Linux Mint 10 (Julia)

Last week, Linux Mint 10, codenamed Julia, was released. I'd been using the release candidate on my laptop for a while, but waited for the official release to post my thoughts. The new release continues Mint's tradition of pushing the envelope in terms of visual theming. Further, given the direction of Ubuntu's look and feel in the last couple of releases, Mint looks more and more like the best intro to Linux for Windows users.

Look and Feel

The most notable change from previous versions of Mint is the new default theme, Mint-X-Metal. This theme takes advantage of a new feature of MintMenu, Mint's Windows-like start menu. In the new release, the menu can be themed differently from the rest of the GNOME desktop. Mint-X-Metal applies a metallic texture to the menu.

The overall theme has changed radically from the last few versions of Mint. Instead of the bright greens of previous Shiki-Wise (green version of Shiki-Colors) themed desktops, Mint-X features a metallic gray look in both the theme and the default wallpaper. There's also a new icon set heavily based on Faenza, the Linux community's favorite square icons. Here's a screenshot of my laptop screen with all windows minimized.

Modified Linux Mint Desktop

 

 

 

 

 

 

My desktop isn't the default setup. For one thing, the default setup has the panel on the bottom. There's also no dock out of the box; that's a program called Docky, which is available in the Linux Mint reposotories. One of the reasons I prefer Mint over Ubuntu is that it's easier in Mint to get this one-panel setup I've preferred since fairly soon after I started using Ubuntu.

Other Things

As usual, Mint comes with a more familiar set of default applications than Ubuntu (Thunderbird instead of Evolution for e-mail, Pidgin instead of Empathy for IM). In another advance for user friendliness, the Linux Mint Welcome Screen gives you a convenient set of links to helpful resources, including a downloadable user manual in .pdf format and tutorials and forums on the Linux Mint site. Overall, it's much easier to jump in and find out about Mint than about Ubuntu.

So far, the only drawback I've noticed is that Pidgin logs me out of Facebook chat a lot. Other than that, everything runs smoothly, making this the first Mint release that I didn't have some kind of major issue with.

Gnome Theme Engine Installation

I'm really proud of myself right now for figuring out how to install the latest murrine engine in Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE), which I'm running on my home desktop.

My previous Linux experience has been almost entirely with Ubuntu-based distros (including the standard version of Mint). In those distros, you don't have to figure out what to do with Debian packages (.deb files). You have a Debian package installer (or in Ubuntu 10.10 the standard Software Center) that does all the work for you. However, in Debian and LMDE, you usually have to do some stuff in the terminal to install from a .deb.

After 3-4 tries, I finally managed to get the dance of ./configure, make, and  make install right. It took me forever to figure out that I needed to be logged in as root for the make install command to work. The single hardest part of working with the terminal is picking through the line after line of feedback the program gives you to try to figure out what went wrong. I don't know how many times I've been frustrated by things not working because I typed in the next command without noticing the error message immediately above the prompt.

Anyway, I want to show off after this quantum leap in my Linux skills. Here's a screenshot of the Ambiance Mint theme, complete with correct murrine engine and Faenza Mint icons.