Do you like Mint 13 and if so which desktop are you using? n/t

[RKP5637]

[RKP5637]

1. Replying to my own post. I just tried Mint 13 Cinnamon via a Thumb Drive. Works great

IMO. It's also at the top of the list on DistroWatch http://distrowatch.com/

I don't like Unity in the latest Ubuntu releases. So, from this perspective I found Mint interesting.

"The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 13 “Maya”.

Available in two editions, Linux Mint 13 features the choice between a productive, stable and mature MATE 1.2 desktop and the brand new modern-looking and exciting Cinnamon 1.4. These two desktops are among the best available, they’re perfectly integrated within Linux Mint and represent great alternatives to Gnome 2 users. Linux Mint 13 is also an LTS (Long Term Support) release and it will be supported until April 2017."

More: http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2031

"Cinnamon was born for the same reasons as MATE. Gnome 2 was one of the core components of Linux Mint, and Gnome 3 lacked the features and design of a suitable alternative. Linux Mint started by developing the extra features it needed on top of Gnome 3 and eventually started to develop its own environment called Cinnamon.

Both Linux Mint and the MATE project came up with really good alternatives to Gnome, but in completely different ways.

Cinnamon is built on Clutter and Gnome 3. It's a modern-looking environment with a traditional and familiar desktop. It features compositing, animations and some unique innovations but it relies on 3D acceleration, lacks some of the features found in Gnome 2 and isn't yet compatible with every graphics card available on the market."

More: http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_maya_whatsnew.php#cinnamon

[Adelante]

2. I use Linux Mint

I ran both those systems, Cinnamon and MATE, for a few months earlier this year. They worked fine for me, though I didn't stick with them. I prefer LM 13 Xfce or LM 13 KDE, (LXDE if it hadn't been discontinued), but I've never been big on Gnome somehow, and that's probably the only reason. There's a Debian-based KDE version being developed in the Mint forum that I'm looking forward to. I've used the testing releases and it's very, very good.

I always take new Ubuntu releases for a spin, but I'd find it sluggish and clumsy in years past. However, with the 12.04 release, I thought Ubuntu had improved drastically and those improvements spread outward to Ubuntu-based distros everywhere, including Linux Mint.

I quite liked the Ubuntu respin, Deepin Linux, which seems more streamlined and made sense. I love Voyager, the best looking desktop environment ever, imo, nice and fast and steady, built on Xubuntu. As you see, I do a bit of traveling, but my everyday distro is Peppermint, which has the LXDE desktop and rarely gives a problem. Peppermint 3, the latest release is based on Lubuntu, which itself has improved a lot.

When it comes down to it, I like light and quick best, I guess. But I've recommended LM 13 Cinnamon several times to people I thought would like it. The Linux Mint forum is great for getting advice when you need it, too, without much attitude. So I think you've made a good choice. Enjoy yourself.

[RKP5637]

3. The more I've been using LM 13 Cinnamon I've been amazed at how solid it is and

how well it's worked without too much configuring. I've been using Linux almost since the beginning along with Unix and I think the LM 13 Cinnamon release is the most stable Linux distro/release I've ever put on my system. The Mint team really seems to do outstanding work! I'm really happy with it ... Thanks for your reply, it was quite interesting!

[L0oniX]

11. I'm a die hard Ubuntu 12.04 LTS user ...wife uses it too.

[hobbit709]

4. Tried it and didn't like it

Last edited Mon Sep 17, 2012, 06:48 AM - Edit history (1)

Didn't want to connect on wireless, was a PITA to customize desktop and wallpaper. Went back to 11.
Too bad, I wanted to put 11 on my new 240Gb SSD.
Boots from power on to desktop in 14 seconds

[RKP5637]

5. I've heard that also, that wireless connect (for Mint 13) has been a problem for some. I was reading

Last edited Mon Sep 17, 2012, 10:35 AM - Edit history (1)

someplace in the Mint Forums about that. I can't recall where now. I had another issue, but just came across that while searching.

[hobbit709]

6. Mint 11 had absolutely no problem with the wifi on my laptop.

connected automatically and fast. 13 was a major hassle in getting it to connect and then it was dead slow-not much faster than dialup.

[AgingAmerican]

9. Wireless connectivity is the holy grail of Linux distros

A lot of times you have to use NDIS Wrapper to 'wrap' a windows wireless driver for use in Linux.

