this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2026
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Curious that Ubuntu seems to get passed over in discussions/publications, yet is the largest install base (I seem to recall reading, open to contradicting info)
Not curious, Canonical is widely seen as antithetical to open source ethos. But it is stable and has put in a lot of work for vendor support, which is why so many distros (including Mint) are downstream derivatives from Ubuntu.
Yep. Purely for interface simplicity mint is gonna feel a lot more familiar to people fleeing windows. Yes Ubuntu can install the same DE or even KDE. But it's not the default. And that confuses people.
This is why I think Kubuntu is a better suggestion than Ubuntu, and also Discover is better than the Ubuntu Software Center anyways and it makes it easy to avoid Snaps and does a good job managing Flatpaks.
For family I've been pushing Bazaar. Depending on distro, discover can be lacking on integration. Updating some packages but not others. If your distro does flatpak, and it does. It's click bang done most of the time. No PPAs, or several user/community repos to cock you up randomly.
Personally I like native and rolling release. But I've been using Linux for 30 plus years. When you just need it to work and be a relatively recent release. Can't argue with results.
I haven't tried Bazaar
My biggest gripe about it is it uses gtk. Other than that it's fantastic. It's an awesome way to discover and keep your flatpaks up to date.
I see what you did there
Honestly in a lot of ways that's kind of what it's like. Discover but woth a central unified Repository for all distros.
which is why I'm on LMDE
It used to be the largest, a few years ago. It used to be among the best, a few years before that. It's still pretty good, but no longer suitable for everyone like it was in the old days.
Ubuntu is not great due to Canonicals choices. However I do wonder if they have more enterprise/business install base.
I started on Ubuntu, then I read more about Ubuntu, and switched to Mint. Ubuntu brings a lot of people to Linux, and then a lot of people leave Ubuntu after learning more about it.
You could read more about Ubuntu, too, the information is available.
Thank you - what made you leave Ubuntu?
What might people read that would convince them to switch?
For me, among other things it hijacked apt for snap silently, or something sneaky like that.
Most basic thing - devs target it for things like schools, yet rip out things for remote management.
Like to get any kind of remote access you have to re-install the services for it. Talk about ass backwards.
it takes less than 5seconds to "reinstall" them. I swear distros cant win with whatever software they include/dont.
Ubuntu was great 15 years ago