Originally Posted By: Mfrank84
Still trying to wrap my head around Linux Mint. Besides that it is apparently free, what are its benefits for a non-programmer type person?
It is an operating system, (un)like Windows and Mac. It provides a framework for programs to run on top of. Here are some advantages of Linux over both Windows and Mac, off the top of my head:
1) You are never locked in. If you use many programs running in Windows or Mac you are unable to use or share that data beyond that specific program. My wife's school board, for example, will likely never exit the treadmill of proprietary OS's because they have years and years of data that can only be processed by proprietary OS's. This ensures for Microsoft and Apple that you are forced to continue...
2) Paying for upgrades and fixes. Linux is free as in "no cost" and no one has any motivation to bleed you dry for their own benefit. There is something you find dis-satisfactory about your current Linux-based OS? Start using another one (there are hundreds out there): All of your data will make the trip with you.
3) It is safer. No malware. No need to run (or worry about, or ever even think about) anti-virus or whatever else in the world Windows users have to burden themselves with. Just check out some of the threads in this, a motor oil forum, to see all the troubles people have keeping themselves safe, just to be able to continue running an OS that demands they keep constant vigilant guard over it! How absurd.
4) It respects your freedom (free as in "freedom"). You can make copies and share it with others and install it on as many systems as you like. You can remove and install whatever you wish, whenever and wherever you wish. It belongs to you. You do not own other OS's: You purchase a license that allows (?!) you to use them. You can even tweak it, re-brand it and re-distribute it as your own OS if you wanted! in fact, that is pretty much all Mint does from it's base of Ubuntu; which itself is just a dressed up version of Debian Linux. Freedom is chaotic sometimes.
5) You are not a cash cow. There is no one trying to deliver the minimum possible in return for the maximum possible to satisfy someone's self-serving greed. There is no one who will punish you for encroaching on their ownership. The software is developed with only one motivation, and that is to make the best, most robust, reliable and friendly software possible; asking nothing in return. Commies!
6) It is harder to kill. If Microsoft and Apple ever decide that whatever product of theirs is not profitable enough for them, they'll kill it and you are snookered. Linux, being open-source, allows for any community to develop and maintain technologies as long as there is they see demand for it and choose to do it. If the guy who runs Mint ever decides to do something else with his days, you can either switch distributions or hope that the Mint community steps in and continues the project. Maybe you could even pitch in somehow. Not all people involved in these communities are techies.
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You have already found that the communities of these varying Linux OS's ("distributions") are very friendly and helpful, but tend to be quite nerdy. All but a small handful of distributions are meant for the DIY-er who likes to set up and configure things themselves. Ubuntu, Mint, Mageia, Fedora, openSUSE and a few others are mainstream, popular distributions that are meant for non-technical users. They can be installed and used with little or no fuss.
