Windows Anonymous

I've been seeing a lot about this 3rd-generation Debian distro (meaning "Ubuntu respin") but I just couldn't bring myself to care much about it. After all, if Ubuntu's strongest suit is that everything "just works" and saves the shuddering masses from having to type anything more complicated than their own name, how can this be any better?

Well, according to Clement Lefebvre, founder and lead dev,

1. It's one of the most community driven distributions. You could literally post an idea in the forums today and see it implemented the week after in the "current" release. Of course this has pros and cons and compared to distributions with roadmaps, feature boards and fixed release cycles we miss a lot of structure and potentially a lot of quality, but it allows us to react quickly, implement more innovations and make the whole experience for us and for the users extremely exciting.
2. It is a Debian-based distribution and as such it is very solid and it comes with one of the greatest package managers.
3. It is compatible with and uses Ubuntu repositories. This gives Linux Mint users access to a huge collection of packages and software.
4. It comes with a lot of desktop improvements which make it easier for the user to do common things.
5. There is a strong focus on making things work out of the box (WiFi cards drivers in the file system, multimedia support, screen resolution, etc).

Okay, but really, how does this make Mint an improvement over Ubuntu? Let's see, from DistroWatch.com:

"Linux Mint is one of the surprise packages of the past year. Originally launched as a variant of Ubuntu with integrated media codecs, it has now developed into one of the most user-friendly distributions on the market - complete with a custom desktop and menus, several unique configuration tools, a web-based package installation interface, and a number of different editions."

Okay, but really, how does this make Mint an improvement over Ubuntu? This is what the devs at Canonical live for. How can you possibly make Ubuntu...safer?

From what we've seen in testing, you can't. Other than redoing a couple of GUI things such as a more Windows-esque main menu (meaning it's in the lower-left corner and has everything but the kitchen sink), this is a reskinned Ubuntu. Synaptic, GNOME, the whole bit. As far as the "focus on making things work out of the box", well, you aren't warned about enabling extra repos or how horrible a person you are if you use closed-source and/or proprietary drivers. Guess that counts, though you will get a short warning about using 3rd-party stuff when such is the case (the first thing I tried downloading was NVidia drivers).

If this seems like a curt review, it's because we've already reviewed Ubuntu-9.10. Mint is pretty (and that's not damning with faint praise, I'm sick of the dreary Sahara theme prevalent in Ubuntu), and it works well, but it doesn't break any new ground. This may very well be the point, and if you're a Linux noob (as many readers here are) you'll be thrilled; of course, if you're that fresh to the scene you're probably running Ubuntu already. You can be different than your Ubuntu friends, perhaps? Seriously though, There's no reason not to download it, but if you're half-serious about actually learning anything about the OS, save Mint for the kids.

Linux Mint: http://www.linuxmint.com/index.php