I am pretty new to Linux (a bit over a year) but to be fair, I haven’t really messed with it. Once set up, everything works, so I never really use the terminal. to me, it is just an OS, and i don’t mess under the hood with it.
I use Mint (Cinnamon) and I am pretty happy with it. My thoughts now are, with a new PC comming, if I should stick to Mint, or install an other distribution?
I use it mainly as a home desktop, but also do some image editing, video editing, learning CAD at the moment and of course a bit of gaming (through Steam)
Any advice is welcomed
No reason to switch if everything works as expected.
That’s a good caveat. If you’re getting a new PC with a new GPU and new hardware it’s entirely possible that features or functionality won’t be as well supported and that decision will be made for you.
But if it still works, keep it.
Mint is the distro for people like you and me. Minimal hassle, just works. No need to muck around with it.
if you’re running on base lmint (not de), you may try updating your kernel to latest one (whatever ubuntu’s currently being supported) by using ubuntu mainline kernel heres the guide
make sure you have backed up, enabled timeshift or whatever because this may break your system.
and I am pretty happy with it.
No reason to switch from the sound of it
If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it
You really only ever switch distros if you’re having issues with it or if you wanna tinker with another one. Given your post, you don’t seem to fit either of these categories, so stick with mint and have fun being a sane person.
The only reason to switch distros is because you’re unhappy with some aspect of your current distro (doesn’t sound like it) or you want to try something on a different distro (also doesn’t sound like it). So in short no, you shouldn’t switch unless you have a reason for it.
Yes. Unless you have any problems, stick with it. It’s easy to use, it’s stable, it’s pretty well supported, it’s common enough that there’s a lot of advice available. You already know it and don’t appear to have any issues or complaints with it.
There’s no harm in trying some other distros on a live USB if you’re feeling curious, but there’s no reason to change for the sake of it. In case you weren’t aware, a live USB runs completely off the USB stick - so you can test it on an existing machine, and it won’t alter any installed files.
There’s a chance that with a very new machine with very new components that Mint may have a compatibility problem (by default it uses slightly older, more tested kernels or software versions) - you can normally fix this by manually installing newer versions, or using the “Linux Mint Edge” version (which uses newer kernels by default) - or by trying a different distro which uses newer kernels/packages by default.
Sometimes people get this funny thing in their head that Mint/Ubuntu/PopOS etc are “beginner distros” and after you’ve used them for a few years, you need to “upgrade” to a more complicated one - but no, for the majority of purposes, you can carry on using the one you like, until they stop making it, or you stop liking it.
I’ve been using Mint pretty successfully on my new build i did in January
Plenty of reasons to stick with mint, the most important being that you said you’re happy with it.
It’s fun to discover new distros, but in the long run it is more important to keep my workstation working.
I keep an old laptop around for trying other distros.
If you’re happy with it, then don’t switch. There’s nothing you’re doing that Mint doesn’t do well, so there’s no point switching to something else that you might not like when you already enjoy what you have.
Well I love Mint, but nothing is stopping you from experimenting with other distros, now and then I try a couple new distros to see if there is anything that fits me better, but I personally keep coming back to mint. Nothing wrong with sticking with something that works, mint is really intuitive in my opinion, why it just works for me
I tend to keep my laptops on mint or ubuntu. PC’s you use as a daily driver, should be easy to manage. When you boot, they just work.
Build a homelab, if you want to break stuff.
A homelab can be as small, as a vm in virtualbox. No need for extra hardware when starting off…
I’m currently using Mint, and doing regular backups with Timeshift. I see two possible reasons to switch in the future: if there’s ever an update that breaks my system and I don’t manage to recover a backup, or newer releases become incompatible with my hardware. So far none of this has happened so I don’t see a reason to change.
Depending on the GPU, you may need to install a PPA and install a newer kernel to get access to more modern GPU drivers to play games, but only if it’s very new hardware.
I am planning on getting the GTX 5070. Will discuss with my computer pusher tomorrow though. Had asked him for a 4070 but he said they don’t make those any more