Stop Hating On Linux Mint!

greetings and salutations I hope this video finds you well I am going to respond to some very clickbait journalism in this video and therefore I may be accused of perpetuating clickbait journalism ordinarily I would completely avoid stuff like this however this is a subject that is very near and dear to my heart and I have very strong opinions on it so yes dear viewer this video is going to be a rant because this pissed me off I'm gonna tell you straight up now I do not want this video to be seen by anybody as me calling anybody out I don't want it to be seen as me trying to stir the pot or start a flame war or anything like that but sooner or later if you feel strongly about something you have to stand up and say hey wait a minute that's enough let's talk about this for a minute that's what I'm doing I am exercising my right to free speech so what is this all about an article appeared in TechRepublic just a few days ago by a fella named James Saunders I have skimmed through the article I don't know anything about James and I don't really follow his work so this is not an attack on James however he posted an article with a headline that reads scientific Linux and anti gross are shutting down it's time for Linux Mint to go the youtuber distro tube has included this story in his video series called taking into account now I have been following distro tube for quite some time and I generally enjoy his content even if I don't agree with everything that he says in his videos but he decided that he would report on this and in the title for his video he went a step further and said Linux Mint must die now I don't respond to people on YouTube I don't call out youtubers I don't hardly ever talk about other YouTube channels and the reason why is because it's a professional courtesy thing it comes from my days of working in radio and television if you work for one radio station and you have a competing radio station across town you don't say bad things about them on the air because then people might accuse you of being a spoiled sport or a bad sportsmanship whatever you don't say good things about them on the air simply because of the fact that that's giving them free publicity and if they're competing with you why would you do that so as we roll along in this video I want you to understand a very important concept of marketing and broadcasting there is no such thing as bad publicity even if somebody jumps up and points a finger at you and says hey you're an idiot you don't know what you're talking about if they do it in the right place at the right time it will forward your cause because everybody's gonna come tune in your radio station or they're gonna click on your YouTube channel or read your blog or whatever and that's part of what clickbait is really all about that's why you do it you're trying to stir the pot you're trying to piss people off and unfortunately all media creators in this highly competitive youtube blogosphere environment are guilty of it at one point or another I've done it everybody's done it because you're just like God I just need somebody to click on this I need to get a video out I want people to talk about my channel I want to I want to be a part of this community and sometimes you put things up that you go and you and think about it later you go it's kind of I don't know whether I should have done that I don't want what I say in this video to be seen as an attack on distro tube or mr. Saunders at Tech Republic they're just doing what they do I am talking about the subject matter I am talking about the opinions they expressed not the people so let's make sure that it's understood basically what distro tube said was in his video and what Saunders had said in his article and district 2 went on with it is that he does not see the point in Linux Mint he finds it to be completely redundant he thinks that it's a subpar distro he pointed out mistakes that have been made security breaches that have happened in the past reasons why all the Linux Mint developers who currently work on let's say a direct quote here if you work on the xfce desktop for Linux Mint you should quit what you're doing and go work on Xubuntu that it's nothing more than a duplication of effort and that it shouldn't exist well it shows me that distro - and James Saunders have a profound ignorance when it comes to what Linux Mint is about and who are the people who use Linux Mint because it's not them Linux Mint has done more to bring new users to Linux than any other Linux distribution out there whether you like it or not whether you use it or not you should be supporting Linux Mint you should be helping the project because it provides a gateway to Linux like no other and it's the reason why when people ask me what Linux distribution should I start out with I always say Linux Mint sometimes I'll tell them hey you could use a boon to Mattei but it depends on the user I have discussed that in the past in my videos why I feel that way Linux Mint provides the most polished complete Linux experience when you install it than any other once you get it installed you've got one of everything that works proven software they have dotted all the guys crossed all the t's if you check the box that says install third-party software during installation you get everything you're going to need you also have installed when Linux Mint is done installing this is just the Installer you have an entire build environment so that you can start creating software and building it from source code yourself if that's something that you want to do its pre-installed with Linux Mint all of the codecs are already there you don't have to think twice about it you will never in Linux Mint click on a file and have it come up where it says I can't play this because all of the codecs are already there no other distribution of Linux not one provides that kind