Comments on: Linux Mint: A better Ubuntu

By: Linux noob

Linux noob — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:08:14 +0000

I tried Linux Mint Fluxbox CE.. and I am a long time Windows user and developer.
When I decided to find a Windows alternative.. I gave Ubuntu and Linux Mint a try!
The best out of box experience comes from Mint. I'd recommend anyone who wants to try linux out to give Mint a go. Its simple and just brilliant.

By: shivkumar

shivkumar — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:44:14 +0000

Mint is really awesome! i just tried a year back, nut not that much impressed that time. Now i checked out new mint version and its cool. !

By: SoggyDoggy

SoggyDoggy — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 22:38:07 +0000

@Hooty. I found that all the flash content I've tried works perfect for me out of the box. Whereas with Ubuntu I did have problems (possibly due to the way I installed flash.. who knows). I think flash can be a bit odd depending on how it is installed/compiled That's why I like Mint – it's done for me!

Mint is a great distro to stick on a partition as a failsafe. I know when I've been messing around on a second partition with a new distro and have torn most of my hair out trying to get something like sound drivers to work, or flash/java, it is nice to just switch back to mint for a while – where everything 'just works' and relax! Then once I'm feeling brave enough to venture back into the frustrating (but rewarding) world of a more manual distro, I can do happily.

For those bashing Mint due to being easier to use out of the box, you need to open your eyes to newer users – who want to dip their feet in the Linux water and not drown. Mint is the perfect distro to start on, hopefully then developing a taste for Linux and furthering their penguin escapades.

I thank Mint for lowering my blood pressure in between technical gremlins <3

By: Hooty

Hooty — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 08:51:24 +0000

Great review. Felicia still has Flash video issues that are annoying as hell though. These issues were bad enough to force me back to Ubuntu.

By: Endless Linux

Endless Linux — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 05:01:40 +0000

I thought Mint was great. I had been using Ubuntu from 7.04 till 8.04 and Fedora 8 in between. And I still like Mint's simplicity and elegance.

By: totalcapitalista

totalcapitalista — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 05:56:39 +0000

Hear, hear…I cut my Linux teeth on a Mepis distro.

By: rob enderle

rob enderle — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 12:42:20 +0000

>Hence the reason this is a nifty version of Ubuntu – provided you're either A) In some strange part of >the world where those laws don't apply to you

Spoken like a true twit who thinks anywhere outside the US is 'strange'.

Leave your mom's basement once in a while….

By: rob enderle

rob enderle — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 12:37:37 +0000

I still think PCLinuxOS is the best derivative distro out there.
Maybe its my allergy to Gnome or Mono or the fact that their underlying mentality is 'we know better than the use how they want to mod their desktop' but I found the changes made to be cosmetic and minimal.

Its 'nice' though and god know we've learned that people are willing to overpay for something that looks nice.

By: Thring

Thring — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 11:25:22 +0000

Im not sure but isnt the point of difference at present the fact that Ubuntu can be updated to a new version via normal update while new versions of Mint have to be a clean install? which is why I use Ubuntu notwithstanding the "out of the box" features of Mint are appealing for newbies.

By: Philipe

Philipe — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 11:46:32 +0000

On my Tecra 8200 old laptop, Mint, like Ubuntu and everyone except Mepis 6.5, doesnt recognize my screen.

By: James Cain

James Cain — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 17:01:36 +0000

@Ghost_BOFH I’m glad to hear you care so passionately about international laws. Linux Mint rocks. And if you actually took the time to read about Linux Mint and the comments from its lead developer, Clem, you’d know that this is really no big deal.

Seriously, how many people out there running Ubuntu are doing so without adding one restricted element from the repos or from a 3rd party site?

From the lead Mint developer Clem: http://tinyurl.com/54ufwl

Makes sense to me.

By: thesandstrom

thesandstrom — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 23:34:56 +0000

Ghost_BOFH, are you by any chance American? These laws apply to an absolute MINORITY of the people in the world. Unless you are counting Europe and Australia as strange places not worth mentioning?

