Distrowatch: http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=mint
Homepage: http://www.linuxmint.com/
Wiki: http://linuxmint.com/wiki/
Forums: http://linuxmint.com/forum/
Download location: http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

Test Performed on:
Laptop
Screen – 1200X800
Graphics – Ati Mobility Radeon 9600 128
Processor – AMD Mobility Athlon 64 3000+ 800Mghz (Mint 7 Kde4 is 32bit OS)
RAM – 748Mb

Sysinfo on Mint 7 Kde4 (Note: Right Click + View Image for full size)

Distro Tests rejuvenated
Well, I have been back to my old distro-junkie ways again thanks to VirtualBox 3 and it’s 3D capabilities…………. ok, this is NOT a Virtual Test review. I installed and tested Mint 7 Kde4 edition. Let’s get that out the way first.

Distros at Distrowatch
No, a lack of time and enthusiasm left me not wanting to partition and install distros, which nowadays apart from the odd few, just seem the same ol’ same ol’ with either Gnome, Xfce or Kde desktops. I regularly scan Distrowatch to see what Ladislav has to offer, but nothing has really leapt out at me.

VirtualBox 3
I must admit that having installed VirtualBox 3 tempted me to download and play around with a few old favourites, Ubuntu 9.04, Arch, DSL, Debian Kde4 Live edition, Mint………. Mint Kde4

Anti-Kde
Firstly, I was always a Kde hater, until PcLos did something good with it, but I always went back to Xfce and even Gnome. My main distro is Dreamlinux Xfce, so I like clean and fast and preferably Debian based (it’s all about the repo size).

Mint
So Mint. I have always liked Mint, but what’s different between Mint and Ubuntu? Well for me, I like the Mint community as much as I dislike the Ubuntu community. Forum communities are very important for me when choosing a distro. Then after that I like speed and ease of use.

Derivatives
Then after that I want a TRUE derivative, not a respin with a new wallpaper, which is what Ubuntu has been spawning for the last year or so, there’s an Ubuntu derivative practically every week, and I really don’t see the point of most of them, and I really only respect two projects; Mint and Crunchbang. Both have provided something that the Linux community needs, in fact they have provided something that Ubuntu should have done. But thankfully from Mint and Crunchbang came two more communities as well. Imagine if they both joined together? That would be something! Why does a chocolate bar come to mind? Mint-Crunch anybody? Smiley

Ok, so Mint 7 “Gloria” Kde4
I was a bit put off at the 1Gb+ iso, but curiosity helped me past my 700-Mb-o-phobia. I downloaded it via torrent using Deluge on Ubuntu 9.04. First I tested the Live CD in VirtualBox 3 to get an idea of what it was all about.

This is only the second time I had fired up a Kde4 desktop, the first being the Debian Kde4 live cd, which incidentally kept crashing VB.

I am an experienced Linux user looking for something new and to be able to feel like a n00b again. I wanted to try and get that old new-to-linux feeling again, that I got all those years ago when I first started with Linux. It’s been a long time that the main desktops have had any major changes, but Kde4 certainly did it.

Wireless Drivers and Hardware Managers
The trouble is with Mint being an Ubuntu derivative is that I already knew that my Broadcom wireless wasn’t going to work, and I also knew that Ubuntu/Mint has it’s Hardware Manager which will pop up and offer to install the very drivers I need to get on the internet roll-eyes. This has always been one of my major gripes with Debian and Ubuntu, ok to include Mono with Gnome and it’s proprietary MS code, but can’t include B43 driver modules or Hal driven Madwifi drivers (although ath5k andf ath9k now do the job).
Ubuntu Jockey crashed twice installing b43xx broadcom drivers, but a reboot sorted that out.

Network Manager Vs Wicd
So, plugging my laptop into the router isn’t an option so I plugged in my Zydel USB wireless adapter which made a few Essids (including mine) show up on Network Manager………….. network-manager……… nmapplet……… Undecided

I just want to jump in here and say that I physically removed Network-Manger and replaced it with Wicd on every distro I run. Dreamlinux comes with Wicd as default on all its desktops, and so it should on Ubuntu, Mint, Gnome, Xfce, Kde and any other Linux desktop in my opinion. Network-Manager is, always has been and always will be a croc.

