I've been using Linux Mint on an old desktop for about three weeks now, and while I've had some decent experiences, I've run into a few major issues:
1. **Gaming**: I initially tried launching Steam, but it wouldn't open, and the steamwebhelper was unresponsive. I then attempted to use Lutris for gaming, but it rarely launches games successfully, and when it does, they usually crash after a minute. I also tried running a game through Wine in the terminal, but the performance was pretty bad.
2. **App Installation**: There are some software repositories that just don't seem to work for no clear reason.
3. **Performance**: I expected my old desktop to run at least a bit better than it did on Windows 10, but that hasn't been the case. The startup time is around 1.5 minutes, which is actually slower than Windows' startup time of about 40 seconds.
3 Answers
You might want to check if you're using Proton for Steam games. If Steam isn’t opening at all, have you checked your installation? It could be a compatibility issue with Mint. Some find switching to an Ubuntu base helps with gaming performance. Just a thought!
Also, make sure you run an `apt update` regularly. This can resolve a lot of issues with app installations. As for your gaming problems, what exactly do you mean by "refused to open"? Is it just that the games don't start, or do you get error messages?
I did run updates, but when I click play on a game, it loads for a few seconds and then just stops without any error message.
Have you checked your system specs? Also, which version of Mint are you using? Some users have had better luck with either Steam's .deb package or the Flatpak version. It's worth trying both to see if that helps with game performance. Could also be related to your hardware since it's pretty dated. Might want to consider upgrading if possible!
Yeah, I'm curious what your specs are too. Have you done any updates? Sometimes that can help with compatibility.
I couldn't even enable Proton since Steam wouldn't open for me.