of polished experience none of them not Manjaro not a boon to matei none of them sometimes I will tell people hey you would be more suited to get started with a boon to my take and those people tend to be the ones who are more hands-on they want to have some stake in what's going on with their computer and they they're just those kind of users you know I can always tell like my brother for instance great example he knows his way around a computer he's very computer savvy way back in the 80s he was working on these big UNIX systems that had you know paraphernalia that took up entire rooms he understands the system so I said here you'll like this guess what he did because it's very easy to set up a boon to matang it's pretty much all point-and-click but it is a process you have to go and install your codecs and you have to go do this and go do that and you make decisions along the way Linux Mint BAM it's there it just works Linux Mint does not exist to please Linux elitists it exists to make Linux easy to use for people who don't give two shits about Linux it exists for people who are not computer geeks it exists for people who are just profoundly lazy even if they do understand how the system works and they want to spin up something that is a full-featured environment and there it is the cinnamon desktop environment the xfce desktop environment and the matei desktop environment which is what they ship with are all set up in the same way to mimic the old Windows 7 paradigm there are those in Linux who use it for aesthetic purposes they like the way a gnome desktop works they like the way other alternative desktops to the old Windows Start menu setup they like that that's why they're here there's nothing wrong with that but you need to understand that people who are coming to Linux from Windows find those desktop environments to be intimidating very much so they don't know where everything is the Linux Mint team with the development of cinnamon and the way they themed xfce and the way they theme their met a desktop have created an environment that feels very familiar to these people who are coming from the windows world and when they sit down and start using it they know intuitively where things are things show up where they expect them to be that is extremely important because people who even are curious about Linux are intimidated by what they see in Linux as being unnecessary being unnecessarily cryptic let's put it that way every other distribution of Linux besides Linux Mint gets it wrong when it comes to these users when it comes to these new users that come in every other distribution all of you I'm not really putting you down it's just a matter of not understanding who your user is for instance people go well if you're gonna use Linux went one why don't you just use a bin - there is not an a boon to flavor except for a boom - Mattei which has been previously mentioned that does not require the user to do something that is very Linux II to get the system working straight up a boon - if you install it just the way it is half of the LibreOffice suite is not installed chances are with straight up a boon - you're gonna have to open up a terminal and install something or edit a file or change something to make it do what you want to do it's not an out-of-the-box experience it is a very minimal experience and for people who have a modicum of experience with Linux they can figure this out or if they are in a situation where they have an administrator who is setting all this up for them then it works great for them but if you're somebody who's just an old Windows user who's tired of dealing with it and you want to install a boon - it can be very intimidating very intimidating regardless of what the desktop is except for a boon - Matei and the reason why I've been to Matea is different is because they have their welcome menu well so does Linux Mint and Linux Mint welcome menu takes you through the steps of getting started they have a very well-written guide for somebody who wants to RTFM you want to read the manual it's a step by step thing Linux Mint is not perfect but I can set up Linux Mint without ever opening a terminal I can tell somebody how to set up Linux Mint on a telephone who is not computer savvy just by saying follow this step one two three four I've done it many many many times when I used to do one-on-one support we'd set up Linux Mint that's what we started with so for somebody to come along and say that Linux Mint doesn't have a reason to exist and that they don't see why the the distribution should have anybody contributing to it just shows this profound ignorance just a profound ignorance of what it is like to start out with Linux for if you're not a computer user if you're not a computer IT person somebody who is every most everybody's a computer user these days or at least in some form or fashion but I mean you're not a power user that's what I was trying to say so if you've been using Linux for 10 or 15 years then you probably don't get it and one of the things that was said was that 10 years ago when Linux Mint was first coming along that a boon to was particularly tricky to set up that's absolutely true because you would install a boon to and what would happen is you'd find that your you couldn't play a youtube video at the time why because you had no Flash Player so then you had to go off and figure out how to do that so the Linux Mint team they decided well damn the torpedoes we don't care about the licensing we don't care if we get sued we're just going to include this crap when you install it there you go that's how I got started with Linux I fumbled around with a boon to and then installed Linux Mint one day and damn everything just worked now I have not run Linux Mint as my main distro all these years I have gone back to a boon to but Linux Mint was a stepping stone for me and then it's a stepping