Linux Mint not so sweet
I have been an ubuntu user for a year now. All-in-all my experience is wonderful with ubuntu and I am very content with it as my perminant desktop environment. Then about a month ago at a feisty release party I was asked how ubuntu compared to other distrobutions. I had no idea. Not wanting to be ignorant, I decided to start testing other distros.
First up, Linux Mint . . .
When I asked others on the ubuntu-utah irc channel if they had ever heard of Linux Mint I only got one responce: “Is that like a breath mint or something?” It took me a couple of minutes to realize that he wasn’t joking. No one had really heard of it even though distro watch said that they were #20. Undonted, I downloaded and installed Linux Mint.
Up to this point I didn’t realize that Mint was based on my beloved ubuntu, about 15 seconds into the live CD though and this fact is right in your face. Everything looks like ubuntu with a face lift, what I didn’t know is how far that “face lift” went.
Now because I can I am going to gripe. Just after the initial shock wears off Mint goes downhill. The first complait is that the menu is very Windowsesc. Reminds me of Vista and I do a full body shiver. I really can’t stand the thing. See for yourself.
Another odd thing . . . even though it is ubuntu based there are hardware pieces that are not recognized. Such as my wireless card. Which works fine right out of the box in ubuntu. (In fact I’m using it now.)
There are some good things about Mint. I really like that it creates music, photos, documents, and download folders in your home by default. I realize that by saying that I’m being petty. It is just one of those nice things that some may 
say are too much like windows, but I like. Also the icon set put with the various folders is nice, check it out.
In short, Linux Mint won’t be overtaking my desktop any time soon. I’ll leave it here on the laptop to play with when I get bored. Other than that it won’t get much use anywhere. So until I get around to the next distro, have a good one.
Tags: Linux Mint