Linux Mint is one of the few Linux distros that I normally recommend to any newbie. It just works! This is possibly the most amazing thing about Mint. Whereas with rest of the Linux distros, I get to hear a lot of complains (even I have experienced for some). But, not a single one for Linux Mint. Any system you throw at it, it will always work! Perhaps this is what separates Mint from rest of the Linux distros that it is numero uno in Distrowatch ranking for quite sometime!
I missed an early review of Linux Mint 15, nicknamed "Olivia", as I was enjoying my vacations. It is a bit late to review Linux Mint 15 but never the less I wanted to review it. As usual, for this test I downloaded the 32-bit ISOs of both Mate and Cinnamon releases.
The release note of Mint Olivia states some significant improvements:
Installation
Installation of Linux Mint is typical Ubuntu and no surprises there. The information required are location, language, keyboard preferences, location to install and finally user ID creation. It takes about 30 minutes to install, including installation of updates, just like Ubuntu.
Aesthetics & Hardware Recognition
Although professionalism and refinement is evident in the distro starting from boot splash to desktop, Linux Mint 15 comes in it's good old bland ash colored wallpaper with white (Mate) or black (Cinnamon) lower panel. The login screen for Cinnamon version looks really cool but Mate release has the same default login. It is a typical Windows XP look and will make new switchers from Windows comfortable. Fortunately quite a few good wallpapers and loads of to-be-installed themes (for Cinnamon) are there as a saving grace. With these and adding a conky, I could transform the desktop to my liking!
Cinnamon version comes with quite a few attractive themes and has some subtle but really cool effects like windows disappearing with effect upon minimizing, popping up when maximized, etc. but nothing too gaudy to distract user's attention.
Hardware recognition is the best in Linux Mint among all Linux distros I have used and it could recognise Wifi, screen resolution, sound card and touchpad automatically.
Applications
Both Mate and Cinnamon versions have more or less similar set of applications with some minor differences, viz.
Linux Mint 15 came with all multimedia codecs and Adobe flashplugin pre-installed and it is actually helpful for the new users.
For Cinnamon, Nemo 1.8.2 is the default file manager and Mate has Caja 1.6.1. Both are very efficient and comes with all possible hard drive and networking options on the left hand side, so that users can drag and drop files for copying. Also, disk usage information is flashed in the bottom panel, which I find advantageous. Nemo, of course, looks more attractive than Caja.
Cinnamon Integrated Settings
Cinnamon 1.8 has got a new integrated settings. Earlier version had two settings options - one for Cinnamon (with very few entries) and rest of the settings would appear in another settings menu. It was really confusing for starters and I feel, this is a good incremental innovation.
Repository
Linux Mint derives it's applications from Ubuntu Raring Ringtail repos but has a different GUI for the same - Mint Installer. Further, Mint provides some applications of it's own to the users, like Image writer (Mint Image writer is different from Ubuntu Image writer). Also, the good old terminal is present to download apps, for experienced users. For update notification, an update manager is also present.
From repos, I installed a host of applications like Chromium browser, docky, cairo dock, conky, etc. All worked as expected.
Given my system didn't have any other graphic card except Intel GPU, I couldn't test the new addition "Driver Manager".
Performance
For Snowlinux, I noted Mate version to outperform the Cinnamon one. However, Linux Mint Mate and Cinnamon versions actually provide similar performance. At steady state, with task manager running, it consumes about 170-180 MB of RAM and 1-5% CPU. Both ran really smooth on my system.
If I compare Mint 15 to Ubuntu 13.04 & Snowlinux 4 Mate & Cinnamon editions, LM 15 Cinnamon is possibly best among the Cinnamon spins I have used so far. It offers a blend of both aesthetics and performance. However, I can't say the same thing about LM 15 Mate. Snowlinux 4 Mate actually offers better performance. One advantage that Linux Mint distros offer is that they take almost similar space as Ubuntu and are not bloated like Snowlinux.
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| From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
I missed an early review of Linux Mint 15, nicknamed "Olivia", as I was enjoying my vacations. It is a bit late to review Linux Mint 15 but never the less I wanted to review it. As usual, for this test I downloaded the 32-bit ISOs of both Mate and Cinnamon releases.
