back to article Linux Mint 22.1 Xia arrives fashionably late

It's a bit later than we were expecting, but the latest Mint is here and should start to be offered as an upgrade soon. Linux Mint 22.1 officially arrived at the end of last week, shortly after ISO images started to appear on mirror sites. This is the first point-release to the Ubuntu "Noble"-based Mint 22, which appeared back …

  1. elDog

    Upgraded to Xia as soon as I saw it was available. No problems to report, yet.

    I am a bit concerned about the emphases on "new look" - more modern dialog boxes, more dark themes, etc. When the artsy types get control of what should go into a release us old techie types get side-lined.

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: Upgraded to Xia as soon as I saw it was available. No problems to report, yet.

      Same here. Old Toshiba laptop. Works fine.

    2. demon driver

      Re: Upgraded to Xia as soon as I saw it was available. No problems to report, yet.

      When I made my full (or as much as possible, I still need to keep a Windows machine for some basic photography related things) move to Linux, I started with Ubuntu MATE, knowing I didn't want Gnome, which looked decent enough, but lacked usability. When a major Ubuntu version upgrade broke some things, I took my time and tried a lot of distros, but none convinced me. When I was half ready to give up and go back to Ubuntu MATE, I tried Linux Mint, which I had left out, thinking at its core it was just another kind of Ubuntu flavour anyway. I immediately saw I was mistaken. Mint – no matter which of the three DEs – was the first distro I tried that out of the box 1. didn't hurt my eyes and 2. looked like it would offer decent usability, meaning wouldn't get between me and what I do in any way. And so it's where I stayed and where I'm still happy, and that's at least 50% thanks to "the artsy types" in the project.

      That said, I don't applaud every design decision they made, and that includes this new Cinnamon upgrade. On my mixed dark/light desktop setups, the new rounded-corners dialogs which pop up for the usual confirmations look alien and pushy to me, now being bigger and pitch black instead of light. It's one of the rare occasions where I'll be wanting to tweak the settings a bit.

    3. Neil Barnes Silver badge

      Re: Upgraded to Xia as soon as I saw it was available. No problems to report, yet.

      I only recently updated to 22.0 and acquired an irritating but occasional video flicker on this old Latitude, which I haven't been able to track down. Most of the time everything is fine and when it occurs moving the mouse cures it which makes tracking it down a bit tricky.

      So I shall add 22.1 and see how it goes.

      1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

        Re: Upgraded to Xia as soon as I saw it was available. No problems to report, yet.

        Hmm. Didn't cure it. It's almost as if the monitor loses horizontal sync lock when the cursor is too close to the edge of the screen (or possibly too close to the edge of some window decoration?)

        It's irritatingly inconsistent.

        1. Kremen

          Re: Upgraded to Xia as soon as I saw it was available. No problems to report, yet.

          sudo nano /etc/default/grub

          edit the line.. GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=

          to contain the magic phrase.. "intel_iommu=igfx_off"

          sudo update-grub

          You have nothing to lose.

  2. VicMortimer Silver badge

    I'm just not sure what this offers that makes it any kind of improvement over Xubuntu. I mean, sure, anything is better than current Gnome. But the screenshots make it look like Windoze, and that's definitely a downgrade.

    1. williamyf Bronze badge

      Last time I checked, linux destop environments are highly customizable, so, ¡customize away!

      And, if you do not like to tweak, and want your linux exactly how you like it right out of the box, there are plenty of distros to choose from.

      Installed LMDE 32 bit on a very old laptop. at least works well enough for the recipient to open their mail, the banking page, Libreoffice writer, and facebook

      ¿Daily driver? Not at all. more like the backup in case the desktop fails, or to be moved in case of a long stay out of the house.

      On a more serious note, Mint and Zorin* position themselves as alternatives for "Windows Refugees"™. If you are a seasoned linux veteran, perhaps, mint is not for you, go for other ubuntu or debian remixes.

