So, I was originally just going with Mint 22.1, but I’m getting a 9070xt and see mint is only on kernel 6.8 which doesn’t particularly support it?
Is using it still okay? Should I go with Bazzite instead? Or something else. I’m fine with a little amount of work to get shit working nice and all, I am fine with figuring out how to use the terminal if needed and all, just want something stable to play games and other shit on. Mint sounded good, but not if it won’t support my GPU.
Lol at the downvotes, it’s like 3 clicks. Not rocket science.
https://www.fosslinux.com/138008/how-to-install-and-try-different-linux-kernels-in-linux-mint.htm
Mint deliberately uses an LTS kernel because it’s primary value proposition is stability & simplicity but changing kernels is pretty safe.
Yeah I mean, no experience with it and it says it’ll all probably work but I was not sure about it. I had seen mint 22 was made to not be stuck on 5.15 so it might be possible but it seems like they focus on LTS which would go to 6.12 now and not 6.13+. Is it worth doing all that to still use mint or would I be better off just going with like fedora 42 or bazzite or something else.
<shrug> I’ve put later kernels on Mint a half dozen times withno dramas, but whether you should depends on what your use case, preferences and skill are.
I personally wouldn’t do the arse-ache that is an immutable system, but plenty here love their Bazzite it seems. Different strokes for different folks. Nothing wrong with that.
If you love Mint except for the kernel version then it’s an easy fix. If you don’t have deep feelings then either try & be ready to ditch, or pick an alternative.
Just for the record there is no “doing all that” about it. It’s a simple couple of clicks. It couldnt be easier. I’m not sure where you got the idea it was difficult.
I guess the “doing all that” mostly means taking something supposedly very stable like mint and then changing it seems to kinda defeat the purpose of mint lol. Idk, there so much “mint and Debian are stable” but like… what’s the even mean? Is fedora 42 or bazzite going to be crashing regularly? Cuz… I doubt it? lol like idk, there’s just a lot of options. Seems easier to just go with fedora 42 or bazzite or whatever, but now idk what bazzite being immutable even means for what I can’t change and why that’s a big deal so idk.
I get the impression you’ve been enticed/subjected to some confusing technical jargon without noticing. Please allow me to shed some light.
Stable can mean a bunch of different stuff that may or may not be closely related. In the case of Debian, it’s the name of its default release; the one in which packages are frozen for two years except for security patches. (Note that this naming scheme is not unique to Debian.) As such, a Debian installation will be unchanging for these two years, earning its stable designation (which, to be clear, just meaning unchanging in this context). Finally, this unchanging environment should provide a ton of stability (i.e. stuff just works), which is also referred to as stable. These three distinct meanings of stable are probably the ones you’ll come across the most.
The bold part is a clear demonstration that you understood stable to mean strictly robust; i.e. the third meaning discussed above. And to be clear, Fedora does a decent job at providing a reliable experience. (Bazzite even more so.) But not all three meanings of stable apply to it:
bootc
model.So, to answer your question, Fedora and Bazzite will not crash regularly. And, while Fedora might fall a little short of providing as robust of an experience as you might find on Debian and Linux Mint (assuming you won’t FrankenDebian your installs), Bazzite may actually rival (and perhaps even eclipse/surpass) Debian and Linux Mint in this respect.
For your purposes, I agree that going for the Bazzite-route seems to be the easiest.
This is a nuanced discussion that probably deserves more attention, but I’ll keep it short for the sake of brevity. In Bazzite’s case, strictly-speaking, immutability refers to how most of
/usr
’s content isn’t supposed to be changed deliberately by you. This is enforced by the system (in part) by making those files read-only.In practice, though, there’s very little you actually can’t do with the system:
bootc
/rpm-ostree
is possible, it’s actually discouraged in Bazzite’s case. Thankfully, there’s a plethora of different means to the same end. Furthermore, sysext have come a long way and might become our go-to eventually.That is, updates either happen successfully or not at all. So a random power outage (or otherwise) is not able to break the system’s integrity. ↩︎
Thanks, that’s very helpful. Sounds like Bazzite will be sufficient then so I’ll just go with that.
It has been my pleasure fam! Enjoy your ride on Bazzite and please consider reporting back on how it went 😉.