The release note of Mint Olivia states some significant improvements:
"The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 15 'Olivia'. Linux Mint 15 is the most ambitious release since the start of the project. MATE 1.6 is greatly improved and Cinnamon 1.8 offers a ton of new features, including a screensaver and a unified control center. The login screen can now be themed in HTML 5 and two new tools, 'Software Sources' and 'Driver Manager', make their first appearance in Linux Mint. MDM now features 3 greeters (i.e. login screen applications): a GTK+ greeter, a themeable GDM greeter for which hundreds of themes are available, and a brand-new HTML greeter, also themeable which supports a new generation of animated and interactive themes."Linux Mint "Olivia" comes with Linux kernel 3.8.0-19 and is supported for 6 months, till Oct'13. Desktop choices are Mate 1.6.0 and Cinnamon 1.8. For installation, I used my Asus K54C laptop with 2.2 Ghz Core i3 processor and 2 GB RAM. With Unetbootin, I created live USB's of each, did a live boot to test and finally install. I tried out both the flavors for a week (installed in partitions) and finally decided to write a review. The 32-bit ISOs of both Mate and Cinnamon are around 1 GB and won't fit in a CD. Anyway, who uses CD these days?
Installation
Installation of Linux Mint is typical Ubuntu and no surprises there. The information required are location, language, keyboard preferences, location to install and finally user ID creation. It takes about 30 minutes to install, including installation of updates, just like Ubuntu.
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| From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
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| From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
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| From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
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| From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
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| From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
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| From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
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| From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
Aesthetics & Hardware Recognition
Although professionalism and refinement is evident in the distro starting from boot splash to desktop, Linux Mint 15 comes in it's good old bland ash colored wallpaper with white (Mate) or black (Cinnamon) lower panel. The login screen for Cinnamon version looks really cool but Mate release has the same default login. It is a typical Windows XP look and will make new switchers from Windows comfortable. Fortunately quite a few good wallpapers and loads of to-be-installed themes (for Cinnamon) are there as a saving grace. With these and adding a conky, I could transform the desktop to my liking!
 |
| From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
 |
| From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in
This is what I did to the above Mate desktop with simple addition of a cairo dock & a conky
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| From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
Cinnamon version comes with quite a few attractive themes and has some subtle but really cool effects like windows disappearing with effect upon minimizing, popping up when maximized, etc. but nothing too gaudy to distract user's attention.
 |
| From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
Hardware recognition is the best in Linux Mint among all Linux distros I have used and it could recognise Wifi, screen resolution, sound card and touchpad automatically.
Applications
Both Mate and Cinnamon versions have more or less similar set of applications with some minor differences, viz.
- Office: LibreOffice 4.0.2.2 Base, Calc, Draw, Impress, Writer, Dictionary, Document viewer
- Internet: Firefox 21, Pidgin IM, Thunderbird 17, Transmission bit-torrent client, Desktop sharing, Xchat IRC
- Graphics: GIMP 2.8.4, gthumb, Imageviewer, Simple scan
- Multimedia: Brasero CD/DVD writer, Rhythmbox music player, VLC 2 video player, Totem video player
- Accessories: Archive manager, gedit text editor, Screenshot, Terminal, Firewall, Printer settings, gdebi package installer, Calculator, File search, Tomboy notes, USB Image writer
- Others: APtoCD (create installation disc), backup tool
Linux Mint 15 came with all multimedia codecs and Adobe flashplugin pre-installed and it is actually helpful for the new users.
 |
| From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
For Cinnamon, Nemo 1.8.2 is the default file manager and Mate has Caja 1.6.1. Both are very efficient and comes with all possible hard drive and networking options on the left hand side, so that users can drag and drop files for copying. Also, disk usage information is flashed in the bottom panel, which I find advantageous. Nemo, of course, looks more attractive than Caja.
 |
| From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
 |
| From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
Cinnamon Integrated Settings
Cinnamon 1.8 has got a new integrated settings. Earlier version had two settings options - one for Cinnamon (with very few entries) and rest of the settings would appear in another settings menu. It was really confusing for starters and I feel, this is a good incremental innovation.
 |
| From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
Repository
Linux Mint derives it's applications from Ubuntu Raring Ringtail repos but has a different GUI for the same - Mint Installer. Further, Mint provides some applications of it's own to the users, like Image writer (Mint Image writer is different from Ubuntu Image writer). Also, the good old terminal is present to download apps, for experienced users. For update notification, an update manager is also present.
 |
| From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
From repos, I installed a host of applications like Chromium browser, docky, cairo dock, conky, etc. All worked as expected.