      * Zorin also positions themselves as an alternative for intel Mac refugees. But for some shekells

      1. corb

        I'm a "seasoned linux veteran" and I could happily run Mint if it was compatible with my hardware because I'm bored with timewasting tweaking just to get to the point of having a usable system. We all need to abandoned the notion that "easy to use" is the same as "dumbed down toy".

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Yup same here. As I see it you can pick your distro and then use pretty much any desktop. So why is Linux Mint with Cinnamon better than Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix? Whats the core differences?

      1. blu3b3rry

        I imagine someone else can offer more technical information, but my understanding is that Mint doesn't use Snap to package most software unlike Ubuntu.

        The lack of Snap is a big bonus point for some although personally it doesn't bother me.

        It also has fair few more GUI apps for settings and things, and I've always found it a fair bit more user-friendly.

        1. The Central Scrutinizer Silver badge

          No, Mint doesn't use snaps by default. Clem says that he can't verify snaps as being safe, so they are turned off by default.

          Ah, found the link

          https://linuxmint-user-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/snap.html

          That's why I won't use them either.

      2. werdsmith Silver badge

        For me, and its just a personal thing, there is nothing interesting about any desktop. I want it to boot quick and then go into my application and forget the desktop. I really don't care about it. The OS is just a quick stepping stone the application and the productivity happens in the application. So less is better.

      3. Liam Proven (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

        [Author here]

        > So why is Linux Mint with Cinnamon better than Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix?

        There are 3 categories of difference: app selection/packaging, look and feel, & upgrade cycle.

        1. Mint removes and blocks snapd and uses a natively DEB-packaged browser and email clients. Me personally, I don't mind snap -- it works well these days -- but some do, irrationally or not. Mint eliminates that problem. It replaces it with Flatpak but disables unverified apps on Flathub, which leaves very little. This castrated Flatpak is much safer, though.

        (Zorin doesn't. It offers both, in their full forms.)

        2. Packaging extends to the other apps and accessories. Ubuntu Cinnamon only changes the desktop itself to a Windows-like one. Almost all the other components are ordinary GNOME ones. That means no title bars, no menu bars, just hamburger menus, and a phone-like UI.

        I strongly dislike that UI, personally. Many do. _Most_ of the Mint components have the traditional Windows-like UI: file manager, text editor, PDF and image viewers, etc. This makes it more familiar and comfortable.

        (Zorin does not do this. It offers GNOME-style apps. Its Windows-like desktop is the only Windows-like aspect.)

        Mint also uses very dark and muted colour schemes. Many prefer that, especially older users. I find some distros -- almost any with KDE -- actively unpleasant to look at. I dislike Fedora's child-like pastel-hued wallpapers.

        Mint also changes and replaces a lot of the accessory apps, bringing related functions together into larger, more function-rich apps: a welcome screen, a backup and system-recovery tool, an update manager which also does release upgrades, and so on. It has a bigger, better app and accessory selection built in, with more traditional UIs.

        3. Release cycle.

        Only the flagship GNOME Ubuntu has true LTS releases. All the remixes have shorter lifespans. This is not highlighted much but it matters. You don't get 5Y of support on anything except GNOME. Users get confused between interim and LTS releases. I have often encountered people who can't remember that only even-numbered years have LTS releases, or who forget that it's always the earlier release of that year, or accidentally install interim releases and then are trapped in a rapid upgrade cycle.

        Mint only does releases based on Ubuntu LTS versions and it supports them for the duration. Point releases are minor and safe. It's a simpler, easier cycle.

        ## Summary ##

        Mint has been around for most of Ubuntu's life. In the early days it just did quieter themes, and bundled restricted codecs and drivers that were optional on Ubuntu. It was a little easier to install and looked tamer. That was all.

