Yes, I know that. And then the outdated kernel has missing drivers, or packages are outdated, etc. and you are searching for solutions that only apply to Mint
Interesting, I'm running LM:DE, and haven't had any problems, on first start up it offers up a selection of things I might want to do including loading proprietary drivers. So far I have it running on multiple computers, including two POS terminals that were never meant to be used as computers.