Given my system didn't have any other graphic card except Intel GPU, I couldn't test the new addition "Driver Manager".
Performance
For Snowlinux, I noted Mate version to outperform the Cinnamon one. However, Linux Mint Mate and Cinnamon versions actually provide similar performance. At steady state, with task manager running, it consumes about 170-180 MB of RAM and 1-5% CPU. Both ran really smooth on my system.
If I compare Mint 15 to Ubuntu 13.04 & Snowlinux 4 Mate & Cinnamon editions, LM 15 Cinnamon is possibly best among the Cinnamon spins I have used so far. It offers a blend of both aesthetics and performance. However, I can't say the same thing about LM 15 Mate. Snowlinux 4 Mate actually offers better performance. One advantage that Linux Mint distros offer is that they take almost similar space as Ubuntu and are not bloated like Snowlinux.
| OS | Size of ISO | Base | Desktop | Linux kernel | CPU Usage | RAM usage |
| Snowlinux 4 Mate | 919 MB | Ubuntu | Mate 1.6.0 | 3.8.0-23 | 1-5% | 120 MB |
| Snowlinux 4 Glacier Mate | 980 MB | Debian | Mate 1.4 | '3.5.0 | 1-5% | 147 MB |
| Mint 201303 Cinnamon | 1.3 GB | Debian | Cinnamon 1.6 | 3.2.0 | 1-10% | 162 MB |
| Linux Mint 15 Cinnamon | 973 MB | Ubuntu | Cinnamon 1.8 | 3.8.0-19 | 1-10% | 173 MB |
| Sabayon 11 Mate | 848 MB | Gentoo | Mate 1.4.1 | 3.7.0 | 1-5% | 174 MB |
| Linux Mint 15 Mate | 1.1 GB | Ubuntu | Mate 1.6.0 | 3.8.0-19 | 1-5% | 174 MB |
| Mint 201303 Mate | 1.3 GB | Debian | Mate 1.4 | 3.2.0 | 1-5% | 175 MB |
| Mint 13 Cinnamon | 857 MB | Ubuntu | Cinnamon 1.4 | 3.2.0-23 | 6-10% | 200 MB |
| Mint 14 Mate | 1 GB | Ubuntu | Mate 1.4 | 3.5.0-17 | 1-5% | 200 MB |
| Mint 13 Mate | 942 MB | Ubuntu | Mate 1.2 | 3.2.0-23 | 1-5% | 207 MB |
| Mint 14 Cinnamon | 922 MB | Ubuntu | Cinnamon 1.6.7 | 3.5.0-17 | 20-35% | 221 MB |
| Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS | 693 MB | Ubuntu | Unity with Gnome 3.4 | 3.5.0 | 1-10% | 230 MB |
| Snowlinux 3 White Mate | 827 MB | Ubuntu | Mate 1.4 | 3.5.0-17 | 1-5% | 240 MB |
| Snowlinux 4 Cinnamon | 849 MB | Ubuntu | Cinnamon 1.8 | 3.8.0-23 | 1-10% | 245 MB |
| Snowlinux 3 White CInnamon | 760 MB | Ubuntu | Cinnamon 1.6.7 | 3.5.0-17 | 1-5% | 260 MB |
| Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS | 730 MB | Ubuntu | Unity with Gnome 3.4 | 3.2.0-29 | 1-10% | 280 MB |
| Ubuntu 13.04 Gnome | 1 GB | Ubuntu | Gnome 3.8 | 3.8.0 | 1-10% | 280 MB |
| Ubuntu 13.04 | 835 MB | Ubuntu | Unity with Gnome 3.6 | 3.8.0 | 1-10% | 320 MB |
| Ubuntu 12.10 | 790 MB | Ubuntu | Unity with Gnome 3.6 | 3.5.0-17 | 1-10% | 412 MB |
| OS | Installation Size |
| Ubuntu 13.04 | 4.98 GB |
| Linux Mint 15 Cinnamon | 8.58 GB |
| Linux Mint 15 Mate | 4.90 GB |
| Snowlinux 4 Cinnamon | 12.00 GB |
| Snowlinux 4 Mate | 11.58 GB |
Stability of both Mate & Cinnamon (thankfully) are better than Ubuntu Unity. I didn't note any annoying pop-ups of some back-end programs crashing, during my one week usage.
