I support an enduser who had Mint installed by a friend.  Installing 
Ubuntu LTS current "over" Mint and then the full MATE suite fully 
addressed the specific Mint issues you mentioned below. At one time I 
had installed SL on that enduser's machine -- however, SL could not 
support some of the then "current" Linux enduser latest production 
release applications that the user needed. Note that MATE supports 
"themes" that superficially make the desktop appear to be similar to MS 
Windows or Mac OS X -- I do not use either of these.  The major issue I 
find is that everything at the system level is sudo -- however, for 
Ubuntu, I have found the fixes so that I can become root and do what I 
need both from a text interface and a GUI interface.  I do know that 
both VirtualBox and VMWare (both workstation and player) install and run 
"properly" under Ubuntu LTS -- I need these for specific 
not-available-on-Linux applications that I am forced to use.  VMWare 
Workstation (licensed for fee) is more versatile. Although my needs 
under the pandemic are restricted to a Type 2 hypervisor, my 
understanding is that Ubuntu works fine under a Type 1 hypervisor.

On 4/6/21 2:54 PM, Larry Linder wrote:
> There is one ray of hope in this.
> AlmaLinux said it was going to support VMware.
> A crude way to do things but I need to support a lot of old SW from the
> last 22 years and older.
> My scheme has been to load necessary OS's under VMWare.  Since disk
> space is cheep. I can and have loaded older OS's and run the OS that
> support an application I need to support.
> 
> Still in an evaluation of new OS.
> PCLinux has a intersting install twist.  It writes to the NVM - shadow
> and you are done trying to load anything else. Keyboard is disconnected,
> flash drive causes the system to power off.  A real pain in the
> posterior.  The solution is to relaod the Biaos to MB factory status or
> toss the mother board and disks it corrupts.  If you don't know what you
> are doing - don't ever install it.
> 
> Mint is in testing but the Cinnamon desktop is loused up.  The Icons are
> placed automatically.  So you have to stare at it for and hunt for what
> you need.  A pile of trash.
> On the positive side it does support VMware and DiCad, VariCAD, AutoCad
> and our spice simulator.  There is a hidden trap in Mint and it has to
> do with removing a package.  If you remove it twice it reverts to a "rm
> -rf /* -  nice cleanup by some C++ novice.  It compiles - ship it.
> 
> We have DEVUAN loaded and it works pretty well but unfortunately we were
> not able to install VMware or any Cad tools.  I has some goofy path
> problems.  The good news is that it is stable, and easy to use and above
> all doesn't have systemd.  A real pluss +.
> When you look up install error messages it the same as Debian in 2017.
> So it looks like they have not addressed known problems.  Too bad as I
> really like it.
> 
> Two AlmaLinux problems is gnome desktop and a million clicks to anything
> and the systemD.
> I use gnome onf SL6.5 and it works very well and then it got DUMB as in
> stupid.  The fact that they are going to support it for 10 yeas is a big
> plus.  Being and IBM derivative - can they pull the plug anytime they
> want to and leave us high and dry again.  IBM had a dismal track record
> of selling an OS and then ditching it.  The small developers take a bath
> again.
> 
> Next is MXlinux to she what it has to offer, Offers sysemV and a number
> of desktops - Has a large number of downloads.
> 
> My real beef with the linux developers is that they are trying to make
> it like Windows 10 - every time it am forced to use 10 my head aches as
> my neurons rebel.  The moron aware stuff is nuts, as the developers are
> now moron aware and headed to idiot level.
> The Linux supporters need to support one OS and keep it professional and
> UNIX like.
> Let the others use their cell phones.
> 
> My three cents worth
> Larry Linder
> 
> On Mon, 2021-04-05 at 11:09 -0400, Lamar Owen wrote:
>> On 4/4/21 8:39 PM, ~Stack~ wrote:
>>> ...
>>> Am I alone? Has anyone else tried reaching out to Alma and gotten
>>> responses to problems/issues/bugs?
>>>
>>
>> I haven't needed any support yet, so I can't comment on that,
>> insufficient data.
>>
>>> On that front alone, I'm loving the Rocky community. It is a proper
>>> community.
>>
>> I'm looking forward to evaluating Rocky once it's out.