Introduction

I believe that there is a version of Linux out there for everyone. One of the hardest sells is trying to convince someone who is using Windows 7 that there is a version of Linux suitable for them.

I have already written articles giving 5 reasons why Lubuntu might be better for Windows XP users and that PCLinuxOS might be better for Windows XP users with more powerful machines and Windows Vista users.

For Windows 8 users, I would imagine that just about any flavour of Linux is preferable but I would probably lean towards Ubuntu as I think Ubuntu provides the killer new desktop that Windows 8 has tried to introduce but in a much better way.

Windows 7 users are not running out of support and there isn’t all that much wrong with Windows 7, especially if you have used it for a while. Windows 7 is probably the best version of Windows there has ever been.

The best Linux alternative for Windows 7 that I have found thus far is probably Zorin OS 8. That is up until now.

Today I am going to be reviewing Linux Mint 17 with the Cinnamon desktop environment which is the best that Linux Mint has to offer.

NOTE: There is now a new version of Linux Mint (version 17.1)

Click here for a review of Linux Mint 17.1

System Requirements

x86 processor (32-bit) or x64 processor (64-bit)

512 megabytes RAM (1 gigabyte recommended)

10 gigabytes disk space

DVD or USB support

Installation

Click here for my guide showing how to create a bootable Linux Mint USB drive.

Click here for my guide showing how to install Linux Mint as a virtual machine.

Click here for my guide showing how to dual boot OSX and Linux Mint 17 on a MacBook Air.

Click here for my guide showing how to install Linux Mint alongside Windows 7.

Click here for my guide showing how to replace Windows 7 with Linux Mint.

Click here for my guide showing how to install Linux Mint alongside Windows 8.1.

For now though I am going to take you through the installation steps to show just how easy it is.

You will need to follow the guide showing how to create the Linux USB drive first.





Before you begin, backup your computer using the Windows 7 backup and recovery tools.

Insert the USB drive and reboot your computer.

Your computer should boot into a live version of Linux Mint 17.

Click on the install icon on the desktop.

Choose your installation language and click “Continue”.

You are then asked to connect to your wireless network. This is optional and to be honest I always choose not to connect.

The installer will use your internet connection to download updates as it goes which means when you boot Linux Mint 17 for the first time after installation it will be completely up to date.

If you have a slow internet connection this can take ages and if your connection drops then it is hard to know the state of your installation. I prefer to get the installation done first and then apply updates later.

Select your preferred option and click “Continue”.

The next steps shows you how well prepared you are for installing Linux Mint. If you have three green ticks then you are good to go. (The only one you really have to worry about is disk space and if you are not using a power source make sure your battery is charged).

Click “Continue”.

If you are running Windows 7 then the image above will look slightly different but basically you get the option to replace the current operating system, install alongside the current operating system or something else.

In the past I have always recommended choosing something else as this will help during upgrades but because Linux Mint 17 is a long term support release with a number of years support it is OK to choose the option to erase the disk and install Linux Mint 17.

Choose your preferred option and click “Continue”.

The rest of the steps are very straight forward. Choose your location.

Choose your keyboard layout.

Create a default user and a name for your computer.

and wait for the installation to complete which for me took less than 10 minutes.

First Impressions

The best thing about Linux Mint is that the developers haven’t tried to be too clever.

One thing that turns people off Ubuntu is the Unity Desktop because the user interface just isn’t familiar to them.

Don’t get me wrong, I really like Ubuntu and I like the user interface that Unity provides. I get what the Ubuntu developers have tried to achieve and I think they have done an amazing job.

A few years ago people heard the word Unity and they said “Yuck”. Now more and more people ask how to get Unity for their Linux distribution.

Linux Mint bucked the trend and stuck with the same principles that made Windows XP and Windows 7 a success. The user interface is completely familiar to anyone who has used computers for the past 20 years.

Linux Mint is also incredibly consistent. Whether you use the lightweight XFCE version, KDE, MATE or Cinnamon the look and feel is pretty much the same. The only thing that changes is the programs used to achieve the look and feel.

The Cinnamon desktop is extremely well polished and more than matches anything that Windows 7 has to offer in terms of asthetics.

Everything is just where you would expect it to be. The panel at the bottom works in much the same way as the Windows 7 task bar. There is a menu, a set of quick launch icons and a system tray.

The quick launch icons allow you to show the desktop, load the default web browser, open a terminal window and open the file manager. The quick launch icons can be customised.

The system tray has icons for helping you to manage common system settings.

The default icons are as follows:

Notifications

User settings

Bluetooth settings

Network settings

Audio settings

Power settings

Updates

Clock

Workspace selector

The menus used by Linux Mint are slightly different depending on the desktop environment that you choose to use.

The Cinnamon desktop environment doesn’t try and confuse you with new interfaces but enhances on the experiences that you are likely to already have encountered.

The menu is fairly straight forward.

