Hi, I've always wanted to try linux since 2002-04. Never had the space for it and time. Anyways fast forward 2015, the OS seems to be more user friendy now. So I wanna test it out. I've only seen some reviews of both OSes, and would like your opinions on each.
I do have a basic understanding of ms-dos. I know about the dreaded terminal code bashing driver debacle. I have tried Mac emulation/hackintosh as well as Android OSes so I kinda know what to expect.
Anyways for just non-gaming and web usage only a a few office use what flavor of linux is more stable?
mint is ubuntu but it has a different desktop environment instead have a look at the available desktop environments and see what looks best for you then download it and test it out
Having used both, I think they both are user friendly and nearly equally stable for office use(Mint is based on the latest Ubuntu LTS release as you probably know). If you're used to the Windows desktop, Mint is probably the most comfortable choice. Otherwise you might want to take a look at different desktop environments and choose one that you like. Of course you could just try them both, it won't cost you a penny.
i personaly like mint with cinnamon desktop more, then any of the Ubuntu flavs. But yeah thats me. The main thing is that basicly any distribution can be setup to do the same thing in the end. What i personaly realy like about the Cinnamon desktop in particular, is customization. THere are realy allot of very nice cinnamon theme´s availeble, which you can directly download.
I had Mint for 3 month. I highly recommend it, as you've seen in the comments, Mint is practically Ubuntu with a Cinnamon/Mate desktop. Linux Mint comes with many codecs pre-installed, Libre Office, GIMP,Thunderbird, and can run on many hardware configurations. It has a very classic Windows 98 feel to it which is a reason why I left the whole Mint experience and moved on to Fedora 23.
In my experience, both are quite stable, especially if you stick with the LTS releases of Ubuntu, the most recent of which is 14.04. I would say that you would be well served by either, in terms of stability and the use-cases you mentioned. Ubuntu does have some monumental changes coming up in the next couple of years, so you might run into some weirdness in the near future as those changes get smoothed out, but again, Canonical tends to be very conservative with their LTS releases, so my expectation is that those will be stable.
As to which will suit your preferences better, why not try them both? They are both easy to install, or you could even try a live DVD/USB version before installing. I'll echo other comments: Mint is more like old-school Windows, Ubuntu is more like Mac OS X, at least with the default desktop environments.
They are really close for tahe most part. Only major difference is the UI.
Other way he could decide is by trying both out in Virtualbox/VMware in Windows.
I would recommend giving Fedora and Opensuse a try as well. As long as you stick to the big 3 distros there is tons of documentation. You will see more differences in RPM vs Deb based distros, too.
I would say Mint. It is basically ubuntu with some added quality of life changes like the very good update manager and back up applications.
Plus if you like cinnamon as a environment its there that you can find it in it best form. Other than that what ever works in ubuntu works in Mint the same way.
Ok I just tried Mint, not liking it as much as Ubuntu. Maybe I'm just an app whore on PC, but yea couldn't install i-nex, chrome or any software. Always comes up compatibility xxx...
Anyways it turns out the ISO i downloaded is Mint 17.1, what's new with 17.3 and what's this mate/cinnamon edition?
I'm trying to look for programs and gagdets like windows gadgets. Notably the CPU meter and CPU-Z/GPU-Z and HWinfo. Just in case you're wonder I'm trying them out using the live USB method. I don't like using virtualbox since emulation isn't the same as using your own software. Oh I couldn't configure my sound or gpu card either. I could hear sound thru testing, but not on YT.
One option is a 10 dollar hd. You can try all of them and if you don't like any your not faced with" how do I get rid of grub?" My fav is Mint cause my wife likes it better then win 10 LXLE on old hardware is awesome and blew me away how it could turn "useless" to "useful" In all honesty I did not give Ubuntu much of a try cause it was hate at first site. That's what I love about Linux, don't like it try another distro:)
Whatever works on Ubuntu 14.04 works in Mint. They have the same base. Its basically the same OS underneath. Try Chromium instead of chrome. Its exactly the same without the google ad monitoring crap. Chrome development is actually done within chromium.
