I’ve been having a big think over Linux distros. See, I’ve been looking back at my still-new Linux experience of nine months, and wondering how my own journey can help other people get started with FOSS operating systems. Whenever the topic of a Windows refugee-friendly OS came up, I would recommend Linux Mint because, first, it’s the one everyone says, and second, it was the Linux OS that I started with, fresh off Windows.
I always follow that up with a comment about how you don’t have to stick with Linux Mint if you don’t want to. You can do what I did, which is to dip your toe into the Linux distro water and find something that suits you better. But if I’m setting up Linux Mint as “my first Linux distro,” why not just skip the middleman and get right into the distros that have a bit more meat on them?
is Mint still using old kernels? That could hurt hardware compatibility especially with newer hardware
You can install actually something called Mainline kernels. Which is a simple GUI app. That works also very well under Mint. Allowing you to install even newer kernels.
that sounds cool
although I guess that won’t help you if the Mint installer can’t boot on your computer, or if your wifi driver isn’t available and then you can’t download newer kernels
Depends on your definition of “old”, I guess. 6.8 is considered “current”, 6.14 and 6.17 are available on the list. So far, hardware support on 6.8 has covered everything I’ve thrown at it.
if you wanna put Linux on a brand new Christmas gift laptop, I think 6.14 could definitely be too old
in some cases even 6.17 might be too old
If the Mint installer uses 6.8, can you even install it on brand new hardware? missing a laptop’s wifi drivers would be a huge pain cause then you can’t update it without a usb->ethernet adapter
that would be enough frustration for most users to turn back to Windows
I’m running 6.8 kernel on current Mint for a new PC I built last year. I remember that being a big deal that they were using more recent kernels to improve hardware support. So far it’s supported everything I’ve thrown at it without any effort on my part.
That’s awesome! Mint definitely sounds great if it supports your hardware without issue. I think it’s less of a concern with custom builds, and more of an issue with OEM prebuilts and laptops especially