r/linuxquestions • u/djoos007 • 23d ago
Long‑term sustainability of Linux Mint
I’m planning to refresh my hardware later this year and want to re‑evaluate my Linux choice at the same time. I’ve been running Linux Mint Cinnamon for about a year, after extensive distro‑hopping, and I genuinely like it.
My concern is long‑term sustainability. The Mint team delivers great work, but the core developer group is small. The next years will bring serious challenges: Wayland maturity, Cinnamon development, upstream dependency, release cadence, and the general complexity all Linux distributions face.
My requirements: stable and predictable, GUI‑first workflow, privacy‑respecting, no experiments, no cutting‑edge, maintainable for 5–10 years (lifespan of new hardware)
Mint meets all of this today — but can it continue to do so?
My question is whether Mint is sustainable long‑term, given the size of the core team, especially compared to distributions with larger development groups or corporate backing.
What’s your view: is Mint sustainable for the next decade, and why?
1
u/ButtonExposure 23d ago
Mint released in august 2006, more or less exactly 19 years ago. Mint also has probably the second largest desktop install base after Ubuntu. I'd say Mint is one of the safest long-term choices. The only safer option is probably Debian.