Linux Mint doesn't do bluetooth well. So, if you're using a touchpad and a wireless keyboard, you're going to get pretty frustrated with it.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Linux Mint vs Mac OS
- Thread starter krause734
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
By that, do you mean that Linux Mint doesn't do Bluetooth well in comparison to other Linux-based operating systems, or that Linux Based operating systems in general don't do Bluetooth well, or that you have particular Bluetooth equipment with which you've had a bad experience in specifically Linux Mint?
(I haven't had the need to try Bluetooth devices with my Linux machines, so this is an honest question. However, if there are out-of-the-box issues with such stuff in one distro but it works in other distros, fixing it is just a matter of getting your hands dirty. (Not wanting to get one's hands dirty on a regular basis is a good reason to use macOS over Linux..
))
Mikael H - I recently installed Linux Mint on an old (2007) iMac that someone gave me. It's pretty nice overall but the Apple trackpad doesn't autoconnect. I started googling for a solution and found that a lot of people have trouble with Mint and bluetooth. So, it's partly my direct experience and partly what others are apparently complaining about.
I think other distributions do fine with bluetooth (more or less).
I used to mess with Linux quite a bit and have tried most of the major distributions. I settled on one that I really liked (CrunchBang) and then the one guy behind it ceased development and *poof* it was gone. After CrunchBang's demise, I decided scr-w it and gave up on Linux. This recent experience with Mint is my first foray back into it after several years.
I think other distributions do fine with bluetooth (more or less).
I used to mess with Linux quite a bit and have tried most of the major distributions. I settled on one that I really liked (CrunchBang) and then the one guy behind it ceased development and *poof* it was gone. After CrunchBang's demise, I decided scr-w it and gave up on Linux. This recent experience with Mint is my first foray back into it after several years.
Crunchbang turned into BunsenLabs but basically they were both just Debian + Openbox + Conky
If you want to run games then Windows is probably worth the pain and suffering, otherwise no IMHO. BTW Apple hasn't refused to update the Mac Pro, they claim a new one is on the way. If the mini is more your thing, why not just get an iMac, when you price in the 5k screen it probably works out cheaper.
What Linux can't do is run Microsoft Office or the Adobe Applications. There are of course lots of other apps you won't be able to run but the basics are covered.
I'm looking at Mint as a daily driver to replace Mac OS too. Here are some pros / cons:
+ Super customizable (something you don't really miss until you tried it, but it opened my eyes to how extremely locked down OS X is). You can set it up with docks, menus, launchers, file browsers and whatnot exactly the way you want it.
+ Great UI. Very much the "mac" feel minus the annoyances. Linux terminal just as the mac. A pleasure to use.
+ Wine. This was actually a big plus for me. I can for example run World of Warcraft on my 3440x1440 screen in 60+ fps (capped it to 60 as my screen doesn't do more). I also installed Photoshop CC through wine that works just fine, so the above statement that Adobe doesn't run is false. Also tried some other games and apps that are windows only with little to no issues.
+ Control of the OS. You can fine-tune anything really.
+ Hardware choice. Build a desktop from whatever parts you want, or get something like a Dell XPS (slim, rose gold, quad core i7 with 4k touchscreen, thunderbolt and all those goodies, imo way better than a macbook pro for much cheaper)
- Software. There are Linux versions of a lot of stuff, for example Spotify, Skype, Dropbox, Slack, Chrome and so on, but there's also a lot missing. There are usually other options available that do the same thing, but count on having to find replacements for what you normally use.
- Ease of use. OS X is very hassle free as they don't offer that much variety in hardware. Drivers for Linux are usually less up to date or doesn't exist at all, or are just plain buggy. Look up if your hardware is supported before purchase!
- Hardware issues. When trying Mint on my macbook I noticed some issues with peripherals. For example, on OS X I can use mouse+keyboard in the same USB port, but under Mint it can't support the power needed for both. My TB screens USB hub doesn't work. If I disconnect my TB monitor and reconnect it, it doesn't wake up (have to reboot). HiDPI support isn't good (you can set 100% or 200% scaling, but not 125/150/175). You can't have different scaling on different monitors, for example a retina laptop screen and a separate non-retina monitor. Stuff like that.
- Tinkering. There's usually some minor thing to fiddle with. Maybe your startup sound is at 100% volume and you want to change it, maybe your samba share permissions aren't working properly, maybe it doesn't remember a setting for something in the system prefs. Small stuff like that, but that you need to look into. All of them usually involves editing some config files, installing some package or whatever that you do in the terminal. Count on having to spend some time on getting a smooth experience.
