What desktop in linux mint

About Linux Mint

Linux Mint is one of the most popular desktop Linux distributions and used by millions of people.

It is one of the best alternatives to Microsoft Windows and Apple MacOS.

Purpose

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

• It works out of the box, with full multimedia support and is extremely easy to use.
• It’s both free of cost and open source.
• It’s community-driven. Users are encouraged to send feedback to the project so that their ideas can be used to improve Linux Mint.
• Based on Debian and Ubuntu, it provides about 30,000 packages and one of the best software managers.
• It’s safe and reliable—thanks to conservative software updates, a unique Update Manager, and its robust Linux architecture.
• Linux Mint requires very little maintenance (no regressions, no antivirus, no anti-spyware. etc).

History

In 2021 Linux Mint celebrated its 15th anniversary. Let’s take a look back at how it all started and some of the events which have helped shape what it is today.

Articles & reviews

Clement Lefebvre, a French developer now commonly known as «Clem», was writing reviews and tutorials for various Linux sites. To host his own articles he started a website called «Linux Mint».

Early releases

After a time, he began to get a flavour for what the community wanted out of a distribution and started implementing solutions to common problems. In August of 2006, Linux Mint 1.0 “Ada”, based on Kubuntu 6.06 was released.

In November 2006, he switched to a GNOME desktop with Linux Mint 2.0 “Barbara”, based on Ubuntu 6.10.

A new ambition

The project is extremely popular and grows rapidly. A team is formed, forums chat rooms and a website are open.

By the time Linux Mint 3.0 «Cassandra» is released the project has a new logo, its own identity and the ambition to rival Windows and Mac OS.

Development & growth

Linux Mint rises to the top and joins Ubuntu as one of the most popular desktops on the market.

Between Linux Mint 4.0 «Daryna» and Linux Mint 9.0 «Isadora», more and more tools make Linux Mint unique: mintupdate, mintinstall, mintdisk, mintmenu, mintdesktop, mintnanny, mintbackup, mintstick, mintwelcome, mintupload.

A mature desktop

Linux Mint features a desktop experience based on GNOME 2 which has matured for now more than 5 years. It is full-featured, extremely stable and very popular.

A traumatic release

When GNOME 3 replaces GNOME 2 it’s a catastrophe for Linux Mint. Many features (the panel, the tray, the menu. etc) are missing and neither the desktop, the theme engine nor the toolkit are stable.

Despite the reimplementation of most of the missing features, the release of Linux Mint 12 «Lisa» based on GNOME 3 is not good enough and is still to this day considered by the team as a regression.

To guarantee its future Linux Mint decides to widen the scope of its development and invests in 2 alternatives to GNOME 3: MATE, a joint project which consists in renaming GNOME 2 and bringing it back, and Cinnamon, a Mint project, which consists in adapting GNOME 3 and turning it into a full-featured desktop.

The modern era

Since 2012 Linux Mint provides incremental improvements to what is a more and more refined desktop experience.

The team has boosted its development by focusing on 3 desktop editions (Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce) and by taking the decisions in 2014 to only use long-term support releases.

The accent is put on quality vs quantity, on doing less to do it better and on pleasing existing users rather than trying to attract new ones.

Following the success of Cinnamon and its compatibility with other distributions, Linux Mint also started to develop cross-distribution and cross-desktop solutions. Nowadays some of the software developed by Linux Mint is enjoyed in many other distributions and bug reports and development are boosted by contributions from people outside of the Linux Mint community.

Thanks to your donations and advertising Linux Mint is completely free of charge. We hope you’ll enjoy using it as much as we enjoy working on it.

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Choose the right edition¶

You can download Linux Mint from the Linux Mint website.

Read below to choose which edition and architecture are right for you.

Cinnamon, MATE or Xfce?¶

Linux Mint comes in 3 different flavours, each featuring a different desktop environment.

Cinnamon	The most modern, innovative and full-featured desktop
MATE	A more traditional, and faster desktop
Xfce	The most lightweight desktop

The most popular version of Linux Mint is the Cinnamon edition. Cinnamon is primarily developed for and by Linux Mint. It is slick, beautiful, and full of new features.

Linux Mint is also involved in the development of MATE, a classic desktop environment which is the continuation of GNOME 2, Linux Mint’s default desktop between 2006 and 2011. Although it misses a few features and its development is slower than Cinnamon’s, MATE uses less resources and can run faster on older computers.

Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment. It doesn’t support as many features as Cinnamon or MATE, but it’s extremely stable and very light on resource usage.

Of course, all three desktops are great and Linux Mint is extremely proud of each edition. Although there are more features and better support in some editions than others, and some do run faster and use less resources than others, they’re all great alternatives and choosing the right edition is largely a matter of taste.

Other than their features and performance, Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce also represent three different desktop environments, with different menus, different panels and configuration tools. The right one for you is the one where you feel at home.

If you are unsure which desktop to choose start with the Cinnamon edition. Try them all eventually when you have the time. All three of them have their own audience within the Linux Mint community and they’re all very popular.

32-bit or 64-bit?¶

From version 20 onward, only 64-bit is available.

