For a while now I've been told Linux Mint is vulnerable.

>>56029086
Definitely worth trying out if it's your first distro Anon. If any of my relatives want to give Linux a spin, I install latest version of Mint 17 with KDE on their laptops and most of them actually like it. Just use it for a while to get the hang of the file systems and the terminal, then try out other distros such as Ubuntu or Debian.

>>56029086
You are falling for a brand. It's incredibly popular because it tries to accommodate and be familiar for users who switched from Windows, even at the cost of security and compatibility.

Like >>56029605 says, it won't hurt to try it out for the purposes of learning, but once you get your feet wet, you can choose something made by more competent and proven developers: Debian/Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSE, Arch (Manjaro/Antergos for automated installation). I think it'll be better in the long term.

Not OP, but which Mint version?

I don't think there is another distro witch so many different versions and bases as Mint. From what I understand both 17 and 18 are supported, there are Cinnamon and Mate spins for both, and if we count the LMDE versions (which I still haven't figured out from the online docs (which btw are not up to date and very convoluted) if they are based on Debian stable or testing) there are at least 6 different versions of Mint available.

And I haven't even mentioned the (stupid) update tiers and how in Mint some updates are "dangerous" and may "break your system" without explaining properly the risk or the necessity for the update.

Mint is a haphazard OS, with an insane development model. Mint devs clearly have a knack for usability and visual design (Cinnamon is interesting) but I wouldn't trust them to develop the whole OS with this attitude (see no explanation about the binary packages that are installed, the hacked isos, a recent Firefox updated pushed by Mint that nuked Firefox's search functionality, etc)

That said, I know many people who happily use Mint 17 and older.

But avoid (or at least be very very cautious with) Mint 18, it was the buggiest, shittiest OS I ever had the displeasure of using. Programs crashing, general instability, borked and outdated default configuration settings, outdated documentation, bad advice on the forums, the lot, all under a shiny veneer of good ui.

>>56030035
Mint 12 represent. Still love it.