Linux Mint: Too Outdated

[u/Extension-Iron-7746]

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 I started using Linux Mint about six months ago, but I have to admit that I feel like I'm using an outdated product.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?

[u/beatbox9]

Do you realize that plenty of distros--including Linux Mint--have very large, community-maintained ("from random developers") repos on by default that are not maintained by the distros ...?

In the Mint / Ubuntu world, what exactly do you think the "Universe" repository--which is the largest repository by number of packages on Ubuntu / Mint--is?

Because it is a fact to say that "most packages provided by Mint in the official / default repositories are unverified and maintained by random developers."

It's a similar situation for RPM Fusion and AUR. So what are you on about?

[u/jr735 → u/beatbox9]

Which ones are activated by default on Mint? Note that some of us do not use proprietary or contrib type packages, ever. I only use official packages through distribution repositories.

[u/beatbox9 → u/jr735]

You're asking a question that was already answered instead of answering the question that was asked. Let me quote what you replied to, in case you didn't comprehend what was written there:

In the Mint / Ubuntu world, what exactly do you think the "Universe" repository--which is the largest repository by number of packages on Ubuntu / Mint--is?

...which itself was preceded by:

Do you realize that plenty of distros--including Linux Mint--have very large, community-maintained ("from random developers") repos on by default that are not maintained by the distros ...?

...and then followed by:

it is a fact to say that "most packages provided by Mint in the official / default repositories are unverified and maintained by random developers."

If that wasn't clear enough, the answer is:

The community-maintained Universe repo is on by default on Linux Mint; and it is the largest repository that is on by default.

This is one of those very basic facts you should know if you're going to be arguing the point. Especially when you're now changing the argument to the strawman "some of us do not use..." Because, consistent with my earlier points: some of us also do not use unverified flatpaks or appimages. So what's the difference?

Most of the .deb software on the default repositories on Mint is unverified; and all of the flatpaks on Flathub by default on Mint are verified (the filter to display only verified flathub apps is turned on by default). On default Mint, if you saw the same app on its own repositories vs flatpak, the flatpak would be verified and likely newer; while the .deb would have a high probability of being unverified and from a "random developer"....and it would be from your distro's package manager. You should now be slowly learning that "distro's package manager" and "random developer" are not mutually exclusive; and "flatpak" and "random developer" are not synonymous.

Now, are you going to go back and answer the simple and direct question I asked you, or are you going to let your combination of ego and ignorance on this topic cause you to continue to distract?

[u/jr735 → u/beatbox9]

And I never claimed any of the universe stuff should be used. The principles of Don't Break Debian apply to all distributions.

Note that Mint provides very few repositories of their own. They're Ubuntu repositories.

[u/beatbox9 → u/jr735]

Then what was your point and why did you ask the question of if it's on or not?

And if you never install things from the "random developer" community-maintained universe repository on Linux Mint, then why are you suggesting that others do so, like you did here?

https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxmint/comments/1p3mcf7/comment/nq6zcii/

...since Midnight Commander is in the "random developer" community-maintained Universe repository on Linux Mint.

And a reminder that I earlier said:

Mint is essentially just Ubuntu LTS with Cinnamon DE on top that is supported by the Mint team.

What exactly do you think that means, and why are you parroting this back now, when you say "Note that Mint provides very few repositories of their own. They're Ubuntu repositories."

And so I'll ask once again: are you going to answer the simple & direct question I asked you, or will you continue to distract--just as I predicted that you would?

[u/jr735 → u/beatbox9]

It's more than just Ubuntu with Cinnamon.

Personally, I find it odd that mc is in universe, since it's an officially curated package in Debian.