r/linuxmint

Linux kernel 7.3 is coming, and it is honestly shaping up to be a massive performance upgrade.

First off, saving and loading stuff is getting a huge speed boost. If you use file systems like Btrfs or EXT4, everything from moving big files to saving game progress is going to feel noticeably snappier, we are talking up to five times faster in some cases, with high-end SSDs pulling crazy high speeds.

If you are gaming or running an older, weaker PC, the new task scheduler is going to be a lifesaver. It fixes stuttering and keeps frame rates way smoother, so things won't feel laggy anymore. Tiny credit-card-sized computers like the Raspberry Pi are also getting a nice speed bump because the system cleans up background memory almost instantly now instead of taking half a second.

Everything under the hood just reacts faster without those annoying little hitches. Plus, if you have a newer Intel processor with a mix of big performance cores and smaller high-efficiency cores, the system is finally getting super smart about pushing heavy stuff to the muscle cores and light stuff to the battery-saver cores.

It is basically a free speed and smoothness upgrade for pretty much every device out there!

which feature are you most hyped to try out?

This is for those already running Cinnamon or another DE, but NOT Gnome, on Debian or a derivative, including Ubuntu and Linux Mint. For further insurance against "getting gnomed".

I'm a bit surprised there isn't something like this floating around already, considering the simplicity.

(1) Create a new blank text file:

/etc/apt/preferences.d/nognome.pref

(2) Copy and paste the contents of this into that blank file:

# To prevent repository packages from triggering the installation of Gnome,
# this file forbids gnome from being installed by APT.
# For more information: https://linuxmint-user-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/snap.html

Package: gnome
Pin: release a=*
Pin-Priority: -10

Package: gnome-core
Pin: release a=*
Pin-Priority: -10

You are welcome.

To undo, just delete that file.

I know that it's not Linux. This is more of a vent post

3 months ago I installed Linux mint on my cousins completely new laptop. She learned quickly how to use it. She lives in the same house. We are a joint family. Last week she went to our aunt to stay there. While she was not at home her brother washed the laptop with water (yes you read that correctly). My aunt dried the laptop and charged it. Then next day she tried to start it.

The laptop was having many problems which pointed towards ram and SSD being water damaged. We took it to the shop where we purchased it from and the shopkeeper did not even know that what was installed on it was actually Linux. He called it "weird window" and blamed it on Linux.

He didn't do anything and instantly tried to install windows on it but not matter what way he tried he could not delete the partition to make a new one. He blamed Linux mint and said that the SSD and ram are fried because of Linux mint and my uncle although blamed me but didn't say much.

I will be showing the replies to him. So is it because of Linux mint or because the laptop was flipping waterboarded?

Edit for more context:

1. this is Pakistan so yeah the people in these hardware stores are quite dumb at times. I don't know why my uncle went to him either way.

2. the brother did not get any punishment because his mental state is honestly sad. He is so young like he is 6 or 7 and has so many mental problems.

3. my uncle didn't say much to me but he did tell me to not install this again. I won't be doing anything to that laptop now since that ain't my property.

Thanks for all the replies. I'm sending these screen shots to my uncle

Sorry I have bad english

I'm using Linux Mint on an ASUS TUF F15 laptop.

I have a Zebronics Zeb Thunder headset connected through the 3.5 mm AUX jack.

The problem is that Linux does not detect the headset as a headphone device when I plug it in. The laptop speakers continue to be used.

Interestingly, if I open alsamixer and manually enable the Headphone control, audio starts coming through the Zebronics headset, but it also continues coming through the laptop speakers.

My other headphones/IEMs (Kaztro IEM and Sennheiser) do not have this problem.

Cinnamon or Xfce
I found an old Lenovo ThinkPad X201. It has 8 GB of RAM with an i5 CPU. I want it to be a backup if my main machine breaks. I mainly want to use it for watching videos, light web development, and maybe using something like Excel or PowerPoint on occasion (the Linux version). I’ve never used Linux before. (but I know how to install it)

Many of you have a well running Mint22 installs, and for most of you there is little point in tearing that up to try LMDE. But if you are reinstalling for fresh installing for the first time, consider LMDE.