stone for a lot of other people you can you can learn your way around Linux in Linux Mint and then move on to whatever distribution you like that's why it exists and then there are people like my mom for instance who use Linux Mint and love it and don't want to change Linux Mint is extremely stable I have I have had installations of Linux Mint on my own hardware that run for five or six years with nothing but regular updates and upgrades in other words I didn't reinstall it or anything I just upgraded in place and kept it going and it did so that is one of the things about Linux Mint it's boring yeah stable hell yeah now there are those in the Linux community who will accuse Linux men of being insecure we need to talk about this right now because you're going to hear this up to the Linux Mint 17 series it was not automatic for Linux Mint to install a new kernel those packages were held back even if a revision of the kernel came in that added security or features to the system Linux Mint would not automatically install that you would have to do it manually in the 17 series they had a kernel tool so you would have to roll forward manually to do that Linux Mint caught a lot of Hell for that because many people in the Linux community said hey that's insecure you need to update the kernel but when you look at that you have to think about the time in which they were doing that it was during a time we're talking five six seven eight nine years ago now that a kernel update could break your system it's not even a matter of could it break your system it was a matter of when it could break your system kernel development and the way distributions deal with kernels has improved over the last five years like a million percent and the later versions of Linux Mint 18 and beyond you can opt to go ahead and install that new kernel that new revision of whatever kernel series you're on because it won't break your system any more like it used to but five or ten years ago it would break your system that's why the Linux Mint people did what they did it wasn't because that they didn't understand that it was a security risk the problem was is that people systems would get broke wouldn't know how to roll back they wouldn't know how to fix it so they were trying to mitigate that by saying hey as long as this particular release is you can stay on this revision of this kernel it's a trade-off between security and stability it always is ladies and gentlemen that's the problem with rolling releases as much as people who like rolling releases want to beat their chests and say it never breaks on me sooner or later it will because a rolling release simply dumps the latest code out to their users and if it breaks it breaks if you're using something like a boon - or Linux Mint or Debian stable they don't do that if there's an update that's made it's tested and that makes sure that you can sit down at your computer and fire it up and it'll start working that's more important than the offhand chance that you might just maybe on a desktop Linux system have somebody exploit some little-known vulnerability in the Linux kernel people who run servers need to worry about that kind of crap because on the internet servers are constantly being banged on I run servers on the internet and my servers are always reporting to me hey all these people tried to sign in to your SSH and they tried to get in and they're not authorized but my Linux machine which is sitting behind a firewall in my router that never happens and it's never gonna happen but Linux Mint did respond to that new versions of Linux Mint every time a new kernel comes out it gets installed not an issue anymore so shut up about it now the other thing about linux mint is that about three or four years ago I don't remember exactly when this was what happened to linux mint was that a wordpress account was hacked on their web page and that wordpress account had a weak password somebody got ahold of it and they exploited that vulnerability by replacing one of the ISO images that was available for download with one that had a little piece of malware in it this was available for download for about six hours on a weekend so it happened on a Saturday ok when it was discovered it was immediately pulled down and the community was notified that this happened Linux Mint admitted that they had a security issue they called in security experts to toughen up their site which they did nothing like that has ever happened since the Linux community as a whole has never forgiven the Linux Mint project for that even to this day you still hear it Linux Mint is insecure Linux Mint is poorly coded and it will break your machine and it's horrible Linux and you should never use it and then they'll point back to that and they'll say it was hacked let me tell you what a lot of stuff in the Linux world has been hacked the aboon two forums have been hacked several times but you don't hear people going on and on about that and this stuff happens but for some reason when it happened to Linux Mint it happened in such a way that people never let it go and they've held it against the distribution one of the things that distro tube talked about was banshee how the donate button which Banshee was a media player at some point three or four years ago there was a donate button and Banshee and it was accidentally donating to the Mint project itself I didn't even know about that story I don't even know what that is but it was rectified and fixed even he pointed that out so what is the point of dredging that up now why do we do this in this community that is ridiculous nobody's perfect developers are not perfect they make mistakes distributions make mistakes come on folks it's not fair to piss all over one distribution or another it simply isn't it's not so quit it and that leads me to my final point that I'm gonna wrap this thing up this is clickbait