To Linux Mint users

Rocky Raab

The newest version of Linux Mint is out Version 21.3 "Virginia" is now available for upgrade/install.

You'll get a system notification that an in-place upgrade from 21.2 can be done. However, when I tried, the download speed was glacial. That's probably due to the thousands of people trying to do the same thing. I plan to wait until late tonight or over the weekend to try again. Even a few days might be needed.

tnranger

Over the holidays, my SIL replaced Mint with Ubantu on a flash drive for use on my old Dell laptop with a failed HD, via a hotspot (it would have bankrupted my Hughes data allowance). The download took overnight and well into the next day. I use that beater machine strictly to get on the internet and to play DVD's/CD's when I travel, saving wear and tear on my good machine. I've had good luck with both Mint and now Ubantu.

Rocky Raab

Most experts have now turned away from Ubuntu because of their requirement to use Snap packages. That's too deep a discussion for here, though. The new Mint disables Snaps in favor of flatpaks. I'd stick with Mint.

On my three machines, I use Mint, Zorin, and MX. Like them all, but Mint is my favorite. MX is wonderful, but has too many options for a new user of Linux. Zorin is elegant and powerful, but also uses Snaps as an optional repository. Typing this on my Zorin machine, in fact.

Regardless, it's great to see another happy Linux user.

Rocky Raab

I went ahead and did the upgrade. Used one of my other 'pooters while it downloaded.

The traffic there must be huge, because my download speed was a crawling 33Kb/s Not Mb. K. It took just under two hours to do the upgrade, but it went smoothly. All my settings and preferences carried over and everything works just fine after just a brief look around. Kudos to the Mint team.

Rocky Raab

Here's a video showing many of the new features, and also gives a pretty good look at how Mint looks and works, in case you're curious.

https://youtu.be/puCGZk7aO7Q?si=cbedfFliUcJkrZ1x