Linux Mint 21 keeps the crown, but for how long? Cinnamon, MATE and XFCE review

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#linux #linuxmint #opensource

00:00 Intro
00:46 Sponsor: Extend the life of your PHP applications with TuxCare
01:35 Under the hood
02:34 What's new in Cinnamon?
06:30 New Apps and features
09:00 What's new in MINT MATE 21?
10:22 What's new in MINT XFCE 21?
11:05 Still the king? Yeah, but for how long?
13:56 Sponsor: Get a new device that runs Linux out of the box with Tuxedo
15:12 Support the channel

All Mint editions use the Linux kernel 5.15, which is an LTS release, just like Mint 21 itself, so you can expect your distro to be supported until 2027.

They're also all based on Ubuntu 22.04, so they have the same base repos and packages as that LTS distro, and this base will stay with Mint until 2024, at which point they'll start using Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, I'd presume.

So, the big update here is the window manager. Muffin is now based on Mutter 3.36, and that brought it much closer to the upstream than previously.

This means that a few things have changed in Mint 21 Cinnamon, notably the display settings, which are now backported from GNOME to Cinnamon, and all the display configuration code is now part of Muffin instead of being handled by xrandr.

The main change this brings is that you now get a more consistent looking set of apps between applications that use titlebars, and applications that use headerbars. All windows on Cinnamon will now use the GTK theme and shadows to decorate their headerbars or titlebars, which means that the window manager themes are dropped and aren't used anymore.

Another change this brings is that GTK antialiasing is now used for all windows, and since it's much crisper than the metacity one, rounded corners should look better on all windows.

Window animations are also much improved, and look cleaner and perform better, but here again, you lose some customization, as you can't tune them as much, and you can't create your own, but you still can change the global animation speed.

In terms of apps, there's a new thumbnailer app that integrates that lets you preview a lot more file types, like AppImages, ePubs, MP3s, RAW photos, and WebP.

The Sticky Notes app gained the ability to duplicate notes.

Cinnamon also gets a new process monitor, in the notification tray, that will inform you when automated updates are being applied, and when a timeshift snapshot is currently running.

Speaking of timeshift, it's now a default MINT app, and it's maintained by the MINT team.

Xviewer, the file viewer, has improved directory browsing, and will now display a smooth slideshow if you keep pressing the right or left arrow, leaving you enough time to preview each image.

The Webapp manager also now supports more browsers and more parameters, so you can create your webapps more easily, and how you like them.

And finally, the bluetooth utility has been replaced by Blueman.

Mint 21 MATE benefits from the same improvements as its cinnamon counterpart: all the apps are also up to date, including timeshift, the sticky notes, the new bluetooth utility, the new system applets, the main menu right click options, basically everything we just discussed.

It uses MATE 1.26, which is the latest release, but dates from a year ago, from August 2021.

As per MINT 21 XFCE, it's the same story. It uses XFCE 4.16, which dates from December 2020. So, if you were using MATE 20 XFCE, you already know everything there is to know about this desktop.

[bryede]

Honestly, though, this is what I'm looking for in a desktop environment. I don't want to spend a lot of time relearning a bunch of revolutionary changes. I just want things maintained and improved where needed.

[SkyyySi]

I think the reason why Mint is so "stale" is that the developers consider it to be "done" on a fundamental level. They don't want it to change, because they see no need for it. As the saying goes: "If it ain't broken, don't fix it." It's also why I would never recommend something like Fedora to a beginner. A constantly 'evolving' experience is something a lot of people don't actually want, especially beginners. At least, not to the degree Windows or GNOME like to.

[kyokazuto]

It's actually crazy how consistent mint looks across those 3 DEs.

[bluestar]

I stopped recommending "Linux" to other people and now just recommend Mint. I myself started with Pop!_OS, switched to Mint because of the rock solid stability. I don't care about looks or having bleeding edge packages, I just want to turn on my PC and get work done without issues - this is what Mint aims to do: It is a stable OS that doesn't get on your way, something I can't say about modern Windows and other Linux distros.

[brianwashburn]

Mint may not be "cutting edge" but it's the OS that looks like and acts a lot like Windows 7. It is so stable and dependable that when you need an OS to just get stuff done you go to Mint. I've used Mint for about four years now and it has installed on every computer I've tried it on and I've had almost no issues at as far as everything working. The software packages are pretty much exactly what I need also so I really don't need to add much. I donate to the Mint people because I just want to see this workhorse distro continue.

[luki]

Mint user here: I don't care about the latest stuff. What I need is a reliable, light on resources system that looks familiar. Mint with cinnamon does the job. On my laptop with mint I get better battery life than with windows or even more than manjaro/fedora. I like how gnome3 works, used it before, but getting back to mint is just feels like home. I know every bit of it, every time I start my laptop I know that it will be the same as before and capable of doing everything I want with smooth desktop experience and excellent battery life. I have a family, I have a lot of things to do and no time left to tinker with my computer, I just want to use it as efficient as possible and mint is the best partner for that.