journalism that's what this is when you have this one person who's sitting behind a keyboard trying to figure out a way to get more people to read their stuff or cause a stink within the tech and Linux community and they can sit there and put in their headline Linux Mint it's time for Linux Mint to go or even Linux Mint must die the profound level of disrespect that shows for the open-source community as a whole the principles of open-source and the people who work hard to develop whatever project it is that you happen to be pissing all over at that moment that is horrible there are people who work on the Linux Mint project who contribute their time and they get no compensation one of the things that was said in distro tubes video was that the LMDE project linux mint on debian they had abandoned it and they didn't care that's not true we just had a major release of lmde which I contributed to I was a beta tester I found bugs and gave bug reports to the mint developers about that so don't tell me that it wasn't developed because it was and it still is and you can go download it he made it sound like that the link wasn't on the website anymore the point of it is is that people in the open-source world had this technology which is freely available to them it's free for me to use it's free me to develop it's free for me to use as a springboard to develop my own things and if you're gonna sit there and say a project shouldn't exist then you're just wow that you don't get it do you there are plenty of projects out there that I don't use or I don't like there are distributions of Linux that I don't understand why they exist I'll give you for instance elementary OS I don't get it I've installed it I've played with it I reviewed it I don't like it but there are a lot of really nice people working on elementary OS elementary OS caused a stink very early on because they had their webpage set up in such a way that it appeared that you would have to contribute a donation to be able to download that happened two years ago but I don't hear people railing on elementary OS today about that I have a I have a reason why I think that happens with Linux Mint and I'll get into that in just a minute but let me finish this point so I don't like elementary OS but you don't see me getting on this channel and telling people all elementary OS should just shut down and go away no I mean I'll give you my honest opinion about it it ain't my cup of tea but there are people out there who love elementary OS who support the project and thinks it's great that doesn't threaten me if I want to use Ubuntu or Linux Mint I joke on people in the arch community it doesn't threaten me if you want to use Arch Linux you're not taking away my aboon - or my Linux Mint I never said that Arch Linux should die it's different strokes for different folks and it just shows its profound disrespect for the basic principles of open-source you can take this technology and do whatever you want with it as long as you're not breaking the law or hurting somebody so you have to respect people's choices that's part of the deal now last thought and then I'm gonna wrap this thing up why do I think Linux Mint gets all this negativity I'll tell you why because they absolutely positively suck at marketing the Linux Mint project has no clue how to market none whatsoever they have no Karis charismatic people in the community espousing the benefits of Linux Mint Klum lefeber who is the head developer will not talk to anybody he doesn't give interviews he doesn't come on to people's YouTube broadcast podcasts whatever he won't do it I've asked he ignores you completely if you ask if you send an email to Clem Lefevre as a creator in the community as somebody who's working in media and if you send him an email it will bounce off you will not get a response that's how he deals with it and that is to the detriment of Linux Mint because they're not marketing themselves and they don't have leaders out in the community talking about himself you think about a boon to you think about people like will cook and you think about Alan Pope and you think about people like Martin whimpers Martin whimpers and Alan Pope work on a boon to MIT a and a boon to the mainstream as well and then we'll cook is doing the aboon 2 podcast he's available in Joe rezzing ttan who works it appears on the ubuntu podcast and then they go on to the jupiter broadcasting shows and they'll talk to people and they'll do this and do that they'll do that but nobody from linux mint will none of the developers are out in the community so linux mint if you're watching this video contact me and we will talk about it I will Google hangout you or jitsi you or whatever it is and I will do a video with you and I will talk about the wonders of Linux Mint I will give you as much airtime on this channel as you would like now I'm gonna tell you something nobody's gonna take me up on that that's the problem with Linux Mint one of the greatest Linux distributions there is zero marketing and they're not talking to the community like that and that's said and that's my opinion and I'm done with my rant links to James Sanders article and distro tubes video are in the description for this video along with a bunch of other links where you can become part of the easy Linux project in one way or another or follow me or whatever you want to do go to easy Linux comm for more about Linux that's sort of a clearinghouse for all this stuff we have easy Linux on Facebook give that a like if you're a Facebook user and consider becoming a part of the easy Linux forum easy talk it is free secure and fun we have moderators who make sure that everybody has a good time in that forum and everybody plays nice so thank you very much for watching the video I certainly do appreciate it cannot wait to hear your feedback on this one here we go ladies and gentlemen here we go

