this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2023
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As much as I'd generally recommend open source alternatives to closed source software, Minetest is really... meh, in comparison even with Minecraft beta. Movement feels off, destroying blocks feels off, worldgen feels off, the basic gameplay progression is non-existent (not that Minecraft itself is any good in this, but still). It looks ugly as a sin too, although this can be solved with a texture pack.
Did you play a mod, or just base Minetest?
Minetest isn't really designed to be played by itself, it's a game engine that's meant to be easily modable and allow others to make games.
I've eyeballed ~50 mods in my Minetest instal. Without counting stuff like fireflies, bed, and the likes.
The very fact that Minetest needs mods to be playable already shows an issue: it lacks any sort of overarching game design. Mods don't solve this unless the player is expected to know enough game design to tie them into some engaging gameplay. Most don't.
And some people might say "use a pre-made modpack then", but the people recommending Minetest as an alternative to Minecraft don't do this. They don't say "play MineClone2 in Minetest", they say "play Minetest", like the comment that I was replying to.
And even then what I said in the other comment still stands. Compare for example:
The first pic is NodeCore, one of the (IMO) best developed Minetest modpacks. The second one is vanilla Minecraft. The difference in polish is visible; and that difference isn't just visuals, it's in every aspect of the game. Including progression, because even the shittiest Minecraft kitchen sink modpack still relies on vanilla "gluing" its gameplay together, and in Minetest there's nothing like this.
Because of that I do not think that Minetest should be recommended when people ask for a way to play Minecraft without account.
As a more mundane comparison, it's on the same level as OP asking "hey, which brand of soap should I buy?" and someone answering "Just make it at home! First you're going to electrolyse some salt to get sodium hydroxide, then you're going to raise some olives for that nice oil..."
I agree that none of the games in Minetest have anywhere near the level of polish as Minecraft. And as we're comparing a pretty niche game engine built on by hobbyists vs Microsoft, it's very much to be expected. I also agree it shouldn't be recommended as a Minecraft alternative.
But the from the first half of your post I think you misunderstand the point of Minetest. Its not meant to have an overarching game design. It's a game engine. Its designed for people to use to make their own games.
I'm aware that it is just an engine. And the point still stands - OP is asking how to play a specific game in Linux (Minecraft), and gets a reply like "play that engine instead" (Minetest). The reply does not specify which game (Minetest modpack) the replier sees as an alternative, nor addresses the fact that even the closest equivalents (probably MineClone2) are considerably inferior to the game OP is talking about, and thus not really a good alternative.
Please, note that I'm not singling out the person who suggested Minetest - I've seen other posters across other platforms doing the same. Frankly it feels like the people recommending Minetest as an alternative to Minecraft never bothered playing either for more than fifteen minutes.