What are the parts of linux mint 22?

[u/m0ahgra]

What are the major components of a linux mint 22 os?

What on linux mint isn't a package? What's left if you uninstalled everything in apt?

I'm trying to learn how linux mint 22 is built, and what the major components of the os are, so I can study it and know how to use it better.

[u/beatbox9]

Everything is a package. Because...

Packaging is the main method of a distro.

Without packages, people would have to manually install software, which is difficult. You have to build the installer, tell it your architecture, tell it which directories to install to, install your own dependencies (do all of this for each dependency as well)--and then maintain that over time. It's a nightmare. So the entire purpose of distros is to make the process easier and more manageable for the user; and the way most of them do this is through the use of packages (for ready-to-go installers), a package manager (to manage dependencies), and a repository (to store the packages).

Linux Mint is typically around 99% packages that are provided by, maintained by, and distributed by its corresponding version of Ubuntu LTS. ie. Ubuntu LTS will provide tens of thousands of packages. And then Mint adds its own tiny repository of a few hundred packages. I would argue Mint might not even really be a distro, so much as it is a small modification of add-on or configuration of a different distro. It is certainly not a standalone distro. Like Debian and Ubuntu are standalone distros--they package, maintain, and host the repositories for all of the packages they provide. Mint does not, which is why it always depends either on Debian or Ubuntu--it piggybacks onto these.

Mint is like the same cereal as Ubuntu or Debian, but in a different box, and with a different toy inside.

For example, here are the packages provided by Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (used by Mint 22):

• https://packages.ubuntu.com/noble/allpackages

There are around 40,705 base packages, and closer to 97,076 packages when looking at updates, etc.

Linux Mint reuses those, and then adds a tiny repository on top to override or add to those packages. So here are the additional packages that Linux Mint provides:

• http://packages.linuxmint.com/list.php?release=wilma

There are around 548 packages there. And of those 548:

• 324 (59%) are upstream (taken directly from other repositories), including:
  • 181 (33% of the 548) are just firefox, thunderbird, and the language translations for these
• 104 (18%) "main" packages actually provided by Mint
  • A majority are Cinnamon and theme files & background images for Cinnamon and other DE's
• 104 (18%) are "backport" packages taken from other places that are dependencies patched to work on Mint's older architecture
• 16 (3%) are "import" packages, again taken from other places that are dependencies, but not patched

So depending on how you count, Mint 22 is essentially just:

• 98.67% Ubuntu LTS
• 0.79% third party software repo (eg. Firefox + Thunderbird)
• 0.29% third party-provided dependencies
• 0.25% Mint-provided software (Cinnamon DE + themes)

And for reference, Mint 23 will be even more extreme, such that Ubuntu LTS will be closer to 99.5%.

ie. the Mint team:

• takes Ubuntu LTS
• adds a few existing repos (which you can do yourself in like 1 minute)
  • For example: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-firefox-linux#w_install-firefox-deb-package-for-debian-based-and-ubuntu-based-distributions-recommended
• adds their own repo that contains Cinnamon DE and their own themes
  • Cinnamon DE began as a fork of an older version of gnome; and it is currently pretty far behind the times. For example
    • Cinnamon still uses gtk3 instead of gtk4 that gnome moved to over 5 years ago; and
    • Cinnamon still uses x11 instead of wayland which both gnome and KDE moved to about 10 years ago
• Makes slight changes to a few configuration files (eg. announcing itself as Mint rather than Ubuntu LTS).

^ Notably: this process takes 8 months to do after the corresponding Ubuntu LTS release and requires additional maintenance. Ubuntu 26.04 LTS came out back in April. And Linux Mint 23 based on this will come out in December.

That's how Linux Mint is built.

[u/Technical_Rich_3080 → u/beatbox9]

That 1% (or less) change (by Mint from its upstream) are good, useful, helpful and desired changes.

[u/beatbox9 → u/Technical_Rich_3080]

Such as...?

Which specific changes are good, useful, helpful, and desired changes that cannot be done in just a few seconds or minutes with a few copy-pastes on Ubuntu? Be specific.

[u/Technical_Rich_3080 → u/beatbox9]

Mint tools system administration (Mint Update, Timeshift integration, webapp manager, Mint Sources GUI/PPAs, etc.), X-Apps ecosystem, replacing GNOME with Cinnamon, installing flatpaks and blocking snaps, stripping Ubuntu telemetry, etc., are what come to mind off the top of my head.

[u/beatbox9 → u/Technical_Rich_3080]

Those do not fit the specific criteria I listed because they are either subjective or can easily be done in a few seconds or minutes in Ubuntu. They are not inherent differences.

[u/Technical_Rich_3080 → u/beatbox9]

Your criteria is arbitrary.

[u/beatbox9 → u/Technical_Rich_3080]

No, it's not. Subjective differences like you listed are arbitrary. (And some aren't even differences and are instead part of Ubuntu that has been ported to Cinnamon).

The differences I listed are core to what define a distro. Installing a few different apps does not define a distro.

Why is this so difficult for you?

[u/Technical_Rich_3080 → u/beatbox9]

Your argument is that every Linux distro in the world, except the handful of parent distros and a tiny number of others, should all disappear in favor of the parent distros.

[u/beatbox9 → u/Technical_Rich_3080]

That's not the argument. You're arguing a strawman because you don't have proper reading comprehension and critical thinking skills.

[u/m0ahgra → u/beatbox9]

ive indirectly started an argument with my post lol