Ubuntu's all fresh and minty

In an earlier post I argued the case for Ubuntu 9.04 being a serious contender as a mainstream desktop operating system. I suggested it was stable, fast and more than capable of taking on the likes of XP, Vista and even the new Windows 7. If you take into account the fact that it is free then it really does challenge all the commercial OSs including Apples beautifully designed OS X. No sooner had I completed the post and a new pretender appeared, well sort of. Linux Mint 7, code named "Gloria" is available for download as a Release Candidate. there are many reasons why I like this distribution based on the initial testing I have undertaken.


First and foremost, "Gloria" is built upon Ubuntu 9.04 so everything I said in my earlier post still holds.

Secondly, Gloria has been very thoughtfully constructed. Care has been taken to ensure everything a desktop user needs to get started is included. there really is very little need to venture into the Linux terminal for the inexperienced user. Any Ubuntu user will know Adobe Flash has to be installed if you want to watch any web video - the Gloria distribution includes Flash pre-installed and ready to go. Linux users know it contains an incredibly powerful firewall capability in iptables (not just a firewall either, iptables can satisfy many networking tasks) For inexperienced users, iptables can be very daunting and confusing as it is command line driven. Gloria provides a very simple yet effective firewall configuration UI. In addition to this and all the normal applications like Open Office, you will find Mint Backup, an application that enables simple backup of your home directory, Mint Nanny which provides some internet security and domain blocking. Compiz-Config manager is installed by default providing some really powerful desktop user interface and experience configuration. All in all it's pretty complete and very impressive.

Finally, I have to say, and this wouldn't normally be a consideration, Linux Mint 7 just looks great! The theme is very well thought through and particularly elegant. From the desktop backgrounds to the window frames and the styling and operation of the single taskbar/panel, Mint 7 wins. Dowload the ISO from this link and give it a try, you'll be glad you did ...