Mint: First Impressions
Apr. 1st, 2011 10:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charameiMy Linux discs arrived! I'm typing this from the shiny new computer, on Mint 10.
I'm cheating, really: I say Mint, I mean Mint-disguised-as-Ubuntu*. I've always preferred Ubuntu's default layout (with the top and bottom toolbars) to Mint/Windows, so pretty much the first thing I did was to set up Gnome so that you can't tell the difference. I did try the Mint menu out for a bit: I don't hate it, but I found it very hard to find things without using the search bar and I missed having a separate Places menu. So now even that's gone.
The first thing that strikes me is: it's very green. Unlike Ubuntu's themes, which generally start out looking hideous and then slowly grow on me, Mint started out looking amazing and then slowly began to hurt my eyes until I changed the default theme to something a bit darker.
Other than that... installation was easy, far easier than even Ubuntu. Mint even comes with my printer drivers included, although it doesn't seem to have actually found the printer. It says it can see it, but flatly refuses to print, so the signal's clearly getting scrambled somewhere. This doesn't terribly surprise me, since Ubuntu always had issues with it too. Besides that... graphics drivers are miraculously working. Trackball's working. Sound is working. Even the volume control keys on the keyboard are working! And I didn't have to install any DVD codecs because Mint comes with them prepackaged!
Man, this feels weird. This was a smoother setup than Windows 7, and that came preinstalled on the machine. (It loses points for really pissing me off every time I try to update or install anything. Or look at it funny.)
Short of niggling little software questions, this was an extremely pleasant experience.
* "So why bother changing?!" I hear you cry. This is why.
I'm cheating, really: I say Mint, I mean Mint-disguised-as-Ubuntu*. I've always preferred Ubuntu's default layout (with the top and bottom toolbars) to Mint/Windows, so pretty much the first thing I did was to set up Gnome so that you can't tell the difference. I did try the Mint menu out for a bit: I don't hate it, but I found it very hard to find things without using the search bar and I missed having a separate Places menu. So now even that's gone.
The first thing that strikes me is: it's very green. Unlike Ubuntu's themes, which generally start out looking hideous and then slowly grow on me, Mint started out looking amazing and then slowly began to hurt my eyes until I changed the default theme to something a bit darker.
Other than that... installation was easy, far easier than even Ubuntu. Mint even comes with my printer drivers included, although it doesn't seem to have actually found the printer. It says it can see it, but flatly refuses to print, so the signal's clearly getting scrambled somewhere. This doesn't terribly surprise me, since Ubuntu always had issues with it too. Besides that... graphics drivers are miraculously working. Trackball's working. Sound is working. Even the volume control keys on the keyboard are working! And I didn't have to install any DVD codecs because Mint comes with them prepackaged!
Man, this feels weird. This was a smoother setup than Windows 7, and that came preinstalled on the machine. (It loses points for really pissing me off every time I try to update or install anything. Or look at it funny.)
Short of niggling little software questions, this was an extremely pleasant experience.
* "So why bother changing?!" I hear you cry. This is why.