Linux Mint 13 Maya review - Perfect once again

[Mrkvonic]

Finally. Dedoimedo proudly presents a long, enthusiastic review of Linux Mint 13 Maya 64-bit edition with the Cinnamon desktop environment, tested on a laptop with SSD, covering live session, installation in a quadruple-boot configuration and post-install usage, including Wireless, Bluetooth, Samba sharing, look & feel, themes, multimedia playback - MP3, Flash, iTunes, Microsoft Media Server (MMS) streaming, applications choice, web camera, package management and updates, desktop effects, stability, responsiveness, system resource usage, suspend & resume, boot time, and more. The perfect desktop is back!

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/linux-mint-maya.html


Cheers,
Mrk

[Breakfastofchumps]

Nice review thanks

[Kerodo]

Good review, and I agree with your findings... This is the one to keep...

[moontan]

This is the perfect desktop, 10/10, so you'd better bloody download it and start using right now.

totally agree.

a lot more snappier on my machine that Ubuntu.

tnx for the review m8!

[mack_guy911]

agree with you mrk every distro have some grey shades Linux Mint does have some but when think about Gnome 3 disaster alone ........... although Cinnamon is not perfect and keep improving but a real survivor in mess of Gnome 3 in this case alone its perfectly deserve 10/10 alone

again one of best reviews of yours

[sunoracle]

I really get a chuckle out of the review where Mrk said, "good ole Synaptic package manager." Newbies are so cute.

As for Mint, I tried both the MATE and Cinnamon flavors of Mint 13 recently, and I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. They're ok, but I'm going to stick with what I've been using instead of switching to Mint.

[dw426]

Originally Posted by sunoracle

I really get a chuckle out of the review where Mrk said, "good ole Synaptic package manager." Newbies are so cute.

As for Mint, I tried both the MATE and Cinnamon flavors of Mint 13 recently, and I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. They're ok, but I'm going to stick with what I've been using instead of switching to Mint.

Lol, Synaptic isn't a newbie thing, it's just a very simple, easy way to do things. As for Cinnamon, eh, whatever I guess? It's just a desktop, and not all that impressive of one. I think it's real hype is that it's a way to get away from Unity/Gnome3 and the often times fickle KDE. To me that's about all there is "special" about it.

As for Maya itself, it looks nice as Mint almost always does, and has just about everything you need right from the start. Performance for me isn't spot on though (probably just my fickle machine admittedly).

[oliverjia]

I don't see why there are so many Gnome 3 haters. I mean, please list in details, one by one, what are the disadvantages of Gnome3 VS the old Gnome 2?
reminds me of how people reacted to windows xp when it first came out.

Originally Posted by mack_guy911

agree with you mrk every distro have some grey shades Linux Mint does have some but when think about Gnome 3 disaster alone ........... although Cinnamon is not perfect and keep improving but a real survivor in mess of Gnome 3 in this case alone its perfectly deserve 10/10 alone

again one of best reviews of yours

[taytong888]

Thanks Mrk.

How about an encore presentation, for Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE 201204)?

Cheers!

[moontan]

Originally Posted by taytong888

Thanks Mrk.

How about an encore presentation, for Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE 201204)?

Cheers!

both editions are so similar, from a newcomer perspective, that i think they should get rid of the Debian edition.

the Debian edition does not recognize x686 processors 'out of the box', unlike the latest Mint Maya, for one thing.

[vasa1]

Originally Posted by oliverjia

I don't see why there are so many Gnome 3 haters. I mean, please list in details, one by one, what are the disadvantages of Gnome3 VS the old Gnome 2? ...

I think many people didn't like that many settings were no longer readily accessible.

[sunoracle]

Originally Posted by dw426

Lol, Synaptic isn't a newbie thing, it's just a very simple, easy way to do things.

I was referring to Mrk's calling it "good ole Synaptic." I always think of Synaptic as being new, because I used Debian for a long time before Synaptic was first released, and I still tend to just use apt.

I probably should have explained this better originally. I kind of think of Synaptic as that new-fangled GUI thing.

As for Cinnamon, eh, whatever I guess? It's just a desktop, and not all that impressive of one. I think it's real hype is that it's a way to get away from Unity/Gnome3 and the often times fickle KDE. To me that's about all there is "special" about it.

