I am just downloading the latest Mint 7 with KDE and look forward to trying it out. I usually use straight Debian Testing builds, but I’ve heard alot of good things about Mint in regards to how well they detect usb storage devices, especially the gaming device known as the Dingoo, without having to resort to using the command line, which is a plus in my book since that becomes a bit of a bother.

Being that Ubuntu and Mint are both based on Debian, I think I’ll be happy with it, and from what I’ve read in their forums and heard from friends, their support is both friendly and trustworthy.

As for the person who claims their wife had trouble and received abuse in the forums when she came for help, I personally don’t believe them at all. Usually when someone posts vague accusations online such as that, it’s because they have some kind of personal drama going on that makes them want to cause trouble for someone else. If this isn’t the case, then I also suspect that the wife, judging by blaming the forums for causing their computer to crash, was accusatory and abusive herself, much like most people who come for customer support and want to blame someone other than themselves rather than accept that it might of been something they did out of a lack of knowledge and it is fairly difficult to always protect people from themselves. I suspect that, due to the reputation of the Mint Community, that they tried to help her and were met with the same kind of venom and accusations that this poster has placed in the comments here. Luckily, most people are not like that and are able to understand that people will generally help if they can. Worst case scenario, she would of had to backup and do a reinstall. I understand that might take 20 minutes to do, and I can understand that the 50 minutes to reinstall windows and then patch for security flaws would be a better alternative. ;)

As for the person with the 64 bit system, there is a 64 bit version of Mint if you want to use it. I personally, with a 64 bit system, am staying with 32 bit for now due to the increased stability of it on all Linux distros and because the performance enhancements are very minimal at best currently.

Just my comments, hope they help someone and clarify some of the misinformation posted before me.

I am brand spanking new to linux ( 6 months or so) and have tried several of the distros that were highly touted. I finally found Mint XFCE, which led me to Mint 64bit and it has all been painless and very smooth.
As a long time Windows user I keep it on this system mostly for games, which are not available yet on Linux.
I have downloaded Mint KDE and will be installing it today on HDD #3…in fact using the Mint distros has made me not only comfortable with Linux but I even feel halfway proficient. I am able to do anything I need to do with some pretty neat apps and have not found (avoided) much use for the terminal mode…tho I was very comfortable with it in the days of DOS commands.
So Thank You Very Much Mr. and Mrs. Mint..wherever you are!

@ Abe:

It only comes for DVD because it exceeds the size of a CD.

I have to say I finally got around to testing out Mint. I’ve never used it before and I’ve heard many great things about its looks and ease of use. I could not get wireless working. It was very disappointing. I know my way around a bit and it was not a problem in other distros, I eventually got it up and running but it was a no go out of the box. Which is not cool for a distro that claims to be newbie friendly. So sad.

Windmonger, I have not yet tried Mint on a 256 MB system. I do, however, have a couple of KDE 3.5.10 based systems on a Dell Dimension 4100 desktop with 256 MB RAM, and I also have an implementation of KDE 4.2.4 on that same system.

There is little difference in performance between the 3.5.10 implementation and the 4.2.4 version, at least in terms of memory consumption. You will not want to run more than a Web browser, Email client, and terminal at once, or you will face a fair amount of swapping. However, as long as you can tolerate moderate swapping activity and you limit the number of concurrent applications that you run, KDE works OK on a system with 256 MB RAM, though using a lighter desktop, such as XFCE or LXDE will provide you with a more responsive experience.

I predict that Linux Mint KDE will work for you; it won’t be a race horse, but it will be functional.

I may take a peek at the xfce version. I think it’s in RC1 right now. But it definitely might be a good option for those who want a more minimalist experience.

@ Mike Smith:

From my experience the Xfce version is far from snappy (which was a surprise and a disappointment), you would do better with a more minimal version like Crunchbang or AntiX or even PCLOS.

@ windmonger:Probably to slow at 256 megs of ram.
Linux Mint does have a XFCE version that will run snappy
for your box. Good luck.

Linux Mint 7 KDE is a great distro. Sad to say that’s a no go for me because I use a 64 bit system. I do have it on my 32 bit backup system. People need to focus more on 64 bit but that’s just my opinion.

In addition to the forums and wiki, the Linux Mint IRC Support channel is a great place to get live help. xChat in Gnome and Quassel in KDE.