Moved back over to Mint because of Nvidia driver issues in Manjaro/Arch.
It's surprisingly stable despite what I remember. Good job on them to keep a stable and comfortable distro. It's also very polished, in particular Cinnamon which has come quite a ways since the last time I used it. If I ever return to another distro, I think Cinnamon will continue to be my DE of choice.
The package management is where my hopes were low, and frankly, it didn't disappoint. By separating from Snaps, they close the diversity of packages they have access to. Consequently, unlike other distros that have large "official" repos with side repos for non-certified stuff, Mint has to rely heavily on Flatpaks for "oddball" apps. I suppose one could rely on PPAs as well, but that opens up security concerns as well as stability depending on what is installed. I also hold no love for Flatpaks as a container, and this experience has done nothing to improve my thoughts on them. Quirky, oddball, bloated. If you don't care about that, or like Flatpak as a container, good on ya, you'll enjoy it. If not, just be aware what you're jumping into. A LOT of the old repo packages are flatpak only now.
Overall, still a great beginner distro as a whole. GUI for everything important like updates, drivers, etc. Easy package management. Stable kernel base and update cycle. Just wish they'd come up with a better solution for hosting packages. I can already see issues arising from someone who is used to Windows not understanding the jank that can come from a flatpak item, and thinking that a specific package "just doesn't work and Linux must suck".
Moved back over to Mint because of Nvidia driver issues in Manjaro/Arch.
It's surprisingly stable despite what I remember. Good job on them to keep a stable and comfortable distro. It's also very polished, in particular Cinnamon which has come quite a ways since the last time I used it. If I ever return to another distro, I think Cinnamon will continue to be my DE of choice.
The package management is where my hopes were low, and frankly, it didn't disappoint. By separating from Snaps, they close the diversity of packages they have access to. Consequently, unlike other distros that have large "official" repos with side repos for non-certified stuff, Mint has to rely heavily on Flatpaks for "oddball" apps. I suppose one could rely on PPAs as well, but that opens up security concerns as well as stability depending on what is installed. I also hold no love for Flatpaks as a container, and this experience has done nothing to improve my thoughts on them. Quirky, oddball, bloated. If you don't care about that, or like Flatpak as a container, good on ya, you'll enjoy it. If not, just be aware what you're jumping into. A LOT of the old repo packages are flatpak only now.
Overall, still a great beginner distro as a whole. GUI for everything important like updates, drivers, etc. Easy package management. Stable kernel base and update cycle. Just wish they'd come up with a better solution for hosting packages. I can already see issues arising from someone who is used to Windows not understanding the jank that can come from a flatpak item, and thinking that a specific package "just doesn't work and Linux must suck".
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