As for Maya itself, it looks nice as Mint almost always does, and has just about everything you need right from the start. Performance for me isn't spot on though (probably just my fickle machine admittedly).

I don't think that Mint looks that nice, whether with MATE or Cinnamon, and I felt like there was too much hand-holding.

I guess I'd prefer something like vanilla Debian with a faster release schedule. Ubuntu was tolerable, although that changed with Unity. I never really liked Gnome that much, but it was tolerable too. However, I'm finding that I like XFCE and LXDE much more than I ever liked Gnome.

So, I'm back to not knowing what the big deal is about Mint, and thinking that I certainly wouldn't switch from what I have now for Mint.

[sunoracle]

Originally Posted by vasa1

I think many people didn't like that many settings were no longer readily accessible.

Yes, exactly. With Gnome 3 it's like they're saying they know what's best for me and they're going to force me to work their way. Canonical is doing much the same thing with Unity.

I've tried both Unity and Gnome 3 a couple of times, and didn't like the way they do things. Add in not being able to change things to suit my preferences and I fled to another DE.

[vasa1]

Originally Posted by sunoracle

I was referring to Mrk's calling it "good ole Synaptic." I always think of Synaptic as being new, because I used Debian for a long time before Synaptic was first released, and I still tend to just use apt.

I probably should have explained this better originally. I kind of think of Synaptic as that new-fangled GUI thing.

...

Awesome.

[Kerodo]

Originally Posted by moontan

both editions are so similar, from a newcomer perspective, that i think they should get rid of the Debian edition.

the Debian edition does not recognize x686 processors 'out of the box', unlike the latest Mint Maya, for one thing.

I think one of the attractions for some with Linux Mint Debian is that it's a rolling release (if I'm not mistaken).

[vasa1]

And a newcomer just need not use a rolling release.

[moontan]

Originally Posted by vasa1

And a newcomer just need not use a rolling release.

especially if that hypothetical newcomer hasn't got a clue what a "rolling release" is.lol

[mack_guy911]

some thing more you like to know about new mint

http://www.webupd8.org/2012/05/insta...er-mdm-in.html

[dw426]

Originally Posted by sunoracle

I was referring to Mrk's calling it "good ole Synaptic." I always think of Synaptic as being new, because I used Debian for a long time before Synaptic was first released, and I still tend to just use apt.

I probably should have explained this better originally. I kind of think of Synaptic as that new-fangled GUI thing.



I don't think that Mint looks that nice, whether with MATE or Cinnamon, and I felt like there was too much hand-holding.

I guess I'd prefer something like vanilla Debian with a faster release schedule. Ubuntu was tolerable, although that changed with Unity. I never really liked Gnome that much, but it was tolerable too. However, I'm finding that I like XFCE and LXDE much more than I ever liked Gnome.

So, I'm back to not knowing what the big deal is about Mint, and thinking that I certainly wouldn't switch from what I have now for Mint.

Hand holding is about the only way you'll get most people on Linux if they've never had it before.

[vasa1]

Originally Posted by moontan

especially if that hypothetical newcomer hasn't got a clue what a "rolling release" is.lol

Exactly what the world needs ... newcomers smart enough to install a distro but dumb enough not to bother to read about what they're installing

[Warlockz]

Good Review Thanks!

[Mrkvonic]

Here's a second review of Linux Mint 13 Maya 64-bit edition, this time with the MATE desktop environment, focusing on MATE setup, look & feel, customization, desktop effects, system resources, responsiveness, overall usability, and more. Have fun, fellas.

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/l...maya-mate.html


Cheers,
Mrk

[moontan]

just ran some test in Maya

I rendered an image using Blender (Cycles render).

the times:

Windows 7: 12 minutes 16 seconds
Windows 8: 12 minutes 03 seconds
Mint Maya (Cinnamon version): 6 minutes 14 seconds.

[Fox Mulder]

Is it possible to use encrypted LVM in Linux Mint 13? I don't see an option in the installer for this.

[Kerodo]

Originally Posted by moontan

just ran some test in Maya

I rendered an image using Blender (Cycles render).

the times:

Windows 7: 12 minutes 16 seconds
Windows 8: 12 minutes 03 seconds
Mint Maya (Cinnamon version): 6 minutes 14 seconds.

I'm running Cinnamon myself right now and it's very tempting to just keep it and forget Windows altogether....