Channel: Joe Collins

Views: 60,843

Rating: 4.7870855 out of 5

Keywords: Linux, Linux Mint, OS, FOSS, Computer, Software, Laptop, Desktop

Id: szDHAeaqJD8

Length: 29min 44sec (1784 seconds)

Published: Fri May 31 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/brotenet]

FINALLY !!! Somebody talked about how stupid this article is !!!

Linux Mint is one of those distros that people actually use at it work (you know.. to make a living.. pay the bills..) because it was designed to just work out-of-the-box.

I have been using Mint for maybe more than 10 years now, I support it by donating, I promote it to newcomers that want something that they can stick with even if they become advanced in the future, I do my work with it ....

The Linux Mint development team should give lessons to almost everyone else (not only Linux distro makers, but, all OS makers) on how to make a proper desktop OS.

[u/Nerddom13]

I support this message. Get off the dude's nuts and let him run his team. Over the course of more than a decade, a small team is inevitably going to run into some tough spots. They'll get past it, or they won't. It's up to them to decide if/when the project has run its course, not some crackpot 'journalist'.

[u/eben33zer]

Linux Mint ist the best distro.

I am a years experienced Linux vet - i do not see a distro that is as light weight as Linux Mint and in the same time being that complete.

​

It suits the experienced as well as Linux newbies - and that is what a distro should do.

​

Agree and appreciate all the commentator said.

[u/boseka]

The world is full of idiots and ignorant people, i don't think that article should've received all this amount of attention. Who cares !!!!

I have been using linux mint with the glorious Cinnamon for 4 years since my day one with linux, i have used so many linux distributions but i always found myself coming back to Mint Cinnamon.

[u/averyquinns]

Yeah, that article... Guy calls for Linux Mint to be shuttered but leaves RebeccaBlackOS alone. 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♀️

[u/alexks_101]

I don't use Mint myself but I install it to beginners (friends, family, curious people tired of Windows) and it is wonderful.

Mint users and devs, don't care about the stupid hate you may face sometimes, just keep up the good work and enjoy. Yes, some projects are useless, and at the beginning (first years) I thought the same about Mint, but nowadays when I see where Ubuntu is crashing going I understand the added value.

This article is full of non-sense, I wonder if the author really uses (or is even interested by) GNU/Linux

There were some serious mistakes, like the different update priorities recently fixed, but overall the polish level is excellent. Mint should (will?) be the flagship distro when you discover GNU/Linux. I deeply dislike the name and the logo though :(

Cheers!

[u/NotFromReddit]

Honestly have no idea what this is about. I've been using Linux Mint exclusively for more than 5 years. I've never had someone bother me about it.

[u/[deleted]]

Linux Mint: exist
Some guy: I dOn'T lIkE iT, pLeAsE dElEtE iT

[u/smudgepost]

I had no idea people were complaining about getting something so good for free? If you dislike it move on to something you prefer. If you don't know how to use it, the community forum, Reddit page and irc channel are all excellent. I've used Linux since it began and I love LM. It's not my only distro but it is my primary one. Thank you LM community and developers for all your amazing work.