Which linux mint is best

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Which version of Mint is the best.

Post by clgy15 » Mon Feb 22, 2010 9:39 am

Hey Everybody,
Iv heard alot about the community versions and all these other versions of mint and I was wondering which one seems to be the most popular? Which one is faster? Whats the differences between them? I guess thats the question I should be asking

Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.

Re: Which version of Mint is the best.

Post by remoulder » Mon Feb 22, 2010 9:46 am

No one can answer this for you, which is best is a personal choice. Which is faster depends on your machine, how you use it and what software you run.

I suggest you download as a minimum the main and kde editions, burn them to disc and boot from them, then decide for yourself.

[Edit] your original post and add [SOLVED] once your question is resolved.

“The people are my God” stressing the factor determining man’s destiny lies within man not in anything outside man, and thereby defining man as the dominator and remoulder of the world.

Re: Which version of Mint is the best.

Post by viking777 » Mon Feb 22, 2010 11:03 am

I would guess that the Main version is the most popular by far, the differences are the desktop environment, Gnome on main and — would you believe it — Kde on KdeCE, Xfce on XfceCE etc.etc!

If you don’t know the differences between Gnome, KDE and Xfce then the only way to find out is to do as remoulder says and try both (or all three).

Webtest Level 4
Posts: 369 Joined: Sun Feb 21, 2010 4:45 pm Location: Carlisle, Pennsylvania, USA

Re: Which version of Mint is the best.

Post by Webtest » Mon Feb 22, 2010 11:15 am

I wanted to play with a system that would run from Read-only CD for security reasons.
I found the link to the Linux Mint FTP site through Wikipedia.
http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/linuxmint.com/stable/8/
I found the following list there:
[ ] LinuxMint-8-Fluxbox.iso 09-Feb-2010 18:26 656M
[ ] LinuxMint-8-KDE.iso 01-Feb-2010 14:24 1.1G
[ ] LinuxMint-8-KDE64.iso 09-Feb-2010 11:20 1.2G
[ ] LinuxMint-8-Universal.iso 27-Nov-2009 19:25 1.0G
[ ] LinuxMint-8-x64.iso 11-Dec-2009 11:03 686M
[ ] LinuxMint-8.iso 27-Nov-2009 19:11 688M
[TXT] md5sum.txt 11-Feb-2010 09:05 332
[DIR] user-guide/ 03-Jan-2010 10:15 —

Hmmmm . Let’s try what seems to be the most basic one . LinuxMint-8.iso
I found freeware «Active ISO Burner» on the Tucows download site and installed it on my XP system and it was trivial to burn the ISO image to a CD-R. My only fear was that the CD would AutoStart and try to install Linux on my XP machine, but I have a full backup, so it wouldn’t be a disaster. Pleasantly enough, Mint doesn’t default to Install Mode (as far as I know?) and only puts an «Install Mint» icon on the desktop.

Much to my amazement, the CD booted perfectly and I was able to browse the net and open my banking site with no problems whatsoever. It is a great distribution to start with (in my opinion) at (hopefully) no risk to my XP system or to my wallet. Mint comes up with the hard drive in the File Browser list, but it is UNmounted (I hope!). I just have to be patient when it boots . go get a cup of coffee or something because it takes awhile. I plugged in an old 8 MEG Compact Flash camera card, and it mounts trivially (it auto-mounts when you plug it in) and gives me a nice super-floppy like storage space to play with. There were a number of comments about ‘checking the MD5SUM’ for the ISO image, but I had no clue as to how to do that and just ignored it for starters. I guess it’s just a checkcode for the file to make sure you get a clean safe unadulterated copy to work with. I did figure out how to compare the MD5SUM . right click on the ISO file in the file browser and select «MD5 Sum». Find the popup (buried somewhere under your open windows) and compare the checkcode to the contents of the md5sum.txt file from the FTP site.

Now I have to figure out how to make a few changes to Mint . the clock is in a way wrong time zone, the spell checker is BRITISH English and I need American English, and I need some shortcuts to my critical websites . and burn a new CD.

P.S. This post was created on my Mint-8 system running from CD-R. My next test is to physically unplug the hard drive to prove that it is NOT being accessed at all.

Good luck to you and to me!
Blessings in abundance, all the best, and ENJOY!
Art in Carlisle PA USA

BOAT — a hole in the water that you pour money into
LINUX — a hole in your life that you pour TIME into

HP dx2400 Core 2 Duo 8 GB. Mint 13/15/17.x/18.x Mate LOCKED SD cards, and Kanguru USB drives> No Hard Drive / No SSD

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Linux Mint Cinnamon vs MATE vs Xfce: Which One Should You Use?

Linux Mint is undoubtedly one of the best Linux distributions for beginners. This is especially true for Windows users that walking their first steps to Linux world.

