Will LinuxMint work for me?

[Znupi]

Well, I'm about to do a full reinstallation of my system. I'll reinstall both Windows XP and Linux. Until now, I have used Ubuntu Feisty.

My installation of Feisty was a dream: dual-boot with XP worked out-of-the-box. So did Beryl (I installed that using this tut). So did Beryl's unsupported plugins (just an apt-get and voila).

Here's my hardware:
CPU: Intel Pentium DualCore 2.80Ghz (so a total of 5.60Ghz )
RAM: 512MB
Video: ATI Radeon X550 512MB Ram

Will LinuxMint work out-of-the-box like Ubuntu did?
Is NTFS read/write support enabled by default? On Ubuntu I had to install ntfs-3g and ntfs-config (after that it worked with no problems).
Will Beryl work out-of-the-box? (it's installed by default, I know, but will it work?)

Here's the software I use and need and is not installed by default in Linux Mint:
Rythmbox -- I don't like Amarok, Rythmbox is much simpler and lighter.
GAIM -- Pidgin is worse than GAIM for me, I use Yahoo!.
LinuxDC++ -- I installed it on Feisty with this tut but I noticed there's also a .deb on getdeb.net.
Wine -- although I rarely use it and it's not really necessary.
Will these programs work on mint?

Is python installed by default, together with pygtk?
I suppose LinuxMint uses GNOME as the desktop environment, right?

These are all the questions I can think of right now. If I'll think of more I'll post them here. So, in conclusion, will LinuxMint work for me?

PS: another thing I'm worried about is support. Ubuntu has huge support. Will I be able to get decent support for LinuxMint? Maybe I can even post on the ubuntuforums if I have a prob with mint?

[Znupi]

Another question: how much disk space does a fresh install of LinuxMint need?

[ouilsen]

Will LinuxMint work out-of-the-box like Ubuntu did?
Is NTFS read/write support enabled by default?

It should since it is Ubuntu based. Some would say it's Ubuntu+Automatix combined with some (great) configuration tools.
And yes, ntfs write support is enabled by default.

Will Beryl work out-of-the-box?

I don't know for sure. My ati 9700 is now supported by the opensource X driver, so it worked out-of-the-box. Just try with the liveCD. I'm glad I won't have to use fglrx ever again.

Will these programs work on mint?

Mint uses the same repositories as Ubuntu. So yes they will work. Gaim has changed its name into Pidgin. There is no more gaim. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaim

I suppose LinuxMint uses GNOME as the desktop environment, right?

Yes, but there will be a KDE based version.

PS: another thing I'm worried about is support. Ubuntu has huge support. Will I be able to get decent support for LinuxMint? Maybe I can even post on the ubuntuforums if I have a prob with mint?

Yea, I had the same question. Until now I didn't have any problems. Most Ubuntu howtos work for Mint. Of course one can't deny that the mint community is still small. I guess we just have to wait a few months .

Another question: how much disk space does a fresh install of LinuxMint need?

I'm not on my system right now but it's less then 5gb. Shouldn't be a problem nowadays.

[Znupi]

Hmm... sounds promising. (Although I don't like the Automatix thing but I'll give it a try )
You're saying that I can test Beryl out from the LiveCD? That would rock .
I know that 'there is no more gaim'. But I still want to use it, because it's better for me. Just an example: Pidgin doesn't have the Yahoo! emoticons anymore. That sucks .

Will definitely give it a try in the following days... I'll tell you how it goes

[sonics]

Here's my hardware:
CPU: Intel Pentium DualCore 2.80Ghz (so a total of 5.60Ghz )
RAM: 512MB
Video: ATI Radeon X550 512MB Ram

Maybey offtopic:

You got a great processor, but only 512mb RAM?

RAM is cheap nowadays, maybey you should consider using 1GB, or 2GB RAM instead.

[ouilsen]

Hmm... sounds promising. (Although I don't like the Automatix thing but I'll give it a try )

You don't have Automatix installed. It's just as if you had run Automatix. There are already all the additional packages (like libdvd, win32 codecs etc.)

[Znupi]

Maybey offtopic:

You got a great processor, but only 512mb RAM?

RAM is cheap nowadays, maybey you should consider using 1GB, or 2GB RAM instead.

I know, it's the only downpoint of my PC. I'll try to put more but I don't know if I'll be able to (some complications, hard to explain )