Update and optimize Linux Mint 21: My user experience. Part 1
Nowadays, a good part of the active set of GNU/Linux Distributions It is usually based on the Debian GNU/Linux Mother Distro, good examples of them being antiX and MX. While other related ones would be Ubuntu and its derivatives such as Zorin and Mint. For the rest, other large portions of this set usually belong to the Distro family such as Red Hat and Fedora, SUSE and OpenSUSE, and lately Arch and Manjaro, among many others.
In my personal case, and since I started fully in the computer field as an IT professional in organizations and companies, I have mostly used both on my personal computer as a work computer and servers, Debian and Ubuntu. While, for workstations on some occasions I have used or installed third-party Distros such as Canaima, Kali Linux, antiX and MX Linux. And currently, for professional or work reasons, I have had to install, use, update and optimize low-resource workstations with Linux Mint 21. More specifically with the Linux Mint 21.2 version. Therefore, in this first part of this tutorial I want to show you a little of my experience updating it to version 21.3 and optimizing it as best as possible, and then migrating it to the future stable version Linux Mint 22.
Linux Mint-21.3 screenshot
But, before starting this first post (Part I) about my personal experience of use al «update and optimize Linux Mint 21», I recommend you explore our previous related post, at the end of it:
A few days ago the launch of the new Linux Mint 21.3 “Virginia” version was announced in which one of the most important new features of this release is the update of the Cinnamon 6.0 desktop environment with experimental support for Wayland, improvements and more. This new version, which is presented as Linux Mint 21.3 "Virginia", is the latest version of the 21.x series, in addition to being a long-term support (LTS) version and will be supported by the development team until 2027.
How to update and optimize Linux Mint 21: My user experience. Part 1
How to update and optimize Linux Mint 21: My user experience. Part 1
Steps to upgrade and optimize Linux Mint 21.2 Victoria to Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia
Before starting, it is important to point out that the objective of this Tutorial is to learn how to update and optimize any Linux Mint operating system (21 Vanessa, 21.1 Vera, 21.2 Victoria) to its latest stable version (21.3 Vanessa). This, in order to have it prepared for a future migration to the future stable version of said Distribution, that is, Linux Mint 22 Wilma.
First look at freshly installed Linux Mint 21.2
Running commands to update and optimize Linux Mint
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get full-upgrade
sudo apt-get install -f
sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt-get clean && sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get remove && sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get purge
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
At this point, and as a matter of good computer practice, it is best to restart and review the operation of the updated operating system.
Reboot and check the operating system
Once the operating system is restarted, we will find that Linux Mint informs us visually through its apps called System Updates and Reports Manager about its current status, new updates available and recommendations to follow to keep it up to date optimized as best as possible.
And precisely in the future Part II of this Tutorial, we will continue with the implementation of the recommendations indicated by the System Reports app. Which have to do with:
- Implementation of the TimeShift snapshot app: For recovery of the operating system in case of problems or disasters.
- Running important updates available: To safely and quickly migrate to new versions.
- Installing multimedia codecs: For better and greater support for audio and video devices and formats.
- Installing essential packages for the system: Which mostly includes language packs and regional localization.
It is worth mentioning that, both before and after updating, the startup and shutdown speed of this beautiful, stable and very complete GNU/Linux distribution is quite acceptable. Meanwhile, its performance when running essential office applications (file explorer, image and document viewers, LibreOffice and Firefox) with so little memory seems very manageable to me for users. target users of said equipment (students and teachers of secondary and public education).
Which is largely due to the fact that, its consumption at startup always remains below 1 GB RAM, Which is the minimum expected for a GNU/Linux operating system modern, robust, versatile, and highly functional and compatible with a lot of varied hardware.
Summary
In short, in these few days of using the Linux Mint 21 Distribution with the Cinnamon desktop environmentAbove all, from old low-resource desktop computers (64-bit processors with 2 GB RAM) I must say that the experience has been quite pleasant and productive. And surely, in future installments I will be sharing great tips for use and productivity about it. So, as usual, I hope to continue contributing to their better informed and trained about the Linuxverse (Free Software, Open Source and GNU/Linux), from Linux Mint.
Later I will test the performance of this Linux Mint 21.X distribution with Mate and XFCE. So, I hope this series of posts on how to upgrade and optimize Linux Mint 21.2 Victoria to Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia, before migrating to Linux Mint 22 Vanessa, be useful to many.
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