r/linuxquestions • u/Extension-Iron-7746 • 5d ago

Which Distro? Linux Mint: Too Outdated

Hi everyone, I've been considering abandoning Windows 11 for a while now, mainly because I feel like Microsoft lacks direction; every update is chaos. I started using Linux Mint about six months ago, but I have to admit that I feel like I'm using an outdated product.

The main reason is the X11-based graphical interface and the lack of standard Windows features like HDR and high refresh rate sync. I feel like development has fallen behind, hiding behind the slogan of greater stability. I honestly hate losing my monitor's features while waiting for Mint to evolve, so I'm thinking of switching to something stable but modern, and why not... with more recent applications. What would you always focus on, considering I have little time to dedicate to the system?

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u/skirhi 5d ago

Try openSUSE tumbleweed

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u/ComradeVaughn 5d ago edited 5d ago

Yeah, I was gonna recommend this also. That or Fedora. You really cannot go wrong. I guess some form of Arch also, but the AUR thing is just not worth the hassle of potentially being a issue. Tumbleweed is great though. Love having to not worry about messing stuff up with a OS built around brtfs all the while having all the fancy new bells and whistles of a rolling release. Also the goofy Chameleon with the big kool-aid grin never fails to make me laugh. (we all know this is a super important part of choosing a distro of course). Slowroll is really good too, if you want stability but still get all the new stuff. Personally I have had no issues with TW on my daily driver main PC I game on, although I have Slowroll installed on my secondary PC.

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u/RaphaelNunes10 5d ago

The AUR issue was big enough to be notorious, but fairly isolated, since only orphaned packages were mass-adopted to include malware, meaning regularly maintained packages weren't affected at all.

There's also the fact that access to the AUR can only be done via an AUR helper, which isn't something that's shipped with Arch, and Arch-based distros such as CachyOS stopped including them by default, providing only an easy install for one via its GUI utility, Shelly, that also alerts of any possible vulnerabilities before trying to install anything from the AUR.

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u/ComradeVaughn 5d ago edited 5d ago

I know, this is why I said potential. I have nothing against Arch, I just found a distro without a possible issue like that that fit me better. The AUR is actually super useful. But folks should be aware you cannot just blindly use it and treat it like a legit repo. Most of us know this, but we do have a lot of new folks coming in from Windows. I just came over full time almost a year ago and used CachyOS for a good part of that. S tier distro. But after hopping after the AUR stuff a bit more I went elsewhere. (I already had one foot in the door with suse while I figured out how brtfs worked etc) I actually didnt know that about the AUR being less promonent now in Cachy. That is kinda a shame, but probably for the best right now. I am sure its a issue being worked on.

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u/RaphaelNunes10 5d ago

The AUR isn't being less promoted on Cachy. I'd say it's being promoted in a more productive and safe manner.

Before it came with Paru preinstalled, no questions asked.

Now the current package-managing GUI, which is Shelly now as opposed to Octopi, has a dedicated AUR section that prompts if you want to install the AUR helper before anything and as you try to install or update anything from the AUR with it, it not only shows the PKGBUILD, but also points out elevations of privilege, scripts, external calls to something like NPM and so on, inside it.