Overall for me, I'm starting to like it. At first it was a feeling of "screw this, I can stand Mac if this is the alternative". But then I sat down and really started to figure out all the issues (driver updates, config changes and whatever it might be) and once that is sorted, things are working really well. I'm typing this on Mint, and on my current installation there are very few things I feel that I'm missing. I will still use my mac at work for now, but I've gone Mint 100% on my home computer. If Apple will completely drop the ball (which they are very close to doing imo) I feel like I have a very good backup option.
+ Super customizable (something you don't really miss until you tried it, but it opened my eyes to how extremely locked down OS X is). You can set it up with docks, menus, launchers, file browsers and whatnot exactly the way you want it.
+ Great UI. Very much the "mac" feel minus the annoyances. Linux terminal just as the mac. A pleasure to use.
+ Wine. This was actually a big plus for me. I can for example run World of Warcraft on my 3440x1440 screen in 60+ fps (capped it to 60 as my screen doesn't do more). I also installed Photoshop CC through wine that works just fine, so the above statement that Adobe doesn't run is false. Also tried some other games and apps that are windows only with little to no issues.
+ Control of the OS. You can fine-tune anything really.
+ Hardware choice. Build a desktop from whatever parts you want, or get something like a Dell XPS (slim, rose gold, quad core i7 with 4k touchscreen, thunderbolt and all those goodies, imo way better than a macbook pro for much cheaper)
- Software. There are Linux versions of a lot of stuff, for example Spotify, Skype, Dropbox, Slack, Chrome and so on, but there's also a lot missing. There are usually other options available that do the same thing, but count on having to find replacements for what you normally use.
- Ease of use. OS X is very hassle free as they don't offer that much variety in hardware. Drivers for Linux are usually less up to date or doesn't exist at all, or are just plain buggy. Look up if your hardware is supported before purchase!
- Hardware issues. When trying Mint on my macbook I noticed some issues with peripherals. For example, on OS X I can use mouse+keyboard in the same USB port, but under Mint it can't support the power needed for both. My TB screens USB hub doesn't work. If I disconnect my TB monitor and reconnect it, it doesn't wake up (have to reboot). HiDPI support isn't good (you can set 100% or 200% scaling, but not 125/150/175). You can't have different scaling on different monitors, for example a retina laptop screen and a separate non-retina monitor. Stuff like that.
- Tinkering. There's usually some minor thing to fiddle with. Maybe your startup sound is at 100% volume and you want to change it, maybe your samba share permissions aren't working properly, maybe it doesn't remember a setting for something in the system prefs. Small stuff like that, but that you need to look into. All of them usually involves editing some config files, installing some package or whatever that you do in the terminal. Count on having to spend some time on getting a smooth experience.
Overall for me, I'm starting to like it. At first it was a feeling of "screw this, I can stand Mac if this is the alternative". But then I sat down and really started to figure out all the issues (driver updates, config changes and whatever it might be) and once that is sorted, things are working really well. I'm typing this on Mint, and on my current installation there are very few things I feel that I'm missing. I will still use my mac at work for now, but I've gone Mint 100% on my home computer. If Apple will completely drop the ball (which they are very close to doing imo) I feel like I have a very good backup option.
I use a Logitech 2.4 GHz USB wireless keyboard/mouse. Works better than Bluetooth and the batteries last for years.
if i would be able to reverse tether an Ipad / Android device via Bluetooth PAN to a Linux Desktop PC or Laptop, then i would probably definitely switch over. Until now it has just been a good experience. also the audio driver hopefully will get better with time, which is important to me, especially on laptops.
I loaded Manjaro Linux on my Windows 10 laptop (Lenovo Y70) as dual boot, looks and works great, easy install.
I used Rufus USB installer:
https://rufus.akeo.ie
https://manjaro.org/get-manj
so far everyting works
I used Rufus USB installer:
https://rufus.akeo.ie
https://manjaro.org/get-manj
so far everyting works
Last edited:
Be careful with Manjaro, it's based on a rolling release and the hold stuff back for pseudo testing so things can be late then not compatible with the rest of the system. If you want what Manjaro offers just take a half hour and install clean Arch.
LOL Im not that advanced, but Linux has come a long way in just a few years. I wish more people would try it and get off Windows
Mint is a nice distro for a newbie to get their feet wet with, just as Ubuntu is. I like it and mess with it on occasion. However I won't replace macOS with any Linux distro at home. I have several distro's in VMware on my Mac's to play with.
However, as a sysadmin at work who runs a mostly Microsoft domain (also have some Ubuntu and CentOS VM's in the domain) I am now, very recently, using KDE Neon as my primary OS at my desk. I've become so dissatisfied at Windows 10 that I don't want to use it anymore.
The oddest thing so far that I found is that when I RDP from KDE Neon to any of my Windows PC's or servers, the session is established and loaded significantly faster than when I use the RDP from Windows to Windows.
