Ubunto or Mint

[bamx2]

For several years on and off I have played with linux live cds but couldn't get it so I lost interest. However, recently one my family Window 10 pc systems got corrupted and I was unable to reinstall the OS with the information I have so it means that I will have to purchase a new copy of Windows10 . I have been trying out Unbuntu 16.10 and Mint 18.1 and I think that either will suffice for the tasks that the this machine is used for. Is there any reason to use one over the other ? -Thanks

 

[lxskllr]

Whichever you prefer. Xubuntu is my goto for a quick to install distro. It's personal preference.

 

[Kalmah]

While I really like the way that Ubuntu looks, I found the Unity interface to be kind of weird. I don't know how to explain it, it just didn't do what I was expecting it to do at times. I think it would be easier to just go with Mint, but if you want to experience a few others, I suggest checking Ubuntu MATE and Kubuntu. MATE is tried and true, it's full of features and works without problems. Kubuntu is cutting-edge with its interface, because of this I've experienced some buggyness. But man it's the most polished looking distro that I've seen.

 

[mxnerd]

How about Android PC Neverware CloudReady? Need USB flash drive though.

https://www.neverware.com/freedownload/

 

[you2]

I'm a gnome ish user; and i tried mint for a while when ubuntu went to unity but it had a lot of 'issues' for my environment so after a year i went back to ubuntu. Can't stand xubuntu so i run ubuntu with xfce4 (which is almost xubuntu but not quite).

 

[Red Squirrel]

I personally prefer Mint, but try both. Not a fan of the Unity interface, in fact it kinda reminds me of Windows 8 as far as usability goes. All the places you would normally expect to be able to click (such as start menu) don't exist, and it's just annoying.

There's also various versions of Ubuntu and Mint with different GUIs. Like there's KUbuntu, XUbuntu etc.

 

[Shamrock]

MX-16 (Xfce, Debian repos) if you want easy to use. The MX tools are spot on for a novice.

I like KDE Neon (Kubuntu repos), which is the KDE flagship. It doesn't come with a lot of software, but you can download what you need. It uses "discover" for package manager, but you can install synaptic from it.

 

[whm1974]

I'm using Manjaro which is based off of Arch. It uses the Xfce desktop environment. I have far fewer problems with it than any other distro I used.

 

[repoman0]

I really like Mint with the Cinnamon desktop environment. I'm using it full screen in virtualbox and I find I rarely move back over to my Windows desktop.

 

[Kalmah]

I really like Mint with the Cinnamon desktop environment. I'm using it full screen in virtualbox and I find I rarely move back over to my Windows desktop.

What graphics? Mint runs like crap in virtualbox for me with AMD graphics.

 

[repoman0]

What graphics? Mint runs like crap in virtualbox for me with AMD graphics.

Runs like crap in what way? I'm using nvidia and it's okay, certainly usable. It was totally broken until I turned off hardware acceleration in Chrome though, constantly getting memory read errors and crashing the vm (known bug). You also need to make sure that you uninstall mint's guest extensions and install the native virtualbox ones. I think it's

sudo apt-get purge virtualbox-guest-*

then have virtualbox attach its guest extensions ISO.

I'd probably just run it natively and dual boot but my secondary storage is set up in MS storage spaces, so the usual linux ntfs driver can't access it.

 

[Kalmah]

Runs like crap in what way? I'm using nvidia and it's okay, certainly usable. It was totally broken until I turned off hardware acceleration in Chrome though, constantly getting memory read errors and crashing the vm (known bug). You also need to make sure that you uninstall mint's guest extensions and install the native virtualbox ones. I think it's

sudo apt-get purge virtualbox-guest-*

then have virtualbox attach its guest extensions ISO.

I'd probably just run it natively and dual boot but my secondary storage is set up in MS storage spaces, so the usual linux ntfs driver can't access it.

It's the start menu mostly, click it then have to wait for nearly a second for it to appear. Scrolling in Firefox lags also. I'll have to try what you suggested.

 

[Dulanic]

I prefer Mint myself. I don't like Ubuntu, I dunno why.

 

[mv2devnull]

I don't know either, but a websearch returns comparisons such as this:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/linux-mint-vs-ubuntu-distro-choose/

 

[pauldun170]

For several years on and off I have played with linux live cds but couldn't get it so I lost interest. However, recently one my family Window 10 pc systems got corrupted and I was unable to reinstall the OS with the information I have so it means that I will have to purchase a new copy of Windows10 . I have been trying out Unbuntu 16.10 and Mint 18.1 and I think that either will suffice for the tasks that the this machine is used for. Is there any reason to use one over the other ? -Thanks

If Windows 10 was previously installed and activated, then all you need to do is grab the latest media from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 and reinstall from that.
You can use their media creation tool to to toss it on USB. You can do a clean install or you can try and recover the old install. Doesn't matter. If it was a legit copy and activated, Microsoft will have all the info and reactivate if install back on the same PC.

Then you can vmware player and try out both Mint and Ubuntu (and also checkout Fedora 25 with the new wayland stack)

 

[Apathetic]

I'm also a big fan on Cinnamon desktop.

Dave

 

[AMDisTheBEST]

For several years on and off I have played with linux live cds but couldn't get it so I lost interest. However, recently one my family Window 10 pc systems got corrupted and I was unable to reinstall the OS with the information I have so it means that I will have to purchase a new copy of Windows10 . I have been trying out Unbuntu 16.10 and Mint 18.1 and I think that either will suffice for the tasks that the this machine is used for. Is there any reason to use one over the other ? -Thanks

I get free windows from my school. Want the license key free of charge?

 

[XavierMace]

No. Just no.

 

[EXCellR8]

Ubuntu 14.04 + G3.

the cinnamon interface almost looks like a windows xp ripoff... except without the robustness of windows.

there's some kind of issue with the latest distros and AMD graphics though, which sort of sucks because I like APU for my Linux machines. Upgraded one of them the other night and I've had nothing but bug after bug.

 

[bamx2]

I've decided to use Ubuntu for the time being . The Unity interface is not a problem for me. Thanks for the feedback.