        Then around 2011 Ubuntu moved away from its GNOME 2 desktop and went its own way, and started introducing innovative tech like Ubuntu Touch, Snap, the Mir display server, etc. This upset a lot of people, and the existence of the official remixes wasn't enough to calm them.

        Mint saw a chance. It retained the classic-style desktop, first with GNOME Shell extensions, then a fork, and also stepped up very early to support the Argentinian MATE project that forked and continued GNOME 2.

        It positioned itself as the safe, sane, easier choice to the somewhat experimental Ubuntu. Turns out a lot of people wanted that. It's been very successful.

        Ubuntu: somewhat experimental, tracks upstream GNOME closely. Remixes have shorter life spans. Snap everywhere, like it or not.

        Mint: simpler more traditional desktop _and apps_. Slower release cycle. Safer, neutered Flatpak, no Flatpaks installed by default. Always free.

        Zorin: simpler more traditional desktop with attractive light, bright themes -- but only the desktop, not the apps. Excellent desktop-customisation tools. Snap _and_ Flatpak. Has cut-down free versions, but flagship version is paid. This bundles tens of gigabytes of freeware as Flatpaks, so needs more space than any other distro.

        1. The Central Scrutinizer Silver badge

          I seem to recall installing a few snaps some years ago and ending up with multiple volumes invading my disc space.

          It was highly unpleasant.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          "Only the flagship GNOME Ubuntu has true LTS releases. All the remixes have shorter lifespans. This is not highlighted much but it matters. You don't get 5Y of support on anything except GNOME. "

          What?!

          Argh this is news to me. I have been hapily running Ubuntu Budgie 22.04 thinking it that it was supported until 2027.

          Do you have a source for this bombshell? I'd like to see when support ends for Ubuntu remixes. Cos this completely changes things.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Found it:

            https://ubuntubudgie.org/2022/03/ubuntu-budgie-22-04-lts-release-notes/

            Oh bugger April 2025.

            Thanks for warning. Always asumed it was 5 years. Doh.

            Right Mint or MX Linux next...hmmm...decisions...

        3. ludditus

          > Only the flagship GNOME Ubuntu has true LTS releases. All the remixes have shorter lifespans. This is not highlighted much but it matters. You don't get 5Y of support on anything except GNOME.

          You know so much, and yet you fail miserably at times. Ubuntu Pro is free for up to 5 PCs, and it extends the support to 10 years for all Desktop Environments, and even for those codecs from Universe, should they have security issues. DO YOUR HOMEWORK of have the decency to admit you need to perform seppuku.

          Generally, I consider people who opt for Mint to be close to mental deficiency. In my experience, Mint only adds bugs to Ubuntu.

          Ubuntu MATE is the most versatile choice, should people have the minimum IQ to use MATE Tweak (mate-tweak), which allows for a quick change of the layout to any layout that can be mimicked.

          Mint trying to offer a consistent layout across desktops (Cinnamon, Xfce, MATE) is commendable, but its replacing of some MATE and Xfce tools and apps with its own, including those XApps, is abusive and dumb. If anything, Xfce is “incomplete” when compared to MATE, and this is why in other distros it's supplemented with MATE apps, such as Atril. But pushing Cinnamon or Mint crap in Xfce and MATE is abject.

          Also, from a visual design standpoint, Manjaro manages to create a better-looking desktop (it has abandoned MATE, but it has KDE). If I were to use Mint's own theming, I'd have to commit suicide within 90 days.

          Once again: Ubuntu Pro offers 10 years support to EVERYTHING, including KDE5! And, I repeat, even to codecs. Does Mint do that? NO, and one CANNOT USE UBUNTU PRO WITH MINT. It might be made to work, but it's not supposed to.

          People are too lazy to find out that Ubuntu MATE can be made to look like anything, including Windows or macOS, and they lack the necessary common sense and good taste to recognize the fact that Cinnamon has such a horrendous design guidelines and UX! Almost as stupid as GNOME's.

