mint_logoThe most of the best and the market dominant Linux distributions have one in thing in common – they have strong commercial support behind them. This applies to Ubuntu (Canonical), Fedora (RedHat), openSUSE (Novell). Debian is an exception as it is driven by a major non-profit organization. On the other hand, every now and then an interesting smaller distribution comes up and is able to attract major audiences and gain an active user group. Such distributions include SimplyMEPIS, PCLinuxOS and the LinuxMint. However the recent history has proved that these small distros, that often are too dependent on a single contributor, tend to fall into problems on the long run. Mepis used to be a very good and competitive distribution, but as the founder failed to develop a business model around it the distro is now rapidly fading away. Same fate is is now threating the PCLinuxOS as well, as it seems to have stalled in development and maintenance. For this reason these distributions are somewhat of a risky investment for anyone considering them for anything more serious than just surfing at home. Linux Mint however is trying hard to be different – they have a couple of years of solid track record of releasing new versions, they are showing constant improvement and they seem to be pushing hard in order to become serious player on the free Linux market.

So what does Mint have so special that it has been able to gather a major userbase and an active community? The trick is that Mint strikes hard to the weak spots of Ubuntu, while relying on it’s solid base and maintaining binary compatibility. The improvements that the Mint developers have made are obvious from the first boot into the system – Linux Mint makes the Ubuntu suck a whole lot less.

mint_menuFirst of all Mint fixes the ugly desktop theming that Ubuntu is often criticized for. You can’t find a single pixel of the original Ubuntu brown/orange looks in Mint. Instead you are greeted with a rather conservative but pleasant grey/black theme with pastel green highlights. The Gnome interface has been rearranged to a single bottom panel, which is definitely easier to consume by people migrating from Windows. The original Gnome menus have been replaced with a Mint menu, which is somewhat of a mix-up in between openSUSE Kickoff and a traditional Windows XP style menu arrangement. With these changes Mint is very easy to use and welcoming for people with little experience on various Linux desktops.

Another feature which is welcomed by new Linux users is the inclusion of most critical proprietary software elements that one needs for everyday basic usage. These include Sun Java, Adobe Flash and support for a number of proprietary audio and video formats. This means that a vast majority of the world’s top web pages and services work out of the box and so do your music and video files too. Mint also introduces a set of small Mint-specific tools like the MintUpload FTP client and a slightly different package update manager. However, my gut feeling is that the importance of these little tools is a lot smaller in comparison to the out-of-the-box confifuration done right. While the Linux hardcore always remind me that you can customize Linux to be whatever you want, I’d still say that more than 95% of people settle to what ever is shown after the first boot. They may change the wallpaper but thats about it and that’s why the first impression is most important.

mint_wizardWhile Linux Mint seems to be targeted for the newbies by design, I have to say it has the weirdest start-up wizard popping up of the first post-install boot.  Yes, the first things that Mint asks for the user after installation are 1) Should the root account be enabled/disabled 2) Should there be fortune cookies shon in the terminal. I really can’t decide whether to cry or laugh when I see these questions on my laptop screen. The root account issue is obviously a very important one, but does the 1st time Linux user know anything about the significance of using ’sudo’ or ’su’? The fortune cookies on the other hand are the most insignificant feature ever in an operating system – fine, if the Mint developers like them, so put them in your distro. If not, then get rid of them, but why on earth you have to bug the new users with such a stupid question? Oh well, I guess no distro is perfect.

Overall it is safe to say that Mint delivers a lot of added value on top of Ubuntu. It looks better, feels better and sounds better on your tongue. It offers one of the very best out-of-the-box experiences on the market, while relying on the stable Ubuntu/Debian core. I been watching the website, releases and the community every now and then, at so far it has been making a good progress release after release. The Alexa statistics graph below gives you an idea how it matches up against the contenders (click on the graph for more details). Mint is definitely one project to keep on eye on in the future, and let’s hope that it doesn’t fade away as the years go by.

Find out more about Mint at: http://www.linuxmint.com

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