[joejoetv]

This was a really interesting video and I agree with many points of it. I'll still keep using Mint as my main distro, since I just can't get away from it, it just works too well. But I hope that many of these features will be added sooner than later, since the Cinnamon Desktop is just awesome. This also reminded me to donate to Mint again, so maybe development can speed up a bit.

[mirage]

Mint's release cycle may be slow and old looking, but they are the "just works" distribution. If you want a Linux setup that guarantees you that you can get work done then Mint is far from the worst choice to go for.

I too would love Wayland support or touchpad gestures, those would be some nice creature comforts. I don't need them to get work done however. I'd also love to see Mint just drop Ubuntu at this point however. I keep reading about how they have to change stuff in the Ubuntu base for Mint to do what they want it to do. While Debian seems to be much closer to what Mint want their Linux distro to be under the hood.

[laletemanolete]

Mint just works! 5 years using it with no problems.

[alexdesiqueira]

Great video, Nick! You lost me on the "Mint needs modern stuff at once or let's go away somewhere else, " though. At the very end, you see 😂

As a dev/sci/tinkerer dude, I had to step back a lot to accept that not everyone is like us, distro hoppers formatting PCs every other week, testing new distros/BSD systems searching for the balance of stability we can afford while still having the bleeding edge bells & whistles, re-learning what is Linux according to a specific distro, fighting over Wayland vs. Xorg, systemd vs. OpenRC, Emacs vs vi, and so on.

Some people using PCs won't ever know what these things are, and will want a PC that "just works"—people may wanna check the news, the weather, do some banking, Facestuff/Inthismomentgram. Come on, this is a PITA even for us, seasoned Linux users 😂 I'm using Linux—and testing most of the distros-of-the-week—for a good 15 years already, and in the very sense of the phrase "just works, " I'd say Mint is still second to none. My work machine currently runs Debian testing—mainly because I learned some nasty working habits from GNOME that would take me a while to "unlearn"—, and my breakable/learning one runs GNU Guix, but I always run to LMDE when I get a new PC. Maybe it's time to get back to it...

I clicked "like, " though; I appreciate you! 😂

[eveypea]

I really like to see that the Mint team focused on updating the system infrastructure rather than pushing the cutting edge. Perhaps this is a solid precursor to making a future Wayland integration?

[AwakenedPhoenix]

As someone who believes computing peaked with Windows 7 and who is royally pissed that things keep changing in a lot of OSes for no reason, Mint is exactly what I'm looking for. It is a rock solid computing experience that is intuitive as a former Windows user and changes little to nothing that I am used to and that I like between iterations. If Mint is exactly the same 20 years from now as it is today, good - that is exactly how I like it. All I want it to do is keep up with newer technologies once they're stable and security updates. Wayland still sucks on my machine so Mint most likely not having it before 2024 is fine with me. If I must have it on a different machine, there's Fedora or I can turn it on in Pop OS.

For what I look for, and in terms of what I would recommend, I can't think of anything better than Mint. (Although Pop OS is up there.)

[dieghotdieghotasca]

I've used so many Linux's distros as daily driver (fedora, Ubuntu, openSuse, elementary, debian, arch, manjaro ecc..)
but now i'm in love with Mint. I have been using it for 6 months and it is the most stable.

[MaryamMaqdisi]

I hope this doesn't sound wrong, but I'm okay with Mint being my loved ones' distro. It's rock solid and honestly most people don't necessarily need quick releases with plenty of new features. While more polish is always welcome, it does its job just fine. I like Mint because it means less headaches for me debugging my loved ones' pcs. It's familiar to them and easy to fix for me as a Debian base in case something ever goes wrong (haven't had any issues yet).

[CesarPeron]

Mate is a popular hot (or cold) drink consumed mostly in southern countries of Latin American. The developer is an Argentinian who named it that in honor of the Mate (stress on the "a"). That drink is commonly shared with another buddies (or mates 😂), similarly as Open source world. 😁

[jdancouga]

I started my Linux journey this year and have distro hopped between the popular ones, and I have finally settled with Linux Mint. I, without a doubt, can say Mint is the most complete out of the box distro for newbies like me. However, I do agree with you Mint does need to march with the times and implement newer features if it doesn't want to get left behind in the years to come.

[jaidCodes]

Switched from Linux Mint (after 8 years) to Pop recently. The preinstalled everything-bar is an absolute gamechanger.

[jvandermerwe]

A excellent update review. You actually mentioned the updates and didn't just a whole desktop review from scratch like most other people do

[kychemclass]

I put it on a 2010 HP laptop (4Gb RAM Dual core 2.8GHz, upgraded to 250Gb SDD) and it works smoothly!!!. I'm stunned by the suitability of LM21 Cinnamon on it and now with 5 years support so this old laptop can keep going until 2027 - fantastic. Mint is exactly that.... Mint!

[jakubstachon]

Printerless printing would certainly be a vast improvement on the current printing experience!