Linux Mint

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Linux Mint is a free Linux-based operating system designed for use on desktop and laptop computers.

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New to Mint - How to determine software compatibility? (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hi there, I started using Linux Mint Cinnamon a few days ago and am currently setting up my workspace, that includes software I can't find through the integrated Software Manager

My biggest issue is that I don't understand how to determine if software is compatible with Mint. Often devs declare their product to be compatible with ubuntu. Since Linux Mint is based on ubuntu, does that make the software automatically compatible?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu so it is compatible with almost everything.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

neat :)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Ubuntu is based on debian, so same thing for .deb packages

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

Mint is based on Ubuntu, which is based on Debian. So anything advertised to work on those will generally work on mint.

One caveat is that Ubuntu also uses Snap to package stuff, but Mint doesn't have snap by default. But mint has flatpak, which Ubuntu doesn't have by default.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Since Linux Mint is based on ubuntu, does that make the software automatically compatible?

Yes.
There are multiple versions of Ubuntu though. I believe for Linux Mint 22 you’d want the “Ubuntu Noble” version of the software you want, and for 21, you want Ubuntu Jammy.

Just download the Ubuntu version of software.

Debian packages and stand alone Linux binaries should work too.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

If it's available as a .deb package or a flatpak, it should work.