By: Ghost_BOFH

Ghost_BOFH — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:16:48 +0000

Well, just FYI, there’s a reason why Ubuntu doesn’t do all those nifty things right off the bat. It’s because to do so, makes it a proprietary OS, not a 100% open one.

Add to that the fact that it’s technically illegal to use the mp3 and dvd decoders in most countries, and you have a distribution that breaks several laws without the user being aware of it.

Hence the reason this is a nifty version of Ubuntu – provided you’re either A) In some strange part of the world where those laws don’t apply to you, or B) don’t care.

Cheers,
Ghost_BOFH

By: Philosopher

Philosopher — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:21:19 +0000

Sorry, but I couldn’t let this snarky put down stand after reading it.

“and why waste that when you can have everything you need out of the box?”

Seriously? Did you think about that before writing it? By that logic, why waste the hour or so downloading the distro? Why waste the time burning and installing? Why even bother with Linux at all? Everything most people (at least a sizeable chunk of the population has decided so) need out of the box is an pre-installed windows PC (usually with office and a dvd player) you can buy off the shelf and run in 5 minutes(or even better from Apple, shudder). So, seriously, think before you go saying comments like that.

As Hyneman from Mythbusters would say, “Think then act, not act then think.”

And just to clarify, I am a happy 5 year Linux user. And Windows (lifetime). Not Apple though. I’m no apologist for Windows or Linux. Both have huge flaws that need correcting.

As to the actual content of your article, I find this whole “lets simplify the move to Linux” thing a bit silly. Yes, it’s convenient that most of this stuff comes out of the box. That doesn’t mean more people will use it. If I’ve seen anything in my lifetime it’s that the majority of the western population (can only really account for America and Canada) is dead stupid when it comes to computers, a good majority I don’t even know how to burn the ISO for the distro without some outside guidance. They certainly couldn’t install any distro or keep it running after. The initial set up for mint might be easy, but how long till a problem eventually comes up? It will inevitably, and once they reach their frustration threshold they’ll call tech support for the OEM and be walked through reinstalling windows.

I’m not saying making linux is easier is a bad thing. I just don’t think it’s the factor that will get linux mainstream or used by more of the population. The biggest hurdle to over come is three fold, the general ignorance of the populace, their apathy combined with “it works well enough” syndrome (i.e. inertia), and business interests seeing no profit in free software. Might also add a general saturation of the tech market especially desktops to that list as well.

That’s my rant for the day, take it or leave it. My second point needs much more thorough developing but I don’t have time to go into it. Adieu.

By: yamawho

yamawho — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:31:11 +0000

I have been using Mint since version 4.
I switched to ubuntu 8.04 when it came out and stayed with it until Mint released Mint 5 XFCE which is what I use today. I noticed Mint 6 RC1 is on Distrowatch so a final should be released soon. Mint also has KDE XFCE and Fluxbox edtions.

By: iampriteshdesai

iampriteshdesai — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:50:16 +0000

I must say Linux Mint is cooler than Ubuntu, I too wrote an article about it few weeks ago here:

http://helpforlinux.blogspot.com/2008/08/linux-mint-ubuntu.html

By: Stefan Neagu

Stefan Neagu — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 05:43:14 +0000

@anticapitalista: Thanks, I’m going to review Mepis next.

By: anticapitalista

anticapitalista — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:08:36 +0000

While Mint is an excellent distro, why not have a look at MEPIS, especially for those that prefer KDE.
MEPIS has been around longer than Mint, in fact longer than Ubuntu and was one of the first (if not the first) new user to linux friendly distro.
MEPIS doesn’t get much publicity, but it really is a great distro for linux noobs and gurus.

By: Pebbles

Pebbles — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:44:41 +0000

I switched to Ubuntu from windows about 1 year ago, linux is my OS of choice now, I’ve played with linux for years before that but always used WinXP as my desktop OS.

the only thing I want from Mint is the Menu system, the rest can stay, there are certain things that are broken in Mint that “leave a bad taste in my mouth”, otherwise it’s a very useable variant and very capable. I love the menu system, and it’s nice that codecs and java and stuff are there without me having to install manually, but you know, the ubuntu community maintains very good docs on how to get this stuff up and running pretty quickly.