This time round I had major hassles getting it to connect to a wep (only) encrypted essid. WHY!? does network manager pop up after you have entered your wep key asking for it again but in it’s place is an even longer set of mysterious numbers and figures? Where do they come from? I experimented with a short 5 digit wep key once (12345), tried to connect with NM and it popped up again with something like (34fv678mn2mk899) in its place? Whatever, NM gone, hello Wicd. Please consider Wicd Mint Developers, I know, you know, and the Ubuntu and Mint communities know that it makes sense.

Kde Theme/Look Menu Desktop
Boot up gives you a nice glossy square where 3D Mac style icons appear. Next up you get that unmistakable Mint logo with its usually pretty impressive artwork. This time round it’s a blue sky as seen through a raindrop covered window. Lovely. Incidentally I decided that the default theme was a little too Kde 3, so I changed the Window Style to Oxygen, and the colour Scheme to Obsidian Coast.

Notice the Terminal has a little quote at the top? There is always a different one each time you open it.

Welcome to Linux Mint

I get to the desktop and I am greeted with the Mint Helper which EVERY Linux distro should have. Links to help files, forums, pdf guides.

http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_gloria_kde_whatsnew.php

http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_gloria_kde.php

http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/linuxmint.com/stable/7/user-guide/english.pdf

http://forums.linuxmint.com

http://www.linuxmint.com/sponsors.php

http://www.linuxmint.com/donors.php

http://www.linuxmint.com/getinvolved.php

Great idea, which is why Mint is steadily getting places where Ubuntu isn’t. Mint is and always has been very well thought out with a lot of common sense obviously well used. The Mint devs also listen to their community. They act on feedback which is something the Ubu devs could have a shot at. Sometimes I feel that there is too much old style Debian Dev mentality in the Ubu camp, something that luckily hasn’t affected the Mint Crew.

Start/App Menu
The start menu has sections which jump to the right when you click them, no more huge screen-long menus where you have to scroll all the way to the bottom to get to your needed app. Although it’s different, I got the hang of it quickly and although I have a sensitive Mouse on my laptop (synaptic touch pad with scroll), I like it.

The Plasma Dashboard woOOoo!(what is it?)
The panel has an applet which says “Show the Plasma Dashboard”, methinks, what’s that then? so I click it and the panel disappears and so does the yellow half of a Yin Yang in the top right corner. Don’t get me wrong, I always connected the word “Show” with something appearing, maybe I was wrong. So, being the clicky type, I clicked again in the top right hand corner and the panel came back. No plasma, no laser firework displays, whizz bangs, just the plain old panel Sad
Well, after playing with the plasma desktop, I realise that it allows you to choose the wallpaper, and add widgets. I use Google Gadgets on my desktops, so I found it quite easy to get sorted. Binary clock, weather in Barcelona and system resources. Although I can do all that with Conky anyway, probably uses a lot less resources as well.

Mint Software Manager
Hmmmm. To change from NM to Wicd I opened the terminal and did this:

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install wicd

Installing Applications
Old habits die hard, and although I do like the Mint Software Manager, I couldn’t find Wicd with a search, instead I got the choice of GetDeb, Mint Repo, and Ubuntu Repo. I searched using all three, no Wicd, so I did it the (quicker) old fashioned way. I’m not going to moan as I hate it when people criticize before completely learningn how to use something correctly, which is what I intend to do later. Yes, this release of Mint has definitely got my attention, Kde4 has got my attention and the Mint Crew have done an excellent job of implementing it.

What’s good about Mint Install?
Well, apart from the three different options for from where your install your fave apps, you also get screenshots of them, and I don’t know if it’s me, or I haven’t used Mint Install for a while but it seems a lot faster. It just clicks open in a ……….. er……. click. I found my favourite Google apps; Picasa and Google Earth. There is a button called “featured apps” which offers a selection of the cool apps. I saw VirtualBox which is my favoured Distro Testing tool, unfortunately it is VB 2.2 And I have been using VB3 for it’s 3D capabilities. No biggie, there is a VB3 Ubu repo.

Being a n00b Again
Being new to Kde4 took me back (a little) to when I was a Linux novice, and found new things with every install. I liked that experience, and I guess it’s very hard for Linux devs to keep producing easy to use configs and apps so that New Linux Users can get into it easily. Experience doesn’t help very much when you need to think like a n00b, but the Mint devs always seem to come up with something that Ubuntu is lacking. I don’t mean just producing some Gui for an app which already exists, or just changing the menu layotu, they really do consolidate all the important things that you need onn that very first boot-and-explore mission.

