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- When you first boot into the installed desktop, you’ll notice the Welcome to Linux Mint menu.
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- YouTube videos played well and I did not need to install Flash.
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(11 votes, average: 3.64 out of 5)
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I tried this edition on my testing machine and, damn, I like it a lot. Even more than the GNOME version. it looks spectacular, apps are just awesome. I’ll keep testing it for a few days more to get a bit more used to it and if all goes well I might even switch to this KDE edition.
Backtrack4-R1, They finally put Fluxbox back on it!…
This was a really good post I mentioned it on my blog…
[...] here: Linux Mint 9 KDE (Isadora) Review | Desktop Linux Reviews Categories : Linux, [...]
Hey you forgot to mention Gnome-mplayer in multimedia section of included software(page 4).
Mint cant authenticate downloaded packages by default. I installed Mint 9 KDE and noticed authentication failure on every package during first update. Went googling and found this thread on Mint forum which confirms that third most popular Linux distro is not capable of authenticating its own binaries, or any other binaries.
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=26343
This is not mentioned in the Mint release notes as it should be,
and it certainly should be mentioned in this or any other review
of this distribution. BTW: Nice site.
Thanks for a good and quite in-depth review. Might try this, I’m slowly coming around to KDE4 recently as I found it has improved a lot.
[...] Linux Mint 9 KDE (Isadora) Review | Desktop Linux Reviews [...]
Singu wrote:
I think you have found both a weakness and apparently a really “sore spot” on the forums. There are ways to authenticate. All you have to do is to include the appropriate “signature”, which is basically an encrypted Cookie like file. I am almost 100% certain that Ubuntu has such a file. Apparently Linux Mint wants THEIR packages to be installed in preference to Ubuntu packages when differences exist, and they have not (yet) figured out a way to have authenticated Ubuntu packages plus THEIR packages in the same packaging system. This may be a weakness of their new packaging software, but I’m not sure that’s where the issue lies.
This does seem to be a rather serious deficiency in what otherwise appears to be a near perfect desktop system for overall use.
Good review, Jim. I think that the packaging issue raised by Singu does elevate a couple things in what is otherwise a really good desktop system. 1. Authenticating packages ought to be an absolute requirement. In this day and age of spoofing, who knows whether ANY package, no matter how otherwise “official” it may appear, hasn’t been hijacked by someone? Not having a superb and automatic authentication scheme, especially when the installer is so much of a push button operation may be a much more serious issue than first meets the eye. 2. The defensiveness of the people on the Mint forum regarding this topic leads me to question whether or not the Mint forums are as useful as a couple of the other top vendor forums. I consider both PCLinuxOS and MEPIS Lovers Forums to be superior in this regard. Rather than constantly defend, both of the other forums would be more likely to research the issue and discuss it in detail, and typically come up with a solution.
That’s a pretty big “ding” to what is otherwise an outstanding distribution. For me, I’d rather stick to my Debian based distributions: sidux for my Sid (Debian Unstable) core system – I have to get more involved with packaging in this one than most others, but I use an external tool called smxi that really helps – but doesn’t “hide” stuff from me, I use antiX for my Squeeze (Debian Testing) system; it’s light and fast, then I use SimplyMEPIS for my Lenny (Debian Stable) system. SimplyMEPIS would be the one most closely aligned with Mint’s KDE edition. Mint is newer, fancier looking, and comes with more software. SimplyMEPIS is more basic, simpler, and has the US requirement of having to enable the Multimedia repository to get libdvdcss2, but other than that, is every bit as easy, with what I believe to be a superior user forum.
I think Mint will get more users than the alternatives I use, but based on this review and the comments I’ve seen so far, Mint isn’t for everyone, even though it’s good. The packaging issue is pretty disturbing, and that may be a deal breaker for some people.
Good review,
Being a Kde user for quite some time , i can say that kubuntu has improved over the years and mint supercedes it. For beginners mint KDE should be ideal. But KDE is not ubuntu’s strength, but improving steadily.
PCLOS,mandriva ,suse,excel at KDE because they focus more on that. Another distro which surpised me is Fedora KDE,its slowly catching up and becoming rock stable.
Keep those reviews coming,
Did You do a review on Pardus.?
RogueAP’s on the new 2.6.35 kernel…
This was a really good post I mentioned it on my blog…
It’s a shame that they didn’t offer a 700 MB CD edition of the Mint 9 KDE edition. A 1.3 GB DVD is just too much in my opinion. Several users requested it on the forums, but they were basically shot down.