The 32-bit ISO images on prior versions are provided for compatibility with older computers. 32-bit processors are extremely rare nowadays and most computers are able to run in 64-bit. If your computer was manufactured after 2007, you probably have a 64-bit processor.

If you have an old computer and you are unsure whether or not it can run in 64-bit, read X86 Chronology.

You can try to boot Linux Mint 64-bit on your computer. If it isn’t compatible, nothing bad will happen. You will just get an error message.

If you cannot boot or install Linux Mint because your hardware is too recent and is not properly detected see the Edge ISO Images chapter in the Linux Mint User Guide for an alternative ISO.

© Copyright 2017, Linux Mint Revision d8fbd844 .

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What desktop in linux mint

The latest version of the friendly operating system is here. Install it on your computer today!

Features

What is Linux Mint?

Linux Mint is an operating system for desktop and laptop computers. It is designed to work ‘out of the box’ and comes fully equipped with the apps most people need.

Graphic Design

Work in 3D with Blender, draw or edit pictures in Gimp, use Inkscape for vector graphics.

Productivity

With LibreOffice’s complete office suite, use the word processor, make presentations, drawings, spreadsheets or even databases. Easily import from or export to PDF or Microsoft Office documents.

Multimedia

Enjoy your music, watch TV and movies, listen to podcasts, Spotify and online radio.

Web

Browse the Web, watch Youtube and Netflix with Firefox. Turn any website into a desktop app for immediate access.

Gaming

Access more than 7,800 games with Steam. Install GOG to get even more.

Give it a try. You’ll Love it!

Most of our users come from Windows and they never look back.

Easy to use, fast and comfortable.

Give your hardware the operating system it deserves and feel right at home.

OOTB

Everything just works «Out Of The Box», without the need to configure anything or to install extra applications. It’s ready to go. Although it’s very configurable, everything is set and tuned nicely by default and no unnecessary questions are asked.

KISS

It’s very easy to use. It features an intuitive desktop and adopts KISS principles. Anyone can rapidly feel at home and use Linux Mint. User experience, workflow and comfort is key.

Home rule

It’s your computer, your rules. This is a key principle at Linux Mint. We don’t collect data, we don’t work against you. You’re the boss. Your operating system is designed to do what you want without getting in your way.

Rock solid

With centralized software updates, system snapshots, a unique Update Manager and the robustness of its Linux architecture, Linux Mint requires very little maintenance. It works, it’s safe and it doesn’t break.

Free and Open Source

It is completely free of cost and almost all of its components are Open Source. Linux Mint stands on the shoulder of giants, it is based on Debian and Ubuntu.

Community-centric

There is a tight bond and a great relationship between the development team and the community. We communicate with our users and constantly use their feedback to improve Linux Mint.

Fun, helpful and passionate.

If you’re making your first steps with Linux don’t hesitate to join the forums. Linux users are often welcoming, helpful and eager to share their experience.

Is it free?

Yes, Linux Mint is completely free of charge. Almost everything in Linux Mint is also open-source.

Will it work on my computer?

Yes, Linux Mint works on most computers. It can also be run from a live USB stick to make sure everything works fine without having to install anything.

Can I keep Windows?

Yes, you can have both Windows and Linux Mint. A menu asks you which one to use when you start the computer.

Will it suit my needs?

Hopefully. Linux Mint comes with what most people need out of the box as well as easy access to more than 60,000 software packages and 7,800 games.

The years go by, and I keep trying one Linux desktop distro after the other. But for more than a decade now, I come back to Linux Mint. Why? It’s simple: Year in and year out, Mint remains the best, easiest-to-use Linux desktop.

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

ZDNet

Mint has become the very best example of what a Linux desktop should be: fast, easy, pleasing to the eye, useful and productive. Others, still, see Mint as the ideal desktop for Windows refugees, or those who are trying out Linux for the first time, and want an operating system that essentially works ‘out of the box’.

David Hayward

Linux Format

Linux Mint’s latest release will have an exceptionally wide appeal. Anyone looking for an incredibly stable, robust, fast, clean, and user-friendly desktop operating system could do a whole lot worse. [. ] Every Linux desktop distribution should strive to do exactly what Linux Mint 20.1 has accomplished—create a desktop that is the perfect balance of speed, features, and user-friendliness.

Jack Wallen

TechRepublic

There’s a good reason for that popularity: Linux Mint just works. It isn’t «changing the desktop computer paradigm,» or «innovating» in «groundbreaking» ways. The team behind Mint is just building a desktop operating system that looks and functions a lot like every other desktop operating system you’ve used, which is to say you’ll be immediately comfortable and stop thinking about your desktop and start using it to do actual work.

Scott Gilbertson

ars technica

Exploring the bevy of Linux distributions out there is a fun part of the hobby, but for your first installation, you will likely want something popular and beginner-friendly, so it’s easy to get help when you need it. That’s why I recommend starting with Linux Mint.

Whitson Gordon

PCMag

Linux Mint has again shown why it deserves to stay among the best Linux distribution for beginners. If you’re thinking to migrate from Windows to Linux, you should definitely get your hand on Linux Mint.

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