this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2024
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The Linux Mint team has just released Linux Mint 22, a new major version of the free Linux distribution. With Windows 10's end of support coming up quickly next year, at least some users may consider making the switch to Linux.

While there are other options, paying Microsoft for extended support or upgrading to Windows 11, these options are not available for all users or desirable.

Linux Mint 22 is a long-term service release. Means, it is supported until 2029. Unlike Microsoft, which made drastic changes to the system requirements of Windows 11 to lock out millions of devices from upgrading to the new version, Linux Mint will continue to work on older hardware, even after 2029.

Here are the core changes in Linux Mint 22:

  • Based on the new Ubuntu 24.04 package base.
  • Kernel version is 6.8.
  • Software Manager loads faster and has improved multi-threading.
  • Unverified Flatpaks are disabled by default.
  • Preinstalled Matrix Web App for using chat networks.
  • Improved language support removes any language not selected by the user after installation to save disk space.
  • Several under-the-hood changes that update libraries or software.
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[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 6 points 5 months ago (9 children)

Supported until 2029 (so 5 years) vs 10 years for Windows 10 + 3 years with ESU

Will continue working on older hardware after 2029... So does Windows 10 after the end of support?

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[–] realitista@lemm.ee 6 points 4 months ago (9 children)

What do people use to replace Microsoft Office these days? Have they got wine working well enough to run them yet or are you still stuck with open source alternatives?

[–] Blisterexe@lemmy.zip 5 points 4 months ago (5 children)

Libreoffice, onlyoffice and ms office online mean that unless its a big part of your job, you dont need ms office

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[–] Banshee@midwest.social 5 points 4 months ago

I've used OnlyOffice (FOSS, really modern) and Softmaker Office, which is a proprietary German alternative with native Linux support. It also has the best docx compatibility of the Microsoft alternatives.

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[–] drislands@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

I switched to Mint for my new PC a few months ago. There are a handful of games that don't work on it, but they're few and far between.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

After my old notebook died, I bought a $200 old, but refurbished, ThinkPad from NewEgg, put Mint on it, and I'm quite satisfied.

[–] PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (5 children)

Can it run steam and autocad?

Also amd gpu support. I had to abandon mint 5 years ago because of poor driver support.

[–] ZarkleFarkle@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

Latest kernel is probably what you need if things work on other distros. There's a menu in the Mint update manager you can use to change to a slightly newer kernel and I would always advise that if it doesn't cause any other issues. Newer kernel usually means more and newer drivers.

Mint is ultimately based on Debian, but with a lot of newer software, although it's "stable" under the hood. That's why Mint is popular on personal home computers. The idea behind it is that it should give you all the updates you need, but not too often or in a way that breaks things. If your computer works on one version of Mint, it would hopefully never break from an update, but packages don't tend to be cutting-edge.

Steam is sort of an exception there. It works well on the vast majority of distros because Valve's CEO is a bit unusual in that he prefers people to be using Linux and has done a lot to keep it working well. If you don't use the flatpak for Steam (which I wouldn't suggest), then it runs in its own kind of custom runtime container that makes sure it works as it's supposed to in the vast majority of Linux distros.

I've never used Autocad, so I couldn't say too much about it. If a program doesn't work properly it could be due to incompatible dependency packages with different behaviour. Autocad would also be a graphics heavy program (similar to Blender, but also like videogames) so drivers could come in there too. The updated libraries might help, or it could just be your graphics drivers again. You can also try the flatpak version instead if it doesn't work, and vice versa.

If you can get your GPU to work on other distros, you shouldn't have many problems on this new major version of Mint, so long as the kernel is new enough, which I think it would be.

If you have a specific, very new, AMD GPU, there are actually public records of what the developers of the Linux kernel are doing to support newer hardware. Most people don't find these easy to check, but this would be a common question. There is a long wikipedia page giving a few of the most well-known optimisations, bug-fixes and hardware support improvements in specific versions of the Linux kernel.

By the way, there are lots of people on the official Linux Mint forums who are happy to answer specific questions about bugs or what's improving in Linux Mint, as posed by community members.

I've been using Mint exclusively for quite a few years now (outside of Android) and had minimal issues, outside of poorly refurbished laptops I got for cheap (like one with a physically broken keyboard that spammed one of the buttons, which I was able to fix easily with a simple script I copied from the web).

Sorry if that was too long an answer, but what I'm saying is there is a good chance it will just work out if you try to install this new major version (though there's some chance it might not). Also I believe they've decided to prioritise shipping a kernel with good hardware support now, rather than a more "stable" one (older/LTS) so a lot of more recent hardware will work, unlike 5 years ago.

Don't be afraid of following a few CLI guides if you have to either. Any distro is good enough if you know a few terminal commands, and any distro can be perfect if you're an absolute bash wizard.

Hope that helped.

[–] ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Technically Mint is based on Ubuntu (this release is based on Ubuntu 24.04 which released earlier this year).

Mint decrapifies Ubuntu by removing things like Snap, I'm going to switch to Mint eventually - honestly maybe even later this year, maybe in December or something.

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[–] communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 5 points 4 months ago (11 children)

these days I recommend fedora kinoite to beginners from windows.

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[–] skulblaka@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 months ago

Oh, neat, I installed Mint on my home machine literally 3 days ago without knowing Mint 22 was coming. Time to upgrade lmao

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