And the best distro of 2010 is ...

Dedoimedo votes his best of the best for 2010. This article reviews the best Linux distribution of the year, focusing on several key parameters like: most streamlined live session, best looks, most user friendly, most anticipated, most forked, best overall experience, and more. Lots of most and one must - you reading this. Many contestants, but the winner can be only one.

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/best-distro-2010.html


Cheers,
Mrk

 

Wow, good comparison. I agree - Mint is the best desktop distro, better than Ubuntu.

 

"While it is based on Ubuntu, it uses its own set of programs, sticking to goodies like Thunderbird, Pidgin, GIMP, and others, without following the herd mentality of the social integration and application dumbefication. "

What did you mean by Ubuntu having "application dumbefication" and Mint not?

 

At least you gave props to my fave.

 

wear, what I meant is that lots of popular programs are excluded from the basic build and replaced with more "good-looking" but not necessarily as functional alternatives. Pidgin, GIMP, to name two.
Mrk

 

So if in Ubuntu I enable the medibuntu repos, and install codes, gimp, sunjava6 etc, there is no advantage to going over to Mint?

That is, Mint only saves like 15 mins of customisation over Ubuntu? Or does it have more to offer?

 

Try and see for yourself.
Mrk

 

Mint has also Mint-Tools: Mint Menu, Gnome Settings, Backup, Domain Filter...

 

Mint is absolutely delicious.

It's so polished, it feels so....expensive.

Then I tell the people how much it cost me. That's the fun part.

 

Doesnt Ubuntu also have gnome settings customisation?
What is Mint Menu?

Is Domain filter for blocking adult sites or are there other uses?

How does backup work? is it encrypted backup? Does it support NTFS?

 

Mint menu related folks:

Homepage - http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_julia_whatsnew.php#mintmenu

And there - http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1552936

 

Ubuntu, compared to Linux Mint, is lacking far behind when it comes to usability.

I was a Linux Noob, who started with Ubuntu, I found that you need to do to many things in terminal, but I installed Linux Mint and actually I have only been in terminal a couple of times to solve routine stuff, so no hard things. Plus, you can install most .deb packages anyway, which means that all your softwares from Ubuntu will work anyway.

 

Well, I had sworn to myself to stay with Lucid until it was no longer supported, but after this review decided to check out Mint.
Wow! It's elegant, responsive, just plain old beautiful!
And it's now my distro.
Thanks for the review!

 

I tried Mint once in Vbox and didn't like it, especially the much applauded menu (immediately switched to the gnome default). Tastes differ.
Another thing that I find bad is the assignment of stability levels in the Update Manager. A cautious user will perhaps only opt to update/install level 1 and 2 packages. Level 3 is already marked yellow (Achtung ! Danger !). Take this screenshot from their website :-



What's wrong with update manager which is an important package. Worst of all there will be no future updates (which may include improvements and fixes).

Can one define levels other than 1,2 as safe ?
Rather confusing.

 

Given the sporadic problems I've had with Ubuntu updates in the past (unable to boot, shutdown hang if wireless isn't disabled first, computer just somehow "dies" when left to sleep for a few hours), I daresay that's a very good thing. The screwups don't happen all that often, but I've learned that kernel updates in Ubuntu are best avoided, among other things.

As for the Update Manager, you don't need that in Mint, since updates are handled by mintUpdate.

 

Hmmm seems like Ubuntu isnt all that stable; I never had a problem with updates in Debian Lenny/Etch.

 

mint 2010 is awesome great review mrk

mint tools are great you can change many things of desktop many things which you get through ubuntu tweak in inbuilt in mint linux inbuilt back..........etc

also i like search and install feature of mint where you can search on menu bar for software just one thing mint linux misses is that alternate install like ubuntu which support full disk encryption 256 bit which is awesome feature )

 

Whatever it is about Mint, some things I just can't put my finger on, it consistently affords me the best user experience of all, including usability, looks, and stability.

 

Another nice article thanks.
Following this i have just tried Mint but for some reason it does not detect my wireless mouse and keyboard.
I have tried wired ones in their place but still no luck.

Never had this problem with any other Distro

 

Tony, this in a virtual environment?

 

Running from the live dvd.

 

I need to say that I agree, although I cannot say why...exactly...just suits me..in my VM obviously.

 

I have installed and played with Tintme, Unity and Macpup 511 (not puppy) and they are great for low resourse machines plus Macpup 511 now has access to Ubuntu repos.
The only complaint about U is its trying to be all for all and thats not what it started out as. In the beginning it was for low resourse machines ( version 6.06 LTS) and i ran it on 98 for a long time. i have used U since the 6.06 release as my main system but its getting too bloated for me and becoming a drag on my pc (2.4 gig processor and 2 gig ram) so ive installed Tinyme, Unity, and macpup 511 on a test hd and ill pick one i like sooner or later. Right now its a toss up.
Dont get me wrong ive tried all that were mentioned here and many more but for me any of the 3 i mentioned above are going to be what i stick with in the future.
Just my 2 cents worth;-).
O

 

MeeGo for netbooks.
Not sure it completely qualifies as a GNU/Linux distro, but it is listed on distrowatch. Guess it does.

 

Also Crunchbang linux (debian based).