Ankleface Wroughtlandmire wrote:
I can understand a KDE edition no longer fitting on a CD. Kubuntu and a few others may attempt to do it, but compromises, leaving common applications out is the way that they do it, so Mint, wanting to provide a complete experience, undoubtedly chose to go another route. On the other hand, if a Fluxbox or LXDE edition couldn’t fit on a CD, I’d suggest it was too bloated because those environments are much smaller than KDE and intended to run in limited hardware environments.
So far the Kubuntu camp has managed to constrain itself within a CD; I have to wonder how much longer that can happen – unless you install JUST the core, and REQUIRE everyone to download the specific components they want. For many of us, that WOULD be an option – I wouldn’t mind that at all, but again, that’s not for everyone. Even in the second decade of the twenty first century, not everyone is broadband equipped, and even some who are have download size restrictions; you just can’t win with everything, so you have to cleanly define exactly what you are producing and stick with it.
The good news is that there are PLENTY of options to choose from. The Linux Mint and Ubuntu distributions alone have choices of all sizes, shapes, and LITERALLY colors! :-)
One of my long time friends over on the forum side of this site, “Dragonmouth”, just installed both the LXDE and KDE variations of Mint, and found a number of issues. He had some concerns on the LXDE side about the Software Manager, particularly:
Software Manager does not check or warn of dependency problems.
Software Manager does only one action at the time. No way to add/remove more than one package using SM.
He then asks the question: Why have Software Manager, Update Manager and Synaptic? SM and UM each do only part of the job. Synaptic does all that the other two do and then more.
Then he raises an issue:
Synaptic shows 28 packages to be updated but Update Manager shows only 22.
The Software Manager and the Update Manager APPEAR to be convenient, and Jim has mentioned in multiple reviews that he likes them better than Synaptic, but now I am leery about that.
As an experienced user and administrator, I’d rather even use low level tools if I have to in order to ensure that my system is safe and secure. The classic command line apt-get tool is faster than Update Manager or The Software Manager, and now it also appears that it is more TRUSTWORTHY as well.
I’m no longer sure that I consider this a good system for beginners, because there are way too many “surprises” lurking below the visible surface for the inexperienced beginner. I’d much rather recommend a solid, stable desktop system, such as SimplyMEPIS or PCLinuxOS rather than any of the recent Linux Mint releases.
Isn’t there a movie called “What Lies Beneath”? Perhaps that should be the subtitle of the next Linux Mint review! ;-)
I installed Mint 9 KDE this afternoon. I wish I could be as positive about it as you are. I found the following problems:
At the end of the install process, the Installer connects to Mint Repositories and downloads over 200 meg of Language packs and Fonts. That after I checked English as my desired language. How many users in the world need or want Xhosa language pack that is one those installed by default? I don’t need all those languages and fonts. Whichever, if any, I need, I can install later. After the install, I had to waste time uninstalling all that garbage.
“Cowsay” and “fortune” packages cannot be uninstalled without destroying the system. They are integrated into the base system and their removal results in the removal of “mintsystem” among other packages.
Monitor and video card capabilities are not recognized properly and there is no easy way of resetting the resdo0lution/refresh rate. Config files have to be edited manually.
Only few cursor themes are available by default.
No explicit root logon but that is endemic to all *buntus and derivatives.
Using the user password to access trhe Admin functions is not very good security, no matter what the Ubuntu developers say.
The logon Welcome Message still says “Welcome to Kubuntu”
The Software Manager that you love so much has to be used very carefully. It does not check or warn of dependency problems. I wanted to uninstall “cowsay and “fortune”. Synaptic warned me that system files will be removed along with “cowsay”. Just for giggles I used Software Manger to uninstall “cowsay”. After asking me for the Admin password, without any warning it happilly removed it and the system files. OOOPPSSS!
Software Manager does not display packages to be updated.
Software Manager displays packages in review-number order – high to low. There is no way to change that.
There is no way to reload/refresh ths Software Manager database of packages.
Why have Software Manager, Update Manager and Synaptic? Synaptic does whatever the other two do and more and then it does it better. At least the developers did not include KPackage also.
I would not reccomend any version of Mint 9 to a beginner until Software manager is changed and would suggest caution to all others.