There is actually a known bug when using Windows 10 to RDP into older Windows Server versions, like 2012 where I have to try to establish the connection numerous times before it will take. But when I RDP from KDE Neon to the same Windows servers, it has never failed for me yet.
I can go on and on about how happy I am with KDE Neon as my primary sysadmin computer now, but I'll save that for a blog post soon.
However, as a sysadmin at work who runs a mostly Microsoft domain (also have some Ubuntu and CentOS VM's in the domain) I am now, very recently, using KDE Neon as my primary OS at my desk. I've become so dissatisfied at Windows 10 that I don't want to use it anymore.
The oddest thing so far that I found is that when I RDP from KDE Neon to any of my Windows PC's or servers, the session is established and loaded significantly faster than when I use the RDP from Windows to Windows.
There is actually a known bug when using Windows 10 to RDP into older Windows Server versions, like 2012 where I have to try to establish the connection numerous times before it will take. But when I RDP from KDE Neon to the same Windows servers, it has never failed for me yet.
I can go on and on about how happy I am with KDE Neon as my primary sysadmin computer now, but I'll save that for a blog post soon.
The only issue I have with Neon is it's still on an Ubuntu base which means PPA's and they're used for some core stuff that needs to be in either Main or Universe
I do not consider myself an expert in Linux, but I'm learning new stuff everyday. With that said, what are the pros and cons with what you said?
If the software resides in a PPA it's up to a single person to keep it updated, if it's in Universe the community can keep it updated so there's no single point of failure and if it's in main then paid Canonical folks keep it updated. What happens then is that non updated SW will be forked and updated then put on Universe and if you don't know it you end up with a conflict and unlike the Red Hat family you can't in any way that I'm aware of prioritize repo's.
Ubuntu is fine and stable as long as you don't use PPA's you'll stay as up to date as you need on an LTS release it's more of a concern for folks like me that always want new and shiny.
If I were desktop Linux for work and there wasn't anything Ubuntu specific I needed I'd just go here:
https://www.redhat.com/en/store/red...sktop-or-red-hat-enterprise-linux-workstation
Spend the $50 and run RHEL they're stuff always works, requires little futzing, and all the cool desktop stuff is available in one extra repo and since RHEL is slow and well tested that repo stays up to date.
===EDIT===
Like with anything once you've practiced it long enough you tend to want everything to work the way you know which is why I get frustrated with Ubuntu/RHEL/SuSE and their derivatives because they don't work the way they "should"
If I were to start with Linux all over again I'd go with Red Hat or a derivative, it's the industry standard and there's lots of really smart support for it vs. Ubuntu which is intended for the masses so the support is more questionable.
Last edited:
That was very informative and I appreciate that.If the software resides in a PPA it's up to a single person to keep it updated, if it's in Universe the community can keep it updated so there's no single point of failure and if it's in main then paid Canonical folks keep it updated. What happens then is that non updated SW will be forked and updated then put on Universe and if you don't know it you end up with a conflict and unlike the Red Hat family you can't in any way that I'm aware of prioritize repo's.
Ubuntu is fine and stable as long as you don't use PPA's you'll stay as up to date as you need on an LTS release it's more of a concern for folks like me that always want new and shiny.
If I were desktop Linux for work and there wasn't anything Ubuntu specific I needed I'd just go here:
https://www.redhat.com/en/store/red...sktop-or-red-hat-enterprise-linux-workstation
Spend the $50 and run RHEL they're stuff always works, requires little futzing, and all the cool desktop stuff is available in one extra repo and since RHEL is slow and well tested that repo stays up to date.
===EDIT===
Like with anything once you've practiced it long enough you tend to want everything to work the way you know which is why I get frustrated with Ubuntu/RHEL/SuSE and their derivatives because they don't work the way they "should"
If I were to start with Linux all over again I'd go with Red Hat or a derivative, it's the industry standard and there's lots of really smart support for it vs. Ubuntu which is intended for the masses so the support is more questionable.
I'm going to continue with Neon for now and if/when I get to a point of frustration with it, then I'll look towards Red Hat as you linked to.
So far, Neon is working well for me and it is not Windows!
When it comes to updates, I have to say I friggin' love Arch. No PPAs, and extensive core repository, and the AUR on top of that in the software manager. I haven't once had to install something from the internet (ie download something like a .deb file, compile something myself, add other repositories and whatnot). EVERYTHING I ever needed is available, and in the latest version. Every day I get a list of new versions for all my installed software, available directly the vendor releases new versions. One click install to update as well. Super convenient compared to the debian based stuff I used before.
