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I am old and dumb. My fren installed Linux Mint on my laptop and it works fine. I have over 100 updates waiting for action, but I don't know which ones I want or even need. I am a low-end user, I use my puter mainly for Poal and Youtube, not work stuff. Should I just enable automatic updates? I don't want a bunch of useless crap on my harddrive I will never need. Appreciate any input.

I am old and dumb. My fren installed Linux Mint on my laptop and it works fine. I have over 100 updates waiting for action, but I don't know which ones I want or even need. I am a low-end user, I use my puter mainly for Poal and Youtube, not work stuff. Should I just enable automatic updates? I don't want a bunch of useless crap on my harddrive I will never need. Appreciate any input.

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[–] • 6 pts

Generally speaking...

Most mainstream linux distros (mint included) arent installing things you dont ask for as a matter of course like MS.

You should probably be safe with what is listed.

If you are in real fear. Learn to take a backup. And backup the important things and then update.

If you need help with these, or want someone to have a look at the list. You can PM me and we can work something out.

[–] • 2 pts

Thanks...unless someone says otherwise I will enable auto updates and hope for the best.

[–] • 1 pt

Use Clonezilla to make a full HDD backup. And have an extDD for your important file backups anyway.

[–] • 3 pts

I usually do all updates for Linux. The security updates tend to actually be security updates and there's less frivolous stuff in general compared to Android or ios app updates.

The other option would be never updating unless something is broken, or reading each one and selectively updating. As a low end user that probably wouldn't be fun.

[–] • 1 pt

Yes...I have read the info on each update, and...I have no idea what it is, or if I need it, that's the problem.

[–] • 2 pts

Linux is very modular, and you have access to everything. That can be confusing and overwhelming for a new user but ultimately it's great for those who like to have visibility and control over what their computer is doing.

All those packages - a lot of them are used by each other and that's why you have so many. If you haven't been installing extra stuff they're probably all needed. If you want to learn just take it slow and you'll get there bit by bit (lolpun)

Otherwise just decide if you'd rather keep it updated or ignore updates as a blanket approach so you don't have to think about it.

[–] • 0 pt (edited )

My fren installed Linux Mint on my laptop and it works fine.

Are you sure he installed Mint? Every time I've ever installed Mint there's been some major problem that I find out is a known bug. Then I try Xubuntu or Kubuntu and the bug's there too so I have to end up putting Bill Gates' crap on the PC.

The latest was on Mint 20.2. Got situated and discovered the computer can't sleep if you have an Nvidia card and use nouveau driver. Go to driver manager and pick Nvidia driver and the system is hosed and can't even boot anymore. Go to recovery mode and remove the Nvidia drivers and find out I can have sleep with nouveau driver if I configure grub with init_on_alloc=0. Start using system and about 5 minutes later I get a hard freeze, can't even CTRL+ALT+F1 a terminal. For fuck's sake, this is 10 year-old hardware. You'd think they'd have ironed out the bugs by now.

[–] • 0 pt

Sounds like you have had some pretty shitty linux experiences.

I cant recall the last time my machine crashed. Ive put mint on lots of things and not had any issues. I use arch on my daily driver. My and my wifes laptops run mint.

[–] • 0 pt (edited )

This was the third machine I'd tried Mint on in the last two years. Similar story every time. I suspect this is why Linux never gains much traction. For the right hardware combo its stability can't be beat, but that's an elusive combination. M$ focuses on "it just works" no matter what hardware, even if that means a little general crappiness for your trouble.

[–] • 0 pt

Mint is Ubuntu based. I main LMDE.