Linux Mint 12 is out now and yesterday, I thought to give it a try. I downloaded its 64-bit DVD version and booted it through USB drive (click here to see how to create a bootable USB). Booting it, I got the brand new desktop, which is quite different than Mint's previous versions.
Linux Mint is a Linux operating system based on Ubuntu. Linux Mint 12 comes with GNOME 3 and MGSE (Mint Gnome Shell Extensions) which is desktop layer on top of GNOME 3 featuring look and usability enhancements. Desktop bears a 'Linux Mint 12' 3D wallpaper as older versions had it. It has got two panels now (one at top of the screen while other at the bottom). One noticing thing is that right clicking on the panel had no effects (no menus shown).
This two panel setting eats the desktop area and overall, we get less desktop area for our applications. This is a minor drawback of two panels. I tried to remove any one of them but without success as right-clicking on panels showed me no options (to edit or change their settings). Here is the modern Mint menu :
I liked one of the change very much. Notification area is changed. There is little asterisk type button at the bottom left part of the screen and clicking on it you get a transparent panel (yes, one more panel) above the panel at the bottom; and in it, you see apps which has got any notification to show. For example, we get 'Removable Devices' in it and clicking it, we get all external devices connected to computer and options to remove it. When playing songs in Banshee, you get one Banshee icon in that panel and clicking to Banshee icon, you get which song is being played on.
On the top panel, most right side, we have icons like User menu, time, volume, bluetooth, battery, etc. On left side, we have that Unity type menu button - click it and you get the Unity type menu. Well, Linux Mint team have tweaked it and you get a unique experience. Opening it, you are shown all apps (live view of them) which are currently running. Even if you are playing a video or a downloading task is going on - that is shown live in Unity type menu (quite different than actual Unity menu as in Ubuntu which shows some apps options). And we got search bar and Applications tab too. Clicking on Applications tab, you are shown apps. Also, we have one docked bar at left having favourite apps including Mozilla Firefox, Banshee Media Player, Software Manager, Advanced settings, Terminal and Files (nautilus).
Linux Mint team has tried to think for people of all flavors. People loving or more suitable with GNOME 2 will love Lisa. Mint's team has included MATE in Linux Mint 12 codename Lisa. MATE is fork of GNOME 2 which is compatible with GNOME 3. What it gives you is that you are able to run GNOME 2 now too (when GNOME 3 is present in Linux Mint 12). So, your traditional desktop never changes! Just choose 'MATE' instead of 'GNOME' from desktop environment options in your login menu. Have a look on your traditional desktop with your traditional menu:
Linux Mint team has got some changes in list of pre-included search engines in Firefox. They included a new search engine 'DuckDuckGo' along with Wikipedia and Amazon search engines. Sad news is that Google, Yahoo and Bing is removed. Linux Mint team clarifies it this way - "Search engines which share with Linux Mint the revenue Linux Mint users generate for them are included by default in our operating system." Though I am not totally against it. Of course, Linux Mint team needs money to keep developing it but this is also true that some of us will miss Google and will hate to install search engines personally.
One useful app included this time : Advanced settings. It shows some common settings connecting to Themes, Desktop, Shell, etc at a single place. Its useful to tweak settings in less time and effort. I used Theme options to tweak the theme:
Linux Mint 12 is as great and beautifully built as its previous versions and even problems too are as they had. What I am talking about is its Stability problem. Linux Mint 11 too had stability issues. I used to get errors like "Menu applet has crashed" or "Notification applet has crashed". I am not getting same errors in Linux Mint 12 but then too, I do got problems in it.
After installing it (Linux Mint 12 64-bit) on my system, first thing I did was to update all apps to the latest version as that gives security and stability to the system. After that I installed some of my favorite apps like VirtualBox, Wine, etc. Then I started to test it. And what I got was slow processing and hang ups. I got some very slow processing in Software Manager (clicking to Install any app would take 2 seconds to process). Linux Mint hanged up many times when I run 3-4 apps only (even when I have 4 GB of RAM in my system and I was not running it on pen drive, but it was installed on my hard disk drive).
My suggestion for Linux Mint developers is to concentrate more on its stability now. They have been always more than good on artwork and usability but now, time demands them to focus on its stability. I am using Linux Mint from its sixth release and had always found Stability to be pointed out in it. Default packages of Mint work fine but as you start installing new apps, you start getting problems. Rest all works fine for Linux Mint.
Pros : Great looks, Good usability, Popular distro, Unity type menu 'live apps viewer' is awesome
Cons : Stability issues, Installing more apps make it unstable, Hibernate not working
Suggestion : Give it a try. Keep it if it works for you.