Since 2006, the year that Linux Mint made its first release, a selection of tools has been developed to enhance user experience. Furthermore, Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, so you have a large community of users to seek help.

I am not going to discuss how good Linux Mint is. If you have already made your mind to install Linux Mint, you probably get a little confused on the download section on its website.

It gives you three options to choose from: Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce. Confused? I’ll help you with that in this article.

If you are absolutely new to Linux and have no idea about what the above things are, I recommend you to understand a bit on what is a desktop environment in Linux. And if you could spare some more minutes, read this excellent explanation on what is Linux and why there are so many of Linux operating systems that look similar to each other.

With that information, you are ready to understand the difference between the various Linux Mint editions. If you are unsure which to choose, with this article I will help you to make a conscious choice.

Which Linux Mint version should you choose?

Briefly, the available choices are the following:

• Cinnamon desktop: A modern touch on traditional desktop
• MATE desktop: A traditional looking desktop resembling the GNOME 2 era.
• Xfce desktop: A popular lightweight desktop environment.

Let’s have a look at the Mint variants one by one.

Linux Mint Cinnamon edition

Cinnamon desktop is developed by Linux Mint team and clearly it is the flagship edition of Linux Mint.

Almost a decade back when the GNOME desktop opted for the unconventional UI with GNOME 3, Cinnamon development was started to keep the traditional looks of the desktop by forking some components of GNOME 2.

Many Linux users like Cinnamon for its similarity with Windows 7 like interface.

Performance and responsiveness

The cinnamon desktop performance has improved from the past releases but without an SSD you can feel a bit sluggish. The last time I used cinnamon desktop was in version 4.4.8, the RAM consumption right after boot was around 750mb. There is a huge improvement in the current version 4.8.6, reduced by 100 MB after boot.

To get the best user experience, a dual-core CPU with 4 GB of RAM as a minimum should be considered.

Pros

Cons

Bonus Tip: If you prefer Debian instead of Ubuntu you have the option of Linux Mint Debian Edition. The main difference between LMDE and Debian with Cinnamon desktop is that LMDE ships the latest desktop environment to its repositories.

Linux Mint Mate edition

MATE desktop environment shares a similar story as it aims to maintain and support the GNOME 2 code base and applications. The Look and feel is very similar to GNOME 2.

In my opinion, the best implementation of MATE desktop is by far Ubuntu MATE. In Linux Mint you get a customized version of MATE desktop, which is in line with Cinnamon aesthetics and not to the traditional GNOME 2 set out.

Performance and responsiveness

MATE desktop has a reputation of its lightweight nature and there is no doubt about that. Compared to Cinnamon desktop, the CPU usage always remains a bit lower, and this can be translated to a better battery life on a laptop.

Although it doesn’t feel as snappy as Xfce (in my opinion), but not to an extent to compromise user experience. RAM consumption starts under 500 MB which is impressive for a feature rich desktop environment.

Pros

Cons

Linux Mint Xfce edition

XFCE project started in 1996 inspired by the Common Desktop Environment of UNIX. XFCE” stands for “XForms Common Environment”, but since it no longer uses the XForms toolkit, the name is spelled as “Xfce”.

It aims to be fast, lightweight and easy to use. Xfce is the flagship desktop of many popular Linux distributions like Manjaro and MX Linux.

Linux Mint offers a polished Xfce desktop but can’t match the beauty of Cinnamon desktop even in a Dark theme.

Performance and responsiveness

Xfce is the leanest desktop environment Linux Mint has to offer. By clicking the start menu, the settings control panel or exploring the bottom panel you will notice that this is a simple yet a flexible desktop environment.

Despite I find minimalism a positive attribute, Xfce is not an eye candy, leaving a more traditional taste. For some users a classic desktop environment is the one to go for.

At the first boot the ram usage is similar to MATE desktop but not quite as good. If your computer isn’t equipped with an SSD, Xfce desktop environment can resurrect your system.

Pros

• Simple to use
• Very lightweight – suitable for older hardware
• Rock-solid stable

Cons

Conclusion

Since all these three desktop environments are based on GTK toolkit, the choice is purely a matter of taste. All of them are easy on system resources and perform well for a modest system with 4 GB RAM. Xfce and MATE can go a bit lower by supporting systems with as low as 2 GB RAM.

Linux Mint is not the only distribution that provides multiple choices. Distros like Manjaro, Fedora and Ubuntu have various flavors to choose from as well.

If you still cannot make your mind, I’ll say go with the default Cinnamon edition first and try to use Linux Mint in a virtual box. See if you like the look and feel. If not, you can test other variants in the same fashion. If you decide on the version, you can go on and install it on your main system.

I hope I was able to help you with this article. If you still have questions or suggestions on this topic, please leave a comment below.

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