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
I've used Mint for about five years now and I see absolutely no reason to switch. It does what an OS is supposed to do, run my computer with minimal hassle.
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.
I've always thought of Mint as a newbie-friendly distro because there is a convenient UI for everything that you want to do, but that doesn't mean it's somehow limited for more advanced users.
It's friendly to new users but does not block things that more advanced users would want. I don't think there's any reason to stop using it as you become an advanced user.
The only reason to switch would be if some other distro has a specific selling point that you want to try. I've tried a few of them and always just end up going back to what I'm familiar with.
If you are happy with what you are running then there is no reason to change.
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.
After using Arch and Debian (two great distros) I have been using Mint for the last 7 years or so and I have yet to feel any desire to change distro: it's just what I was looking for.
'Better' only exists in regards to specific needs: what do you think is not as good as it should be with Mint? Then ytou will be able to decide if this or that other distros offering it are indeed better ;)
If it works for you, stick with it. It also doesn't cost anything try others.
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.
If it ain't broke
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.
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.
Short answer, no. Don't worry about the long answer and keep doing what you're doing.
I enjoy Mint. It's my daily driver, and has been for years. I cut my teeth installing Slackware from floppy disks back in the day, and have been a *nix user/admin for 30+ years (IRIX, Solaris, AIX, HP/UX) and I'm a developer, so I think I qualify as a gray beard rather than a newbie.
It just works. Distro wars are silly, as the other commenter said.
Switching distributions should not be done just to follow a trend, but for real reasons. For example, if you have issues with the kernel or drivers, or if there is some reason you absolutely must use a rolling release, then it might be worth considering Arch. And this is on the condition that you do not want to or cannot solve the problem on your current distribution.
Personally, I switched from Ubuntu to Arch when Ubuntu first introduced snap and my old computers, which I use as servers, started to lag terribly. So, usually, a reason like that is needed. If it weren't for that, I would still be using Ubuntu.
As others have said, if you're happy with it, no need to change. I switched out to Arch (BTW) because I like to pull my OS apart and tinker with it, but if you're not into that then there's no issue with going with something stable that just works.
Nothing wrong with it. Its ok to go hopping if you want. But also ok to just...stick with it.
Mint is good if OS tinkering isn’t where you want to spend your time and you want something with sane defaults that just works. Immutable distros like Bazzite, Aurora, or SteamOS are arguably more newb-friendly and turn-key, whereas Mint is more readily customized (and broken).
I've been using Mint for ten years because I like the features that make it a newbie distro - the Cinnamon desktop has all the important things in the same places Windows does and it integrates new features six months after they're released, to give them time for testing and bugfixing before use.
I have only skimmed the comments so someone might have already mentioned it, but distrowatch.com is an excellent site to get your head around the differences between distros. For instance, they have a direct comparison page that will list all the package and kernel versions side by side. Here is Mint and Arch - as you can see, Mint is at a 6.14 kernel (fine for most apps and hardware) but Arch has the very recent 7.2.11, which if you have very new hardware, could matter to you.
I run Debian, which has even older packages and kernel, and everything works great. Very recently though, I switched my firefox to the flatpak version, because the Debian package version didn't have the fairly recent Split View feature, where you can put two sites side by side in your browser window - this has been desperately needed for as long as we've had wide screens. So that's one example of a more recent package being more desirable.
And speaking of Flatpak, that's yet another reason not to sweat your distro, cause you are not just limited to your apt packages, you can use snaps, you can use flatpak, You can use Nix. There's endless ways now of getting the latest version of anything, on any version of Linux.
Don't sweat it.
I went from Mint to CachyOS for gaming reasons, on the whole I enjoy it more tham Mint for pretty much everything. It’s just a bit more streamlines and organized, and software storage isn’t as much of a mystery box.
That being said, Mint is a great OS that I didn’t have any issues with outside of some headaches when it came to running some games. If it’s not limiting you with what you need it for then there’s no reason to jump ship if you like it.
my only issue with mint is that full version upgrades are still a hassle. if that's something that bothers you, you could switch to something else. otherwise, just keep on keeping on.