          BTW, Mint's customization break MATE Tweak and Xfce's similar tool, xfce4-panel-profiles. As I said, Mint is junk.

          FFS, a computing expert writing BS. That's you, Liam.

          1. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
            FAIL

            @ludditus

            Good job! Your horrible attitude has convinced me that Ubuntu Pro should be avoided at all costs if you're the sort of person who likes it.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Association Fallacy

              The guilt by associaion argument to avoid Ubuntu Pro is flawed.

          2. Anonymous Coward
          3. Liam Proven (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

            > DO YOUR HOMEWORK

            https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NobleNumbat/ReleaseNotes/Kubuntu

            «

            Introduction

            These release notes for Kubuntu 24.04 (Noble Numbat) provide an overview of the release and document the known issues.

            Details of the changes in the Ubuntu base, including kernel, toolchain and build options can be found in the main Ubuntu Release Notes.

            Support lifespan

            Kubuntu 24.04 will be supported for 3 years.

            »

            https://lubuntu.me/noble-released/

            «

            Lubuntu 24.04 LTS Released!

            Thanks to the hard work from our contributors, Lubuntu 24.04 LTS has been released. With the codename Noble Numbat, Lubuntu 24.04 is the 26th release of Lubuntu, the 12th release of Lubuntu with LXQt as the default desktop environment.

            Download and Support Lifespan

            With Lubuntu 24.04 being a long-term support interim release, it will follow the standard LTS support period of three years, and will be supported until April 2027.

            »

            Why don't you go do yours?

            1. ludditus

              > Why don't you go do yours?

              Liam, if all you can do is to read the release notes of a distro, then you are the most mentally challenged expert I have ever seen! There are tests able to detect early dementia, you know.

              You have absolutely NO idea about what Ubuntu Pro is and does.

              You couldn't have been bothered to get informed.

              Here, in my Ubuntu MATE 24.04 LTS, the Ubuntu Pro screen reads:

              - ESM Infra provides security updates for over 2,300 Ubuntu Main packages until 2034.

              - ESM Apps provides security updates for over 23,000 Ubuntu Universe packages until 2034.

              https://ludditus.com/storage/UbuntuPro.png

              The official documentation states:

              - Security patching for Ubuntu Main repository for 10 years (ESM-infra)

              - Security patching for Ubuntu Universe repository for 10 years (ESM-apps) (Ubuntu 16.04 LTS onwards)

              - Kernel Livepatch to avoid unscheduled reboots

              - Real-time kernel (Ubuntu 22.04 LTS onwards)

              https://documentation.ubuntu.com/pro/services-overview/

              If I run:

              `pro security-status --esm-apps | grep caja`

              or

              `pro security-status --esm-apps | grep kate`

              I get the confirmation that the respective packages (which need to be installed to be checked) are covered by ESM-apps until 2034.

              You are the acme of incompetence. I cannot understand how people can still trust what you preach on The Reg.

              I thought you to be the most competent person from The Reg gang. Now I have absolutely no reason to ever visit this site again.

              1. Yankee Doodle Doofus Bronze badge

                < "Now I have absolutely no reason to ever visit this site again."

                Oh no, your insightful and emotionally stable comments will be missed by us all, lol.

                P.S. Ubuntu Pro, as you mention, is free only for 5 or fewer machines. What about businesses? What about those of us who have more than 5 machines at home? What about those who don't want a subscription, free or not, and/or don't want to give Cannonical their email address and any other required info.

              2. Liam Proven (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

                > You have absolutely NO idea about what Ubuntu Pro is and does.

                No, you have absolutely no idea of what I know, what I use, why, or how, but you are projecting your own biases and preferences and demanding I share them. I do not.

                I have an Ubuntu Pro free account. I use it and have machines connected to it.

                An article is pending right now talking about moving a non-essential machine back from 24.04 to 22.04, and I am using Pro to get updates so I can keep that kit running for, I hope, a few more years.

