does it need any antivirus to be installed or d os is simply resistant to virus??

@ ChiJoan:

have a look here:
http://mac.linux.be/content/mintppc-9-released

MintPPC 9 was released. MintPPC is a port of Linux Mint LXDE to Debian for 32-bits PowerPC computers. This version of MintPPC is based on Mint Isadora and Debian Squeeze.
http://mac.linux.be/content/mintppc-9-released

I installed Linux Mint 9 on a system where my windows XP pro version died. It was a legal copy but because it was over 2 years old Windows insisted I purchase it again when my system crashed. Because I have a good XP system on my laptop, I decided to look into a free OS for my PC. I have a friend that is a die-hard Ubuntu fan, plus I have experience on Linux servers.

I am glad I took a look at Mint 9. My system is really running great with this OS. It seems more stable than XP and has many of the same features. I am looking into a Win4Lin system that will give me access to the 2 programs I need that are windows based. I am totally surprised by the ease of use, comprehensive software and community support. I am a true convert that will never again pay for Windows. Hats off to Linux Mint!!!

Lori Andersoon

Can I and how would I install the latest iteration of Mint on my intel iMac OS X 10.6.4. Also I am only a little over a year into my joining of the computer age, so I need very concise and detailed instructions and explanations, please. Your help and insight will be greatly appreciated. Newby!

Hi TJGeezer,

Thanks for the kind words, welcome to DLR. I’m very glad that the review was useful to you. Congrats on finding Mint. But don’t forget to install VirtualBox on it so you can play around with other distros too. It’s a good idea to remain a distrohopper even if you use Mint as your base distro.

I’ve been frustrated by Linux for years, partly because I’m stuck in Windows for work reasons. No time to play. Ubuntu 10.04 was widely reported as breaking the dual boot, which I can’t afford to take a chance on, so the ISO sits on my hard drive.

Based on your review, I tried Mint 9 and it is by far the best Linux experience I’ve had since I started fiddling around with early versions of Red Hat. Never could get it to do what I needed without tackling a complete unix training manual. I’m too old and wrinkled to survive that experience on pizza and Jolt, so Windows stayed my fate.

You got me to try Mint 9 and it’s actually fun. Maybe Mint is to Linux as Discovery Magazine is to a scientific journal, but I don’t care, I got no ego involvement in this. Mint is just the first Linux I’ve tried that I find actually enjoyable.

It has some wrinkles. The weird Ubuntu (and Mint) habit of offering to execute any text file you double-click on but refusing to just run “real” executables on a double-click has me bemused. But everything else is fine, it works, easy to use, easy to customize, and above all fun to tinker with because it doesn’t easily break.

Finally found a Linux I can ride, so to speak, so thanks for a fine and useful review.

Based on your review, and comments here, I decided to give Mint a try after using Ubuntu 9.04, 9.10, and 10.04 over the past year.

Mint seems like the easier transition for a Windows user, since it has a Menu bottom at bottom left, while Ubuntu with panels at top and bottom and control buttons on the left seems like an easier transition for a Mac user.

A single panel minimizes screen real estate used by Mint, but that single panel gets somewhat crowded on a 10.1″ netbook screen. Similarly, the Mint menu is constrained by the small screen, which leads to a log of hierarchical menus and scrolling, although I can minimized this by de-activating some apps that I don’t care about.

Overall, I would call it a draw. Mint was more difficult to install from a USB, but overall, both Mint and Lucid required about the same amount of effort to install and configure (both had about the same number of post-install issues, such as the Windows (Super_L key not being mappable, and window borders being so small that resizing is difficult). Both seem to be about the same speed and stability, which is hardly surprising.

I’ll probably keep Mint around for experimentation, but Ubuntu is likely to remain my primary Linux distro.

Mint 9 is a very good choice for home users, with pre-installed media codecs etc… But I think the new Pardus 2009.2 with KDE is one to. I hope I can see a review of it to to compare it with Mint 9.

Nice review, i have not actually run mint 9 though have indeed run prior versions and found it just continues to improve rather solidly. Being part of the distro hoping scene i can earnestly state out of the box mint has been pretty much trouble free in all departments allowing novices and newbies to just get on with their work or playing media. Great stuff. Linux will NEVER attract windows users by the masses UNLESS they implement mint’s philosophy. Debian/Ubuntu have laid a very solid foundation and structure that mint has capitalized on by adding the necessary trimmings or cream so to speak, THIS is what will draw windows users away to trial linux. The majority DON’T want to play around with the system, most don’t have the time to even learn how, and even those that do, even less have the patience, and even less the ability. Ubuntu has done a very remarkable job with it’s documentation and support, this combined with an os of mint’s caliber, solid advertising, is what will move the masses away from ‘that other’ os.

