Hey guys! I'm getting into the open source world and for years, i am finally hoing to try Linux! However, i see a lot of complains about Ubuntu and i just dont know why. What are you guys complains about Ubuntu? My next PC will come with Ubuntu. Do you guys think i should use Mint instead? Need help.

Use whatever feels comfortable. Both are fine. People are complaining about micro annoyances that should not really affect you at first.

When you get comfortable with Linux, you'll also get to pick sides in micro battles like KDE vs Gnome, vi vs emacs, systemd vs sysv, flatpak vs snap and all the other wonderful my-side-is-better-than-yours fights.

I think most of the complaints are about some choices Canonical (the stewards of Ubuntu) have made in the last few years. Most notably recently is the change from gnu coreutils to the rust uutils coreutils rewrite.

Ubuntu is fine. Mint is fine. If you have a newer device id pick ubuntu over mint. Its a matter of preference. If your next PC comes with ubuntu use that and see how you like it. If you dont try out mint, try out fedora KDE as well.

My only issue with Ubuntu is that snap feels fairly clunky. That's why I moved to fedora. Also, definitely worth looking at pop os. But, all of them come down to personal preference

I think these days, Linus Torvalds moved to fedora

This is mostly why I switched away from Ubuntu as well, I prefer flatpack. But again this is a minor thing that if you are just switching you shouldn't care about I think.

Mint is based on Ubuntu LTS (long-term support) releases, unless you go with LMDE which is based on Debian. There is not a major technical difference but there are political differences between the projects.

The main reason to go with Mint instead of Ubuntu is if you prefer Cinnamon over GNOME as I do, and want a distribution built around the Cinnamon desktop environment.

Second the rec for Pop OS. It’s basically Ubuntu without Snap (with some other differences as well, of course). Cosmic is pretty nice though I encountered a few show-stopping issues on my office PC that pushed me off it. They may have been fixed by now, though.

Debian+KDE for me, though. Using it in the office, at home, and on my portable mini-ITX streaming box, and it does everything I ask of it without getting in my way.

When Windows was my primary OS, I always used to lean towards Mint over Ubuntu on my laptop. Ubuntu never seemed to click for me and I'd revert back to Mint each time. Then in April 2025, I installed EndeavourOS as my daily driver and have really liked it. I don't miss Windows now.

It's really a personal preference. Download some LiveCDs and try them all, lol.

Ubuntu is fine, though with the recent rewrite of coreutils I’d be concerned about stability and bugs. That said switching distros is pretty easy, trying other distros in a VM is easy too. I always keep my data on another disk so it’s never affected if I break something. I recommend Mint (LMDE version) and Fedora Desktop with whatever desktop environment suits you.

The only real issue with Ubuntu is it uses Snap app store instead of Flathub app store.

Flathub has more apps, is faster, and has some minor security improvements. Linux Mint uses Flathub.

HOWEVER, you can add Flathub as additional source in Ubuntu app store app, and use Flathub exclusively.

In that case, no real difference between Ubuntu and Linux Mint other than UI.

Genuine question:
Am I missing something? I use Ubuntu and never use the Snap store. I only use the apt repository to install applications I find online. What is the advantage of Flathub over my current setup?

Both are a good as entry points !
But from what I have experimented with my friend and family that are also transitioning to Linux, Mint (Cinnamon version) is the best entry point you could dream of.
They took the best from Debian and Ubuntu (not snaps obviously :p), and their desktop environment (Cinnamon) really does a great job at making you feel at home from the start when coming from Windows. Everything works out of the box.

Sometimes even if you use apt, you're really using the snap store. I believe Firefox is one such example.

Both are fine. Is it just a matter of preference on certain decisions.

Start by trying the desktops (mainly KDE, Cinnamon, gnome...), which are very different, and see which one you prefer. You can try them online.

https://distrosea.com/select/ubuntu/

https://distrosea.com/select/linuxmint/

https://distrosea.com/select/kubuntu/

If you click for cinamon go mint.
If you click for KDE go Debian KDE or kubuntu
If you click for gnome go Ubuntu.

The rest will become clear later on.

It heavily depends on your needs, wants, and expectations.

In simplest terms, Ubuntu is Mac-like and Mint is Windows-like. At least, on the surface. Basically everything else is feature parity, just requires slightly different arrangements depending on which flavor you're running.

I didn't much like Ubuntu as it feels too close to MacOS to me. Primarily because I don't really like that aesthetic. Ubuntu and Mint were my first forays into Linux as well, but this was also years ago when Mint was relatively new to the scene. While I personally liked the style of Mint, at the time it just didn't have nearly enough features for what I was into.

