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 15 Cinnamon Summary: How to customize Linux Mint 15 Cinnamon by disabling the Hot corner and adding the Expo, Scale and Workspace switcher applets to the panel. Linux Mint 15 Cinnamon, ships with the latest version of the Cinnamon desktop environment. Like everything else, some users like Cinnamon, some others think its interface is outdated. I say, use ...
• Linux Mint 15 MATE and Cinnamon screen shots The latest edition of Linux Mint was released late yesterday. Code-named Olivia, Linux Mint 15 brings the latest editions of the MATE and Cinnamon desktop environments. This article features some screen shots from test installation of both flavors in a virtual environment. First from Linux Mint 15 Cinnamon test installation. The login screen is beautiful. Not only that, ...
• Linux Mint 14 Cinnamon review Linux Mint 14, code-named Nadia, is the latest edition of Linux Mint, a desktop distribution based on Ubuntu Desktop. Contrary to what the release number suggests, Nadia is actually the distribution’s seventeenth public release, coming almost six years after Ada, the first edition. Aside from the line based on Ubuntu Desktop, Linux Mint also maintains a ...
• How to customize Linux Mint 14 Cinnamon The latest version of Cinnamon desktop that shipped with Linux Mint 14 Cinnamon offers users a stable and fun-to-use desktop environment built on modern user interface technologies. It comes with many desktop effects, with defaults that do not get in your way. While the default settings are good, there are a few settings that you ...
• Linux Mint 14 MATE and Cinnamon preview Linux Mint 14, code-named Nadia, hit the download mirrors yesterday. That’s less than 10 days after the first Release Candidate was announced. What type of testing does this thing get? By the way, that’s normal for Linux Mint distribution, but again, how well is this distribution tested before it’s released to the public? I don’t expect ...
• Dual-boot Mint 13 MATE/Cinnamon and Windows 8 on UEFI hardware Alternate titles: How to dual-boot Linux Mint 13 and Windows 8 Pro; dual-booting Windows 8 and Linux Mint 13 MATE/Cinnamon side-by-side. This article is this website’s latest on Linux Mint, a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu Desktop. Previous articles are available on the distribution’s category page at http://linuxbsdos.com/category/mint. After writing dual-boot Windows 8 and Ubuntu 12.10 on ...
• Linux Mint 13 KDE and Xfce preview The KDE and Xfce editions of Linux Mint 13, code-named Kaya, have been released. Previously released editions were the MATE/Cinnamon editions, which have already been reviewed on this website (see Linux Mint 13 MATE/Cinnamon review). Linux Mint is a Linux desktop distribution based on Ubuntu desktop and is one of the most popular Linux distributions still ...
• Linux Mint 13 MATE/Cinnamon review Linux Mint 13 MATE and Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon are the latest releases of the main line distribution of Linux Mint, the desktop-centric distribution based on Ubuntu Desktop. MATE is a desktop environment forked from GNOME 2, while Cinnamon is a fork of GNOME (3) Shell. Both desktop environments aim to satisfy users who refuse ...
• How to dual-boot Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon/MATE and Windows 7 Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon and Linux Mint 13 MATE are the latest editions of the popular Linux desktop distribution based on Ubuntu Desktop. This tutorial presents a step-by-step guide on how to dual-boot either one with Windows 7 on a computer with a single hard drive. Because the Cinnamon and MATE editions of Linux Mint ...
• MATE vs Cinnamon MATE and Cinnamon are two recent additions to the list of desktop environments and window managers available for Linux and BSD distributions. You see, in the free software/open source community, there is nothing like too many options. The more, it appears, the better. The aim of this article is not to present a point-by-point comparison of ...

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.