Luigi (with Linux Mint logo) and Mario (Ubuntu logo) come in

Mother: It’s-a the Ubuntu Bros!

Linux Mint (Luigi): Mama why-a you never remember my name?

Mother: I’m-a sorry Green Ubuntu

    • NaibofTabr@infosec.pubEnglish
      1002·
      7 months ago

      Here comes Arch Linux with the parts for a steel chair! Now they’re pulling out the instructions for putting it together! Uh oh, the instructions say what kind of bolts they need, but not how many! Arch is trying to fit it all together anyway! Hmm, looks like some of the assembly steps are missing… ok, Arch has got something that looks like a chair constructed… now they’re going to test it by sitting down… oh, and the chair frame has held together but the seat has fallen off. Arch forgot about not breaking user space again!

      • shadowfenix@lemmy.oneEnglish
        721·
        7 months ago

        And now here comes Gentoo with a… a coal forge? Oh my God he’s forging a steel chair from a metal blank! But what’s this? Hes pulling out a smaller forge to forge a hammer for the bigger forge! The humanity!

        • bruhduh@lemmy.world
          552·
          7 months ago

          And now here comes Debian, he enters the room and sits on chair that was there for few years already, and sits there for the next few years

          • Agent641@lemmy.world
            281·
            7 months ago

            And oh my god, here comes Windows with a steel chair! Its a fine chair that almost anyone can sit in, as long as its updated regularly and paid for, or else they take off two of the legs. She whacks you with it, but only with the long end of the chair by default, which really stings. If you prefer to be hit with the flat of the chair, she desperately tries to convince you that being hit with the Edge is better.

          • CountVon@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            12·
            7 months ago

            I briefly experimented with it ages ago. And I mean ages ago, like 20+ years ago. Maybe it’s changed somewhat since then, but my understanding is that Gentoo doesn’t provide binary packages. Everything gets compiled from source using exactly the options you want and compiled exactly for your hardware. That’s great and all but it has two big downsides:

            • Most users don’t need or even want to specify every compile option. The number of compile options to wade through for some packages (e.g. the kernel) is incredibly long, and many won’t be applicable to your particular setup.
            • The benefits of compiling specifically for your system are likely questionable, and the amount of time it takes to compile can be long depending on your hardware. Bear in mind I was compiling on a Pentium 2 at the time, so this may be a lot less relevant to modern systems. I think it took me something like 12 hours to do the first-time compile when I installed Gentoo, and then some mistake I made in the configuration made me want to reinstall and I just wasn’t willing to sit through that again.
            • psud
              2·
              7 months ago

              Compiling your own kernel was often useful or even necessary back in the day. I think it was the only package I regularly compiled for myself back then, and I think I was on red hat

          • mkwt@lemmy.world
            4·
            7 months ago

            The bit about the small forge forging a forge is skewering the Gentoo concept of toolchain bootstrapping.

            Problem: how can you claim to have compiled the entire system on your own local machine if you need a compiler to compile a compiler? Where do you get that compiler from?

            Solution: Use an external compiler to compile a compiler. Then use that compiler that you just compiled to compile itself again. Then use that second compiler to recompile the rest of the system.

      • Cowbee@lemm.ee
        11·
        7 months ago

        Sure, it’s easy to get into and install for anyone used to Windows.

      • Cowbee@lemm.ee
        5·
        7 months ago

        Because it’s an easy transition to Linux, which is beneficial in numerous ways. If you’re gatekeeping Linux distros, you can kindly leave normal people alone.

      • psud
        1·
        7 months ago

        Because once one works out that it’s as easy to I use and does everything they need, it’s a lot more expandable and configurable and a lot less advertising intensive than actual windows

  • cameron_vale@lemm.ee
    375·
    7 months ago

    Why does anybody use ubuntu etc when they could use debian?

    It comes with like 6 desktops right in the installation. And there are another 20 more available too.

    And ubuntu etc is just debian with a fancy desktop, right?

    And debian is fast, lightweight and stable as heck. Don’t they use it on the spaceshuttle?

      • Fungah@lemmy.world
        96·
        7 months ago

        Don’t you just love how with phones you don’t really have one?

        Google is breaking their backs locking down Android tighter than a nun’s cooch, and generally enshitifyijg every garbage product they offer. Where’s my third fucking option?

        • quackers@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          6·
          7 months ago

          Well sure, but if i have to figure out what to get, where to get it, how to install a driver from a tar.gz file, maybe i just install ubuntu instead.
          I opted for fedora instead, until it died on an nvidia update (as every distro inevitably seems to do with me) and fucked off back to windows. Linux desktop has not treated me well so far in any case.

      • mellejwz@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        7 months ago

        No need, if Ubuntu works out of the box then Debian also works most of the time. I’ve never had to install drivers for ethernet or wifi. The installer is a bit less graphical, but it will connect in a few “clicks”, even wifi works for the installer.

    • Prunebutt@feddit.de
      18·
      7 months ago

      My guess is: Too outdated packages. Debian experimental fixes this, but it’s not noob friendly to enable those. And flatpack is too recent.

      • Camelbeard@lemmy.world
        3·
        7 months ago

        This was the one for me, was running Debian a few years ago, I was really happy with how everything worked.

