Reasons to use Linux Mint

[offhand]

Hi guys,

I am currently using Ubuntu 7.04 on my Toshiba laptop (Satellite Pro M10) and I wondered what would be a good reason to use Linux Mint except for feeling adventurous and my love for mint taste. What are the advantages and drawbacks? Why are you using Linux Mint?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Regards,
OffHand

[rcdeacon]

The big draw for me was with multimedia. When you insert an audio cd in the drive or a dvd it will work automagically. If it is an audio cd it ask you (sound juicer?) if you want to play the cd or extract (rip) the cd. If it is a dvd the codecs are already installed and it will begin to play shortly after inserted. I'm not sure but the wireless seemed to be easier to set up in Mint than in Ubuntu or other distros for that matter (excluding PCLOS which IMO is easiest by far). Another plus is the theme which for many (but not all) is pleasant and Mint has a "refined" look to it. Everything pretty much worked out of the box and I am incredibly satisfied with Mint and IMO it is well worth migrating to it. Just my two cents worth.

[exploder]

First let me say that there is nothing wrong with Ubuntu, it is a solid distribution. I can only express the things that interested me in LinuxMint.

The mint-menu and single panel appealed to me from the start! In my opinion the mint-menu is what makes gnome look good and appealing. I do not have to have any shortcuts in my panel or my desktop because of the "Favourites" section of the mint-menu. The menu was a real attention getter for me!

The artwork I feel is second to none! A quick search on gnome-look also shows that there is a lot more high quality artwork available to suit just about anyone's taste. "Out Of The Box Appearance" is a real strong point in LinuxMint.

LinuxMint has some impressive tools! The "Mint Assistant" is my personal favourite because I have a choice of enabling the root account. That choice is important to me and because of the tools I can enable that account with very little effort.

Multimedia works in LinuxMint "Out Of The Box". This is a real time saver for me! I know how to install everything myself but LinuxMint saves me the hassle of searching for everything.

LinuxMint has most of the packages I want without the bloat. I do not have to add and remove a lot of things to have the system I want.

LinuxMint is one of a few distributions where you can communicate with the developer's. This puts Mint ahead of other distributions in my mind and provides an example of how a community is supposed to be.

I really can not think of a single drawback to using LinuxMint. I experiment with other distributions all of the time but LinuxMint is the distribution of choice for me. Try out the Live CD if you are interested and decide for yourself!

[offhand]

Thanks for the replies. Seems like it's a good distro reading the comments. I hear 'works out of the box' a lot when people talk about Mint, but that's pretty much the case with Ubuntu as well. The menu looks nice but that's not enough reason for me to migrate. In Ubuntu I have a one panel setup too which I like better than a dual bar. Keep the comments coming please. Someone might convince me

[mbaker824]

Thanks for the replies. Seems like it's a good distro reading the comments. I hear 'works out of the box' a lot when people talk about Mint, but that's pretty much the case with Ubuntu as well. The menu looks nice but that's not enough reason for me to migrate. In Ubuntu I have a one panel setup too which I like better than a dual bar. Keep the comments coming please. Someone might convince me

I switched from Ubuntu 7.10 to Mint 4 about a week ago, just because I like to try different distros. The Software Portal is nice, although there isn't that much available there yet, and mintUpdate adds some nice, if minor, touches. And, as others have said, everything one needs for multimedia use is installed by default, which is nice.

Beyond that, I haven't seen any earth-shattering differences. For a new Linux convert, though, I would recommend it without hesitation; it's as easy to install as Ubuntu and you don't have to go searching for multimedia packages.

-- Mark

[kf4tqj]

I was using Ubuntu 6.06 dual booted with XP. I should mention that I'm in rural Alabama. I've heard of high speed internet connections, but consider them to be a fantasy. Ain't gonna happen any time soon in my neck of the woods. When Ubuntu released 7.10 I wanted to try it out but didn't want to go to all the hassle of fishing for codex to make MP3's and DVD's work. using my dial up connection I'd heard that Mint came with these on the CD. I was glad to see that it also came with Flash installed for FireFox, and several other things that we all would add if it wasn't in there.
" It Just Works " has been said before but this is the first time it actually did. The only problem is that now I'm going to have to upgrade from my on board Intel video to something better so I can turn on the special effects to see what that's all about. What a great distro. Thanks to all that have contributed.
73's
Woody / KF4TQJ

[coder_]

I have to say, the things that sucked me into mint were the community, and the wireless support.

Mint has so far been the easiest distro to get my wireless up and running. I almost had it working with openSuSE 10.3 after weeks of configuring, and right as I pop in my Mint Live with my network adapter, it was recognized right off the bat, and usable.

Now I'm a total sucker for it

[Ralphnaderchop]

I tried Ubuntu 7.10 64bit on a system I built for my kids, and I had a lot of "fun" getting everything to work like flashplayer, dvd playback, etc. That was my first time with Linux. I heard everything works right out of the box (on distro watch I think) with Linux Mint. I had acquired a laptop that I had fixed, and Linux Mint was the distro I tried. And to my surprise (and relief) the claims where just bout right. That was a month ago, and I couldn't be happier. I brag about this distro to guys at work, and built a budget computer for them to try out Linux Mint vs XP.