I realize there's always a risk in using the bleeding edge versions of everything - it might not be very well tested, and you might break dependencies. That said, the things that happened so far have been very minor (some program that wouldn't start because the latest ffmpeg had removed some deprecated thing it needed, but the older version of that lib was avaialable through the AUR so after a 5 second install everything worked again).
I might have more serious issues in the future, but right now it heavily outweighs the PPA dumpsterfire approach.
I realize there's always a risk in using the bleeding edge versions of everything - it might not be very well tested, and you might break dependencies. That said, the things that happened so far have been very minor (some program that wouldn't start because the latest ffmpeg had removed some deprecated thing it needed, but the older version of that lib was avaialable through the AUR so after a 5 second install everything worked again).
I might have more serious issues in the future, but right now it heavily outweighs the PPA dumpsterfire approach.
Bluetooth will depend on your desktop as much as anything else.
The AUR has some packages to look at
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/?O=0&K=bluetooth
I last used OSX in 2011. 2011 macOS was and is far superior to even Linux Mint (the most user-friendly distro). Things break. It’s really easy to have your system stop working and have to deal with a non gui command line to recover your files. On technical things like file transfer speeds linux is superior but it’s still, after all these years a risk to use in terms of not losing your files and settings. It is after all a volunteer run OS despite various companies being invested in it. MacOS just works and is apparently more secure than Windows in terms of data privacy. A lot less hacking and malware happens on macOS compared to windows.
Since I've been seeing some Linux type posts I decided to install Ubuntu onto my SurfaceBook. That laptop has largely been unused, so why not.
I couldn't install 18.04 directly onto the SB, as Ubiquity crashed right at after formatting. I then opted for 17.10 and the install was smooth as butter, I then upgrade in place. One thing I noticed I didn't have to do, was mess with conf files after the install of 17.10. Just about everything worked out of the box, though I didn't do a deep dive on the functionality as 17.10 was just a means to 18.04. I was able to upgrade to 18.04 without even accessing the terminal, and the process all automated.
Looks like Canonical has done a lot of work to improve, stream line its distro, its much more polished now then when I last used it. I'm not talking about all the GUI features of gnome, but just how they made it operate like any other modern OS, i.e., less tinkering needed.
All is not perfect, I don't have nvidia drivers, no touch screen (or pen) and Wifi is wonky. If my SB goes to sleep, I lose wifi and I must do a hard reset. Shutting down isn't clean either. I get a white blinking cursor after the GUI closes out. I have to force shut down the laptop. All of these issues (maybe except for the last) was known prior to installing it. I had researched which distro would work the best, and I found Ubuntu had the most documentation and/or success rate. I couldn't even get Fedora to boot up off the live USB stick, so that was DOA.
I'll look to see if I can fix the wifi issue, from what I've found, it seems to be related to hibernation and if I change that, I might be ok. Then I'll see how the OS works for my day to day needs, i.e., can I log into my office remotely, how does the apps work, how stable is it, etc etc.
I couldn't install 18.04 directly onto the SB, as Ubiquity crashed right at after formatting. I then opted for 17.10 and the install was smooth as butter, I then upgrade in place. One thing I noticed I didn't have to do, was mess with conf files after the install of 17.10. Just about everything worked out of the box, though I didn't do a deep dive on the functionality as 17.10 was just a means to 18.04. I was able to upgrade to 18.04 without even accessing the terminal, and the process all automated.
Looks like Canonical has done a lot of work to improve, stream line its distro, its much more polished now then when I last used it. I'm not talking about all the GUI features of gnome, but just how they made it operate like any other modern OS, i.e., less tinkering needed.
All is not perfect, I don't have nvidia drivers, no touch screen (or pen) and Wifi is wonky. If my SB goes to sleep, I lose wifi and I must do a hard reset. Shutting down isn't clean either. I get a white blinking cursor after the GUI closes out. I have to force shut down the laptop. All of these issues (maybe except for the last) was known prior to installing it. I had researched which distro would work the best, and I found Ubuntu had the most documentation and/or success rate. I couldn't even get Fedora to boot up off the live USB stick, so that was DOA.
I'll look to see if I can fix the wifi issue, from what I've found, it seems to be related to hibernation and if I change that, I might be ok. Then I'll see how the OS works for my day to day needs, i.e., can I log into my office remotely, how does the apps work, how stable is it, etc etc.
I had this same issue with Ubuntu 17.x on a Dell XPS 15. I found Fedora didn't have this issue.
I've run Fedora in the past, but the I couldn't even boot up on the USB with the Fedora install. I'm generally happy with Ubuntu, but I'm researching the wifi bug. So far changing the powersave mode /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-mode-on.conf from 3 hasn't helped but when I wake up the SB I think I'm getting promising results from running nmcli c up <network name>. If that's the case. I don't mind running a script to fix it.