        But at work I noticed a lot of tools I needed where pretty old. Like an old version of maven or an old version of Firefox or npm.

        You can probably work around it, but I just went back to Mint again.

    • fosforus@sopuli.xyz
      7·
      7 months ago

      Why does anybody use ubuntu etc when they could use debian?

      Debian is good, but people working on polishing a thing from 9 to 5, 5 days a week can do a lot.

    • answersplease77@lemmy.world
      3·
      7 months ago

      ubuntu has firewall protection already to go. I heard if you used debian you have to install UFW or other things on your own

        • Rooki@lemmy.world
          8·
          7 months ago

          For everything? You still shouldnt be running all ports open around. As it would ease the work of hackers getting backdoor access.

          • DaBPunkt@lemmy.world
            31·
            7 months ago

            So just close the ports (or more precise: Do not open them, as “closed” is the default for most software on Linux).

            • Rooki@lemmy.world
              2·
              7 months ago

              Yup, and if some bad software wants to create malicious webserver they can not do it as all the ports that are open are used in a legit way. And thus can not really communicate either one or the other way.

              • DaBPunkt@lemmy.world
                2·
                7 months ago

                A webserver listens on port 80 or 443. Neither port can be claimed by a normal user (no port below 1024 can). But yes if you manage more than your own user on a desktop AND these other users are not allowed to start programs on their own THEN a firewall can be helpful; but this is not a normal situation for a desktop-client, isn’t it?

      • mkwt@lemmy.world
        4·
        7 months ago

        I think the real time requirement can be relaxed for self contained experiment packages. And given that the shuttle ran a healthy number of student experiments, it’s pretty likely that X system has appeared.

        I believe crew laptops for email and stuff are also running non real-time systems.

    • blind3rdeye@lemm.ee
      6·
      7 months ago

      Good to hear! My main computer is my desktop, running Mint. (I’m using it right now.) But I also have a Surface Pro 4 that I use for work. It has no problems and works fine on Windows… but I have been wondering if I can move that away from Windows as well. So its encouraging to hear that it has worked for you.

      Does Mint have good support for the stylus and touch-screen on the Surface 4? (I imagine the Surface tech might be specialised to Windows a bit, so I wouldn’t be confident those would work immediately in Linux.)

      • UndefinedIsNotAFunction@programming.dev
        4·
        7 months ago

        Nope, it does not. You can install a kernel made just for surface devices and you’ll get mouse emulation via touch, but Mint doesn’t have Wayland yet and it’s my understanding that Wayland is where all the good things, like gestures, lives. So, I’m waiting for that but it honestly works fine without the touch. I’d use it if it was there, but it’s fine honestly.

        That said, I’ve been using Linux/osx as my primary at work for a lot of years now so I’m super unfamiliar with even basic sysadmin stuff on Windows, so I’m happy that the surface is now on Linux. Need to move my desktop to it one day, but I honestly almost never use it.

      • scottywh@lemmy.world
        3·
        7 months ago

        My surface pro 4 still works great with windows also and even though I ran mint on the laptop I used before it I have no intention of replacing windows on the SP4 at least until support for 10 is done.

        Even though I don’t use the touchscreen often, it’s not a feature I’d be willing to sacrifice either.

        • pirat@lemmy.world
          2·
          7 months ago

          It’s not entirely impossible that a driver for the touchscreen actually exists.

      • Soullioness@lemmy.ca
        1·
        7 months ago

        I don’t know about this specifically, but in my experience with Mint, it’s very plug and play with this kind of stuff. I’m always really impressed by just how little setup Mint needs.

  • RiikkaTheIcePrincess@kbin.social
    232·
    7 months ago

    But Mint is better <.<

    I guess the thing is “Ubuntu is the friendly distro” but then also “Mint is the friendly distro?” Way back in like 2009 (okay, turns out it’s been a little while) Mint was super comfy and Ubuntu already felt like it was in my way without actually being any easier.

  • sagedemage 🇵🇸 🇿🇦 🇨🇺@lemmy.world
    162·
    7 months ago

    I hate to say it to you guys but Linux Mint is really just about the desktop and their initial setup of Ubuntu.

    I personally care about unique and usable distributions:

    • Ubuntu (Really excellent foundation for a stable Desktop)
    • Debian (Rock solid but can be dated for Desktop)

    There are unique distributions but not usable for doing work like programming full time and other things:

    • Arch Linux (I personally not comfortable updating this distro)
    • Gentoo (I am not high to actually use this distro)
      • Queue@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        155·
        7 months ago

        Windows helped to bring the concept of an operating system to the masses too. Does that mean it’s impossible to ever ruin it’s reputation?

      • /home/pineapplelover@lemm.ee
        3·
        7 months ago

        Ubuntu was my very first distro and I used it for a year. Maybe it was harsh to say that it sucked ass. When they pushed snaps on me, I started using them and towards the end, my computer got very slow. I’m now on arch btw

        • SokathHisEyesOpen@lemmy.mlEnglish
          1·
          7 months ago

          Arch is awesome. I use Arch on my laptop. I’ve been thinking about changing my Pop desktop to Arch, but the GFX driver management for Pop is super convenient and I have steam all set up exactly as I want it. I don’t really want to go through all the set-up again.