Which Mint and why ?

[MintKDE416]

Hi ... I'm curious to know which Mint version would you recommend to a newbie to Linux and why that version ?
TIA

My exp. comes from using Windows 98 , 2000 , XP . Windows 7 and even a little of 8

[passerby]

For someone with a Windows background, Mint 13 Cinnamon.
Cinnamon because the default setup looks and feels similar to Win7, and there are extensions/applets to further bridge the transition.
Mint 13 because it's LTS.

[Flame_Phoenix]

I agree with user MintKDE416. There are also other choices such as the LXDE and XFCE environments that are lighter. However they are lighter because they lack some feautures present i cinamon and are recomemded for older computers.

[Pierre]

or even Mint 13 mate - either version is a LTS
- once installed, it's a 400Mb D/L - to get the 'other' version, anyway,

[MintKDE416]

Hi ... Thanks for responding . Are you guys saying to use 13 instead of the latest 14? Whats the difference between Mate over Cinnamon ?
Another thing if it matter I'm using a laptop .

Thanks

[gibbs1984]

Surely KDE looks more like Windows?

I'd go with Cinnamon though, they might lost with all the options available in KDE.

[passerby]

Hi ... Thanks for responding . Are you guys saying to use 13 instead of the latest 14? Whats the difference between Mate over Cinnamon ?
Another thing if it matter I'm using a laptop .

Thanks

13 will be supported longer than 14 (5 years, IIRC), so it'll be longer before it's obsolete.
MATE and Cinnamon are different desktop environments. They have different default programs, use different amounts of resources, etc.
You can give both a try. Once Mint is installed it's easy to swap desktop environments; no need to reinstall.

[MintKDE416]

13 will be supported longer than 14 (5 years, IIRC), so it'll be longer before it's obsolete.
MATE and Cinnamon are different desktop environments. They have different default programs, use different amounts of resources, etc.
You can give both a try. Once Mint is installed it's easy to swap desktop environments; no need to reinstall.

I'm confused . why is 13 going to be supported longer ? Where or how did you get this info from ? And thanks for your tips

[passerby]

It's to do with the ubuntu/mint release model.
-LTS release (eg. 10.04)
-minor release (10.10)
-minor release (11.04)
-minor release (11.10)
-LTS release (12.04)

The minor releases aren't supported for as long and are released every 6 months.
The LTS (Long term support) releases are every 2 years and are a more static/stable alternative.
LTS are for people who don't want to reinstall or attempt an upgrade every 6 months

[MintKDE416]

It's to do with the ubuntu/mint release model.
-LTS release (eg. 10.04)
-minor release (10.10)
-minor release (11.04)
-minor release (11.10)
-LTS release (12.04)

The minor releases aren't supported for as long and are released every 6 months.
The LTS (Long term support) releases are every 2 years and are a more static/stable alternative.
LTS are for people who don't want to reinstall or attempt an upgrade every 6 months

I just learned something new , thanks

[JWJones]

I would say burn a disk each for these: KDE, MATE, and Cinnamon, and see which one you like the best.

[ramartz]

I would say burn a disk each for these: KDE, MATE, and Cinnamon, and see which one you like the best.

I couldn't agree more but I would suggest to create bootable USB sticks instead of burning discs. I think its faster that way and let you save some persistent files too.

[RacerBG]

Hi ... Thanks for responding . Are you guys saying to use 13 instead of the latest 14? Whats the difference between Mate over Cinnamon ?
Another thing if it matter I'm using a laptop .

Thanks

13 will be supported longer than 14 (5 years, IIRC), so it'll be longer before it's obsolete.
MATE and Cinnamon are different desktop environments. They have different default programs, use different amounts of resources, etc.
You can give both a try. Once Mint is installed it's easy to swap desktop environments; no need to reinstall.

So I can install Cinnamon because I already have Mint? What will be affected?

[passerby]

It will install new packages on your system, but you won't notice any other changes until after you log into it; your current DE (desktop environment) won't be altered.
Unfortunately it doesn't work well for everyone. For some people it lags a lot; it's quite graphics intensive.
That being said, there's no harm in installing it and trying it out. You can just as easily go back to your previous DE.

If you want to give it a try, open a terminal and type in:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install mint-meta-cinnamon

then type in your root password when prompted.
After it's installed, you can use cinnamon by simply logging out and choosing it from the login screen.