I downloaded and installed Linux Mint’s latest release beta ( I used a mirror at the Open Computing Facility at UC Berkeley https://mirrors.ocf.berkeley.edu/linux-mint/testing/ ) as a Parallels VM. If this is a beta, then it’s a very polished beta, as good as many a distribution’s final release. I have come to appreciate Mint’s Cinnamon desktop, and yes, it’s because it operates like Windows’ start menu going back to at least Windows 7. Microsoft’s attempt to fiddle with the start menu in Windows 8, and then again in Windows 11, has generated considerable pushback from the legions of Windows users.

In general, every time someone comes up with a Better Desktop Environment™ we all get to suffer while those who foisted this Better Desktop Environment™ on us celebrate how brilliant they are and browbeat those of us who can’t stand it. At which point the malcontents march off to find another distribution with a more Sane and Rational Desktop Environment™, like any of the Linux Mint distributions.

The great pleasure of installing a distribution like Linux Mint is how easy it is to get it installed, followed by how easy it is to get to work with a desktop that doesn’t violate the principal of least astonishment ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_least_astonishment ). My desktop doesn’t go zipping across the screen and I know where to go and find a tool because I know where the menu is, and how it’s organized. It isn’t perfect, no distribution is. But it’s practically perfect in nearly every way, to the point where I’m considering now more than ever switching away from Fedora.

My greatest aggravation with Fedora 36 is, and continues to be, Parental Controls.

I can neither uninstall nor disable it.

You will note that the latest feature is to “prevent malcontent-control from being uninstalled and removing core desktop components with it.” Really? I have to wonder if the developer was being an asshole when they named it “malcontent-control,” because it sure does bring out the malcontent in me, especially when it’s my computer and I’m making choices about what I want to run on it. You either trust me to make good decisions or you don’t; either way it’s really none of your business. Parental Controls is a slap in the face of every Fedora user. The only good feature (if you can call any feature of Parental Controls good) is that it looks to be off by default. But I don’t trust it, and by association, I’ve come to distrust Fedora’s developer community and the Fedora product.

I imagine the self-righteous do-gooder(s) (a variation of the developer group that attempts to produce a Better Desktop Environment™) that foisted this upon all of us is sitting alone in front of their computer lamenting how misunderstood and unappreciated their creation is. So far I haven’t seen that show up within the Cinnamon desktop.

The problem with migrating yet again to another desktop (I migrated from Pop!_OS to Fedora 36) is pulling my now considerable development environment with me. It was difficult enough with the first transition to Fedora. It will only be more complex now. But I believe I need to do it, if for no other reason than to shut up about Fedora.

Yes. It’s time to move on…