                Non-GNOME versions of desktop Ubuntu do not get LTS support for as long as the GNOME edition does.

                It is a simple fact. I don't care if you don't like that. It is the case.

                Sure, you can use old versions of the desktop distro for a decade and if you are lucky critical holes will be patched.

                This does not mean you're going to get updates and refreshes to out-of-support versions of KDE, or Budgie, or anything else. They aren't part of the core product and if the bugs are not critical then they won't get fixed.

                If someone runs one of the remixes, then they must upgrade to every successive LTS, and those LTS releases are not synched to the release cycle of any desktop other than GNOME. So you might install a remix and its desktop get a major update a month later... or even just before release... and you will have to add your own repo and update the desktop separately.

                The underlying OS that they all share will get important updates, but the desktop won't. At best, essential security fixes only.

          4. David 132 Silver badge
            Unhappy

            Downvoted with great satisfaction, for being quite unnecessarily rude, pompous, supercilious, and also highly abusive to Liam, who isn't contractually obligated to produce articles for you, you know, unless of course you're paying a subscription to read this site? No? Thought not.

            Oh, and the icing on the shit-sandwich of your comment is that you're apparently guilty of errors yourself, going by Liam's (admirably restrained, in the circumstances) response to you.

            Yes, it's possible to disagree with an article, or an author. It's possible to have greater knowledge on a subject, and wish to offer an alternative viewpoint.

            But those of us who are mature adults understand that disagreements and corrections can be - and should be - polite and respectful.

            *plonk*, into my (virtual, alas) killfile you go.

            1. The Central Scrutinizer Silver badge

              I was going to say something similar, but you beat me to it. .

              "All Mint does is add bugs to Ubuntu." Yeah right.

              And the comment about mental deficiency seems rather telling.

            2. ludditus

              This has nothing to do with disagreeing, which is a matter of OPINION.

              This is about FACTS.

              FACT 1: Ubuntu Pro covers all the desktop environments from Universe for 10 years.

              FACT 2: Liam doesn't know anything about Ubuntu Pro. Neither do you.

              FACT 3: Neither Liam nor you could be bothered to GET INFORMED about Ubuntu Pro.

              I know that Linux Mint is mostly used by people who have absolutely no idea about anything, but to this point?

              1. The Central Scrutinizer Silver badge

                You don't know any such thing about who runs Mint. You're just making shit up.

                And no, I can't be bothered about anything to do with Ubuntu pro, because I just don't care

                Dumping on people who use a particular OS is childish and insulting.

              2. blu3b3rry
                WTF?

                "I know that Linux Mint is mostly used by people who have absolutely no idea about anything, but to this point?"

                Goodness. That reads like an opinion rather than a fact to me. Please grow up rather than throwing your toys out of the pram over what other people decide to use as an os.

              3. Nematode Bronze badge

                You been practicing your dialogue on X?

          5. Ganso

            Somebody had a shitty night and hasn't drunk any coffee yet.

          6. prh99

            "Generally, I consider people who opt for Mint to be close to mental deficiency. In my experience, Mint only adds bugs to Ubuntu."

            That says about all anyone needs to know. You're a fan boy far too concerned what others run. Clearly people run Mint cause it works for them, same with Kubuntu, or Arch etc

            Ultimately it's all Linux under the hood and if you have the knowledge you can customize it to your hearts content.

            1. ludditus

              > Ultimately it's all Linux under the hood and if you have the knowledge you can customize it to your hearts content.

              You missed the part about Mint’s customizations breaking mate-tweak and xfce4-panel-profiles, which can be used to EASILY change the layout of MATE and Xfce in Ubuntu and Fedora and openSUSE, but not in Mint. Not all the layouts work in Mint. I wonder why... Any clue? Is it because Mint is so great that it doesn't break anything?

              1. This post has been deleted by its author

          7. Nematode Bronze badge

            "I consider people who opt for Mint to be close to mental deficiency."