#!@%&………….. System just CRASHED! WTF!
Well, as you can see, while I was writing this review, the system froze. Luckily, when I rebooted and started Firefox, I got that utterly superb and beautifully fluffy little panel which says:

Firefox Closed Unexpectedly, Do you want to Start A New Session or Restore Previous Session

Restore Previous Session…………. please………. let my review be intact!

[mental note: write reviews in notepad and do regular "saves"]

Blue…………….

Love it! Mint Green even got my attention, especially as I always disliked the Ubuntu “shiddy” brown. [I wasn't going to add that line to the review, but it's true, sorry, that brown is horrible]………. but Mint blue? looks great. I’ve always had a liking for decent artwork, I am a Dreamlinux user after all, and the Mint artwork team have proven themselves time and time again. You can overdo things or you can get a balance between too much or elegant, Mint artwork is always elegant, so their motto is spot on.

Apps
Internet and mail
Web Browsing is Firefox 3.0.11
Email is Thunderbird 2.0.0.21
What do those mean to me? Well, it means I can copy and paste the .thunderbird directory from my USB pendrive and have all my mail and accounts available Yay! As for Firefox, I just import my addons and favourites (easily done)

Ftp?
I always use Gftp, but KftpGrabber is the K app so i’ll try it for a day or two. At the moment it looks a little overcomplicated for what I need, but maybe that’s because i’m used to Gftp.

File Manager
Dolphin and I like it. I am used to Xfce (Thunar) and Gnome (Nautilus) but I found that Dolphin is very easy to get the hang of.

Multimedia K apps
Well, K apps rock for multimedia, I have always installed Amarok, K3b, Ktorrent and a few other K aps on Xfce and Gnome, so I was happy to find them already there with no need to install.
Messenger
As I am on a K desktop I am looking forward to playing with Kopete instead of using Pidgin (This old version doesn’t connect to Yahoo, but who cares! Since their link up with Microsoft, many Linux users are dumping Yahoo for Gmail and all it’s other G services anyway). I haven’t used Quasel IRC client either, both will come later.

Office no K?
Soooooo….. Open Office instead of Koffice? Hmmmmm. I like Open Office and have got used to it, but I was kind of expecting a full Koffice suite, will have to investigate this further with a Mint forums search I think (more to come there as well). I also noticed that there is no “K” Graphical sudo kdesu, but gksudo instead.
Edit: Questions asked on the Mint forum:

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=109&t=31150

Mint Nanny
Talking of searches and the net, I see Mint Nanny allows you to block domains. Doesn’t matter to me as my kids have their own Computers which are already sorted, but it’s a nice feature for shared family desktops.

All in all it has been a very nice experience. I now need to step away from the default desktop, configure my usual Conky setup and start installing a few of my more usual apps as well as having a play with a few K apps which I find in the repos.

As a forum admin, and blog user, I run Gftp, Gimp and Open Office every day, so I will first look for K alternatives or install the apps i’m accustomed to.

Final Impression
Mint 7 Kde4 has been easy to install. Once installed it has been responsive and very easy to use thanks to the amount of Help information available right from the get-go. A non-Kde user or even a non-Linux user would have no problems finding their way around this distro. The website, forum and wiki provide everything you need if you do come up against a problem.
As usual with Mint releases, it looks great is easy to use and runs fast on standard (for nowadays) hardware.
The other thing I like is that although it’s a big iso already, there are no silly games, which would have removed anyway.

Gripes
Wicd, this desktop needs Wicd instead of Network Manager. It also needs to try and be a bit flexible and differ from Debian/Ubuntu politics by providing Non-Free wireless drivers/firmware out of the box. The idea of Mint is to provide what Ubuntu doesn’t, no? It’s 2009, we are all using wireless. Mono and Microsoft code can be included with the Gnome desktop, so why not pack this distro full of wireless drivers?
1.2Gb iso? I suppose there was no other way, but i really do like a 700 megger! One iso, distro installed, baddabing! Even using torrent, those using dial-up would still have a bit of a wait.

But the wait would be well worth it!

Good work Mint devs and community.

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7 · Distro · Gloria · Kde4 · Linux · Mint · review · test