Mint

Mint is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu Desktop. It is primarily developed as a desktop distribution, with a very active and dedicated user community. It is one of the few Ubuntu-based distributions that develops its own administrative tools. It has its roots in Ireland and development, which started in 2006, is led by Clement Lefebvre.

Installation Program and Installation Process: Linux Mint uses the same installation program as Ubuntu Desktop. Unlike Ubuntu, however, it does not have an alternate installer edition. Installation, therefore, follows the same simple steps found on Ubuntu Desktop. The advanced partitioning interface of the installer is shown below.

It does not have support for LVM, the Linux Logical Volume Manager, RAID and disk encryption. GRUB 2, the GRand Unified Bootloader version 2, is the boot loader, but the option to password-protect it is not available. The only physical security feature available in the installer is the option to encrypt the home folder, which doesn’t do you much good as far as physical security is concerned. Shown below is the user account setup step of the installation process of the latest edition.

Desktop Environments: The main edition of Linux Mint uses the GNOME desktop environment. Other supported desktop environments are LXDE, KDE and Xfce. Official statements from the development team have been hinting at moving the KDE edition to Linux Mint Debian, the version of Linux Mint based on Debian.

Default Linux Mint 11 desktop. Scroll down for screenshots of other desktop environments.

Installed Applications and Software Management: Linux Mint ships with the most common applications that most users will need for their daily computing activities. Multimedia codecs required to make the system work out of the box are installed. Adobe Flash plugin, Java Runtime Environment, libdvdcss2 and related audio and video libraries are installed. Keep in mind that in the CD and OEM editions, these multimedia codecs are not installed.

Debian’s Advanced Packaging Tool (APT), is the software management framework used on Linux Mint, and the most common command line utility is, of course, apt-get. Synaptic Package Manager, and the Software Manager, Mint’s custom graphical package manager, are installed. Below is the main view of the Software Manager.

Single-category view of the Software Manager.

Graphical Administrative Applications: Linux Mint offers some custom graphical administrative applications. On the GNOME edition, you will find them together with stock GNOME management applications in the Control Center (Menu > Control Center). They are also accessible individually from Menu > Preferences, and Menu > Administration. Below is a screenshot of the Control Center in the GNOME edition.

On the LXDE edition, the graphical administrative applications are accessible from Menu > Preferences, and Menu > System Tools.

Physical and Network Security Posture: Linux Mint has a very bad physical security posture. And that is because the installer does not support disk encryption and boot loader password protection, two features used to enhance the physical security posture of a system.

On the network security side, Gufw, one of 3 graphical interfaces for managing ufw, the command line frontend for IPTables, is installed but not configured. Shown below is the main interface of Gufw, with the rule addition window inset.

Hardware Requirements and Resources: The GNOME edition of Linux Mint will run on 32- and 64-bit Intel-compatible platforms. The LXDE edition is available for 32-bit architectures only. Depending on the desktop environment, minimum disk space required for installation is between 3 GB to 4 GB. Minimum memory requirements for the LXDE edition is 256 MB. Expect performance to be on par with installed memory.

Download links for the latest editions are available here. Support issues may be posted on the official forum and on Questions and Answers.

Recent Reviews and Tutorials: The most recent reviews and tutorials on Linux Mint published on this website are listed below. You may peruse the full list of reviews and tutorials here:

• How to customize Linux Mint 12 KDE Linux Mint 12 KDE is the latest release of Linux Mint KDE, a distribution based on Ubuntu Desktop. It has already being reviewed on this website (see Linux Mint 12 KDE review), and several other articles written about it here. This article provides s...
• Linux Mint 12 KDE review Linux Mint 12 KDE is the latest update to the line of Linux Mint editions that are based on Ubuntu Desktop and use the K Desktop Environment. It is actually the first release of the KDE edition in a very long time. The last release before this one was Lin...
• Install Quick Access on Linux Mint 12 KDE or any KDE installation I am always looking for tools and applications that make the desktop a lot more fun to use, while boosting my productivity at the same time. Such tools should accomplish those objectives without getting in the way. I have already written about two of them...
• How to install Linux Mint 12 KDE on a btrfs file system While we are still waiting for Btrfs, the B-tree File System, to be mature enough and be used as the default file system in Linux, it is already possible to install your favorite (Linux) distribution on a Btrfs file system. Linux Mint 12 KDE, a distributi...
• Manual disk partitioning guide for Linux Mint 12 KDE Linux Mint 12 KDE will be the next stable release of the KDE edition of Linux Mint, a desktop distribution based on Ubuntu Desktop. (A release candidate was made available for download on Wednesday January 11.) By default, the installer creates just t...
• How to compile and install Takeoff Launcher on Linux Mint 12 KDE There are several menu styles to choose from in the K Desktop Environment, but my favorite is the Takeoff Launcher, which is why I consider it one of 2 cool reasons to use the K Desktop Environment. In this article, the steps you need to take to replac...
• How to install Razor-qt on Linux Mint 12 KDE Razor-qt is a brand new desktop environment based on Qt framework, the same development framework that KDE is based on. Though it is still in its infancy and, therefore, not as feature-complete as KDE or other well known desktop environments, it has a bri...
• How to enable desktop slideshow on Linux Mint 12 KDE Every Linux distribution comes with a static desktop wallpaper. Some of the wallpapers are very good, others, not so good. The default (wallpaper) on Linux Mint 12 KDE Release Candidate fits somewhere in between. For Linux Mint 12 KDE, the spoiler is the ...
• Linux Mint 12 KDE screen shot preview The first release candidate of Linux Mint 12 KDE was made available for download yesterday, but do not be surprised if the "stable" version is released next week. While we await that, here are a few screen shots for your viewing pleasure. This KDE vers...
• How to customize Cinnamon on Fedora 16 and Linux Mint 12 Cinnamon is a fork of GNOME 3 Shell by the developers of Linux Mint. If this is news to you, you might want to read "What does Cinnamon bring to the desktop?". Installable packages are already available for a few distributions. However, I have only been a...

Screenshots: More screenshots from the latest edition of Linux Mint.

Linux Mint 11 desktop showing the Applications view of mintMenu.

Linux Mint 11 desktop showing the Favorites view of mintMenu.

Default desktop of Linux Mint 11 LXDE.

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