[Music] Linux Mint is a Community Driven Linux distribution that places a strong emphasis on Simplicity as a guideline principle with its user-friendly installation process comprehensive multimedia support and familiar desktop environment among other things it is thoughtfully designed to work Straight Out of the Box in contrast to a number of other distros Linux Mint does not require intricate configurations that can oftentimes be tedious even for the tech savvy instead it's tailored to operate seamlessly right from the moment of installation while also providing abundant customization options that allow users to fine-tune their operating system according to their preferences and needs over the past few months it has come to my attention that a substantial number of my viewers recommend this Linux distribution as an alternative for Windows 10 users whose PCS do not meet the minimum requirements for Windows 11. so naturally I decided to finally give it a try and after using it for a few weeks I can totally see why now now I can't really tell you whether or not you should switch as both operating systems definitely do have their strengths and weaknesses that different people are going to evaluate against various use cases and specific tasks that they intend to perform but what I can tell you is that there are a number of things that Linux meant objectively does better than Windows 11 and in this video I'm going to tell you what those things are I make these kinds of videos about two times a month and I'm doing my best to do more and better so if you like what you see please consider supporting the channel by subscribing and turning on Bell notifications it would be highly appreciated the first thing I noticed that Linux Mint does significantly better than Windows 11 is the start menu or as mint simply calls it the menu the windows 11 start menu is quite minimalistic by default it includes a search bar on the top append apps and recommended section in the middle as well as an account button on the bottom left and a power button on the bottom right there's also in all apps and more recommendations button which you most likely won't even be using all that much mainly because it's much more convenient to access apps via the search bar in terms of customization slash organization you can choose from three slightly different layouts that affect the apps to recommendations ratio you can create folders in order to better organize your apps and you can add various links next to the power button such as a link to the settings app or the file explorer and that's basically it in contrast the menu in Linux Mint feels much more coherent in structure by default its layout comprises three main columns along with a search bar the First Column displays basic session buttons as well as a number of favorites the second displays a list of system categories and the third displays all the apps and or folders that the respective categories contain in the following segment I'll showcase several noteworthy things that you can do with the Linux Mint menu that you cannot do with the windows 11 start menu first and foremost the Linux Mint menu can be resized both horizontally and vertically when you right click on an app the context menu adapts to its core functionalities for example right clicking on a web browser presents not only standard system options but also the choice to open a new window similarly right-clicking on a word editing app offers the option to start a new document furthermore Linux Mint provides users with the ability to personalize the menu by using a custom icon and label this means you can not only change the menu icon and its size but also add custom text to accompany it out of the box the menu can be opened and closed using the Super Key which is the Linux equivalent of the Windows key if for any reason you wish to change that shortcut you can do so without the need to download additional tools Additionally the menu can be configured to open when you simply hover your mouse cursor over it by default the contents of all three menu columns are accompanied by icons however Linux Mint gives you the ability to change the size of those icons or get rid of them all together allowing you to achieve a more minimalistic appearance if desired for more advanced management you can bring up the menu editor and go wild from there [Music] even though I've already listed a plethora of reasons why the Linux Mint menu is better keep in mind that I've only been using this operating system for a few weeks in a virtual machine so there's a reasonable chance that it has even more advantages that I just haven't figured out yet but the next thing I feel Linux Mint does much better than Windows 11 is the taskbar or as mint calls it the panel now don't get me wrong the windows taskbar is an amazing little tool personally I've always thought of it as a sort of a platform for my surface level user experience it neatly docks everything I need quick access to and allows me to visualize and navigate seamlessly between all the apps and programs that I have running but with the changes that were made to it with the release of Windows 11 I find it to be much more restrictive than it used to be to give you an idea on what I mean here's a list of tasks that were possible in previous versions of windows but are no longer available in the windows 11 taskbar in contrast here are some notable things that you can do with the Linux Mint panel right clicking on the panel presents you with a comprehensive context menu that includes several different options since one of which is the ability to reposition the panel to any of the screen edges in addition to the standard always show or Auto Hide visibility options Linux Mint provides a third intelligent Choice enabling users to set a specific delay time for the panel to hide or reappear the panel can be adjusted in terms of its height and the contents of different zones can be independently resized to suit your specific needs did I mention that you can create additional panels yeah things are getting quite embarrassing for Microsoft quite rapidly and that's not even the half of it because we haven't even mentioned applets yet in a nutshell applets are features that