Linux Mint

[SealLion]

This is such a gorgeous OS. It's totally modern. Way better than Windows could ever be. And, imho, that includes Windows 8.
I find that Linux Mint is very sleek and has a modern look.

[The purpose of Linux Mint is to produce a modern, elegant and comfortable operating system which is both powerful and easy to use.

Started in 2006, Linux Mint is now the 4th most widely used home operating system behind Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS and Canonical's Ubuntu.

Run it from a USB to try it out. Link to check out this OS is here:

Main Page - Linux Mint

There are flavors of Linux Mint such as Linux Mint 14 “Nadia"KDE and Linux Mint 14 “Nadia” Xfce

And of course, don't forget that with any Linux distro, in many cases you can forget about the AV or Firewall components as is necessary in Windows OS.

[piratemeister]

It's just like Ubuntu with Cinnamon (or Mate) instead of Unity and another explorer. Some default themes and another update manager and here's the distro

That's not bad anyway.

[SealLion]

Yup. And your right as they decided to rename the Gnome environment, MATE. Still it's pretty decent overall.

[SBfreak]

The Mint team has done a pretty darn good work out of Cinnamon.At first I thought that they didn't have enough resources in order to maintain a project like that but they proved me wrong.
Also Mate is not just a gnome2 rename they actually added some stuff.

[cheatos]

Mint is awesome, it's the least sucky newbie-friendly Linux available, whenever I install Linux in a VM to test some stuff, I always use Mint.

I promoted Linux from VM-only install to an actual install, so I installed it on my Netbook (Mint 13 MATE), because it's lightweight, I could change the wallpaper (whereas Win7 Starter prevented it)..etc.

But one day Mint betrayed me..
I had a presentation to do at university, suddenly, the NetworkManager decided it's too cool to keep operational for one more day for poor cheatos.
At approx. 4AM, the Netbook couldn't be booted (network error related to the networkmanager) with my PPT file on it, I had to keep awake and put Ubuntu on a USB drive (after emptying it) and recover the presentation files, then, I had to get a Windows ISO, format the Netbook, install drivers,install office and return everything to it's previous state.

After the presentation was over, I had to get a Windows Starter ISO (which isn't provided by MS for no apparent reason) so I'd use it with the legal key on the netbook's back.. and then reinstall everything :)

So now, I just use Debian (VM Only), it's not 'modern' it's actually got very ancient software but hey it's stable and does my testing job quite perfectly, it also comes with gnome2 by default.

[piratemeister]

I think is not that awesome... and ubuntu is same user friendly once you installed flash plug-in in mozilla.

Bye.

[SealLion]

...
Also Mate is not just a gnome2 rename they actually added some stuff.

Yup. And I think your right

.....
So now, I just use Debian (VM Only), it's not 'modern' it's actually got very ancient software but hey it's stable and does my testing job quite perfectly, it also comes with gnome2 by default.

Just out of curiosity, which Debian are you using, cheatos??
I'm glad you guys like Mint as I do myself. It is great for sure. I know Neo26 might not think so but it's all a matter of personal preferences, eh??

One thing that I don't like about the default Firefox within LM14 is some of the default plugins installed in Firefox. I personnally don't care for Stylish and I don't care for South African English as an alternative to use for language expression when using the browser. I prefer to install my own preferences and plugins. Some plugins I can understand having been installed like the Cinnamon Integration plugin but other one's like the DivX plugin I can do with out. I wish that such things are left to the LM user rather than the dev team.

[cheatos]

Just out of curiosity, which Debian are you using, cheatos??

Debian 6.0.6
The latest one on the website. But it's got ancient software due to the way the Debian community handles software versions and their strict 'stable-only' software .

One thing that I don't like about the default Firefox within LM14 is some of the default plugins installed in Firefox. I personnally don't care for Stylish and I don't care for South African English as an alternative to use for language expression when using the browser. I prefer to install my own preferences and plugins. Some plugins I can understand having been installed like the Cinnamon Integration plugin but other one's like the DivX plugin I can do with out. I wish that such things are left to the LM user rather than the dev team.

Just download the official Firefox and extract it wherever you want, guide: (follow the "Installing outside of a package manager" instructions)
Install Firefox on Linux | Firefox Help

The procedure is simply: extract and run. (double clicking the 'firefox' icon should be enough, unless you plan on making a Link and assigning an XPM icon to it)

Back in Linux Mint 11?, they introduced a 'custom' Firefox with some annoying custom search. So I had to do the above almost on every Mint installation, they seem to have removed them though. (I can't find the blog link to it)

[SBfreak]

One thing that I don't like about the default Firefox within LM14 is some of the default plugins installed in Firefox. I personnally don't care for Stylish and I don't care for South African English as an alternative to use for language expression when using the browser. I prefer to install my own preferences and plugins. Some plugins I can understand having been installed like the Cinnamon Integration plugin but other one's like the DivX plugin I can do with out. I wish that such things are left to the LM user rather than the dev team.

Yeah some distributions do that.I always delete the config folders provided by the install.
Backup all your firefox stuff and then delete the .mozilla folder inside HOME.

[SealLion]

Yeah some distributions do that.I always delete the config folders provided by the install.
Backup all your firefox stuff and then delete the .mozilla folder inside HOME.

Yup. And I think that's what I'm going to do. But I'm also going to see if I can maybe just alter the config folder first. If not, it's not a problem. Either way is still fairly simple.

Something else that I wanted to mention to you guys. What I also like about this distro and flavor (Cinnamon, that is) is the top left corner cursor maneuver to access your workspaces. I totally love this inclusion. Talk about a modern OS with modern features!! In my opinion, it kind of out does Ubuntu. Even though Ubuntu itself has some really good features too that I also personnally admire.


EDIT: Just an addendum for this OS from Distrowatch.

With the year 2012 drawing to an end, it's time for the usual year-end recapitulations. In the world of Linux distribution, this means finding the best release among the hundreds that were uploaded to FTP servers throughout the year. And it seems it's no coincidence that Linux Mint finds itself sitting pretty on top of DistroWatch page hit ranking charts for the second year in a row. ... "Mint 13’s MATE and Cinnamon desktops complement each other well, and have scored repeatedly for the distro throughout the tournament. The desktops, together with Mint’s set of custom tools for every desktop task, including a WUBI-based Windows installer, make it a formidable opponent. There’s more to Mint than pleasing new desktop users, though. Besides the codec-laden releases, the distro also produces editions without this fluff, which makes it legal for distributions in virtually every country in the world...."Linux Mint has regained its place at the top of the charts, after falling down a whole of four places, mostly because of the unholy Gnome 3 desktop. Since, the dev team has ditched this failure, and the quality and execution of the operating system have climbed up to their expected levels."

*

Link is here:

http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20121224#news