As Mint22 moves into its third year it seems to be getting a little rough around the edges, in the past the reliability difference between LMDE and Mint was difficult to quantify, both having high reliability. But lately a schism is forming in the “it just works” department.

The Ubuntu security repository has repeatedly gone down, 2025 2026

If you left the venerable default LTS 6.8 kernel and got on the Ubuntu HWE path it eventually lead many of you to Kernel panics in kernel 7.0.0-28

And now AMD Navi21 (6xxx) GPU firmware issues.

These all flow from upstream Ubuntu. None touched LMDE. All of these issues have a work around, and Mint22 is still quite serviceable but lately it does seem to be taking uptime away from many users.

Abnormal release Timing: Early in even years Canonical takes Debian Sid, the unstable development branch of Debian, Canonical adds in their own mutations/additions to Sid and then releases Ubuntu LTS that April, Ubntu LTS 26.04 has been out since April of this year.

Mint then takes Ubuntu LTS strips out some of the Ubuntu BS like snaps then bolts on their own desktops and releases Mint that summer, usually June or July. we should have Mint 23 by now, but this cycle there is a delay until December of this year. Mint 22 is in overtime, based on Sid of 2.5 years ago, the packages are certainly older now.

Mint is getting this old because Clem and Co have chosen to delay Mint23 until December to give themselves room to get important large jobs done, potentially including stable Wayland in Cinnamon. But in the mean time, already old repo software keeps getting older.

In odd years there is a freeze in Debian Testing (separate from Sid) and a new Debian stable is born. Debian 13 Trixie released last August, Mint takes Debian stable bolts on the Mint Cinnamon desktop with few other changes and releases LMDE anywhere from March to October of odd years. this happened in October of 2025 with LMDE7, so LMDE7 is currently 15 months ahead of Mint 22, and this disparity includes available repository software.

LMDE7 will net you things like apt 3, Fastfetch, newer mesa etc over Mint 22.3. Mint23 will release in December relieving Mint22 and get its time in the sun as the newest “Mint”. But, LMDE8 will be releasing an unusually short 3 to 10 months afterwards and it will be the newest Mint again until June/July 2028 when Mint24 releases and the cycle repeasts

So for the next 2 years LMDE will spend most of that time, 13 to 20 months as the “newest Mint”.

There are negatives. LMDE does not have Mint's GUI driver manager, crucial for some CLI-phobic new users, especially those with Nvidia GPUs. Also no PPAs. These tools are based on Ubuntu only infrastructure. You could consider LMDE to be "Mint Light" its a bit lighter on RAM and a bit faster than standard Mint, but only just slightly so.

The LMDE base system is cleaner with noticeably fewer system files, and attendant updates they bring, just as Debian is lighter than Ubuntu. It is not something you would notice immediately, they look nearly identical, and behave quite similarly, just small differences in the details.

LMDE also has a better in-house Mint made installer, particularly with regards to functional control on the placement of grub. As opposed to the Ubuntu made Ubiquity installer used in regular Mint, but only for now, Mint is dropping Ubiquity, the next version of Mint will use the LMDE installer.

LMDE has noticeably less update noise,

Ubuntu does add some extended driver support, particularly for consumer grade hardware. conversely Debian stable is currently ahead in development from Ubuntu LTS, from a hardware support perspective there can be specific corner cases that could be better served on either edition. I had a Dell 5810 that did not like Debian 12's grub (Bookworm), I had to boot both Debian & LMDE using Mint's (Ubuntu's) grub on just that one machine.

Everyone should pick what is best for them, but I think for now more people should be considering LMDE.

Hi - I recently switched to Linux and have always used FF for my day-to-day stuff, but sometimes also need a secondary browser, especially if it can close without losing its open tabs. I'm trying to avoid anything from Microsoft/Google/etc. Figured I'd ask here before trying out half a dozen other browsers.