These days I settled on CachyOS which is a fork of Arch. Cachy is aimed at gaming, but comes with a very straightforward installer with a huge amount of customization options to really make the OS your own. That's ultimately what keeps me on Arch is the genuine ease of customization at this point. Rolling releases don't bother me as i used to do CyanogenMod nightlies and this is like the big boy version of that, but I also can fully appreciate wanting shit to just work.

That said, Ubuntu is arguably the most popular distro because of its similarities to Mac and the "It just works" vibes it tends to give off these days.

The best part of Linux is how easy it is to check out a new flavor and see how you like it. And once you do find the flavor that suits you, the mega nerds in that particular community have probably already figured out how to do that thing you want. And if those folks didn't for any reason, the folks at AUR* probably did.

*AUR = Arch User Repository and is an unregulated repository of whatever anyone clever enough to develop for Arch has come up with. Peruse and download at your own risk, but there's some genuinely awesome and useful tools out there.

Another problem though is the best Flatpak store Bazaar's Flatpak version is broken due to Ubuntu apparmor. There are workarounds but they don't really seem to be doing much about it. There's a deb version in the repos but it is currently very out of date as its a newer app with fairly active development

Ubuntu is the only distro I recommend against. Too much shitfuckery from Canonical. It's basically the Windows of Linux distros. I recommend Zorin to new users.

When you said it's the windows of Linux it reminded me years ago it included ads for Amazon. I wonder if they still have ads of some sort.

Just use Kubuntu

Ubuntu is fine, people's objection to it is largely ideological. For a band new user you probably wouldn't notice. Ubuntu also has a more modern desktop than Mint, and a much larger user-base and therefore much more guides and support, though Mint is based on Ubuntu so it's probably not that different.

The big thing with Ubuntu is that you are sort of at the behest of whatever Canonical want. They have a track record of pushing their own way of doing things and not really giving a damn whether or not users like it. The big one is Snap, their attempt at a universal app packaging pipeline which uses a proprietary backend. Snap does have some benefits over flatpak from an engineering standpoint, but many dislike them. If you feel ideologically opposed to Snap, just use Debian, it's easy enough to install these days. It is also worth noting that Snap can be removed from a fresh install pretty easily.

This is an objectively false statement. There are at least one scenario I can think of where Snap is better than flatpak.

Edit: You guys really don't know what objectively better means huh.

If taking minutes to launch one application is a plus?

What are the minor security improvements?

Behest means request.

Escape Ubuntu snap Armagedon, go fedora kde...

Flathub sandboxes applications to prevent them from infecting the system if app gets hacked, and lets you control permissions for each app, like microphone, camera etc.

But they are still work in progress and easily circumvented, thus I called them only minor improvements.

You can't run your own snap repo. That goes against the entire point of openness.

It’s basically the Windows of Linux distros. I recommend Zorin to new users.

... which is basically the self declared windows and not only is it corporate, it's also paid

ubuntu makes controversial choices. Mint is explicitly user friendly, and its debian edition is like a bike with training wheels, getting you debian with extra "niceties".

LMDE (Linux mint debian edition) is, from my POV, the gold standard for noob distros. Ubuntu is explicitly like a tricycle but LMDE is like a bike with training wheels. You can eventually take them off for debian next time you change OS with less problems, if you want. I going from LMDE + Cinnamon to Debian + KDE shouldn't be an issue.

It can mean a request or a command. It's the right use of the word I think.

i am finally hoing to try Linux!

me too! i love linux and would absolutely hoe for it if i could! lol

i'll recompile your kernel for a handjob... lmao

Flip a coin.

I use Mint and it does everything I need right from the start. Plus the forums have answers to any issues I encountered

Normally I would say that you should pick the one YOU like. Because everyone has their own favorite. But in the case of Ubuntu, I would say you should go with any other distro. Ubuntu is becoming the Windows of the Linux community.

Fedora 😀
But seriously... Just install one and if you don't like it, install the other, it's free, it's easy and you will never go back 😊

I disagree, semi. I started with mint but wanted to try fedora recently. With windows i had stuff set up that i needed minimal configurations on os switches, and that data splitting helped a bit when switching to linux.
But to switch from one distro to another needs prep work if you want to keep data and configs with minimal set ups.
So far ive been refactoring my mint slow but steady to have my home and /opt on partitions and i might need to do more since there is stuff in /var i might need too.

Wait, you're telling me there's a way to get tech support AND I get to give handjobs?

What'll you do for a blowjob, because gay up, I put Nancy Reagan to Shame with my throat game

Snap is arguably the better sandbox. The bigger issue with Snap is that only Canonical (the company that owns Ubuntu) has the code for the Snap store, so it's a closed ecosystem and there are no alternative stores, so the minute they enshittify it's garbage. Flathub is the most popular flatpak repo but the code for a flatpak repo is open source, there are alternative options and will be in the future.