Overall
I would rate Linux Mint 15 Cinnamon among the best Cinnamon spins I have used in the last couple of years. It offers really good performance and consumes resources similar to what you see in any XFCE distro. Additionally, it offers quite a few cool effects, loads of themes to add variety, desk applets, etc. However, the Mate release is more functional and it too works well. But, I have used better Mate release from Snowlinux. Linux Mint 15 is definitely a great release but the most unfortunate part is that Mint is not upgradable. It takes the shine out of it a bit as you can use the fantastic installation till Oct'13. Possibly Mint can start a semi-rolling release distro for Ubuntu as well (like it has for Debian or like Fuduntu had for Fedora).
Otherwise, there is no better distro for beginners than Linux Mint. Even for experienced users it gives a rock solid stable distro which just works on any system you throw at it. The same legacy continues with Mint 15 Olivia as well.
In overall, I recommend Mint 15 Cinnamon to those who want to try out Linux as well as for those who love GNOME but hate what they have done to it in GNOME3 or what Ubuntu has done to it in Unity.
You can download the 32 and 64 bit versions from here.
Linux Mint is the best Distro I have ever run.
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree. It just works on any system you throw at it.
DeleteCool review. I use linux mint 13 XFCE sould I upgrade? I run linux mint with VirtualBox with 2GB ram and 200 GB hard drive.
ReplyDeleteLM 13 XFCE is in fact a great release with 5 years of support. I won't recommend to upgrade :).
DeleteTotally wth you bro. Mint 13 Xfce rocks!
DeleteMan, just fine.
ReplyDeleteYou did a great synopsis.
I'm a Mint user.
I am a Mint user as well :). It is the best distro I've used till date and it just works on any system I try it.
DeleteAnd thanks for liking my review.
DeleteHi Arindam,
ReplyDeleteI use LM 14 XFCE on my PC which is quite old(Intel core2duo with 1 GB RAM). I'm planning to hold on to it until the support ends by April 2014. Will there be another XFCE version in the next LTS release?
Thanks.
Hi Vinod:
DeleteI am hoping for another LTS XFCE release from Linux Mint camp in 2014 :). Even if it is not there, you can please try out Manjaro XFCE if you want a long term solution for your computer. It has a rolling release and is very good.
Regards,
Arindam
going to install instead of crappy ubuntu thanks for the review
ReplyDeleteHi Prashant,
DeleteThanks for liking my review :).
Regards,
Arindam
Swapped from this to Xubuntu and I noticed a world of difference, both in looks and speed.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review, do you have any opinions on the Debian variant?
Hi Takim:
DeleteThanks for liking my review. Linux Mint Debian Cinnamon/Mate is lighter and faster than Mint 15. Also, it has a semi rolling release which may be advantage over the long term. However, unavailability of latest applications will be there as things more towards Debian 8. Further, occasional instability can't be ruled out as it happens to most of the rolling release distros. And this one is supported till Debian 8 comes out! Definitely an attractive proposition if you are thinking of not changing your OS for next 2-3 years, in my opinion.
Another happy user here.
ReplyDeleteSome experience with the Ubuntu family but new to Mint, & very impressed - for me, along with Crunchbang, Mint is the co-champion of working right from the start with minimal hassle & reliability ... not to mention having a lot of what I need pre-installed.
Agree, I find Mint the easiest distro to work with. It has most of the things pre-configured which saves a lot of time and effort. And Mint just works!
DeleteI tried and tried... wifi worked for about 10 minutes then never worked again.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I've tried many distros and each time it's back to the command line in some nerdy way to *fix* things that work in windows. It's still not worth the switch for me. It does however look lovely!
Sorry to hear that - which laptop/PC are you using? I use Asus laptops and never faced any issue with wifi on Linux.
DeleteHi !
ReplyDeleteNice article :)
May you share your conky conf file ?
thanks :)
Thanks for liking my article. You can download the conky files from here http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in/2013/05/conky-lua-for-kde-and-gnome-3-distros.html
DeleteNice :) Um a big mint fan, i like the cinnamon :)
ReplyDeletePlease share your conky config file with us.