            Jeez, how to win friends and influence people.

      4. lybad

        Isn't Cinammon a Mint orned DE? As in the the Mint developers are the people who created it?

        1. Yankee Doodle Doofus Bronze badge
        2. lamp

          And the keyboard & mouse freeze issue sadly continues to occur with Cinnamon under Mint, Ubuntu and Debian....

    3. Roj Blake Silver badge

      Mint's main selling point is that it's the most Windows-like version of Linux, so it looking like Windows is hardly a surprise.

      1. James Anderson Silver badge

        I would note that like many professionals I used to use Windows on a daily basis. Having a vaguely Windows like desktop on my personal machine just makes life easier as yo only need one set of muscle memory to run the UI. Especially useful at 2 am.

    4. mark l 2 Silver badge

      The 'windows' look and feel is an intentional thing with Linux Mint as it makes it very easy for someone who has never used a Linux distro before to feel familiar if they have come from Windows.

      But it does mean its only for Linux newbies as I have been daily driving it since 2012.

      I tweak my Linux Mint to act and look similar to Windows 7 as that was the last version of Windows i had daily driven before switching to Mint. And that is one of the huge benefits of Linux over Windows is that if you don't like a UI then you can customise it or even switch to a different DE until you get it exactly as you want. And it doesn't require 3rd party tools that might get broken when Microsoft push out their next feature update to get it to look as you want it to.

      1. Mike 140

        I'm the same

        Like Mark 1 2, I moved to Mint from Win7. With some minor tweaks, the look and feel was pretty much the same. Life has been much simpler since.

      2. LionelB Silver badge

        I've been running Linux as my primary OS for over 25 years (I have little use for Windows), and have been using mostly Mint for the last decade or so. This has absolutely nothing to do with the UI (I have my own custom DE setup based on the Fluxbox WM, although occasionally also use XFCE) and much more to do with the fact that it's a well-managed apt-based distribution with a good installer (and Snap-free).

        The default UI(s) may well be Windows-friendly, but it is by no means just for newbies.

      3. Boothy
        WTF?

        @ mark

        Quote 'But it does mean its only for Linux newbies as I have been daily driving it since 2012.'

        I'm guessing you meant 'doesn't' rather than 'does'? As you state it's only for newbies, but also used it as a daily since 2012, which are at odds! :-)

        PS: Also a daily Mint user.

    5. corb

      IMO, Muffin, a fork of Mutter, is a better X compositor than XWFM. For me, that translates into smoother, more fluid, use of a touchpad. (Posted from Fedora XFCE).

    6. Yankee Doodle Doofus Bronze badge

      < "...the screenshots make it look like Windoze..."

      All of the screenshots are of the Cinnamon desktop, but as Liam mentions in the article, there are other options in Mint, including the Xfce that you are used to from Xubuntu.

      1. Liam Proven (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

        > All of the screenshots are of the Cinnamon desktop

        *HANG* on a cotton-pickin' minute there cowboy.

        No they are not.

        #1 is.

        #2 is not and the caption says so:

        «

        Add-on tools like the Update Manager – here on MATE – look and work identically under all the desktops

        »

        #3 is.

        #4 had to be, to show the problem.

        #5 is Xfce:

        «

        For faster downloads, let it choose a local mirror. Click on the default entry, then wait for speed testing to complete

        »

        OK, I concede, I should have flagged #5, but the point is all 3 desktops are shown.

        1. Yankee Doodle Doofus Bronze badge

          Oops, of course you are correct, sorry! I've never used anything but Cinnamon on Mint, and on a quick scroll back through the article before posting my comment (didn't read the captions at all), I honestly thought they all looked like Cinnamon. I guess they have done a good job of making the desktop have a fairly uniform look, regardless of which DE you choose.

          1. Liam Proven (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

            Thanks.

