Ubuntu is great but uses snaps and adds other canonical bits. Linux Mint is essentially perfect but does not come with gnome desktop. Is there a ubuntu based distro that is essentially like linux mint but offers gnome as a desktop?

    • duncesplayed@lemmy.oneEnglish
      31·
      1 year ago

      Seriously, I don’t get distro hoppers. “I want my desktop wallpaper to be green. Can you tell me how to install an entirely new operating system with a green background?”

  • s20@lemmy.ml
    51·
    1 year ago

    I have three possible solutions for you:

    1. Switch to Fedora Workstation
    2. Install Gnome on Mint
    3. Use Pop! OS

    Option 1 is probably the best one. Fedora is as easy to use as Ubuntu but without Snaps or the rest of Canonical stuff. The downside is that it’s RPM based instead of DEB, but that’s not as big an issue as you might think, since Flatpaks cover a lot of ground, and between the Fedora and RPM Fusion repositories, most software is still available.

    Option 2 is another way to go. It gives you exactly what you’re looking for in a way. Unfortunately, you’re going to end up with some Cinnamon remnants in your Gnome set up. That’s not too big of a deal, though, just some extra cleanup work removing the Cinnamon desktop stuff.

    Option 3 is my least favorite. Pop! OS is great, and almost what you’re after once you disable some extensions. The only issue I have here is that Pop! will probably be shifting to their in house desktop environment COSMIC soon. Well, fairly soon anyway. I’m sure they’ll keep the Gnome version going, but it’s very clearly not going to be their focus. Still, Pop! OS might be exactly what you’re looking for!

    • notTheCat@lemmy.fmhy.net
      3·
      1 year ago

      It doesn’t always go well, especially with beginners, I’ve tried Plasma on Ubuntu and decided to go back to gnome, spent whole lot of time trying to purge all the Plasma bloat but couldn’t

      • LeFantome@programming.dev
        3·
        1 year ago

        That is a reasonable comment. There is so much overlap between cinnamon and GNOME though that I doubt it is an issue.

      • Bitrot@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        11·
        1 year ago

        If you use the nala apt frontend, it comes with a history command like Fedora. Really useful for undoing specific changes.

    • merthyr1831@lemmy.world
      3·
      1 year ago

      There’s usually some kind of integration between the DE and the underlying system that isn’t replicated by installing the DE without a bunch of configuration. But yeah, the line is definitely blurred nowadays.

  • Nioxic@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    In the end it barely matters what distro you installed. You can always modify your current installation

  • Pantherina@feddit.de
    1·
    1 year ago

    Just install Ubuntu, run unsnap, add some repos for Firefox (oe just use Flatpaks), remove extensions (is that possible?)

    I would never use an older version of Ubuntu just to fix some things. The problems arent that huge.

    But apart from that, why not Fedora? Its not actually that different if you dont depend on edgy software only available as .deb

    • LeFantome@programming.dev
      1·
      1 year ago

      What middle-man are you skipping? Manjaro is based on Arch.

      Perhaps you meant Ubuntu as Ubuntu is based on Debian and Mint is based on Ubuntu. I agree that I would prefer plain Debian these days over Ubuntu but Debian does not have everything out of the box a Mint or Ubuntu user may like.

      Regardless, do not use Manjaro. If you cannot install Arch but like it, use EndeavourOS.

      If they like Mint, they should just install GNOME on it.