It's a "newbie" distro in that it's interface is very friendly. As far as it's capability, it's as good as any other distro. If you have no issues then you're already living the dream, stay there.

For the most part the distros are all the same, they just configure things differently from the start or come with different packages installed. Think of it like doughnut shops, you can go to two doughnut shops and they might look a little different, be laid out a little different, ring you up a tiny bit different, but under the hood it's still a doughnut shop, a place selling fried dough rings.

The fried dough rings are the Linux kennel, the core of every distro, the color of the glaze is the distro, the "fluff" on top. You can scrape the glaze off the doughnut at one shop and put new glaze on at the other so it's a bit different, but still a doughnut.

I feel like that analogy got away from me.

So yeah, you're not really missing anything. Some people like Arch because it comes with way less preconfigured/installed so it's easier to make it exactly what you want. Newbies (I use this lovingly here) don't really care if they're using X11 or Wayland (the libraries that power how the desktop actually displays programs, sort of, massively simplifying), so they don't need Arch, they can just install a "newbie" distro and be happy. You could strip your Linux mint down to the bare bones and basically make it Arch by using a different package manager and stuff.

Mint is not a newbie distro. I use it every day and it's fine for most needs. Distro wars have been stupid for more than 20 years.

I like Mint because it just works. I see no reason to change.

yea I don't wanna change just to be hip, I literally don't know the differences between distros, I'm just wondering if I'm missing out on something, not in like the way gui and animations works, but the other stuff

In the past, yes. There used to be a need to distro hop and find distros that package the applications that you wanted. Unless you were ready to compile them all yourself. Today, the biggest reason to switch would be trying immutable versus stable versus rolling distributions. Which all have their own advantages and disadvantages.

If you are happy with what you are running then there is no reason to change.

I've used desktop Linux as my primary operating system since the early 90s. I currently use Mint.

No, you don't need to make a switch if it does what you need.

Does it serve your needs? If yes, who cares what people think. The OS has 3 functions: keep your data secure, support and run the apps you need and get the hell out of your way.

Does it work for you? Yes? Then you have no need to swap distros. When people say a 'newbie distro', it means it is simple for newcomer users to learn it, not that it is akin to a tutorial or stopgap.

You only swap distros if you have a use-case your current distro can't actually fulfill for one reason or another.

And about arch being more customizable, Mint is just as customizable. You can swap the desktop just like Arch, you can change bootloader theme, gtk theme, icon theme, etc all normal

Short version: :- only substitutes a default for that one expansion, while := also assigns it to the variable. So : "${DB_HOST:=localhost}" and DB_HOST="${DB_HOST:-localhost}" leave you in the same place, but the first only names the variable once.

The leading : is just the no-op builtin. Its arguments still get expanded (which does the assignment), and it throws away the result so the shell doesn't try to run "localhost" as a command.

A couple of details that might matter:

• The word is only expanded when the assignment actually happens. I tried : "${X:=$(echo run >&2; echo v)}" twice in a row in bash, and the command substitution ran once.
• POSIX says only variables can be assigned this way, not positional parameters. ${1:=x} fails in both bash and dash.

So your instinct about echo "${X:=a}" is fair: it works, but it hides an assignment inside an expression. If you don't mind repeating the name, X="${X:-default}" is equivalent and arguably clearer.

(Spec: POSIX Shell Command Language, section 2.6.2. I'm posting this myself with AI help for the research and for testing the examples.)

I just upgraded to 1440 on my desktop, that's probably a factor in my perception lol

1. It's only a matter of time. Any AI is too much AI in the kernel.

I vastly prefer 1440p at this point. The way I use my laptop, running at FHD just feels crowded.

That, and the fact that Lenovo artificially limited the display output of their AMD models to FHD is enough to make me mod it out of spite.

Those are all really sharp

1920x1080 seems pretty usable to me on a small screen but screen upgrades are fairly popular with old Thinkpads.

I've got a Thinkpad T14 G1 stowed away, and that thing is pretty sweet... But being AMD powered, the best resolution it's capable of is just 1920x1080, which drives me absolutely insane on a small 14" screen. My Spectre runs a much nicer 4K OLED touch display (which I can't imagine helps with battery life).

I barely use the Spectre for gaming.

Edit: Honestly - after googling around a bit - if I can successfully install the missing SMD capacitors on the eDP connection, I will happily daily the Thinkpad.

Decent graphics or decent battery life: Can't have both in a laptop.

My gaming laptop is an Eluktronics Prometheus 17 and that's pretty pretty good (minus battery life, maaaybe 3 hours with light use, probably closer to 1 for gaming) but for regular use I stick to my L14 Thinkpad with Cinnamon Mint on default settings and it can do 4+ hours no problem.

Fair, I'm not one to yuck someone else's yum. I just don't understand the obsession with it. But whatever, doesn't hurt me.

My daily driver laptop is actually a 15" HP Spectre x360, running LMDE7. Outside of the battery life (or a lack thereof), I love it.

I love the nub. ThinkPads have been pretty solid for me. HP has been hit or miss, but their business line is definitely the way to go if you go with HP.

You are an idiot. I've met some people who have been more than interested to discuss this thing and actually go forward with it. You don't even understand what you're reading or what this content is about. Because if you did, and if you did have actual opinions of your own you would post them here rather than signal your conformist mindset.

Do you realize how embarrassing you sound?

I'm still looking for a good one that looks and feels like Pidgin or something. I don't like designs that are so full of stuff that they pretty much assume you have them full screen.

Also: obligatory boo to AI slop

I said “I hope”

You said you hope it's not because "they went hard on vibe-coding" which is an lunatic claim to make in the first place, just because some dude from KDE opened a discussion thread.

And you said that your broken ass PC with immature drivers will be the cause of you opening to many KDE bug reports that they'll hate you. That is what you said.

I said “I hope”. Didn’t know you own KDE plasma.