You're missing out...

[KilUma]

So, I love Mint. Specifically Mint+Gnome. Mate is solid enough, that is, if you're looking for a WinXP'ish WindowManager(WM). Compiz is unstable with Mate(Unless you enjoy getting your hands dirty. Personally, my path lead me to install Fedora with Gnome 3.6.'whatever' deployed as a default WM).

Gnome3 is highly intuitive, the GUI seems primed for addaptation to touch/xypolled input, & a high level of customization(as customary with Gnome) really sets Gnome3 apart. It is different... and easy, powerful, quick. With almost no learning curve for anybody who has ever used Windows/Apple and Android/iOS, this WM seems to be primed for universal application, as well.

I'm still working on the learning curve with Fedora, but I'm feeling pretty loyal to Gnome3... For now.

**sidenote: Mate goes to great lengths to give users a straightforward method to customize there system. Technically, I could've put Gnome 3.6.'whatever' on Mint. But why bother? It's already on Fedora... by default. Besides, it's probably a good idea for me to get acquainted with the rpm's and yum's and stuff.

And oh yeah! I didn't bother with Cinnamon when I realized people were using it to make it easy to transition to Gnome3. God!! I love irony.

BTW:::: I donated to the Mint project.Receipt No:0417-6454-8913-2463. Maybe that means something to Clement Lefebvre. Maybe not.

From Freedom Came Elegance

[dee.]

I don't see Cinnamon as an "easy transition to Gnome3", I see it more as a "Gnome3 with a sane interface". But YMMV.

[Octoberator]

I don't think anyone here is necessarily missing out. Cinnamon is a great traditional desktop environment and some people prefer a taskbar interface. Though I don't think I'd ever be able to back to Cinnamon after getting used to Gnome 3 and Unity. I've always preferred docks.

[Pilosopong Tasyo]

It all boils down to personal preference. Use whatever works for you.

[dee.]

I don't think anyone here is necessarily missing out. Cinnamon is a great traditional desktop environment and some people prefer a taskbar interface. Though I don't think I'd ever be able to back to Cinnamon after getting used to Gnome 3 and Unity. I've always preferred docks.

You know, you can install a dock on Cinnamon easily...

[mmix]

cinnamon is gr8, but, lately, often getting crash with no reason in ubuntu 13.04.
source build version, too.

so i tried xfce4 for one, dwm for another, both are gr8.

[flyboy1565]

It all boils down to personal preference. Use whatever works for you.

So true I spent a week or two playing with thumb drives trying to find one that for my needs. Of course new from Windows, mint kinda had a different but similar effect.

Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk 2

[Octoberator]

I don't think anyone here is necessarily missing out. Cinnamon is a great traditional desktop environment and some people prefer a taskbar interface. Though I don't think I'd ever be able to back to Cinnamon after getting used to Gnome 3 and Unity. I've always preferred docks.

You know, you can install a dock on Cinnamon easily...

I know this. I had a dock for a while when I used Cinnamon.

[Skara Brae]

How strange. After I couldn't install "Maya" (Mint) at my new PC last year, I tried Fedora 17 just for fun. It worked, but it has Gnome 3, and I "hated" it from the first login. How strange that some people love Gnome 3, while others "hate" it.

I loved Gnome 2 (or xfce, which is Gnome 2's twin). I think Canonical has ruined Ubuntu with Unity (like Microsoft has now totally ruined Windows with their Metro UI in Windows 8 ).

Thank the Mint Gods for Mint/Mate.

[Orbmiser]

Yep use what works for your personal needs and preferences. As it's about getting actual work done.
And sometimes the DE design is not optimal for a particular user's mindset.

But personally it's not only about desktop interface but take on behind the desktop developers directions and vision.
Unity - I personally don't like Shuttleworth's vision of mashing devices together in "One Unity to Bind Them!" seems evil to me
Gnome 3 - Well they ignored the users as their vision of the desktop was the only one that is valid. They Know Better Attitude

Sorry don't want to stand behind those kind of Directors and smile about it. Just a personal choice.
Guess I don't like to support a philosophy or arrogant ego tripping developer group that think the users are peons to be ignored.
.

