Quote:
Originally Posted by Skybird
Mint will kind of divorce from ubuntu sooner or later and go along the Debian trail exclusively.
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That appears to be part of the problem. Not installing security updates in the kernel is another. If Mint divorces itself from Ubuntu it loses the world's largest and most reliable repository of curated and malware-free software.
The software repositories are the only strength Mint has left. Going down its roadmapped way, it will lose everything. They should concentrate on developing Cinnamon and making it available for other distros. The Mint dev crew doesn't have the horsepower to remain relevant.
There have been plenty of distros with similar troubles. The bottom line is regressing to Debian means an aged software basis four or five years behind the present state of the art. It means abandoning the incredible Ubuntu software repositories. The size and quality of software repositories is a quality much more important even than using Cinnamon vs Unity. If you have nothing to run they way you run it doesn't matter. And you can run (I am) Cinnamon in Ubuntu anyway.
Mint has nothing to offer. As it stands, it's slightly modified Ubuntu. If it abandons its Ubuntu base and the Ubuntu repositories, it loses its greatest assets. It then becomes a five years out of date Debian clone that runs Cinnamon, also available in Debian and Ubuntu.
Here's a
well balanced discussion of the situation from a variety of people from Mint fanatics to Mint critics. It's an interesting read.
And there's
this story about how Mint has to give up developing their KDE Plasma version and is farming that out to the Kubuntu team. Did I predict something about Mint ceasing to exist and merging with some of the Ubuntu teams? It's already happening.
It'll all work out in the end. In the Linux world it always does.