I’ve been using Linux Mint for about 6-months. So far the experience has been pretty good, but there have been a few issues. I was watching a content contributor who was really pitching up Fedora, saying Ubuntu and Mint have been lacking with updates and that Fedora has really upped their game. Any thoughts?
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I cannot speak about Ubuntu or Linux Mint because I don’t use them much. I have both installed and can use for testing.
Fedora is my main distro for the last 10 - 12 years and I find it very solid. It has everything I need and want for my computer.
You can trace Fedora’s roots back to RedHat, one of the most used distros in the early days. I used RedHat as my first linux install and use it from approx. 1997 - 2007. I used Suse/OpenSuse until switching to Fedora.
There are a few differences between most distros and one of the things you would want to learn in Fedora is the package management system. Fedora uses “dnf” where Ubuntu and Mint use “apt”. There are similarities but eventually you would want to spend an hour or two becoming familiar with “dnf”.
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I have not tried Fedora myself, but have heard that it is more secure out of the box than Debian/Ubuntu based distros because it has SELinux.
What kind of issues are you having in Mint?
I personally started using Mint in November and used that through January and then switched to MX Linux, which is Debian based in February. I didn’t have any real reason to need to switch, but was just curious to try others. I found they both work well.
I’ve tinkered with Linux off and on over the past 10-years but never took the time to really learn it. When Jeff popped up on Telegram I was ready. Windows has always been a frustrating joke. So I formatted and installed Mint. I have every app I need running, but it’s really not that stable after the last update. I’m willing to try different distros until I find something that suits my needs. As long as I can run a VM and install the apps I want, all is good. Thank you for your insight.
Been on Mint since last October. Never an issue after getting all the gremlins out from my HP computers(yeah. . .windows). I have helped a bunch of friends get onto Mint and not heard anyone complain. Its very stable, every program loads easily and is the most stable operating system I have been on . . ever. Windows, Mac or Apple included. Updates are regular and perform effortlessly. Not sure what the difference is with Fedora, and why they are better. Dennis, above, mentioned dnf vs apt. Not sure what the advantage would be?? I suppose this would be something to study and research. . but why, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
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I watched a video where a savvy Linux user had compared the two. I haven’t given up on Mint yet. I have everything I need installed, with VM of Windows Server 2016 and Kali for IT. I’m just curious as to the other distros and how seasoned users feel about them.
Love my Mint Cinnamon, but I do a lot of tweaking to fit my retentive ways. Have had good amount of time in both POP OS from Syst76, as well as ZORIN CORE which would probably be my second choice, since it is also friendly for Ex-WindBLOWS users, which most of my life was on. Been hearing many good things about Fedoro (especially the KDE Plasma ver) so what desktop are you using, since Fedora has many it seems?
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Still using Mint/Cinnamon. But I’m leaning toward Fedora. The first distro I tried years ago was Ubuntu. So far, I’ve really enjoyed Mint. But I’d like to try others to see what else is out there.
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Hello everyone!
I just wanted to pitch in a little here, since I tested out several distros throughout the years to decide which one I would use as my daily driver. The truth is, everything has its pros and cons. SELinux is a great tool, but it’s not limited to RedHat only. You can actually install it in other distros, though you’ll need some configuration.
SELinux comes pre-installed and pre-configured in OpenSUSE as well. I’m currently writing from a MacBook Air with Tumbleweed and it’s an awesome OS. The downside of it is that it needs a bit more tweaking to bring it to your standards. The fact is that with a bit of tweaking, you can bring any Linux distro to your standards.
The two major options to consider, when deciding on a distro, are the following:
Do you want a distro with all the newest bells and whistles? Then you can go for Fedora, Manjaro (or if you’re feeling brave, Arch), OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, or even Ubuntu’s short-term editions. However, the packages and libraries in those distros are not extensively tested from every angle, therefore some instabilities may arise. The most stable from these distros I’ve found to be Tumbleweed, so far. Fedora would pop an error here and there, nothing major, but Tumbleweed has produced none. It all comes down to how much time - and patience - you have for setting things up and bypassing possible issues.
Do you want a rock-solid system? Then it’s best to go with an LTS (Long Term Support) distro. Mint is an LTS distro, just like, Debian, Ubuntu LTS (and its derivatives) and OpenSUSE Leap. On the RedHat side, their free - really LTS distro is CentOS. However, CentOS has been undergoing changes lately, as the 8th iteration was prematurely dropped last December. Hence Fedora is more into play. Still, a lot of professional VFX applications work with CentOS 7, which has started to upgrade its kernel a bit more in the latest iterations.
From the rolling distributions, I’ve thoroughly tested Arch, Manjaro, Gentoo, and Tumbleweed. From the LTS distributions, I’ve tested Mint, Ubuntu (including various flavors, such as Kubuntu, Xubuntu, etc.), Zorin, CentOS, Leap, Debian, Solus, and POP_OS. I run a few others too, but not enough to mention them here.
If you are looking at extreme security, know that your system’s resources will be consumed toward that direction. A prime example distro is Qubes, which is the mothership of security and privacy. I tested it, but not for extreme circumstances. It’s definitely not a distro for workstation-intensive applications, so you can forget doing videos there! Another very secure and private is Tails. It’s lighter on the resources, but your life will be based on the USB thumb drive you carry with you!
A middle-ground, resource-wise, is Kodachi. It’s extremely secure, but you’ll have to do some configuration as it runs a ton of scripts to monitor your system.
Kali Linux and Parrot, two of the “hacker” distros I’d advise against. They are offense-oriented and - if not handled with care - they can get you in trouble. I tested them only for a short while.
Conclusively, Mint is the type of distro that holds the user’s hand as they learn the operating system. Fedora needs tweaks to its user interface until you bring it to your liking. Both can be extremely secure if you don’t roam into dangerous waters. If you do, then go with Qubes. Though don’t try to install it on a system with NVidia cards or less than 32GB of RAM. 
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Hi there. I elected to install Ubuntu on 2 laptops and the in home desktop. My son-in-law gave me an old Dell desktop from a drugstore purchase and I installed Fedora on it and have it in my wood workshop just for a change. I’m a newbie and retired but I’m enjoying the ride. Learning new things is exciting and I’m looking forward to the adventure.
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