You were right . Linux Mint brings an end to distro hopping .But it is a almost perfect OS

Have used Ubuntu for 3 years.
The thing I have learned is that waiting for about 4 months before upgrading is a good idea.

To get a stable 9.04 I got a trouble free installation after 5 months.
Much trouble getting up to 9.10,succeeded after 7 months.

Got keen to get 10.4 as it is said to very good.

Tried 4 different disks to get onto 10.4.
One 64 bit purchased from a local(reliable)source, and 3 of 32bit,one downloaded , and the other two purchased.
All failed- would not connect to Internet.

If Mint 9 is able to be installed without hassles I will very likely become a long term user of Mint.
I expect to get a disk in the mail tomorrow.

You can run Jollicloud within easypeasy which is an Ubuntu clone as well. Will it run in Mint. This will help with the cloud concerns.

I’ve used various distros over the years and settled on Ubuntu when it was first released but Mint is my final distro. It is the single most user friendly distro available, in my opinion.

I am not a big fan of Mint 9. I have an AMD Athlon desktop that runs Mint 8 just fine, it won’t run Mint 9. Ubuntu 10.04 will run on my old Pentium II notebook just fine. I also don’t like the fact that Mint makes you do a fresh install every 6 months instead of an upgrade. I did a fresh install of Mint 9 on my AMD Athlon 64 notebook and Firefox keeps crashing, not good. I do like the fact that Mint 9 uses SUN Java 6 JDK instead of OpenJDK like Ubuntu 10.04. Ubuntu dosen’t even have it in the repos, very bad. I am a Java programmer so I like to keep my system up to date and running after I set it upso, I love that Update manager update both the OS and all the software. I have found Ubuntu and Mint have very deep repos for this. I tried Fedora and OpenSUSE but I can’t get LAME (no mp3) or MySQL to work. PCLinux and Mandriva are nice but they don’t have very deep repos. I like SUN Solaris 10 alot and have used it for a long time but it is very had to install software and resize a ZFS partition. I refuse to use Windows since it requires the expense of virus software with slows down the PC. I’ve been considering Mac OS X but I don’t think it can keep all the software up to date like software manager does in Ubuntu. I also still feel both Ubuntu and Mint need to work or the look and feel. I like the looks of Mac OS X the best maybe Ubuntu should have a window border like Mac but in a bronze color instead of silver. GRUB is also an ugly boot manager something graphical like Chameleon would be much better. Mint 9 and Ubuntu 10.04 are the best OSes right now but in my opinion still need some work to be perfect.

Installed Mint9 last night on my main gaming machine, and installed Quake Wars and UT2k4. Both games run very well on it, and only makes me sad that more game companies don’t do Linux ports.

If games were more available for Linux, I’d ditch Windows and never look back.

Does anyone know if Mint includes a driver built-in for the rt2870? I have a USB WiFi adapter based on the rt2870 and want to be sure that a driver will install for it.

Regarding getting help for Mint, you correctly point out Mint’s forums and the wiki, but Mint’s IRC help channel needs mention also. It is on irc.spotchat.org in #linuxmint-help.

When visiting the channel, bear in mind that it is family-friendly (watch your language). If you have a question or are unsure about something, just ask or state your problem, and be patient waiting for an answer.

Why is it so easy for Clem and his relatively small team to make so many improvements to Ubuntu? I’ve been using Ubuntu and Mint for more than a year now and I just can’t figure out why Ubuntu with all its resources can put out a distribution that always has this much room for improvement. If Ubuntu was simply better made then there would be nothing for Linux Mint to add.

When I upgraded from Ubuntu 8.04 to 8.10, Ubuntu wouldn’t even boot anymore. I installed the Mint equivalent, Felicia, Mint-6 and it worked with no problems at all. What Linux Mint seems to have going for it is that Ubuntu –even the final releases– are still a little rough around the edges and need work. Linux Mint simply fills that niche of putting the final touches on Ubuntu. It really is “Ubuntu done right”.

I was using Ubuntu 10.04 and was waiting for Mint9 to come out to try it. I must say that I love Mint 9 much more that the standard Ubuntu 10.04. Everything works out of the box and I still have the flexablity of Ubuntu/Debian base.

Linux Mint preloads Moonlight and its closed-source (binary blob) codecs from Microsoft, which are like gaping wounds to the Firefox browser — an invitation for infection of an otherwise hardy OS.

Any distro that preloads Moonlight should also preload antivirus software.