The left column has a series of icons for the applications that you will use regularly. (Favourites).

By default the icons are as follows: (From top to bottom)

FireFox Web Browser

Software Manager

Settings

Terminal

File Manager

Lock Screen

Log Out

Quit

The second column in the menu is a list of categories and by hovering your mouse over a category the third column changes to show the applications within that category.

Dragging an icon from the applications column to the favourites column will make it more accessible next time you open the menu.

Connecting to the internet

Connecting to the internet with Linux Mint is generally incredibly simple. Assuming that you have a network card that is automatically catered for then all you need to do is click on the icon in the system tray and select the wireless network you wish to connect to.

You will then also need to enter the security details for the wireless network (assuming that it isn’t an open network).

To browse web pages use the FireFox web browser.

Flash and MP3

Some Linux distributions do not include proprietary technology such as the ability to play Flash videos and listen to MP3 audio.

Linux Mint has everything you need installed from the outset, so you can watch your favourite Youtube videos, play your favourite games and listen to your music collection with no further setup required.

Applications

Linux Mint has a great selection of applications that are installed by default.

Linux Mint is in a better state when it is first installed than Windows is and for the most part requires no extra specialist software to be installed for the most common uses of home computers.

Accessories

Archive Manager

Calculator

Document Viewer

Screenshot

Terminal

Text Editor

USB Image Writer

Graphics

GIMP image editor

gThumb image thumbnail viewer

Image Viewer

ImageMagick

LibreOffice Draw

Scan

For those of you that haven’t heard of GIMP it is a fine picture editing tool. A lot of people liken it to Photoshop. Generally there is a debate to be had as to whether it really has everything that Photoshop has to offer but for the casual user it certainly is incredibly powerful.

Internet

FireFox Web Browser

HexChat IRC Chat Client

Pidgin Internet Messenger

Thunderbird Mail Client

Transmission BitTorrent Client

Office

LibreOffice Writer (think Microsoft Word but without the awful Ribbons)

LibreOffice Calc (think Microsoft Excel but without the awful Ribbons)

LibreOffice Impress (think Microsoft Powerpoint)

LibreOffice Draw

LibreOffice Math

LibreOffice complements Linux Mint very well as it provides the same sort of continuation and familiarity that Linux Mint provides. There are certainly none of those stupid ribbon bars making it impossible to find settings.

For home use LibreOffice definitely has all the features you will require and is perfect for children who have homework assignments or for parents to create budgets.

Sound and Video

Banshee Audio Player

Brasero DVD burning

Totem Video Player

VLC Video Player

One thing that Linux isn’t lacking is good quality audio applications.

Off the top of my head there are Rhythmbox, Banshee, Amarok, Clementine, GMusicBrowser, DeadBeef, Noise and QMMS.

Linux Mint comes with Banshee. I have had problems with this application in the past but it works perfectly within Linux Mint 17.

Importing music is as simple as selecting the “Import Media” option from the “Media” menu. This allows you to select the folders on your computer that contain audio files.

Banshee lets you listen to music from your own collection or you can listen to online radio stations.

All the standard features are available such as the ability to create playlists.

Banshee works very well with external audio devices and picked up my Sony Walkman and Samsung Galaxy S4 without any issues.

The VLC media player can be used to watch online videos and also to watch videos stored on your computer.

Installing Applications

One area where Linux Mint is better than Ubuntu is the graphical tool used for installing applications.

The Ubuntu Software Centre is probably the biggest let down and the one area where Ubuntu really needs to improve.

Linux Mint’s software manager is actually pretty decent.

The default view provides a list of categories and a search box in the top right corner.

If you just want to browse applications click on a category and a list of applications will appear.

The applications are listed by title, description, rating and number of people who voted.

To get more information about an application double click on the name.

The details page includes screenshots, version numbers, file sizes and reviews.

To install the application click “Install”.

Gaming

One thing that isn’t installed by default is games.

There are various ways of installing and playing games in Linux Mint.

The first way is to open the software manager and browse the games section.

The number of games listed in the software manager aren’t incredibly extensive but there are first person shooters, platform games, racing games etc.

Another option is games emulation. The software manager has emulators for the Commodore Amiga, Atari 2600, Sinclair Spectrum, SNES, NES, Playstation One, N64 and many others.

If you already have a good selection of Windows games then the third option is to use PlayOnLinux which is also available from the software centre.

PlayOnLinux sits on top of WINE which allows you to run Windows applications within Linux Mint.

PlayOnLinux can be used for more than just installing Windows games and it can be used to install other Windows applications such as Microsoft Office.

The level of success with running Windows applications is improving but is still a bit hit and miss.

The games seem to work very well generally. I bought and installed Sensible World Of Soccer from GOG.com and it works really well.

The final but best option for playing games is through STEAM. More and more top quality games are provided for Linux via the STEAM platform.

You can install STEAM from the software manager.