Ubuntu does some things people don't like, but as a first distro I wouldn't agree that those things matter much. Especially considering that it's by far the most supported distro. Most Ubuntu support/info also applies to Ubuntu based distros, like pop os, which I also would recommend personally. Distro choice both matters and doesn't, with the caveat that it mostly matters what it's based on. Ubuntu based is going to give you all the easiest software support.

I meant that if a week passes and he doesn't like it it's easy to switch. Otherwise it's always somewhat harder to switch once you are nicely settled. I always keep a step by step what I do after fresh install and I try to keep as many (important) files on my nas as possible.
I never liked the shenanigans of keeping my home. First, it means you keep a lots of garbage and I kinda like starting fresh. Second, it's way too much work. I usually just copy full home to external drive, reinstall and copy stuff back when I need it. This way I really keep from home only what I really need and the rest is ovewritten before next reinstall.
That said, I have actually settled on Fedora like 4 years ago and since then reinstalled only once (again Fedora, I just wanted clean start).

Scroll past *** for what I think is most valuable advice

Ultimately, switching to Linux is preferable, regardless of which distro you choose, from an open source/FOSS mindset. I'm not a super techy person, and made the initial switch due to philosophical reasons and a deep, deep dislike of Windows.

Ubuntu catches a lot of heat for making controversial decisions that go against the beliefs of the FOSS community, such as proprietary app packaging with snaps, and back in the day straight up putting ads for Amazon in the os.

Mint is the golden child, mostly because it is directly based on Ubuntu, so it keeps 99% of the convenience and ease of use that Ubuntu is famous for, while removing the more controversial elements.

There is also LMDE, mint based directly off of Debian. Debian is the distro that Ubuntu, and many others, is based off of. It has a reputation for being very solid, but slow to adapt and offer new features. It is the safe, reliable choice, but "boring," so people fork it, and make newer more "exciting" distro from it.
So Ubuntu is based on Debian, mint is based on Ubuntu. Linux mint Debian edition (LMDE) is based directly on Debian.

Mint's big thing is cinnamon, it's desktop environment.

Desktop environments are where I think most newbies should actually be spending their time considering, instead of distros.

You can change the DE on pretty much anything, but some play better with some distros than others.

Cinnamon is very windows like. It is customizable, recognizable to a Windows user, and makes the transition from windows easier.

Gnome, and gnome based DEs, like what ubuntu uses, are more Mac like. Flowy, opinionated, and visually quite modern.

Kde plasma is more similar to Cinnamon, and is the Mac daddy of customization. Wanna do a thing? Likely, Kde will let you or you can brute force it and get it done.

Personally, I am a subby little soyboy who wants Daddy to tell me what to do, so I fucking love gnome. I love the look, I love the feel of it, and the thing I love most is that, when I first made the switch, it wasn't windows. It was different, and that was fun and let me feel like I had really made a change, and that's what for the Linux switch to stick after more than a decade of going back and forth.

My actual advice for a distro is Fedora with gnome, and few extensions. But realistically, try mint, try Ubuntu, try whatever, but spin up a virtual machine and specifically try out different DEs (there are a bunch that I didn't mention) and see which one you like. The distro is secondary, especially for a beginner

Fucking love Fedora, it's my main squeeze.

But I have noticed something. If someone says "I love gnome" then they get the (playful) shit talkers, but if you say "I love Fedora" people are like "ah, an intellectual" haha

systemd vs sysv

There is no systemd vs sysv war. It is systemd suck or systemd fine.

Ubuntu is fine. When you get your PC, you can see for yourself and decide. If Ubuntu just works for you, stick with it, if it is a bad experience, try another GNU/Linux distro. Be aware though that the back end of the appstore in Ubuntu is proprietary/closed-source/nonfree/bad.

Ye my biggest concern is keys, sdk configs, sdk programs, scripts, environment variables, vscodium configs, ...
I always take weeks to set all that shit up the way i like it haha.
But ye, im still checking out what i can drop and what i cant. Or maybe create scripts to config something to the way i like it ( like git )

Between those two, I would go with regular Debian, or Mint LMDE if it has to be one of the two.

Debian is much better about providing a reasonably updated desktop experience these days.

As for Ubuntu… Their engineering is bad, and they’re shady. They push their solutions over standard stuff, and their solutions are conveniently setup to allow them to close source the code if anything ever reaches wide adoption or are proprietary from the beginning.

you're about 30 years too late to trade a blowjob for software development and what is up with this nancy reagan silliness?!!! lol

Nancy Reagan was the throat goat of Hollywood and DC, my man. Throat game was strong.

But are you saying I'm 30 years too late with you, or that the entire blowjob-for-computer-work economy has tragically collapsed in recent decades?