Linux Mint "Gloria" review and screenshots - probably the coolest Linux yet
If you know Linux then I think you might like Linux Mint because a lot of people talk about it and with good reason.
I've never read a negative review of Linux Mint yet and it gets a lot of respect from experienced users in the Linux community. That says a lot and is just one reason
why Mint is a distro which a lot of Linux veterans would recommend to beginners and businesses. It is also very easy to operate and great to use
Everything about Mint oozes cool and accurately reflects it's creator's motto: "From Freedom Came Elegance".
Mint comes in two flavours with the default download sporting a nice green themed Gnome desktop environment. The Gnome version is polished, slick in use and does a
fantastic job in proving how good a computing experience Linux can be but there is also a KDE 4 version of Linux Mint which I have now adopted for daily use
The KDE version comes with a blue theme and looks stunning straight out of the box. KDE has more configuration options than Gnome which, for me at least, makes it a
slightly superior desktop from a usability viewpoint. Also, even after installing applications written for Gnome, KDE has a much better level of visual consistency
across all applications
Mint is elegant, fast and comes fully pre-configured in that there is no need to install additional audio or video codecs and plug-ins like you do on other Linux distros such as Ubuntu. Mint is derived from Debian and Ubuntu but makes everything even easier for desktop users; hence Mint is often called 'a better Ubuntu' by their creators. They really do go that extra mile which makes adopting Linux so attractive for those who procrastinate. My own opinion it that Mint is the best operating system I have used to date and it is also one of the most stable
A beginner can easily install Mint and start watching youtube and listen to mp3 music collections straight off the bat with hardly any configuration required.
For this reason Mint is also well worth considering if you want to set up a computer system for a friend or relative that will work reliably and not need much
maintenance from either of you in the future. It just works :-) and is very dependable
I have used Mint for over two weeks now and it has worked almost without flaw but sometimes I notice the Dolphin file manager and Konqueror can slow down if the fancy windowing effects are enabled. The fix for this annoyance is quite simple however -- just turn off window compositing and the problem goes away. I use a Pentium 2.4 Ghz Celeron with 1GB RAM and a 512 MB NViDIA graphics card. I also have Apache and MySQL running permanently so that is likely what is eating into the RAM and can easily be rectified
I prefer the main menu to be on the lower right hand corner of the screen because it gives me a low target area when opening up my applications. This was simple to do and is a much better solution for me that the awkward kick off style menu setting that is the default in KDE version 4 and above. Now I only need to hover once and click once to open anything on the computer and this makes my life much easier
The KDE version of Mint comes in 2 releases: there is a long term stable release of Mint 5 Elyssa which comes with the KDE 3.5 desktop and then there is Mint
7 Gloria which comes with KDE version 4.2.4. Gloria KDE comes packed with great applications in the 1.1 Gigabyte download including Open Office ver 3, Gimp 2.6,
Digikam, Firefox and Krita. There are a slew of other cool applications on tap that are ridiculously easy to install using the Mint software manager
The software manager is known as 'mintInstall' and this tool finds and lists useful software applications which you can install in a single
mouse click. It also has a link to a website providing you with further information about the software to help you make a decision on whether to install it or not
It also gives you a rating score for the software based on votes collected from other users in the Mint community. How cool is that? With a Windows operating system you
don't get very much for your money at all because you have to buy and install software yourself from scratch and things are never guaranteed to work out smoothly.
Mint is free, simple and easily knocks spots off Windows
Mint also comes with slew of utility programs for managing the system and these are all listed categorically in the KDE control centre. Here you have an intuitive menu which allows you to apply settings to your Desktop Theme, Display, Mouse, Printers, Preferred Software Applications and many other common functions. There is even a pre-installed application called EnvyNG which will take care of downloading the latest proprietary drivers for ATI and NVIDIA graphics cards
For extra peace of mind you have a utility for backing up your entire home folder which you can then store on a DVD. The system will automatically look for updates and security patches and even flags the priority level of each update component. Like all linux distros you get to see exactly what you are downloading and there is also the option to select only those updates you want
Overall Mint is a great operating system and the community behind it are one of the nicest in the Linux world. They have a really good forum on the site where you feel able to ask any questions no matter how basic and help is always quick to find. If you have been looking for a great all round Linux distro then maybe you can now stop looking
My Verdict: 9/10
Links to Linux Mint resources
The home of Linux Mint
You can download Linux Mint from here
Mint Art Work and Themes
A nice article on all previous and current Mint releases listing their unique tools on Wikipedia
Mint on Distro Watch
Review of Linux Mint 7 'Gloria' on OSNews
How To Forge tutorial packed with Linux Mint screenshots detailing the easy installation routine and how to create the perfect desktop
