Linux Mint

After being an Ubuntu user for about a year now, I thought I should try this new distro based on Ubuntu, after I read a review about. And you guessed it, the new distro is no other than Linux Mint. As I said it’s based on Ubuntu, so no major change. But, there are some changes. The Update channel is better in my opinion with grades for the updates, are they safe or not? Other than that, there’s only one panel at the bottom of the screen, though this is easy to change.

The menu is different as well. You now got a more KDE-ish/Windows-ish menu that collects them all, though due to unstableness I switched back to the original Gnome menu. The reason I chose Linux Mint was because it basically was Ubuntu, plus more. The thing about Linux Mint is that it was meant as a multimedia distro for Ubuntu that comes with codecs and plug-ins etc. They say “from freedom came elegance” though I don’t really think the Linux Mint theme is too elegant, but that is as well easy to change.

From users that are used to the “Add/Remove” application in Ubuntu, you will be sorry to hear that there is no such thing in Linux Mint. However, you got a Software Portal which leads you to a page on the Linux Mint website, where you can download .mint files which allows you to install whatever software you downloaded the .mint file for. Unfortunately this database of software is not as huge as the one on Ubuntu and you may need to look some applications up yourself on the internet. None the less it’s a great distro which I would recommend to any Ubuntu users up for a change, or converters from Windows to Linux.

Linux Mint comes with some KDE software pre-installed, like Amarok, but unlike Ubuntu since Ubuntu is all Gnome and has only Gnome software pre-installed. It also comes with Envy pre-installed for automatic Nvidia or Ati graphic driver installation.

I need to test Linux Mint some more for the time being. You should too, even if you install it or just try the LiveCD, it’s worth the try.