It just reliably works for me and family that are not Linux people. Sure, other distros have specialized uses, but many are just lots of meaningless work.
I am a tech lead and have >10y experience, so I can handle Linux perfectly fine. Does not prove my opinion right though. I just think most distros is a waste of time to use and configure. My OS is not something I want to fix or actively maintain, like ever. I just want to do stuff and play games. Mint lets me do that, without having to fix stuff.
I have tried lots of distros and every single one is more work, except maybe Ubuntu. Most users don’t want to maintain their OS, most Linux users at the moment? Maybe.
Yes, always being at the forefront of all software through Arch or another rolling distro is cool, it also means that you might be using less reliable software. Fedora is great in many respects, it is just less flexible. Yes, ostree is cool.
Its just that those things is for those who WANT to tinker with their OS. In the future more of the great stuff will be implemented in Linux Mint, but til then, why bother? (Unless you find joy in it)
We should stop recommending other distros to regular people.
TL;DR People just want an OS that works, not another project. Lets stop recommending all kinds of distros, just go for Mint.
Also, I am trying to create a discussion here, not 100% my opinion.
Ehh, case by case. On my aunt’s laptop for web browsing and emails, 100% yes.
For my mates Frankenstein gaming rig with some parts 15 years old and some 2 years - no… Steam opening time of >15 mins, with game start times of >30 mins compared to windows 10 at 3 mins and 5 mins. Literally on the train home after switching him back to windows (I did promise), wishing I’d lubuntu’d it.
Linux is great, but the best distro depends on machine.
“!most cases” 😉
If his main use case, or an important one, is gaming then I’d argue one of the gaming distros would be best suited.
Bazzite is a relatively safe bet, but I’d recommend CachyOS if he’s on supported hardware (probably is from what you wrote), having a better chance of drawing more performance-% out of it when it seems that it’s needed.
Mint can game, but it’s a lot more hassle and manual intervention (depending on hardware, mostly).