Desert just looks amateur and something thst might have competed with XP.

https://surveys.debian.net/ took me a minute to find the vite link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxZf1-bLIHY

This is a pretty good start to make Mint (Cinnamon) look better.

Its basically mall built-in tools.

I ended up just putting icons in the middle (to prepare for works Win11 enshitification).

I also put a user button near the time to allow shutdown and removed the god awful power icons from the start menu (or whatever the app launcher is called).

Theres also an extend thin for a bigger start menu more like a grid but thats personal preference.

I think mint should do some of these things so its not so off putting. It held me back forming for so long but IRS much better.

I prefer mint over fedora. Fedora dosnt seem to have as many apps in the store. Yes you can use a terminal but thats not helping linux become mainstream, mint is.

+1 mint also prompts new users to setup timeshift backups.

Endeavour IS is arch with KDE and a few basic apps. Pretty sure you dont need WiFi to test it. For any issues you can just use the arch wiki. I really enjoyed it as first distro as the wiki is so helpful. I moved to Mint tho (not DE) and have loved not having to use the terminal for anything.

I installed an emoji quick search app (not sure what one). It freezes Wayland/mint.

I tried Wayland once and didnt realise I was still logging in with it.

Maybe I misunderstood. Are launchers more like “search” or quick lunch?

I was looking for a start menu replacement.

Playing along for Mint/Cinnamon suggestions. Already using the Cinimenu (or whatever it is) but its still not “it”.

Probably not the place to ask, but. Say In a n00b and have Arch (EndeavourOS BTW) on a 15+ year old laptop. Everything works fine hardware wise. Software is fairly basic web, Inkscape, LibreOffice.

Do I really need all the latest Arch updates? Or can I just do an update say every 6 months?

The sync looks to be a version of KDE connect. That I have running on Mint. I think I had to install it from the Mint software GUI though.

Zorin does look cool though. As easy as it is Mint/Cinnamon is a bit ugly out of the box.

How does this compare for a user who “just wants things to work without terminal/CLI”.

I’ve landed on Mint after trying a few other distros.

This. In my recent experience on one laptop. Arch (Endevour OS btw) installed fine.

But LMDE would not boot. I got a system disk missing error every time after install. So much playing with EUFI settings in BIOS, boot back to live disl, multiple re installs, GRUB repair, remake the ISO (ISO was fine, installed on another PC with no issues). Gave up. Just could not boot to the OS.

Install normal mint. No issues.

And past the install? Bluetooth dongle works fine on arch, but so many issues on mint.

WiFi dongle A works on arch, but not mint. WiFI dongle B dosenr work on arch but does work on mint. Took me a while to work thst one out.

Headphpnes have some weird echo back to me when mic is on. Use pipewire config from archwiki. Worked, but reduced qualoty. Tried a few other configs. Didn’t work. Must have broke something coz now the original config dosnt work. So will just deal with echo.

0 of these issues on windows. And 0 likely your regular user can easily swap to Linux.

Will stay on arch tho. Fuck spez windows.