I've been using Linux at home since 2007. In the early-mid days, I tried a lot of different distros. For the last 10 years or so, I'm pretty much only running Linux Mint (Debian edition) on my PCs.
Of you like Mint stay with it. A friend of mine has been using it for 10+ years probably.
There are so many distros and you might find each one has something positive or negative about it.
Just use what you like.
Other than being able to do a minimal install? Nope.
All of the distros run the same applications and do the same things.
Mint is behind on getting wayland support, if you're a gamer who uses a high resolution/high refresh display, something a bit more cutting edge might be in order, but only in that case.
https://lemmy.world/comment/26416591
My comment there applies here as well 🙂
Man let me tell you that when you try to use a software and search for the docs, then you are like "the feature I need is in a newer version, which got implemented in 2022 but mint uses the version of 1993.. damn that's unlucky". and that happens to me 3 whole times. So I still haven't switched but only because I am to lazy to backup my files right now.
Could be a many reasons:
If you want newer packages, yes. Mint is based off Ubuntu 24 LTS and honestly the jump to Ubuntu 26 is worthwhile if you prefer wayland.
Pika OS will ship a few WMs presetup and will be on Debian Sid. Interesting alternative. Personally, a stripped down Ubuntu 26 with your WM will give you the best stability and support.
As you use your first distro, you may begin to realize that you need something else. Maybe you end up programming more than you thought. Maybe you prefer to have a newer version on Python. Try Fedora.
Maybe you end up gaming all the time and you don't use your computer for much else. Maybe there are some strange issues you can't be bothered to investigate and fix. Consider Bazzite.
Maybe all you do is watch a few videos and browse the net once a week. Maybe you're tired of the frequent updates Ubuntu gives you every time you open your computer. How about Debian?
Maybe you're really curious about your system. The more you know, the more you realize that the one you currently have is filled with stuff you don't really need. You hopped to Debian bare bones edition and built your own system from the ground up. It has just the packages you need, but nothing else. Maybe you realized that having newer versions of everything solves some obscure problems you've encountered, so you built one on Sid. Maybe you love the idea of a rolling release distribution. Maybe you like to say BTW...
Maybe a friend gave you a 48 port network switch and a stack of old Dell laptops from 2010s. What would it feel like to operate a small cluster?
In any case, you don't need to distrohop unless you have a reason. If there is one, go ahead. If not, keep the distro you already have.
Probably the only reason you might switch is for something like CachyOS that probably has the similar problems you get with Arch but with a more custom kernel with their own tweaks/configurations to speed things up and provide newer hardware support in general.
Either something like that, or a want to switch and try something either new and/or more/less advanced... if there's even any distro more user friendly than Mint.
Otherwise, the only other reason I could see for leaving would be if you for some reason don't like how Mint is developing/being developed.
newbie generally means easy. I have been in tech for close to 30 years and have been a nerd much longer. Im not big into spending a whole bunch of time on my personal laptop though so use the newbie distros. if I want to goof around I use a virtual machine.
"Newbie distro" is usually meant to describe an operating system that is easy to get into for newcomers to Linux, who don't want to get into the details yet and just start using it. This is my interpretation of what the communities usually mean by that term.
If you like Mint, then there is no reason to switch off it, especially not for the reasons because people call it "newbie". It's likely that there is no "better" distribution for you and everything that is different will be bother you. One reason why you might want to switch off could be a Rolling Release model, like Archlinux (or something based on Arch that is rolling too). But that comes with its own problems and you might not like it to have an ever changing and evolving system, always updating to the newest. If that doesn't excite you, then maybe you should stick with a cyclic release model like Mint. And nothing wrong with it, if you like that stability*!
*stability=here that doesn't mean a stable system in sense of problems, but more in the sense of non changing stable environment, unstable would mean its always evolving as a rolling release, not that it is less stable in problems
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