Linux Mint is a Linux operating system based on Ubuntu. Linux Mint 12 comes with GNOME 3 and MGSE (Mint Gnome Shell Extensions) which is desktop layer on top of GNOME 3 featuring look and usability enhancements. Desktop bears a 'Linux Mint 12' 3D wallpaper as older versions had it. It has got two panels now (one at top of the screen while other at the bottom). One noticing thing is that right clicking on the panel had no effects (no menus shown).
There are many enhancements to Mint's looks. It has got two new themes
namely Mint-Z and Mint-Z-Dark themes. They are awesome but you know, I like one
thing about Linux GNOME environment - you can mix more than one theme together. I don't go for one single theme - I mix all of them - I choose window border of one, icons from another, cursors from another, etc. This way only, I got this blackish theme showing apps options too in black :
I liked one of the change very much. Notification area is changed. There is little asterisk type button at the bottom left part of the screen and clicking on it you get a transparent panel (yes, one more panel) above the panel at the bottom; and in it, you see apps which has got any notification to show. For example, we get 'Removable Devices' in it and clicking it, we get all external devices connected to computer and options to remove it. When playing songs in Banshee, you get one Banshee icon in that panel and clicking to Banshee icon, you get which song is being played on.
On the top panel, most right side, we have icons like User menu, time, volume, bluetooth, battery, etc. On left side, we have that Unity type menu button - click it and you get the Unity type menu. Well, Linux Mint team have tweaked it and you get a unique experience. Opening it, you are shown all apps (live view of them) which are currently running. Even if you are playing a video or a downloading task is going on - that is shown live in Unity type menu (quite different than actual Unity menu as in Ubuntu which shows some apps options). And we got search bar and Applications tab too. Clicking on Applications tab, you are shown apps. Also, we have one docked bar at left having favourite apps including Mozilla Firefox, Banshee Media Player, Software Manager, Advanced settings, Terminal and Files (nautilus).
Linux Mint team has tried to think for people of all flavors. People loving or more suitable with GNOME 2 will love Lisa. Mint's team has included MATE in Linux Mint 12 codename Lisa. MATE is fork of GNOME 2 which is compatible with GNOME 3. What it gives you is that you are able to run GNOME 2 now too (when GNOME 3 is present in Linux Mint 12). So, your traditional desktop never changes! Just choose 'MATE' instead of 'GNOME' from desktop environment options in your login menu. Have a look on your traditional desktop with your traditional menu:
Linux Mint team has got some changes in list of pre-included search engines in Firefox. They included a new search engine 'DuckDuckGo' along with Wikipedia and Amazon search engines. Sad news is that Google, Yahoo and Bing is removed. Linux Mint team clarifies it this way - "Search engines which share with Linux Mint the revenue Linux Mint users generate for them are included by default in our operating system." Though I am not totally against it. Of course, Linux Mint team needs money to keep developing it but this is also true that some of us will miss Google and will hate to install search engines personally.
One useful app included this time : Advanced settings. It shows some common settings connecting to Themes, Desktop, Shell, etc at a single place. Its useful to tweak settings in less time and effort. I used Theme options to tweak the theme:
Linux Mint 12 is as great and beautifully built as its previous versions and even problems too are as they had. What I am talking about is its Stability problem. Linux Mint 11 too had stability issues. I used to get errors like "Menu applet has crashed" or "Notification applet has crashed". I am not getting same errors in Linux Mint 12 but then too, I do got problems in it.
After installing it (Linux Mint 12 64-bit) on my system, first thing I did was to update all apps to the latest version as that gives security and stability to the system. After that I installed some of my favorite apps like VirtualBox, Wine, etc. Then I started to test it. And what I got was slow processing and hang ups. I got some very slow processing in Software Manager (clicking to Install any app would take 2 seconds to process). Linux Mint hanged up many times when I run 3-4 apps only (even when I have 4 GB of RAM in my system and I was not running it on pen drive, but it was installed on my hard disk drive).
My suggestion for Linux Mint developers is to concentrate more on its stability now. They have been always more than good on artwork and usability but now, time demands them to focus on its stability. I am using Linux Mint from its sixth release and had always found Stability to be pointed out in it. Default packages of Mint work fine but as you start installing new apps, you start getting problems. Rest all works fine for Linux Mint.
Pros : Great looks, Good usability, Popular distro, Unity type menu 'live apps viewer' is awesome
Cons : Stability issues, Installing more apps make it unstable, Hibernate not working
Suggestion : Give it a try. Keep it if it works for you.
