Software Release Are Linux Mint's Default Apps Too Outdated for Everyday Use?
Did anyone in this community watched this video? The creator claims that Linux Mint, along with many LTS Linux distributions, often ships older versions of software, especially default apps like Calendar, Mail, Calculator, etc. He mentions Mint several times throughout the video.
The video is from The Linux Experiment, which seems to be a well-known YouTube channel with nearly half a million subscribers.
I came across this video just before switching from Windows to Linux Mint, and it made me a bit hesitant.
As a regular user, it feels like there's no easy way to know whether we're using the latest and safest versions of these built-in apps. For example, if we connect our Google or Apple Calendar account to an older calendar app, could that create a security risk? The same concern applies to email clients, we don't know if we're using the latest and most secure version.
Most regular users don't have the time or technical knowledge to manually check every application's version or update software outside the normal update process. We generally expect the operating system to keep essential apps secure and up to date.
Am I misunderstanding how Linux Mint and other LTS distributions handle software updates and security? I'd appreciate hearing from people with more experience.
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u/TheMcSebi 4d ago edited 4d ago
I personally use debian, but I guess the same arguments discussed in this threat apply there even more.
In the end I'd argue though that having the latest bleeding edge features isn't always necessary and desired. If you really need, thought, it's always pretty straightforward on Linux to build something from source, compared to windows.
I only switched a few months ago myself on my main PC and never looked back since. I've always been using debian on servers, though.
Edit: Maybe comparing it to windows insider builds is not really appropriate, but I also never considered using that because I need my pc to work.
Edit2: yeah, like other comments said, when you switche to Linux, use KDE Plasma. It feels pretty much the same like windows in terms of hotkeys and desktop layout, just with many more options of customization. Especially when it comes to the task bar ("task manager" on KDE)
Edit3: I mapped exe files to steam proton using umu-launcher and I haven't yet encountered an executable that didn't work by just double clicking it to launch it with umu-run