As a total nubee I can say this, it is not easy to get started. Finding answers to simple questions about linux in general is not easy or straight forward. It seems all (well Most) linux guys assume we all have a clue, well we don’t that is why we are asking the “stupid” questions. The elitist attitude only stops many from investigating much less moving over to this side of the isle.

So any distro that makes getting started easy (i.e. windows user friendly) is a good thing. I just downloaded and installed Ubuntu yesterday and got it running with no issues, got wine on it and ran in WOW, internet was np and had no issues with it asking me if I wanted my sound drivers installed (nvidia). Just got Mint and will be trying it too and after doing some more reading I am looking forward to the experience.

The one thing I would like to see just to make using different distros easier (for the new guy) is an app that lets you set up a small partition so when you run “live” from CD it can install the drivers and files you need that are not in the CD, (/home??) maybe a stupid thought.

this reminds me of the lecture “why software sucks” and its all true!!
the user just wants things to work, he dose NOT want to spend even two seconds figuring out why he can’t pause his youtube video…

“So heres the part where I say, its Free and its not ever meant to directly compete with Windows or OSX.” – I’m sorry, Canonical and many others would argue with you on this one, whether you like it or not, Linux is being pushed as the third alternative, which obviously will attract new users, get over yourselves, your little clandestine nerd-world is breaking up. And another clue, “it’s free” is no excuse for unfinished, broken, missing pieces, or otherwise unusable for the greater part of users interested. period.

“If you don’t like the command-line why use gnu/linux? Its one of the best things about it.” – Absolutely wrong…the command line is both necessary, AND legacy…like 15 years legacy…it’s not the best thing about it by far. Two major player/groups are responsible for this with their inability to round off their GUI environments 15 or so years on, we all know who they are.

The terminal is powerful, yes…needed by the user, no. In fact this is still the biggest complaint about linux in general. To boot, this complaint could have, and should have been addressed long ago, but the self important nature of open source app developers, and I’ll call it as I see it…the blatant last-mile laziness of devs to round off what is needed to use a modern OS for users has left us in the dark that is the terminal.

Mint devs get this, but their numbers are few, yet they have managed to move this issue light years beyond all of their ‘famous’ counterparts, shame on all of them for this, get with the program.

“If you can’t enter a few simple commands into a virtual terminal with a browser open, then OSX is what you need.” – The trouble with this argument is that it is almost NEVER a simple command, moreover, advice given for said commands once you wade thru the veiled insults, is rarely distro specific, and usually fails. Do you actually consider this a good way to do things this far along? C’mon, nobody buys this claim anymore.

“This review sounds like you couldn’t figure out screen0/screen1 and when Mint does it, BEST.DISTRO.EVER.” – While I agree Mint is about the best I’ve used, ever…the Xorg screen allocation is something beyond their control is is still a problem for many depending on the hardware used, and no, it’s not an ATI/nVidia problem, it’s Xorg’s horridly sad infighting over basic functions leaving it crippled for so long that is to blame, try Googling ‘why Xorg sucks’, and you’ll find enough info on that subject alone to do a dissertation. Mint got it as correctly as they could, is that now a bad thing? Software that just works for people without lifting the hood, has a grip on ergonomics. Why don’t you go Google that for yourself, and get back to us?

“RTFM and Google are absolutly the best advice you can give newbies to linux otherwise every kid who thinks using gnu/linux is ‘kewl’ would be screaming about how to do the simplest thing on the forums.” – As mentioned above, there is NO UNIFIED MANUAL for linux…and most likely never will be, for many reasons.

So, your answer is a lazy-a$$ cop out, but hey, I bet you feel big when you tell someone that, regardless of their age, or willingness to learn. I’ve actually had 20+ yr experienced people tell me, BTW, AFTER Googling it themselves because they had no clue, that my problem was unsolvable due to one frankly BS reason or another….that most likely would be deemed an unacceptable reason for said stunted or broken function in the Win/OSX world. But I’m sure that prompts yet another cop out response of, “well if they work better use them” meanwhile touting how awesome Linux is, and how we should try it. Seems a tad self defeating to me.

Once again, the Mint crew have done a stellar job of making linux approachable and usable for ordinary users, and hats off to them for it, it’s got to be one hell of an uphill battle, considering the lame attitudes of most of the linux elite communities, never mind the corrupted world of hardware manufacturers with their horrid support of Linux in general.

I recommend or install Mint at least twice a week to my customers who are interested in getting away from bloated MS OS’s and for one reason or another don’t like Apple. The Mint guys deserve all the support we can muster, not only for their efforts, but because out of the whole lot of Linux devs….they get it, they have a clue, and are willing to work towards a necessary goal.

Those more worried about the OS than their egos know it too, as evidenced in the “Why Linux sucks” YouTube spots, done by….you guessed it, Linux Developers themselves! At least they are trying to address it, whilst fanboys merely use it to feel better about all that lost time in a terminal when their peers use their comps to get done what they need done.

Try pressing ALT+F2 and launching gnome-control-center
There’s the same keyboard settings icon…. but also you can go from there click ‘advanced settings manager’ (or ALT+F2 ‘ccsm’).
From there, click ‘General’ and find the place to set ‘commands’ and ‘keybindings’. Now you can change just about Anything to do just about Anything you can think of at a keystroke, combination of keystroke, mouse button, mousebutton and screen area combination – wow. For your menu, how about you put the mouse in the bottom left and click RMB? no need to put our mouse on the icon. Set it to open like this AND using Alt Space.

Now do that in Windows

I prefer the ubuntu loading screen (black) but agree, Mint is fairly nice – and the desktop looks more like Windows (only one bar and menu at the bottom). Basicallly, it’s the same – gnome desktop usually has a bar at top and bottom. Bottom is for window selection, and easily deleted. Top easily set to autohide so that you have NO visible menu until you press ‘ALT+F1/F2/F3, only now I set it to open the menu with Alt+Space…
All the ‘mint’ stuff is debian, and I tried it out with ubuntu. The menu is a rebadged ‘SLAB’ which nobody really liked until Mint came along (it’s all hype – SLAB isn’t anything new, it was left off, with the space saving ‘main menu’ available, but the ‘menu bar’ on the top left corner instead. Do a search, there are many floating around, but generally it’s best to get away from using the menu’s – isn’t that the best thing that Vista did for everyone?

Within an hour or two, you’ll have customised it – it’s already more different from the original than the choice between Mint and ubuntu – but the ubuntu logo has more credibility, the African and Human echo’s make it seem a little more friendly. Minty fresh is an old idea, ‘fresh’ is rather corny, a little like ‘Amazing new Vista, with the Amazing 3D flip’.

I’m using gnome/ubuntu, with innotek virtualbox giving me a fullscreen XP desktop on one workspace (sometimes integrated wherever I’m working) and possibly Vista on another. I have a dualboot option also for XP, so I can play my windows games.

So heres the part where I say, its Free and its not ever meant to directly compete with Windows or OSX. If you don’t like the command-line why use gnu/linux? Its one of the best things about it.

If you can’t enter a few simple commands into a virtual terminal with a browser open, then OSX is what you need. This review sounds like you couldn’t figure out screen0/screen1 and when Mint does it, BEST.DISTRO.EVER.

gimme a break. News just in: Linux provides free butter!! BEST.Distro.EvER!!!

RTFM and Google are absolutly the best advice you can give newbies to linux otherwise every kid who thinks using gnu/linux is ‘kewl’ would be screaming about how to do the simplest thing on the forums.