I was looking for a fast and easy desktop Linux distro to install on my daughters computer last week. Not having tried it for quite some time I thought I would give Linux Mint a go. I downloaded the latest version "Elyssa" and burned a disk. The target system is a AMD Athlon 64 box with 1.5 GB RAM and a 80GB HDD.
I booted the live CD and clicked on the "install" icon. I was asked only three simple questions. The partitioner fired-up and I chose "guided (use entire disk)". Next I selected the timezone. Lastly I enter the user information. And.... and that's it. I left it to install.
After install and a reboot I was greeted by a very nice looking GNOME desktop. The menu is smart and intuitive. Mint includes the usual applications and more in the repository. This distro is great for those looking for 'out-of-the-box' multimedia capabilities. It successfully opened every multimedia file I pointed to.
The Linux Mint motto "from freedom came elegance" is fitting. Linux Mint sports a very 'elegant' UI. Clearly the Mint folks have spent a lot of time and effort here. There were however two little problems...
Upon first using Open Office, the program crashed after typing a paragraph. No error messages. No nothing. The window disappeared and the process was no longer running. I have tried to duplicate the issue but have had no further problems. Secondly, installing the nvidia driver via 'restricted drivers' repeatedly fails to reach the repository. I haven't yet investigated this and maybe the server was down temporarily. I will try again shortly.
All in all this is a great distro. Especially for those who are new to GNU/Linux. They can enjoy the multimedia capabilities that users have come to expect while also taking advantage of the many great applications included with most Linux distributions. Linux Mint is very easy to install and enjoyable to use.
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