It works perfectly fine (I installed the daily). (cool application btw)
Generally installing software like you do in windows is NOT a good idea. Linux has different methods that are more maintainable. First try the software centre. Then try to find a PPA that has the software you want (like with i-nex). Its the most reliable way under the sun. A repository is usually maintained thus its more reliable and up-to-date. Adding a repository also allows your update manager to constantly check for new versions of the software thus keeping it updated without you having to do any extra effort. Only if there is no other option try to download .deb files on their own as you never know if a file from a random source is correctly up-to-date.
The 17.3 makes a good deal of upgrades and updates the base packages as well. Go for the 17.3. You can update to 17.3 from the update manager. No need to reinstall.
thanks for tip. I had a live usb. But didn't allocate space for persistent. Also downloaded 17.1 instead of 17.3. Doing a lot of sudo to install programs reminds me back when I used to play ASCII games in the 90s, I love MS-DOS but man that website http://community.linuxmint.com/ really helps. I'm trying glmark2 or unigine valley but can't get it to run on amd gpu can you guys help me?
I prefer Mint/Cinnamon but have also used Ubuntu. Mint is centered around stability and by default will not install updates that it catagorizes as level 4 or 5, although this can be changed. Ubuntu makes no distinctions between updates and simply installs all of them. While it shouldn't lead to any issues, the potential for instability is higher.
One thing to note regardless of which of the 2 distros you choose is that the proprietary AMD video drivers are complete garbage. They are a constant source of issue. I've given up attempting to utitlize them and stick with the generic driver but it does limit both performance and GPU features. If you browse the forums for either distro you can find plenty of info on the subject. Until AMD decides to start dedicating more resources to their Linux drivers it seems things aren't going to improve. Nvidia seems to be the better choice here. Best of luck with things.
i tired both and mint out of the box is better. you CAN mod ubuntu and get it as good but effort. i tried ubuntu and spent 3-4 months modding it and eventually moved to mint and had everything set up in 1 day. a lot of it is learning curve but a lot of it is just mints better out of the box.
also many of the things i did is personal preference but how many personal preferences does it take for something to be just better?
If I may be so bold, Linux is awesome and a great choice. My Question is what is motivating you to try it out. Because I think that answer to your question will be driven by that. I was is that same about as you want to trying linux out for ages, main to just learn. I took my first shot when the PS3 at the time supported installation of Linux. But I really whated to understand everything so I foolishly said to myself I am going to install gentoo.
Now for a complete NOOB I can now see that actually it did a pretty good job but I really need a better general grasp of System-V. So I moth balled that and installed ubuntu 7.04 and debian on my main PC and had a reasonable time. Later i got a XPS laptop with a radeon card and due to the driver situation at the time I need more flexible OS. So I used Arch linux. Which I would be happy to recommend to anyone how has interest in understanding all the bits and pieces of how a modern OS works. But then I tried Gentoo again and for reasons that I will not go into here it wipes the floor with any other OS but it requires a fair amount of LOVE.
So basically Ubuntu and Mint are exactly the same thing. There are differences Mint has alot of features pre-installed and pre-configured for desktop users. It is typically considered to be the best for "Fresh of the Boat" windows users. Ubuntu have taken their own style to things some people call it "OSX style" but really it is not.
MS-DOS skills regrettable wont get you far, I know it was there. Terminal should not be dreaded it is the source of "Ultimate Power" and you will actually miss when you use Windows. So a booked that really helped me which is now updated in 2nd edition is "How Linux Works" by No Starch Press. Trust me when I say even if you only cherry pick reading chapters you will be a terminal wizard in very short time. I think you can get on kindle very cheaply https://www.nostarch.com/howlinuxworks2
Stability in linux can mean different things. "Stable" is normally considered to by rock-solid for mission critical servers. If you want the most stable distro then Debian is considered to the most stable (it is also the progenitor of Ubuntu/mint)
Stable for normal desktop use; most distros are stable. Ok this is now getting long really sorry I will wrap up.
If you want one button installation go anything, just make you understand the Package management for your distro. Ubuntu (for now) and mint are the same. Another options, lots people are making noise about Manjaro Linux which is archlinux based. https://manjaro.github.io/
What ever you choose, remember there is a huge community out there and if you need assistance of any kind it is out there. Not just forums but if you need an answer right away just use IRC for your distro there is normally someone on that can assist.
