Linux Mint 17 "Qiana" Cinnamon Review: With improved Cinnamon and Bang on Money release after release!

There is something about Linux Mint - they are specialist in making distros which just work! With the Ubuntu Trusty Tahr released in April 2014, I was eagerly waiting for the final release of Mint's version of the long term support release. Also, as I noted in my review of Mint 16, Cinnamon, as a desktop environment, has improved by leaps and bounds over the last few releases. I was more than interested to try out the latest Cinnamon LTS spin from Linux Mint stable. I must say Linux Mint did not disappoint!

Further, this release assumes significance because of the changed LTS strategy, as updated in the release note:

• Linux Mint 17 will receive security updates until 2019.
• Until 2016, future versions of Linux Mint will use the same package base as Linux Mint 17, making it trivial for people to upgrade.
• Until 2016, the development team won't start working on a new base and will be fully focused on this one.

Clement Lefebvre's release note states of significant improvement in functionality of the distro, namely: "The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 17 'Qiana'. Linux Mint 17 is a long-term support release which will be supported until 2019. It comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make your desktop even more comfortable to use. The Update manager has been hugely improved. It shows more information, it looks better, it feels faster, and it gets less in your way. It no longer needs to reload itself in root mode when you click on it. It no longer checks for an Internet connection or waits for the network manager and it no longer locks the APT cache at session startup. The UI has been improved, the icons were modified a bit and the changelog retrieval is now much faster and more reliable."

From Linux Mint 17 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

I downloaded the 1.3 GB 64-bit ISO for this review. I used Linux Mint Image Writer to make a live USB using a 4 GB pendrive. First I did a live-boot and then installed Mint 17 Cinnamon on my Asus K55VM laptop with 2.3 Ghz Core i7 processor, 8 GB DDR3 RAM and 2 GB Nvidia GeForce 630M graphics. I installed Mint on a 50 GB partition in a multi-boot environment with Kubuntu 14.04 LTS and Chakra GNU/Linux. Mint 17 ships with Cinnamon 2.2.13 desktop environment and Linux kernel 3.13.0.

From Linux Mint 17 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

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Linux Mint 201403 "Debian" Review: Typical Linux Mint - Good stable semi-rolling release distro

The first major update of Linux Mint Debian edition was released on March 2, 2014. I downloaded both Cinnamon and Mate versions (remember that SolydXK now releases the KDE & XFCE versions) and tried both of the versions for about a week to pen this review. I like the fact that Mint took a decision to roll out a Debian spin in 2010 and is still pursuing the same with it's preferred desktop environments, Cinnamon and Mate. The Debian versions look and feel identical to the Linux Mint Ubuntu versions - in my review I present a comparison in performance across the Ubuntu and Debian versions which many readers might be interested to see.

Mint Debian spin is based on Debian testing and hence, has a semi-rolling release with important updates coming out periodically. Debian testing has the advantage of more updated applications than the stable release ("Wheezy" now) and hence, preferable to users like me. Further, the present version of Mint Debian provides support to EFI and GPT, required to install Linux on modern systems with Windows 8. I downloaded both the 64-bit Cinnamon and Mate versions for this review.

From Linux Mint 201403 "Debian" http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Linux Mint Debian 201403 Cinnamon ships with Cinnamon 2.0.14 and Linux kernel 3.11.2. For the Mate version, desktop environment is Mate 1.6.1. I created live USB using Mint USB Image writer and then installed both the distros on separate 50 GB partitions of my Asus K55VM laptop with 2.3 Ghz Core i7 3rd gen processor, 8 GB DDR3 RAM and 2 GB Nvidia GeForce 630M graphics. The system had Ubuntu 14.04 GNOME beta1 installed in one of the partitions.

LMDE Cinnamon From Linux Mint 201403 "Debian" http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

LMDE Mate From Linux Mint 201403 "Debian" http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

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Linux Mint 15 "Olivia" Mate & Cinnamon Review: Great aesthetics & superb performance - Almost perfect!

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!

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?

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Linux Mint 201303 "Debian" Cinnamon Review: Debian simplified and offers impressive performance!

One thing I really like about Linux Mint is the refinement and completeness they render to each and every release. I have been using Linux Mint since 2009 and except for the repetitive art-work, I have never been disappointed so far. Normally Linux Mint releases mimic Ubuntu and mostly require fresh installation. I tried upgrading a few but with no luck and hence, had to do a fresh installation to make things work. However, in 2012, Linux Mint deviated from convention and brought a semi-rolling release LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition). LMDE is based on Debian testing and doesn't require ever to re-install the OS. I tried the Mate version in 2012 and was highly impressed with aesthetics as well as performance.

From Linux Mint Debian 201303 Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

This time with the release of 201303 LMDE update, I thought of trying out the Cinnamon version. LMDE is available in both 32 and 64 bit versions - I downloaded the 1.3 GB 32-bit version. Those who are using LMDE Cinnamon already, need to just update and upgrade the system to 201303 and need not to do a fresh installation. The 201303 update comes with Cinnamon 1.6, Linux kernel 3.2.0, and Gnome shell 3.4.2. Nemo 1.1.2, forked from Nautilus, is the default file manager. Both Cinnamon and Nemo being lighter than Gnome 3, render a sense of lightness to the overall feel of the distro. For this testing, I used my Asus K54C laptop with 2.2 Ghz Core i3 processor and 2 GB RAM.

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