Hey, so I just put this part up first because this is the one I urgently and importantly need answered even tho I wrote that hideous text block first (sorry English isn't my first language ).
1 So the question is I have live booted mint from a USB and everything is working like I can use internet on it , play YouTube video , the sound is working etc . But I'm afraid if I wipe windows and install mint as the main OS and the WiFi stops working I'll be fucked as I don't have a second machine except a phone to even fix it . There is no repair shop near and the ones I have to travel to go to charge very high for services and all the people I know are " just phone people" . Is it guaranteed that everything that works on a live USB will also work as the main OS ? Also is there a chance that updates could break the functionalities like WiFi, sound , rendering etc ? Cause I'm a layman and idk how to go about installing the correct kernal manually or some shit . And if its something like WiFi that got fucked I'll be extra fucked as I don't have a second device and can't even do it manually . Also as I said I can't afford servicing now . Also how do I switch back to windows lol ? I'm just running mint of the USB o don't know how to go back to windows, do I just pull the USB out ? Then what ? What are the steps on BIOS ? Shit I should've probably searched all these up before bit oh well as long as I'm making a post do feel free to answer idk if I should close my lap or not .I read a post on reddit of a guy whose WiFi stopped working after he made it his primary and he said that it worked on live USB . He was running mint too I believe, same as me with no other device .
Do try and reply to 1 (1 is the most important ) , 2 and 3 importantly and 4 you can do or not according to your free time .
2 Also what is the message on mints website talking about having to do something else for newer devices ? I now use an old thinkpad and it isn't an issue but I'm planning to do an upgrade real soon
3 Also how does the process vary with RISC-V architecture ? Is it there yet ? Any laptop to lookout for or is PC the only way ? I was thinking about switching to risc-v when upgrafing if any company manufactures components or laptop which they do fully as Foss . I am open to building a PC for RISC-V if I can buy full open source parts and if the Linux support is good .
4 I was thinking about switching to Linux for a long time cause I'm paranoid as fuck and always thought I should switch to mint as I'm a layman of all layman and recently got enough time to make it . But then I came to know of zorin OS which too seems to appease to begginers and the conseus between mint and zorin online vary a lot so thought I should just ask here as Lemmy seems to be crawling with Linux users . I mainly just want the drivers or hardware or kernal and all to just work perfectly all the time and not break after updates . I have also heard of some people having kernal issues and having to do it manually in which case I'll be fucked as I'm not savy . I mainly want good privacy and security . Zorin seem to have a paid version and I'm afraid devs will cut back on other version to promote that more and I have no plan to buy premium as i'm just getting into Linux and don't wanna make a big commitment maybe if I used it and settle on it I'll buy to support devs . Also mint is more popular and here to stay kinda shit right ? I don't care much about looking like windows or running window compatible apps and games I'll be just happy with the OS I'm choosing running all Linux shit . Also which appstore is better ? I heard mints software repo holds closed and outdated apps and don't have much idea about Zorin's . fdroid is one of the reason I grew to love android a place for all the good apps with no blobs and have everything I could ever need from galleries to browser . I would also like a that kinda app store supported distro with similar focus and policies on keeping apk updated , and building without proprietary blobs (like fennec ) and only foss .etc .
Sorry for the block of words , mistake grammer etc . English isn't my first language.
Mint is 95% Ubuntu LTS. That means it is a stable base, used in maaany companies, for servers etc.
Linux Distros are a puzzle of packages.
Just in my experience, especially desktop linux struggles a lot with instability and development.
In my Experience, at least KDE Plasma on Ubuntu base was always horribly unstable. But I want to stay with Plasma :D
Linux Mint also has their own desktop, forked from GNOME 2 or 3 idk, because they didnt like what they did. A lot didnt like it, Budgie, Cinnamon, Mate are the same here.
And as GNOME is still the biggest Desktop on most distros, that says a lot about the state of these "protest desktops".
I have the feeling Mint has an extreme difference between "how much is it used and recommended" and "how much is it developed", unlike many other projects.
They are doing kinda fine (no idea when they will ship with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS) but they also simply dont really change much.
Then there is Wayland
All these old Desktops base on a big huge core, XOrg, handling all the display, input, output etc. That is made for terminals and mainframes, is fundamentally insecure and just got patched and patched over the years to support things like multiple screens.
As XOrg is not really maintained since years, Wayland really is the new alternative.
Wayland is waaay better, just still incomplete for some use cases.
Any Desktop without Wayland support is unmaintained and insecure. XOrg is not magically patched by some mint developers.
GNOME, KDE Plasma and some window managers have good wayland support. COSMIC, a very cool new alpha-stage desktop, is wayland only.
Cinnamon does its own thing but I have no idea how they want to compete with GNOME, KDE Plasma and now COSMIC. Every desktop does its own thing (they dont need to but do anways, reading code is less fun than writing code).
