martienne wrote:Flemur wrote:They're basically the same…
What do you mean by "they are the same"? (bear in mind, I am a n00b)
Both of them have the same
package base, i.e. they use software which had been packaged by Debian first with a lot of useful additions made by Ubuntu (hence the Debian edition of Linux Mint lacks the latter). But Linux Mint was designed from the very beginning
to work out of the box, for multimedia above all.
By the time as Gnome (the original desktop environment in both distributions) and successively Ubuntu diverted from their long-established
look & feel, Mint “forked” the main components of the user interface by adding in easy-to-use management components which make the use of the computer more fool-proof. By now, these old-fashioned but new desktop environments are largely viewed as independent pieces of software which can be, and are, used by other distros as well.
To give you an example, the Update Manager in Linux Mint doesn’t install the bulk of Ubuntu’s steady updates blindly unless you opt in, which signifies the system is arguably more stable than a comparable Ubuntu installation.
Because of its sensible defaults, a Linux Mint system is way easier to set up, and it’s ready to be used at the moment you’ve installed it. As you pointed it out, it’s a question of time at this stage, afterward it’s one of personal preference, e.g. for the work-horse Mint (which can still be fully configured, if needed) or the shiny kaleidoscope Ubuntu which follows every trend, even if there is none
