Linux Mint vs. Ubuntu

Linux Mint is a great, stable product when you need an OS and software to "just work". I use it for file servers, docker, scripting, air-gapped backups, email notifications and more. Simple, inexpensive and stable. That's how software should be, and that's what Mint delivers on. The main thing holding Mint and other Linux distros back is the corporate walls that have been built shutting everything out except Microsoft. If companies would start supporting Linux better with their hardware and software we could and would ditch Microsoft in a heartbeat. but, alas, Microsoft has a stranglehold on businesses.

Incentivized

If somebody whishes to be an IT professional, learning the basics of Linux is amust. Ubuntu [Linux] is one of the most beginner-friendly, widely supported, easy-to-use-relative-to-the-fact-that-its-still-linux OS on the market. As somebody who learned the basics of UNIX/LINUX on Ubuntu, it was a very good experience. It is customizable, has a lot of improvements over the years, and live up to be a viable alternative to any modern OS in 2021 as well.

Incentivized

• terminal
• file management
• OS and software updates

Incentivized

• PACKAGE MANAGEMENT. You can update everything - OS installed software, you name it with either a few clicks in a GUI or a single command.
• No bloatware.
• No need for antivirus software.
• Certainly the price is right.
• My 83 year old grandmother has been using it - and because of this I rarely need to provide tech support. But I still visit my grandmother.
• You can choose from a variety of user interfaces or rock it in the terminal.
• Generally speaking, Ubuntu is as polished an OS as any you might pay for.

Incentivized

• some more User Interfaces - like for services

Incentivized

• The repository system could be a little better, as some of the software needed is not easily available there.
• Ubuntu sometimes does not play nicely or easily with some modern firmwares.
• Some people report slow responses with newer versions of Ubuntu, although we have not experienced any.

Incentivized

Experience with other Distributions.

We did not use the managed commercial support, but instead relied on community forums and official documentation. Ubuntu is very well documented across both instructional documentation from the developers themselves as well as informal support forums [ServerFault, YCombinator, Reddit]. It's easy enough to find an answer to any question you may have

Incentivized

Pure Debian OS, freshly installed, is missing some Quality Of Life tools that need to be installed to make it usable. Ubuntu has not a great user interface for work purpose, seems more like a toy than an OS. Both Mint and Ubuntu are derived from Debian, so same great package manager, but for work purpose I think Mint is a great OS.

Incentivized

Windows 10: Expensive, with more security problems, more difficult to keep updated and less variety of free / open source applications. Its use encourages bad information security practices. OpenSuse Linux: A different distribution at source (Suse Linux), use of rpm packages (with fewer repositories and incompatible with Ubuntu Linux dpkg packages), and whose main objective is to be a "testing ground" for its paid version / professional, SUSE enterprise Linux.

Incentivized

• It has saved tens of thousands of dollars just for being our air-gapped backup solution. other software would have been very expensive, and harder to manage
• Providing simple, easy to use applications (docker, for example) that can quickly, easily, and inexpensively deployed saves many, many hours and dollars

Incentivized

• Systems administration with Ubuntu is easy with little deep knowledge about it. Docs and community publications are great resources for any task you need to perform on any Ubuntu server and the organization can save several salaries of specialized sys admins in favor of more active roles.
• Having been an Ubuntu user for many years personally, setting up new Ubuntu servers on my organization came with zero cost for me. I just deployed one instance from my hosting/cloud provider and started working right after it was running, no need to ask support or hire new staff for these tasks.
• Replacing paid options with Ubuntu have also saved thousands of dollars on Windows Server licenses. I've migrated Windows/SQL Server based systems to Ubuntu/MySQL/PostgreSQL several times during my career and saved about USD 5000/year in licenses to many of them.

Incentivized