macOS vs Linux Mint
When comparing macOS vs Linux Mint, the Slant community recommends Linux Mint for most people. In the question“What is the best desktop OS?” Linux Mint is ranked 2nd while macOS is ranked 10th. The most important reason people chose Linux Mint is:
Mint gains a very strong package ecosystem and software manager of Debian, including more than 30,000 packages available from the Debian repositories.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Polished UI
The UI of Mac OS is rather unrivaled. The smooth, responsive, and cohesive UI makes the system quite joyous to use.
Pro Based on Unix
macOS being a UNIX certified system means that you can install a lot more stuff with a lot fewer headaches than if you were on Windows.
Pro Powerful terminal
It's very similar to a Linux terminal.
Pro Best support for Objective-C
Pro Easy access to lots of great dev tools
There's a large selection of great development tools available for OSX. The operating system itself comes bundled with a powerful terminal emulator, called Terminal. Additionally, Apple provides tools, like Xcode, an IDE that contains a comprehensive collection of tools for developing OSX and iOS software, for free.
Pro Lots of open-source software available
Because it's Unix under the fancy GUI, most open source ports easily to it.
Pro More commercial software and gaming support compared to other Unix systems
Adobe CC, MS Office, Steam games.
Pro Has many special tools for developers
Has support for multiple IDEs
Pro Great Git GUI tools
Tower, Kaleidoscope, SourceTree
Pro Ideal setup, out of the box
Next to no custom configuration is necessary.
Pro Streamlined workflow between devices
Because this is an Apple product, there is a streamlined workflow between your computer and all mobile devices. For example, if you type an a Pages document, once you save, you can open the updated document just moments later on your iPad, and vice versa. The same goes for iMessage, (yes, you can text people with your phone number from your computer. Actually, you can text other people with apple devices with just your Apple ID, with or without a phone number, for free!) Numbers, Notes, Reminders, Contacts, and just about any other Apple workflow application.
Pro Has software that only runs on Mac
For example, Sketch.
Pro Great modifier key layout
Pro Using VMware you can also run Windows 10 on the Mac
This is useful for testing and some development tools that are Windows-only (XML Spy, MapForce).
Pro You need it to compile macOS or iOS apps
Pro Compatibility with Debian and Ubuntu software builds and repositories
Mint gains a very strong package ecosystem and software manager of Debian, including more than 30,000 packages available from the Debian repositories.
Pro Familiar user interface
Mint is highly recommended for both users coming from Windows, as well as users coming from Ubuntu, but unhappy with Ubuntu's recent, rather dramatic interface changes. Mint provides an updated interface with a look and feel similar to Gnome 2, with an application menu reminiscent of the Windows 7 Start Menu, with categorization and search.
Pro Already functional out-of-the-box
Mint comes bundled with software for browsing the web, editing pictures, browsing files, watching videos and even a full office suite (LibreOffice). An average user can use Mint right away after a fresh install, using all the software that comes with the distribution to complete most of their daily tasks.
Pro Complete and stable
Pro Provides LTS (long term support) versions
Long Term Support versions are versions of software that are continuously updated for an extended period of time, even after newer versions are launched. LTS versions will typically get feature additions and enhancements for an extended period of time, then security updates up until its End of Life. An LTS release should typically be considered good for at least 5 years.
Pro Easy installation and configuration
Linux Mint uses the same installer as Ubuntu. It is very easy to use for beginners, and also allows more advanced users to choose their own partitions. Linux Mint's Cinnamon desktop is highly customizable and can be made to look however preferred.
Pro Dedicated upgrade process
The Linux Mint team is very dedicated to upgrading and improving Mint, to the point where the releases are fairly predictable. They are also dedicated to their users, meaning that they are responsive to critiques, suggestions, etc.
Pro Popular
Linux Mint is currently the most hit page on DistroWatch. Because of its popularity, long-term support is pretty guaranteed.
Pro Good community support
There are several different ways to get support for this distribution, including the forums, their IRC channel, or their github repositories if you think their software isn't behaving as it should.
Pro Supports proprietary software
Linux Mint does maintain a free software environment, however, it does offer full support to proprietary software (Chrome, Skype, Teamviewer).
Pro The OS is great for both beginners and advanced users
The OS has different update settings for different users and has easy manual within the OS.
Pro There is a "system restore" tool to restore the OS if something breaks
This tool backs up the core OS files to an external drive with an option for full encryption.
Pro The easiest option ever
The distro is the easiest operating system to run ever.
Pro MATE desktop (as an option)
MATE is a classic desktop as opposed to the newer "Unity" desktop. For people who prefer the classic style this is one of only few modern distributions with still active MATE desktop development.
Cons
Con Expensive
OSX is tied Apple hardware and Apple hardware tends to be expensive.
Con Limited hardware
Usually, the hardware that can run this can't be upgraded.
Con No native package management
A comparison of package managers available for OSX can be found here.
Con Very few options for running hosted, on the cloud
Con Most software is closed source
For people who like to use open source tools for their development work, this may be a problem. There's plenty of advantages to open source software, one of which is the ability to tinker with and customize the tools themselves that you are using. Although there's plenty of FOSS tools available for Mac, especially through Homebrew, the number of packages available is much lower than the number of packages available for any Linux distribution.
Con Closed source
Mac OS is closed source itself, which means that it is developed more slowly and has more problems
Con Bash version is obsolete
macOS comes with an obsolete version of Bash, due to licensing issues.
Con Poor application support
Fewer apps run on Mac OS than on Windows or Linux
Con Silly modifier keys layout
The Command key is strange, Alt is where Super should be.
Con Too little customization options
Con The Linux Mint website once provided malware
The website for Linux Mint was hacked in 2016 and its download links led to a modified ISO, which contained malware.
Con Does not handle multiple languages well
Con System updates can lead the system to being unstable
While a new installed system is stable, after an update, there is a slight chance of something not working.
Con Cheap Windows substitute
Mint tries to be like Windows when it could be different and provide options.
Con Outdated software centers
Many of the offered options are older versions.
Con Upgrade process between version can be painful
The Linux Mint team offers a method to upgrade the OS between versions but they tend to recommend clean installs, which isn't always suitable for everyone. However, following the upgrade process currently is less than straightforward and is easily capable of leaving your system in a confused state.
Con Looks ugly
The default theme and wallpaper looks outdated and bland. Luckily that is easy to change in the settings.
Con very boring
Con Mint 19 forces unwanted updates
Since version 19 Mint adopted Windows 10's policy to force the user to install unwanted updates and even if the user deselects them and marks them not to be installed, they're still being installed.
Con Many proprietary (closed-source) packages
By default, Linux Mint includes almost all the proprietary packages just to improve the user experience.
Con Linux Mint tries to force people to use less powerful custom package management system
The custom package management system is slow, frustrating, and forces you to select and install one package at a time. Can't select a whole load of packages and then run the installations in one go.