            > I guess they have done a good job of making the desktop have a fairly uniform look, regardless of which DE you choose.

            Yes they did. It's one of Mint's strengths.

            TBH it surprises me that no other distro bothers to keep all its desktops looking the same. I thought this would be a suitable task for all the non-coders in the community, but apparently not.

  3. corb

    Mint's focus on continued refinement of an established product should be emulated. I can't run it on this Lunar Lake laptop, though, because it can't find the Intel wifi card. There's also a kernel patch in the 6.12 series that fixes really annoying mouse/touchpad/keyboard stuttering delays. Canonical doesn't seem to have backported that patch into either the 24.04 kernel Mint uses or the kernel shipped with 24.10.

    1. Altrux

      Liquorix

      Try installing the Liquorix or Xanmod kernels, which I assume run just as well on Mint as on Ubuntu? You'll get 6.12.10 ready to rock, the very latest stable release. They'll advance to 6.13 fairly soon, usually once a couple of point releases are out.

  4. BenMyers

    No reason for 32-bit Mint unless...

    The only reason to run 32-bit Mint is if one has a computer that cannot be upgraded above 3GB, and those are few and far between. Even 4GB of memory gives a boost from the extra ~500MB of addressable memory. The cost of DDR2 or DDR3 memory for upgrading an old computer is now almost negligible.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: No reason for 32-bit Mint unless...

      Unless its a laptop with soldered on ram.

      1. Liam Proven (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

        Re: No reason for 32-bit Mint unless...

        > Unless its a laptop with soldered on ram.

        Concur.

        I was startled to learn, last year, that _all_ MacBooks for a decade or so featured soldered RAM.

        I like Macs but I don't like MacBooks, because of the keyboards and trackpads, so I had nothing newer than a 2009 MacBook Pro (which was free) and thought soldered-in storage was new with the Arm64 Macbooks.

        I believe Mint is a popular alternative for unsupported MacBook Air hardware.

        In my own testing, I found Mint ran better on elderly MacBooks than Ubuntu or Xubuntu.

        P.S. If you are stuck with such a machine, I recommend having a dedicated swap partition, and enable swap compression in the kernel parameters. Go into /etc/default/grub and add

        zswap.enabled=1

        to the end of the kernel line. Run `update-grub` and reboot.

        1. blu3b3rry

          Re: No reason for 32-bit Mint unless...

          Varies from MacBook to MacBook.

          My "late 2011" MacBook Pro 13" (also referred to as a Unibody) has standard SO-DIMMs and is very serviceable. Even uses a standard SATA connection for storage - hence its been happily running Ubuntu for several years with 8GB RAM and a nice big SSD.

          Looking at iFixit, 2012 and later MacBook Pros with the Retina screens had soldered down RAM and SSD's that use a proprietary connector. It looks like a M.2 form factor at first glance but isn't.

  5. MSArm

    Supporting mint

    I wonder how many people who extol the virtues of Linux mint stick their hands in their pockets to help the project. After all the mint team do, IMHO, a fantastic job. It would be an interesting stat.

    1. Liam Proven (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      Re: Supporting mint

      > It would be an interesting stat.

      There's a list of donations on the end of every blog post.

      https://blog.linuxmint.com/

      In November, Clem made $11,423. There were 406 donations.

      I can only say that I wish I made $11.5K a month.

      1. David 132 Silver badge
        Thumb Up

        Re: Supporting mint

        Is that for Clem personally, or shared among a team?

        $11.5K a month doesn't go as far as it used to, believe it or not.

        Anyway, you've guilt-tripped me into making a donation. As an unemployed duck-herder (no, really) I didn't have much in the way of spare coins until lately, just lots of bills.

    2. Kevin Johnston

      Re: Supporting mint

      I don't throw money over every month but tend to drop a few quid each time I move to a newer version (or install on a new machine). Probably contributed more than I have spent on Windows but on a per machine basis it is a lot less

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