Right now I am using xubuntu, which is Ubuntu's distro for older hardware. I use it on my netbook because it has so little RAM, etc, and it works swimmingly well. The wireless worked right out of the box, I was quite impressed. It is also three times faster than the Win 7 starter that came with the netbook.

How does Mint run on older hardware? I am intrigued.

[RKP5637]

10. Here are the requirements for Mint 13, which is the latest release.

System requirements:
x86 processor (Linux Mint 64-bit requires a 64-bit processor. Linux Mint 32-bit works on both 32-bit and 64-bit processors).

512 MB RAM (1GB recommended for a comfortable usage).

5 GB of disk space

Graphics card capable of 800×600 resolution

CD/DVD drive or USB port

Here's where I found the above:

http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2031

I loaded one system here via a DVD, and the other with a USB Thumb Drive. Both worked well, but I keep the hardware pretty current in them.

I've been really impressed with Mint 13. I'm using Cinnamon. Cinnamon is based on Gnome 3, but they made it look like traditional Gnome, not Unity. I'm not a fan of Unity on a Desktop, so that's why I went with Mint with Cinnamon when I decided to go for a different flavor of Linux recently. I had been running Ubuntu 10.04 on one system and Kubuntu on the other. I just wanted to get them to the same Distro so my life as the home sys admin was easier.

[Phillip McCleod]

13. runs like a charm.

i'm a f/t computer tech and feel confident installing 32 bit mint 12 on XP machines like pentium 4's and celeron's. mint 12 is the oldest that will still have support for another year or two. i don't hate XP and mint 12 leaves it in the dust. don't have to spend hours finding, downloading and installing drivers either (unless it's a dual booter)

[TroglodyteScholar]

7. I really do like Mint 13

I used the Cinnamon flavor for several months, but in the end Cinnamon just crashed too much for me to keep using it. I think it's probably something to do with my old NVIDIA graphics card.

I'm pretty unexcited by the MATE version, although it's still a better desktop OS than certain products coming out of Redmond.

I'll definitely try Cinnamon again when I get a new computer someday.

[RKP5637]

8. I have a couple of desktop systems here. One gave me a lot of problems with

many Linux distros. It was the graphics card. My suspicion is it had flaky memory and would hang the system and other times the characters were malformed. I put in a more recent Nvidia card and that cleared the problem. I haven't used windows in years, so I don't know how it would have worked with windows. Also, with the newer Nvidia card it's using different Linux drivers, so maybe there was a driver incompatibility with the older Nvidia card. ... I don't know.

[Phillip McCleod]

12. i've been using mint since it was an ubuntu spinoff

it is much much more now. revulsion to first gnome3 and then unity was so strong that mint created both cinnamon and mate as complete desktop environments. they've also gotten a lot more serious about repository maintenance i think thanks to the debian lmde experiment. ubuntu is debian-based it makes sense that ubuntu-based mint would go debian-based itself and it has. with style.

[Adelante]

14. I'm using Mint 14 Cinnamon

Have been since it was released. I'm very happy with it. In the first day I had a conflict with Intel graphics, but they fixed that up promptly, so no complaints from me. It's a beautiful system and has been very stable for me. I don't hate Unity and I've warmed up over time to Gnome3, in a few distros, not all, but I enjoy using Cinnamon more than either of the two.

[Phillip McCleod]

15. i really like cinnamon from a user experience pov

but i haven't tinkered much with it either. i got pretty handy at tinkering with gnome2 but then switched to xfce4 and now i tinker with that and straight gtk+ instead. i love that cinnamon is compatible with multiple environment theme formats and at some point i will get in there and see whats possible with that type of extensibility. i install mint 14 cinnamon on refurbished older but not too old machines at work to give them a second life. out of the box its very usable for windows users new to linux.

[pokerfan]

16. Well, Ubuntu 10.04 (LTS) is coming to its end of life

so I'm probably going to move to Mint 13 (LTS) which will be supported until 2017. I've carried Mint for years as my emergency boot OS on my thumb drive because I like that it has built-in codec support which is kinda nice for a rescue disk.

I didn't care for Gnome 3 and I hate Unity so I will probably go with Mate but will keep an eye on Cinnamon. Mostly, I just want stability.

[RKP5637]

17. I've been using Cinnamon now since about the time I first posted this and

to me it just keeps getting better and better.