And once the core component is unmaintained, Desktops with less developers are struggling hard.
What a laughably inaccurate hot take.
Xorg is not getting huge changes, but it is still maintained and will be until RHEL moves to Wayland, RHEL 9 maintenance support is until 2032. The latest stable Xorg release was April 12, 2024.
Mint is working on Wayland support, the current release has experimental support for demonstration. It has not been a priority as Wayland has been lacking in many features, but it is finally becoming fully feature complete.
The release based on 24.04 will likely be in the summer. The previous major release was just three months after the LTS. This is far faster than many other derivatives. The changes are also ported to Debian.
Linux Mint is very actively developed. Development updates are shared regularly.
Thanks for the info.
Okay, XOrg is still maintained then. I dont know if RHEL 9 already defaults to Wayland but can imagine not.
I agree on the points with missing support, various things, especially remote desktop, need to be adapted to switching was not easy.
Still, they are too late. These things are doable now and it is still an incomplete implementation.
I think their work is good, their desktop and apps have a clear scope and work well in that. But I wouldnt recommend it, because I dont recommend Ubuntu base, and because I think currently there are better desktops.
The rush to new things is exactly why Fedora works well for you, but there is no need to rush. What exists works fine and continue to work for the foreseeable future, and work is being done to continue working with new technologies in the future too, but there is no too late at this point. Rushing to implement new technologies is kind of Fedora’s big draw, but in exchange you have to do a complete system upgrade at least once a year and deal with any fallout if things break or don’t work the way you want them to (less an issue with atomic desktops). I appreciate that Fedora exists to do the incubation, and routinely deploy their changes (well documented in the FesCo approvals) onto Linux Mint.
Ubuntu base is optional. Debian base also works fine, though a little less polished on the Debian side. “Better desktop” is subjective. I think Gnome’s workflow is atrocious and KDE is extremely cluttered and buggy, but if people want to use them it’s fine.
I see your point, but it is not secure at all.
For example Mint has skype from an APT repo. This means users run creepy proprietary Microsoft garbabe. Not as a Flatpak and not on Wayland, meaning it can do whatever it wants, autostart, run in the background, record everything, scan everything.
Dont ask yourself if it works, but how it works.
There is, as developing Wayland, Pipewire, xdg-desktop-portal support etc. takes time and testing.
XOrg may be officially maintained, but it is extremely insecure by design and also RedHat is not fixing that.
This is the dead deadline. And just because that is the point when even the last, paid developers will jump off the XOrg ship.
I would call the time toward that point "perfectly working". It is basically life preservance.
Updates are really stable (dont have much experience with traditional fedora) but you will still get all the new changes that may surprise you.
I wouldnt use either. They ship outdated packages which is not a good model.
I think OpenSUSE Slowroll is a reasonable model, ship stuff that comes out, but wait a bit until the Tumbleweed people have tested it.
Fedora is not bleeding edge either, thats what Fedora Rawhide is for.
But using 3 years old outdated packages for basic stuff, like mesa, or the kernel, or... xscreensaver ;D
For sure it is nice for servers that have one purpose, but general desktops, I dont think so.
The biggest problem is that the Distro makes the cut, not the devs. Stability is fine, but if there is no ESR version of a product (like Firefox ESR, Thunderbird ESR, the LTS Kernel etc) you will just freeze packages of random versions.
If you then dont backport fixes, like with xscreensaver, you get these issues.
I also dont like GNOME but their desktop is pretty nice. It is waaay to minimal
But many of these are also true for cinnamon.
KDE Plasma has a bit many features, on Kinoite I only use the bare minimum. But currently it works great and only more and more bugfixes will come. I havent had issues in a long time, and really wish that it stays like that.
Their software is powerful, and with great power comes... many bugs.
So should I believe hired squirrel or not ? I'm guessing not ?
Ultimately you should use what you like. Even their beloved Fedora has spins for things like Budgie and Cinnamon that they are badmouthing (although Cinnamon runs best on Mint). The distributions and desktops are fine, even if that person has a preference for something else and thinks it is the best.
Zorin is also fine. My only criticism is they released Zorin 17 in December and it is based on the Ubuntu LTS from 2022 rather than the one that was just released. It means it has older packages and will the entire time until they release the next version, but the Ubuntu LTS from 2022 still has years of support. Older packages are not inherently a problem.
Ubuntu, Debian, and others all provide access to much newer kernels if it is desired (in many it has even become the default setting!). In Ubuntu and its derivatives this is called “HWE”, in Debian it is backports. Fedora does not want to use resources for back porting fixes into earlier kernels, so they routinely update the kernel. It’s a different philosophy and different resource management, nothing more.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Then there is Wayland
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
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