Thanks
Thanks for liking my article. You can download the conky files from here http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in/2013/05/conky-lua-for-kde-and-gnome-3-distros.html
DeleteTried it, does not work with built in sound card, can't seem to decide if the headphone is plugged in or not (it's not).
ReplyDeleteNice GUI, but like other Linux, not PnP. Might use it as a simple static workstation environment but for a dynamic development system where hardware changes are always taking place it is just not there yet.
And if rumor is true, you need to rebuild the system to upgrade every 9 months or so, this would make it a toy.
Hi Sen, I am a follower of your Linux reviews on your blog, I love your blog, it's awesome, no one does more and better reviews than you.
ReplyDeleteI only wanted to ask you for a good distro for my HP Pavilion g6 1309ss laptop, I tried several distros including several Linux Mint and I always get the same problem, extreme heat and poor battery life :(
Thanks a lot, and keep working so best on your blog!!
Regards
Pablo
Hi Pablo:
DeleteThanks for liking my reviews. Sure, I can possibly help you in this regard, having faced similar kind of issues previously with my laptop. Can you please check what graphic card you are using? If you are using Linux, you can check graphic card specifications by running the following command in terminal:
lspci -v
Please paste the output in reply and possibly we can diagnose the reason of overheating.
Regards,
Arindam
Hi Sen!
DeleteI did what you told me, lspci -v, and this is what i got http://pastebin.com/JsdmHPWC
I have a dual graphics system, an AMD 7450M and an Intel Graphics 3000, but I don't know what graphics card is working...
Thank you very much Sen!
Regards
Pablo Coronas
Hi Pablo:
DeletePossibly your laptop overheating is due to non-installation of AMD proprietary drivers. You can please follow the instructions given in my article on how to install AMD drivers.
http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in/2013/07/installing-amd-radeon-drivers-in-linux.html
It works for 7450M that you have. Please try it and let me know if it helps.
Regards,
Arindam
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDear Arindam,
ReplyDeleteThanks for this good review.
However, on installing Mint Mate 15 I notice that I am unable to access the mail.yahoo.com site, in that even the login screen is also not offered. I have tried this on the latest live editions of Cinnamon 15, Fedora, Zorin OS (thats is a lot of testing) but withot being able to access mail.yahoo.com in any one of them. Maybe the fault is in my system.
This is same on firefox and chrome.
I have dual boot with windows 7 ultimate and have no problem in accessing mail.yahoo.com on it.
Would appreciate any help/advice to overcome this problem.
thanks
Hi:
DeleteSurprising! Definitely it is not the fault of Linux OS. I use Yahoo mail regularly through Firefox and Chrome in Ubunut, Zorin and Mint. Even just now I checked my yahoo mail to confirm in Linux Mint 15. So, a few queries for you to pin point the problem:
Are the cookies disabled in the Linux you are trying out?
Are you using a live CD or live USB?
Third, have you checked any other email ID like gmail, etc. on your live edition?
Also, is the internet, in general, working in the live boot?
I fyou can please provide answer to these queries, it will help me know the exact nature of the problem. Otherwise, everything works on the Linux distros I use. I am using Linux only for last 4 years and I don't use Windows except at Office (where I can't use anything else, rules are rules!). And I haven't faced anything like that. Sounds interesting! If you can please provide me answer to the queries posted, may be I can diagnose the exact nature of the problem.
Regards,
Aridnam
Great review.
ReplyDeleteCan you resume in a few words what are the main differences between Cinnamon, Mate and xfce?? I think it's a little confusing for the newbies. I think the order is Cinnamon > Mate > xfce, in order of visual quality, but also in machine resources.
Thanks
Hi Nando:
DeleteThanks for liking my review. Actually the story of Cinnamon and Mate started with the GNOME developers deciding to discard GNOME 2 and move to a new desktop, the GNOME 3. Initially GNOME 3 was really a big pain and not very intuitive like GNOME 2 used to be. That is when other developers came up with Cinnamon and Mate. Here is my 2 cents:
Cinnamon: is forked from GNOME 3 and is easier to use than GNOME 3. It gives a simple intuitive experience but is heavier than Mate and XFCE. It used to be a bit unstable last year but is doing better now. It comes with a lot of customization and themes to enrich the user experience.
