this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2026
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Ubuntu stopped being the lightweight Linux distro, and Linux Mint filled the gap it left behind (www.xda-developers.com)
submitted 1 day ago by Crumpled6273@lemmy.ca to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It was though. You are living in a bubble. For five years all I ever heard was "You gotta switch to Ubuntu! Windows is awful!" Except this is when I was still using Windows XP, so from my perspective Windows wasn't awful. It was just out of date. From 2006-2011, that's all I ever heard was Ubuntu Ubuntu Ubuntu.

ubuntu's early popularity had nothing to do with it being 'lightweight' (because it really wasn't).. but rather simply because it was 'new' and 'easier', and everybody was jumping on that bandwagon. that's it.

xubuntu came around with dapper (june '06) and quickly became a popular recommendation for older or low-spec hardware. ubuntu itself was never that choice. ever.

I'd say around 3-4 years ago it started shifting towards Mint.

linuxmint has been going strong longer than '3-4 years'. a lot longer.

my PC hasn't been updated, or changed in any way since 2023.

I don't even update firefox. I'm running 133.0.3. I think firefox is somewhere near version 200.

it is your choice to ignore updates. you know your software is out-of-date and vulnerable.

[–] p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

but rather simply because it was ‘new’ and ‘easier’, and everybody was jumping on that bandwagon. that’s it.

No, for 15-20 years, it was pushed as the "Linux on the desktop" option. It was the primary distro people were pushing as a replacement for Windows. In fact, there wasn't a lot of options for a desktop-focused Linux. There were just a bunch of Linux distros that happened to have all of the packages for X11/KDE/GNOME. Maybe RedHat was slightly more desktop-focused, but it was still very much a server-heavy distro.

Although, I don't remember anybody claiming it was the "lightweight" option. For a time, it was the only "desktop-focused" option.

linuxmint has been going strong longer than ‘3-4 years’. a lot longer.

Maybe, but it only had a resurgence as the new de facto option from the mass exodus from all of the Windows 11 bullshit. Mint has a strange history with the desktop distro wars. Even now, there's a lot more desktop options, so you can't really call Mint the de facto one. But, I think it's one of the straightforward options for a first-time conversion from Windows.

[–] f4f4f4f4f4f4f4f4@sopuli.xyz 2 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

In fact, there wasn't a lot of options for a desktop-focused Linux.

You got it right, here. I used Ubuntu 20 years ago because it was the only Linux distro I found that gave a GUI at all out-of-the-box on an average consumer video card. I still dual-booted for games, OFC.