87
Ubuntu stopped being the lightweight Linux distro, and Linux Mint filled the gap it left behind
(www.xda-developers.com)
this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2026
87 points (87.2% liked)
Technology
88252 readers
5752 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
It never was.
It didn't.
Whether xfce and cinnamon require less resources compared to other DEs is questionable, but the question itself is dumb. Environmemt by itself has little value without programs that run inside of it, and most of those aren't cinnamon or xfce specific or adapted to them.
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 It was just out of date.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.
Finally I looked at Ubuntu, and instantly realized I hated it, but that's because of personal choice. For the masses, Ubuntu=Linux at one point. If you knew enough to dispute that fact, then you're already in the Linux ecosystem enough to have your own opinions.
But for non-Linux people, I'd say Ubuntu was the default Linux experience for most people for 15ish years. I'd say around 3-4 years ago it started shifting towards Mint.
And now Mint is the default experience. The problem is Linux users are very opinionated. Their distro is the best distro. Their distro "just works". And these opinions are on a spectrum. I don't mean autism, I mean the opinions are literally a whole spectrum. You could have someone who has almost an identical set-up as you, except they use a different file browser. So, slightly differrent. On the other end of the spectrum you might have someone who uses Arch. Or if you use Arch, maybe they use vanilla Debian.
Whatever the specifics, that's not the point. The point is Linux is a whole range of visions, which is why your vision will never be THE vision for Linux. Because regardless of your opinions, no matter which stance you take, there's going to be thousands of people who want to tell you how stupid your setup is, and how much better theirs is.
But the default Linux experience is just the one that the majority gravitate towards. 90% of normal PC users never change any settings, or try different distros. The difference is that most Linux users aren't the typical PC users. Linux users like to customize their PC. Most PC users don't even change the theme. That's why Windows has such a monopoly. The user buys their PC, plop it on their desk, and the factory settings are good enough.
The other thing I find most Linux users do, is they want to grow the Linux base. So they introduce the "easiest" distro, and that becomes the default. For a very long time that was Ubuntu. I actually like Mint, so I personally see this as a good step for being the default.
And if you don't believe that there are users who don't change their PC or customize things, I'm running ZorinOS, as my first Linux full time use case. The only thing I customized was putting a custom taskbar at the bottom of my screen. Outside of that, my PC hasn't been updated, or changed in any way since 2023.
And if all of this sounds like horror to you, then that just means you have opinions that I don't have. But you're also one of the advanced PC users who use linux easily. I still struggle with this. If Windows wasn't one massive privacy invasion, I'd still be on Windows despite all the things you hate about them. For me it was the spying. Linux just does it's thing, and isn't controlled by corporations, so it doesn't spy. That's literally the only difference for me. I don't even update firefox. I'm running 133.0.3. I think firefox is somewhere near version 200.
I think you're both interpreting the original quote in different ways. It was the obvious choice only because it was popular, but it wasn't popular because it was the best at reviving old hardware. There were many better options for squeezing performance out of old systems, and they would have been more "obvious choices" than Ubuntu for anyone with any knowledge of the Linux ecosystem.
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.
linuxmint has been going strong longer than '3-4 years'. a lot longer.
it is your choice to ignore updates. you know your software is out-of-date and vulnerable.
Came here to say this bit you said it better.
Are you sure you know who it is in the bubble?
I dunno where you live but when i hear the same thing three times, i usually try to move my ears a bit.
In context they should be sure, because they’re right.
There was a period where, if you went looking for a “lightweight” Linux distribution as a layperson, everything pointed to Ubuntu. Actually, that period saw Linux and Ubuntu be synonymous to those same laypeople.
It was one of the popular new flavors of the time but anybody who knew to dig deeper would’ve easily found Mint recommended as a truly lightweight distro.