Mate: Is more stable and forked from GNOME 2. I found it to be a bit boring to use though much more efficient than Cinnamon.
XFCE: My favorite and is different from GNOME. It is very efficient and lightweight desktop. The best part is customization. I can customize it to make it look like a Mac OS X or even Windows 7. It is intuitive to use and supported by almost all Linux OSs that I know of.
If you think of visual attractiveness, I would rate Cinnamon the best, closely followed by XFCE (but requires to be tweaked). Mate looks a bit pale in comparison.
Regards,
Arindam
Sadly, I can not say the same. I had the most easy setting you can imagine. From DVD on to an Asus Eee PC (AMD C-60), MINT only, nothing else on it. But it did not work.
ReplyDeleteI downloaded Mint 15 (Mate) 64bit. Went through the install process, setting for delete HDD and install only Mint 15. Install finished, shutting down, DVD came out, hitting return, nothing happens. Last status note was about modem... something. It just freezes. I had to shut down manually and after restart it just asks for a boot drive. And I got stuck there. I installed the whole thing 3 times and its always the same result.
Bad experience for me who makes first steps with Linux. Nothing works.
Surprising to know. Normally Linux Mint works on whatever laptops/netbooks/PCs I have tried. If you can give me a bit of details - it seems like grub is not installed correctly in all your attempts.
DeleteYou wrote, "Linux Mint 15 is definitely a great release but the most unfortunate part is that Mint is not upgradable. It takes the shine out of it a bit as you can use the fantastic installation till Oct'13."
ReplyDeleteI'm a new to Linux. Does this mean it stops working on Oct'13 or what?
Thanks
Hi Rick:
DeleteIt won't stop working after Oct'13 but security updates won't be available. As it is Linux, I can assure you it won't matter like what happens in Windows but you'll be stuck with old applications. Best option is to install the 13 series of Linux Mint, it has support till April 2017.
Regards,
Arindam
Rick,
DeleteWith Distros such as Ubuntu, people can upgrade their installation to a new version without doing a complete reinstall. Many users find that a fresh install works better.
With Mint, package installs are discouraged and most users who want to upgrade simply do a new install of the new version from a DVD or USB. One just makes a list of the sofware one uses, backs up data and then does the install.
Mint and Ubuntu installs are so quick and easy that I've never seen much benefit in upgrading by any other method other than a fresh install.
Hi Arindam,
ReplyDeleteI am really fascinated by the screenshot of the very first picture. But this is not acieved just with the Linux mint 15. Did you install some other themes, can you please tell me. how exactly can i reproduce the same styled theme on my system.
- regards
Aravind
Hi Aravind,
DeleteI used an wallpaper freely available in google images and conky manager to decorate my desktop. You can get conky manager from teejee800's blog. Please search conky manager in google.
Regards,
Arindam
Hello, arindam sen! What distribution would you recommend for my netbook Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E120? Thank you!
ReplyDeleteHi Dim:
DeleteYour laptop specs are good enough to run all the Linux distros. My recommendation would depend on what stage of Linux knowledge evolution you are in. For example:
(1) Want to try out Linux: Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon or wait for Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon too come out in 2014. Meanwhile, you can give a shot to Mint 16 Cinnamon to gain experience.
(2) Already have some experience in Linux: Ubuntu 12.04.3 or wait for Ubuntu 14.04 to come out in 2014; Kubuntu 12.04.3, specially if you like Windows 7 and Ubuntu Unity desktop is a shocker to you
(3) Have used Linux for more than 6-8 months for all purposes: OpenSUSE KDE, SolydXK, Manjaro XFCE/KDE - all rolling release ones and never require installing again. But, there may be bouts of instability in between and it requires a bit of experience to resolve.
Also, if you like an awesome looking desktop, you can select between Deepin Linux, Netrunner or Zorin OS 6. Please select the LTS version from these distros (the one based on Ubuntu 12.04 or upcoming release based on 14.04). The LTS versions tend to be more stable.
I hope my reply does provide some solution to you. The beauty of Linux is that there is a distro for almost every user. Somethings that appeal to one user may not appeal to another and hence, having options is critical here.
Please try the distros that I mentioned and you may find your right fit.
Regards,
Arindam