Using STEAM you can buy, download and install games which can be used directly from your Linux Mint desktop.

Customising the desktop

The first thing that you might like to change is the default desktop wallpaper.

To change the wallpaper right click on the desktop and choose “Change Desktop Background”.

Linux Mint comes with a nice selection of wallpapers but you can add your own by clicking on the “Add” icon.

Another thing you can add to the desktop is something called desklets. The “Add Desklets” option is available from the right click menu on the desktop.

By default there aren’t that many desklets available but you can get more online. (Click the “Get More Online” tab.

The desklets for me look a bit clunky but they make it easier to view photos and provide instant access to your music collection etc.

Another thing you can customise is the panel at the bottom. You can add more items to the panel by right clicking the panel and selecting “Add applets to panel”.

New features for Linux Mint 17

The release notes for Linux Mint can be found at http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_qiana_cinnamon.php

The new features are as follows:

Improved update manager

The driver manager can now install drivers without an internet connection

Refined MDM login manager and multi monitor support improved

HTML greeter comes with HiDPI support

MDM now has a recovery command

Language Settings tool added to make it easier to select your language

Improved Software Sources display

Welcome screen now uses less resources

Improved graphical interface for system settings

Power management and screen saver settings redesigned

Menu improvements

HUD and Hover Management Improvements

MPRIS support added

HiDPI and Retina display support added

The “WACOM” plug has been re-introduced

Windows opacity improvements

Better integration with Gnome

Better support for GDM

Support for MDM failback shutdown sequence

New shutdown hotkey

Lots of bug fixes

This list doesn’t cover everything and may not make sense to new users so it would be beneficial to click the link above to get the full list.

What is important with Linux Mint 17 is the LTS strategy. Linux Mint 17 will receive support updates until 2019.

Until 2016 Linux Mint will use the same package base as Linux Mint 17 making it easier to upgrade.

Until 2016 the developers won’t begin work on a new base and will be focus completely on the current base.

Hot Corners and Workspaces

The Cinnamon desktop has a configuration tool called “Hot Corners” which lets you determine what happens when you move your mouse into the corners of your screen.

Before thinking about hot corners it is worth discussing workspaces first.

In Windows you only have one workspace. This means if you have lots of applications open then you either have to make windows smaller to place them side by side or have them overlay each other.

To switch between applications you have to either alt and tab or click with your mouse.

Linux has virtual workspaces which means you can have for instance one workspace which you use to do work and another for emails, chat, Facebook etc.

To use hot corners open the settings screen and select “Hot Corners”.

You can specify what happens when you click or hover in a corner. The choices are to show all workspaces, show all windows, run a command or show the desktop.

All four corners can be customised to work the way you want them to.

For instance if I hover into the top left corner on my computer I will see the following screen:

By default there are two workspaces and switching is as simple as clicking the workspace. To add a new workspace click the plus symbol.

Issues

There are a number of known issues listed as part of the release notes:

The “Replace OS with Linux Mint” option doesn’t just replace the operating system with the Linux Mint it erases the entire disk. This is important for people who dual boot. You need to use the “Something Else” option.

There may be an issue with Skype which can be fixed by installing “ia32-libs”.

If VLC does not find your DVD player, click on Media->Open Disc, and specify ‘/dev/sr0’ as the disc device.

HiDPI is detected automatically. You can however force Cinnamon to run

in low or in high DPI mode by going to Menu->Preferences->General.

in low or in high DPI mode by going to Menu->Preferences->General. If your system is using secureBoot, turn it off.Note: Linux Mint 17 places its boot files in /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu to work around

Freeze issues with NVidia cards (there are workarounds provided via the release notes)

Booting with Non-PAE causes issues (refer to the release notes for the workaround)

Something that isn’t on the list but that was reported via Reddit last week is that copying from a device to Linux Mint via the file manager can cause the file to get lost.

To try this out I plugged in my Samsung Galaxy S4 and moved files from the Samsung Galaxy to my Linux Mint 17 installation.

As you can see from the images above I wasn’t able to reproduce this issue.

My advice when moving files from one device to another would be to copy the files first and then when you are sure they have reached their destination delete the source files. This prevents the chance of the files getting lost.

I haven’t had any other issues whilst running Linux Mint 17 and I have had it installed for around 2 weeks now.

Summary

Linux Mint 17 is a great choice for the everyday Linux user. It is easy to install, easy to use and has a good selection of applications.

There is nothing revolutionary about Linux Mint. It isn’t like Ubuntu daring to enter new territory with a new user interface. It sits firmly in the camp of “things were and are working just fine so lets not change them”.

The user interface for the Cinnamon desktop is visually pleasing and very professional.

The hardware support is extensive and the stability is incredibly good.

I would recommend Linux Mint for all users and not just Windows users looking to try Linux for the first time.

Linux Mint is a great example of how good an operating system can be.

Thankyou for reading.