Encompass a wide range of functionalities that can be integrated into the panel for example the Linux Mint menu that we earlier discussed in detail is technically speaking an applet itself the section of the panel that houses all the system tray icons is also an applet even the calendar in the bottom right corner is considered one you know that Nifty little feature in Windows that allows you to jump to the desktop by clicking on the bottom right corner of the screen well in Linux Mint that feature is called the Corner Bar and it's an applet that can be customized in several different ways by default The Click action is configured to show the desktop but if you'd like to change it to something else you have the option to choose from three other Alternatives and the same goes for Middle clicking furthermore scroll wheel Behavior can be configured to switch between workspaces which are the Linux Mint equivalent of Windows Virtual desktops and finally you can even set up the Corner Bar to allow for quick peeking at the desktop when you simply hover over it just a little reminder in case you forgot what we were talking about these are all just things you can do with this tiny little button that you can barely even see now we can talk about different applets all day but for this video I just want to mention one more group window list is an applet that allows you to configure the behavior and properties of windows that are open on the panel here are just some of the numerous options it puts at your disposal grouping and ungrouping similar Windows applying button labels enabling vertical thumbnails and an auto start option in context menus dear Microsoft for the love of God please take notes but now let's talk about old man yelling at Clouds because that's exactly how I feel when talking about the issue of privacy in modern Windows operating systems I said it in a previous video and I'll say it again privacy within a mic Microsoft ecosystem is a thing of the past okay you won't find it in Windows 10 you won't find it in Windows 11 and you can rest assured you won't find it in any upcoming major releases either if you want convenience then that's something you're gonna have to deal with but if you want privacy well maybe you might want to take a look into Linux Mint because another thing that this os does better than Windows is telemetry well I don't know if it's really accurate to say that it does it better or maybe worse the point is there is no Telemetry in Linux Mint now for those of you who might want to take what I just said with a grain of salt hold that thought because the previous statement holds true for the core operating system while the developers behind Linux Mint do claim that they do not collect any data certain apps on the other hand such as Thunderbird or Firefox might do so nevertheless even in such cases users still retain the option to manually disable app specific Telemetry features within the settings dialogues the hard truth is if you're going to use the internet in this day and age it's perfectly impossible to stop a hundred percent of your data from going through a hundred percent of the time but if even this is not private enough for you you might want to consider moving to a doomsday bunker and never leaving its safety but now let's talk about bloatware another aspect of Windows 11 that stands in stark contrast to Linux Mint here's a screenshot of what my start menu looked like when I first started using Windows 11 back in 2021 in this image there are at least half a dozen icons that I would consider as bloatware can you guess which ones I'm talking about in fact I'd even say that I'm being rather conservative in my assessment as there are probably many more that would fit into the definition of bloatware truth be told most of these unwanted items are just installation links but that still doesn't absolve the issue there should be absolutely no clutter to begin with Linux Mint on the other hand is practically clear of this nuisance now don't get me wrong out of the box Linux Mint does come with a plethora of different programs but practically all of them are either useful system tools and accessories or free and open source alternatives for productivity applications such as Microsoft Office now sure even that might be too much for some people but then again those people are probably going to opt for a leaner distal like Arch but for users who are looking for an out of the box experience similar to what they're already accustomed to pre-installed applications such as Firefox writer and impress are likely to be more than welcome the final thing I want to talk about in this video is batch renaming in when Windows you select the files or folders right click choose rename type in whatever you want and hit enter that renames the selected items to the name that you specified and adds numbers for differentiation it's a process that does the job but offers no options for cases when users prefer to rename portions of the item names or just insert editions Linux Mint on the other hand does all of the above and then some similar to Mac OS Linux Mint handles batch renaming through a dedicated dialog window in which you can not only rename multiple files but also remove portions of existing names insert additions and convert text between different letter cases with a single click why Microsoft refuses to implement a similar system in Windows is beyond me but what I do know is that Linux Mint quite clearly Does it Better now another thing that I wanted to touch on in this video is the topic of security however after going through a fair share of discussions in online forms and threads I've come to realize that this is something that I'm just not ready for yet so I'm gonna have to leave that as a potential topic for a future video in the meantime I'm eager to hear your thoughts if there's something that you'd like to add or disagree with feel free to start a discussion in the comments below I know you guys have strong opinions on topics like these so as always I'll be keeping an eye out for your insights if you found the video interesting consider supporting the channel by liking and subscribing thank you so much for watching and as always stay strong foreign foreign