[xenopeek]

Okay, so....
I left Mint14Mate because Mate has a bit of maturing left. I remember Mint with the Gnome desktop, which I enjoyed. So, I searched for a good OS that officially supports Gnome, and found Fedora18. I loaded F18 with Gnome3.6, and was immediately impressed with the UI. I liked it. But, as with all UI's, I needed to do some tweaking to get it perfect for me. That's when my problems with Gnome3.6 started(note: my problem had absolutely nothing to do with Fedora, or Mint. Mate- and now Gnome- is what I have problems with.)

As most of you already know, the 'official' Gnome developers don't like there 'creation' to be tampered with. So much so, that 'unofficial' Gnome developers are fleeing the DE in droves. You can't blame them... who would want all there hard work broken every few months?

From the looks of the practices of Gnome, it would seem(rather blatantly) the 'official' developers are striving for commercial relevance. Of course, this is counter to the philosophies of most Linux users.

Eventually, I turned my back on Gnome. And yes, it was easy to do. I decided to try DE's I've never tried. KDE topped that list. In my research for Distro's that had official support of KDE, I came across PCLinuxOS. More specifically PCLinuxOS Full Monty. I liked it, a lot. It was perfect right out of the box. An entire desktop built around the concept of categorized workspaces/desktops(sidenote: KDE really needs to choose one term and stick with it, or come up with a more well defined definition that explains the difference between 'workspace' & 'desktop'.)

PCLOS worked good for about a week. Then I started digging around. I realized PCLOS is not very well refined, at all. In fact, while it takes advantage of some of the latest coding techniques, it is almost a full generation behind on hardware support, has a very small support group, and has a crucial problem with there software distribution that has been known to exist for some time(which wouldn't be an issue, if they'd release a patched ISO. It takes longer to find the answer to the problem, than it does to fix the problem.)

So, after falling in, and out of, love with PCLOS Full Monty, I started to think about Mint again. I always knew they had a KDE release. I never tried it, always opting for Gnome.
I stopped using computers altogether after Mint12 because of travel. When I returned to Mint, which was my exclusive desktop(save BT for certain things), Gnome was gone. In its place? Cinnamon and Mate.
I did some research on both and decided on Mate. It was good. It is good. Solid. I just want something more. It just seems too 95'ish for me. Hell, we're headed to the year of hoverboards and fluxcapacitors. How about a desktop that makes me feel like it? Well, Mate didn't do that for me.

I tried Cinnamon, but it was too glitchy when I pushed on the limits of my hardware.
I use my system for 3d rendering in CAD/CAM environments. Most of what I do is done in Linux. However, Linux does have it's limitations. While it does render code extremely efficiently, it is not supported by most prominent software developers in the CAD/CAM industry. Wine attempts to fill this gap, but Wine provides too many variables for the common user(ie. me) to screw up to be useful in many of my needed applications.

So, Cinnamon couldn't do what I needed. Gnome is far too constrictive. Mate needs to catch up/grow up. I booted a Live XFCE, and decided, while running live, that XFCE is not for me. Which is extremely rare. Typically, I'll give it enough of a chance to install it.
1-Mint14Mate
2-Mint14Cinnamon
3-Mageia2
4-LinuxTails(personal favorite, and perfect for live boots)
5-Fedora18Gnome3.6
6-PCLinuxOS KDE Full Monty
7-PCLinuxOS KDE RC1
8-Mint14KDE

All that in about three weeks. I'm sticking with MintKDE, for now. I am having an issue, which can be referred to from here: viewtopic.php?f=109&t=125909

The issue is a crucial problem, as I haven't been able to properly update my system from the initial install. Kinda reminds me of PCLOS.