Agreed, Linux Mint feels like Windows 7 to me, the last version of Windows that I actually enjoyed using. It’s got a nice traditional start menu without crap on it. All the UI widgets are clear, consistent and not hidden behind many layers. I’ve set my Mint up for automatic updates but it never bothers or notifies me about it. Feels like it doesn’t even happen but every now and again I double check that it is indeed up to date and it always is! The only thing that’s ever broken for me was when I manually updated the nvidia graphics drivers.

And when you don’t touch the mouse and keyboard for a while it doesn’t start scanning your system like other operating systems do. Turning on those fans and buzzing your spiny disks. It also never turns on in the middle of the night to do stuff. No matter how much I tried I could never get Windows 10 under control.

And, of course, Mint doesn’t have Snaps, yay for that. Most of my UI software comes in the form of an AppImage.

I concur. Used to be an Ubuntu user, and for me Mint fixed quite a few of the problems I started having with Ubuntu (e.g. snaps). Plus, I find their defaults quite usable. If you like choice, give it a go using a live system.

Seconded. I’ve used Mint on and off for over a decade now. It’s stable and changes release to release are subtle. It’s boring and that’s why I keep coming back to it.