By: Alec

Alec — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:23:50 +0000

I have been using mint since version two. At that time, people were calling it “Ubuntu with Automatix pre installed.” To be fair, it was not much more than that. However it provided those features in a manner that would not break the system’s built in update feature. That alone was enough for me to give it a spin.
Since then, Mint has continued to improve and add innovations that set it apart from Ubuntu. Often yes they are simple adjustments that you could do yourself, but why should you need to. Some of the simple features such grading your updates so that you are less likely to break your system, or right click access to a folder as root. Oh, and yeah, the codecs work out of the box…
I personally am quite happy with the direction that mint is going, and regularly offer it as an option to users

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:10:03 +0000

Goodness me, typing “sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras” takes me all of 5 seconds…. Better switch variants!

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:37:32 +0000

I have been using Mint ever since the Bea release, and it is excellent. Don’t forget one of the main advantages – lots of codecs installed by default. For example, if you insert a DVD it will just magically play.

By: RK Veluvali

RK Veluvali — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:30:38 +0000

I have been using linux from years together and tried various distributions till now. I started with Caldera linux and used various distributions including the Mint’s father Ubuntu. But none of them appealeed me and all they were lacking some thing or the other…. But MintLinux rocks….
I absolutely fdind this distro as the coolest with awesome performance and an easy to use interface. And installing apps on this is a real fun. If you are connected to the internet, connect to MintLinux’s site, click on the type of Mint on your PC, then you have a lot of choices and softwares to install…. All you need is just a click away….click and, sit back and relax, the Mint will take care from downloading the packages till installing them and gives you a prompt once everything is setup….
Finally I could say… Mint simply ROCKS….

By: Tom Tootle

Tom Tootle — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:21:59 +0000

I started using Mint Linux a couple of months ago. Previously used Mandrake, Mandriva, SUSE, openSUSE, Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Xubuntu. All these have strengths. Mint is very easy to install and use. I’m still sorting out Ubuntu/Mint in terms of Samba, Wine and NFS file sharing. Meaning I know openSUSE better and can use them there but still learning it under Ubuntu’s wings. Mint is so good I don’t know how Windows can charge $199 for Ultimate. You can get all the functionality for free with Mint and it is easier and quicker to set up. And the advantages of stability, security? I highly recommend Mint Linux particularly to those that want to try a Linux distribution for the first time, or if you just want an easy, fast system.

By: erichansa

erichansa — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:38:09 +0000

Looks like 8.10 Ubuntu is better… at least to me. I mean, Mint looks fine and all… but seems to be just Ubuntu with a theme pack.

By: Bill Goldberg

Bill Goldberg — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:07:44 +0000

The last few lines of the article are a bit overkill.

“Some people will argue that you could spend a couple of hours and mod the Gnome panel to resemble Mints’.”

Make that a 1 minute download and install.

–

Mint is a nice distro for beginners or people who don’t want to put much time into their OS.

I prefer Ubuntu, I tweak it to perfection.

By: Jimbo

Jimbo — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:52:54 +0000

To all those saying it is not as up to date as Ubuntu… Geez! Ubuntu 8.10 is only 11 days old. Do you expect them to have a derivative distro out within days of the thing its based off? Seriously.

Mint usually brings out a new version a month after Ubuntu, that is really not that long to wait, and ensures a smooth transition.

By: David W

David W — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 06:52:45 +0000

Thanks for the article. Can Install WebCam using Windows Driver in Mint? Mint Elegant OS … I like it.

By: Clint Brothers

Clint Brothers — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 06:50:34 +0000

Linux Mint has been around since Dapper Drake (6.06) that over 2 yrs. I’ve loved every minute of Mint. I’m with October Five on Ubuntu being the main distro of choice. I think to have the latest you have to be even more into it and roll your own LFS.

By: Stefan Neagu

Stefan Neagu — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 06:06:51 +0000

@Coy: There is no Shipit-like service unfortunately.
@Oktober Five: I mostly agree with you; however I installed 8.10 before Mint and I really couldn’t see a major feature that I absolutely needed. I can wait a couple of months for the next release of Mint.