In the past few days, I switched distros. Again. But this time it was different. Not because of hype or testing the “latest cool thing.” It was necessity. My laptop running Debian was freezing, shutting down randomly, and to top it off, I had to disable IPv6 just to get pip or any Python requests to work without timeouts. Terrible experience.
So I thought: I'll try Windows 11 with WSL. Fine, no more freezes, IPv6 worked, but WSL started consuming more RAM than it should, and the system got weird with many open tabs. Flickering screen, slowdowns... and I have 20GB RAM.
Then the thought came: Back to Linux? Yeah, but this time I wanted something polished. Something that just works out of the box, no juggling with drivers, no tweaking terminal transparency or fixing Gnome tray issues. I’ve used Fedora, Arch, Ubuntu, Debian... all gave me some headaches at some point.
So I tested Linux Mint with Cinnamon. And man, it was a pleasant surprise.
Cinnamon: Looks like Gnome, but actually works
I’ve always liked the idea of Gnome, but in practice, I had to fix a thousand things. On Mint + Cinnamon, everything I used to “fix” was already working:
- Transparent terminal
- Functional tray
- 125% screen scaling without hacks
- Flatpak + Flathub installed and ready
Best part: no freezes. No fuss. Felt like a ready-to-go system.
The game changer: less PPAs, more Flatpak
I’ve always been systematic about setups. But I learned an important lesson coming back to Linux:
The less you mess with APT, the more stable it gets.
My current approach is simple:
- GUI apps? Flatpak.
- Terminal tools? APT.
-
Languages? Managed via
asdf, keeping the system clean.
This keeps my apt update fast, the system clean and easy to maintain.
I avoid adding PPAs whenever possible. They slow down updates, break on distro upgrades, and have caused headaches before.
What about smaller or less “mainstream” distros?
I used to be wary of distros outside the “big four” — Fedora, Debian, Arch, Ubuntu... But now I see that’s just nonsense.
What really changes between distros is:
- The package manager (and its speed)
- The out-of-the-box experience
- The level of polish
- How much they respect your time
And here Mint impressed me. It nails exactly what others miss: delivering a polished, ready-to-use system with sensible defaults.
Conclusion
If you’ve gone through the distro-hopping phase and want a system that just works, no freezes, no driver hassle, no daily desktop fixes, give Linux Mint with Cinnamon a try.
Using Flatpak + APT wisely + language managers like asdf gives you control, lightness, and stability. The system stays clean, fast, and predictable.
Top comments (4)
It's been a while since I tried to install apps with Flatpak. I like the idea of Flatpaks (even better with something like Flatseal), but in practice I found it difficult to find up-to-date software packages. Is it still this way, or do you find that Flatpaks have relatively recent versions of major software programs available?
My experiences with Flatpak have been great. The app I use the most — and the one that updates frequently (so it's the one I can confidently say is up to date) — is Discord, and yes, it always gets updated. As for other apps I’ve installed via Flatpak, I occasionally see updates here and there, but I don’t really miss anything bleeding-edge or anything like that. So, for my use case, it works perfectly.
Unfurtunately my experience with flatpak/snap/shitpack was wrong.
I won't get back to linux since there is a mess with UI. I use apps which some of them are built on top of GTK, the rest on QT. There is no consistency in UI, fonts shitty.
WLS 2 is my favorite tool. Microsoft + Office license, never ever to Linux again.
Ironically, this article was on Hacker News this morning, The future of Flatpak, which is a little disheartening.
That's good to hear it's working well for you - maybe I should take another look.