Linux Mint - The 4th Most Widely Used OS in the World

[Jojoyee]

According to the distribution, Linux Mint is the 4th most widely used operating systems after Windows, Mac OS and Ubuntu in the world.

Mint is based on Ubuntu which is in turn based on Debian. But unlike Ubuntu, Mint also includes some proprietary software by default, such as playing back mp3 files right away after the system install.

Since Ubuntu 10.10 launched in October, Mint also released its latest version Mint 10 in November, as expected usually about one month after Ubuntu releases.

Since I've run out of DVDs, I used Netbootin to built a bootable USB drive from the ISO file. After starting the PC, pressed F12 to boot from the USB and the latest Mint system installed to a partition smoothly.

[Ritho]

Mint was the distro I "cut my linux teeth on" It is quite good, an many people seem to like it mainly for the mint menu. When I began using Gnome-Do I rarely used the menu, but it is quite nice.

I switched to Ubuntu after the Mint 8 release landed. This was simply because they made some real theme design blunders. I along with numerous people from the design community voiced the same opinion, even before the launch, but they went ahead and used it anyway. Of course it could all be fixed if you wanted, but changing the grub background, various splash screens, and other things is time consuming and annoying. Normally I can ignore bad design, but the designs broke numerous design rules, and were extremely distracting. That coupled with the development teams attitude which I felt was counter-community and was basically saying , "Hey if you don't like it run an older version, tweak it, or move on," I decided to try something different.

The latest default "brushed metal" look of the menus and tool bars looks quite nice, and is definitely a step up. Also some of the new Mint Menu features are quite impressive, it can now be themed separately, and a sort of "package manager" is integrated into the menu for rapid installs. I would have to say Mint has a lot going for it. With Ubuntu "flirting" with the idea of moving to Unity and later to Wayland, many may turn to Mint for the familiar territory.

[Jojoyee]

Originally Posted by Ritho

The latest default "brushed metal" look of the menus and tool bars looks quite nice, and is definitely a step up. Also some of the new Mint Menu features are quite impressive, it can now be themed separately, and a sort of "package manager" is integrated into the menu for rapid installs. I would have to say Mint has a lot going for it. With Ubuntu "flirting" with the idea of moving to Unity and later to Wayland, many may turn to Mint for the familiar territory.

I'm also quite impressed by the first look at the menus in the latest version.

Going through it, Mint adopts only one panel at the bottom just what I need. A click on the start menu shows up Places and System on the left panel, and Favorites on the right panenl.

The Favorites panel is toggling with the Applications panel, which groups software categories, mousing over a category shows up the available apps for running.

That's a good idea.

[Jojoyee]

This is the screenshot I took showing the desktop and start menu. On the panel at the bottom, the text editor Gedit is pinned to the panel like the Windows 7 taskbar, using Dockbarx which also works for Mint. I'll go through some other tweaks that work for Ubuntu to see if they work for Mint as well.

[wdhpr]

The look is very impressive. Clean and Minty fresh

Have a question.
When I tried Mint a couple years back I had a terrible time getting the sound to work and I think it had something to do with NVIDIA hardware support. Can I assume the new version of Mint has corrected this?

Wdhpr

[Jojoyee]

Originally Posted by wdhpr

Have a question.
When I tried Mint a couple years back I had a terrible time getting the sound to work and I think it had something to do with NVIDIA hardware support. Can I assume the new version of Mint has corrected this?

Linux Mint 10 works out of the box for my PC. The sound works, mp3 and mp4 play back with the media players by default without the need to install extra codec packages. Like Ubuntu, it prompts me to install NVIDIA graphics driver for my NVIDIA cards. Wired and wireless connections works seamlessly.

[Jojoyee]

Since Windows Vista, the Windows system adds a "Start Search" to the Start Menu for you to look for the files or programs on your PC.

Linux Mint makes that available too, but more than that.

In Linux Mint, I typed "bluefish" (my favorite html editor for linux) in the Search box from the start Menu. I found that the software was not installed, but it showed up "Install bluefish" on the right panel. When I moused over "Install bluefish", it showed up the details about Bluefish. A click on "Install bluefish" and it installed that software for me.

This seems to be better than the Windows' "Start Search"?

[wdhpr]

Innovative indeed.

I have to admit I'm a bit envious. Looks like Mint will be a the top of my list for my next Linux system. I appreciate the trails your blazing.

Cheers
Wdhpr

[Jojoyee]

After installing Linux Mint and when running it, my daughter says this is "new" Windows.

[MidnightCowboy]

Originally Posted by Jojoyee

After installing Linux Mint and when running it, my daughter says this is "new" Windows.

I must say that I have to agree with her. I've been holding off this for a while because I was sure the version based on 10.10 would recognise my weird modem (and it does) and I don't have unlimited time to play with these things.

Having loaded Mint late yesterday though my first impression was have I got the wrong version with KDE?

After that, I did load Emerald to get my favourite Window borders but otherwise the default layout, especially the menu setup is superb. In fact for how I use things I see little point now in having a dock to glitz the launch process up.

I installed Screenlets and replaced Transmission with Deluge but apart from that everything is working out of the box except for the mail client. I've not had time to hunt for an alternative solution but it appears that the Ubuntu provided new mail notification panel icon for Thunderbird is not included with Mint? I've installed Claws to compensate for this unless someone can point me at something I've missed