Linux-Noob Forums

After a long time of using Kubuntu on this particular machine, that particular Kubuntu installation got abandoned as I tended to use other machines (simply due to issues with physical space on my desk). I now have a new desk and this machine could come back into more regular service again.

 

Of course, having been abandoned for several months, the Kubuntu release was out of date, needed many software updates and was generally pretty poorly configured with lots of stuff I didn't want. I also never really got into KDE 4 -- on this machine it felt sluggish and not at all a better experience that KDE 3.5 was.

 

I was thinking of going to straight Ubuntu as a clean install, but actually settled on Linux Mint. It's based on Ubuntu, but the 'Main' version ships with a lot of proprietary drivers, codecs and other software that I would otherwise want to add post-install anyway, so it seemed to be a good idea to save time configuring.

 

It automatically detected and enabled the 3D drivers for my ATI Radeon HD 3650 card, drives the 23" monitor at its native 1920x1080, ships with Flash and Sun Java and the codecs for H.264/AAC playback too. Nice! Pretty much the only thing I post-added were msttcorefonts for prettier web browsing.

 

So, enough talk, here are the screenshots of my new Linux Mint 8 "Helena" setup.

 

Blank Desktop

 

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Terminal and File Browser

 

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Firefox showing Linux-noob

 

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Linux Mint Menu

 

Used instead of Ubuntu's Applications / Places / System menu at the top, I think similar to that used in SUSE? A bit Windows-like, but actually I like this menu.

 

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Movie Player

 

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Let me know if you want to see anything else part of Linux Mint. Not sure of anything else that is particularly unique to this distro, but, again, let me know and I'll take another screenshot.

looks cool, what are the major differences between it and regular ubuntu ? just the start menu ?

There are obviously visual style changes, the differing menu system and the fact that Linux Mint's 'Main' download ships with Flash, Sun Java and other propreitary stuff. I think I'm finding myself preferring the Linux Mint visual look and as I say, the bundled stuff saved me a lot of post-install configuration time to get it how I wanted.