that the ranking is not a good metric of real world use.
Just posting this because MX Linux has been in the number one spot for a long time (2 years perhaps?) and it’s surprising to see some other distro on the top of their site.
I really like mint although i never used it again.
Pros using mint :
- It’s easy to learn
- It’s stable
- It’s Windows XP like
- Not recourse hogging like KDE
- Easy to customize
Cons using mint :
- It’s debian based
Debian based is alright, I’m more against it for being based on Ubuntu. Also con: apt
Not recourse hogging like KDE
Really not that bad nowadays.
Very old packages.
They have security updates, but are usually held back years to ensure stability.
Not recourse hogging like KDE
KDE has been hogging no resources for ages now, it’s really snappy even on not so powerful machines!
You know what? You might be right; I never actually bothered to check if Cinnamon was heavier than Plasma, I just remember it feeling very stuttery when I last daily drove it. Admittedly, that was a very long time ago and GNOME was a complete shit show back then so Cinnamon probably just inherited some of its performance issues. I imagine all of that is fixed by now.
I really don’t like Mint. It feels like a discount version of Debian/Ubuntu to me. It makes it even worse that the person who introduced it to me has all the worst toxic traits. Now I can’t see it as a good alternative.
I’ve never understood the Mint hype. Like you say it seems like Ubuntu with extra steps.
I do have beefs with some of the decisions Canonical makes but if anyone asks me what distri they should start with I will always recommend Ubuntu simply because it’s “the distro” if you search for “Linux” tutorials online 9 times out of 10 you will get a tutorial aimed at Ubuntu. Packages for software that isn’t in repos are usually available as .deb …
It might just be a matter of perspective. I’m not very knowledgeable on distros, so my opinion may come from ignorance:
To me, Ubuntu is too resource intensive with too much going on. Mint seems relatively lean yet modern, with all the basics covered. Debian is a little sparse (no sudo, no fdisk, what’s going on here?).
Who told you you can’t sudo on Debian? ^^ I feel like Debian is flexible enough to give you the system you might want without the bullshit. Ubuntu has lost its way last decade, but you can still debloat it mostly and use one of its alternatives. The Cinnamon DE has improved a lot, but it still feels like Windows Vista to me.
I ended up using NixOS lately so I can have the flexibility, newer packages and very clean repeatable configuration.
I haven’t seen sudo installed by default on debian. Probably the comment is about that. When you start you tend to use only what is already there to not mess things too much.
i guess the bots that game the ‘rankings’ went down.
I cannot think of a single reason bots would be pimping MX Linux.
It’s a pretty low key project. Antix gets more “noisy” than MX does, and that’s not even much.
IIRC, its because there is a vulnerability in some websites at https://example.com/mx so, since distrowatch has mx linux at https://distrowatch.com/mx a lot of bots will try to go to there and push its ratings up accidentally.
IIRC, its because there is a vulnerability in some websites at https://example.com/mx so, since distrowatch has mx linux at https://distrowatch.com/mx a lot of bots will try to go to there and push its ratings up accidentally.
What’s interesting is if you look at Trending past 6 months, which puts elementary firmly in 1st. EasyOS and Mint are almost tied for 2nd.