Linux Mint 7 "Gloria" XCFE CE Review

For the last couple of days I've been left wondering if my mind is leaking, and transmitting what I like in a Linux distro as the latest Linux Mint XFCE CE (Community Edition) "Gloria" (it's the first time I've called a Mint edition by it's name, I usually use it's number) seems to hit almost every spot straight out the box. Before I continue I should point out that I adore Linux Mint XFCE, I regularly switch between that and Crunchbang, both of which are based on Ubuntu. My preferred DE is XFCE.

I almost always change all of the look and feel when I install a distro, from the theme, icons, wallpaper, widgets and layout to what I like. My common layout:

• A single panel / kicker full width along the bottom of the screen.
• The applications / start button at the far left corner.
• Quick access to my folders / drives next to the apps menu.
• Taskbar with open windows and applications covering most of the panel.
• 24hr Clock at far right corner, with date on hover.
• Two virtual desktops so I can easily switch between them, next to the clock.
• System tray / Notification area next to the virtual desktops.

This is how I set up every distro that I install, regardless of the DE or WM. Sometimes I can't get it 100% because of the panel applets available. Linux Mint have always gone in a direction close to this by default. Their official Gnome edition has a single panel, compared to the traditional Gnome 2 panels seen in most Gnome distros. Their KDE CE edition has a regular sized kicker bar, compared to the double sized kicker normally found on KDE distros. Even the Fluxbox CE edition has similar theme. Some of the things I've been impressed with are from Linux Mint, some are from XFCE. Feel free to take the XFCE 4.6 tour to see the enhancements they've made.

The standout new feature for me is the new desktop right click menu. You used to have to choose between your apps menu or the "new file, open file" etc options appearing when you right click on the desktop. This has now been combined, which makes a LOT of difference. It's subtle but I love it. XFCE 4.6 also supports encrypted devices which I've not tried yet. You can now have a group of wallpapers, which it will change each time you login, which is nice.

Linux Mint have always been one of the "Ubuntu done right" distros, which is a lot to do with installing non-free codecs by default. For legal reasons distros like Ubuntu have chosen not to install things like mp3 support by default. This means they can legally distribute it everywhere. They provide easy installation options so the user can enable them after install. Linux Mint have two editions, the main edition has everything but will be illegal in some areas, and the universal edition which has all the same restrictions that Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora etc abide by in terms of codecs.

The downside of Gloria for me, is how deep Linux Mint is with Mono. You can remove it if you want, but the meta packages which make Mint what it is will be removed too. I personally won't install or use any Mono applications but it's more hassle than it's worth to rip it out of a Mint install. More disappointing, but also understandable given the Mint ethos is the inclusion of Moonlight, the FOSS implementation of Microsoft's Silverlight platform. This is also something I never plan to use, I won't use websites who have decided to stream content in Silverlight. I also hope Silverlight goes the way of many Microsoft "technologies" and gets canned. Every new release of a distro gets a new theme, icon set and wallpaper, Mint is no different in that sense.

Where it is different, is that it is among the few distros which I'd describe as gorgeous. It has a dark theme which is actually practical to use. Many look great but have little niggles where some things are hard to see. The green colour choice may not appeal to some, it does have a very SuSE feel to it. It's a refreshing change from most blue themes. The icon set looks very polished too. It's the only time I've been happy to stick with the default look and feel, with the exception of the wallpaper. As easy as it is to modify your environment in Linux to what you want, many people don't. Many people either don't know they can, or how to, or they like what they see.

A live CD is the shop window where you can tempt users to install your distro. The choice of a default environment is important as a first impression to new users. If you get it right, you can let the potential user convince themselves it's right for them without getting in the way. If you get it wrong it may make the user decide to simply reboot without giving the rest a fair chance. With that in mind I'd mention Linux Mint 7 Gloria is GORGEOUS. First impression wise it most definitely gets it right. I'm not going to go into which versions of which apps are installed or in the repos as these are the details I usually get bored with in other reviews. Suffice to say it's Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty under the hood.

The notable exception is that it's still Firefox 3.0 by default. Firefox 3.5 is in the repos under the branding Shiretoko, so a quick apt-get install and apt-get remove fixes that. With Mint being based on Ubuntu it means you get the benefit of the huge number of prepackaged .deb files, project Ubuntu PPA's and Ubuntu Q&A solutions on forums and blogs. I'd say that it's 100% compatible but there may be the odd exception here and there, so I'll use the webhost uptime 99.99% which allows for the odd exception. Some Linux Mint tweaks are brilliant, like the MintUpload which gives an easy right click option in Thunar to send a file to an FTP server or Web 2.0 (I hate that term) service like Picassa.

The MintUpdate is handy too, as it shows the severity of an update, whether it's been tested by the official Mint devs etc. MintInstall is a nice GUI alternative to Synaptic. One area I've had an issue with on some distros is that you have no choice but to boot into a fully live environment to install it to the hard drive. This can be slow and painful on lower end systems which are fine running the same distro after it's installed. Mint used to be guilty of this but no longer. Now there's an option to run the installer directly, without going into the live environment. It is still the same GUI installer, but in kiosk mode and it works like a charm.

On the other hand, some Linux Mint tweaks are not so welcome from my perspective, but in some cases I can understand why they do it. They modify Firefox so that you're using their Google page to search, which helps make them money somehow. I always remove this personally, not to mention I steer largely clear of Google and use Ask.com as my default search engine with the Ask Eraser enabled. They include cowsay into the terminal, so that every time you open it you get a new message. Unfortunately Cowsay is glued to the meta-packages for some reason so it's costly in terms of features to remove it. Thankfully you can disable it as I found out from the #linuxmint IRC channel on irc.spotchat.org.

sudo nano /etc/bash.bashrc

Comment out the mint-fortune package by changing:

/usr/bin/mint-fortune to # /usr/bin/mint-fortune

Save and close by CTRL+O (to save), ENTER (to confirm overwriting the same file) then CTRL+X (to exit). All you're doing here is editing a plain text file as root, so feel free to use whatever plain text editor you like. I like Nano for things like this. This is a useful skill to learn (even if you prefer to stay away from the terminal normally) if you ever have to fix a config file when X.org dumps you out and refuses to start the graphical environment.

Some FOSS projects are better than other in terms of welcoming new users, Ubuntu is well known to focus on this, Linux Mint seem to have followed much the same model as Ubuntu. Their IRC channel was a pleasure to be in, although like any real time communication, if you happen to nip in when an argument is taking place you can easily get the impression that it's always like that. Which is another way of saying "your mileage may vary".

I've long said that XFCE is a brilliant DE, but your impression of it will depend highly on which distro you try it on. It can be lightweight like Wolvix, it can be slick like Mint, it can be sluggish and bloated like Xubuntu. Linux Mint is one of the best XCFE distros, if not the lightest due to all the additional services it runs. It is however lighter and snappier than it has any right to be which it testament to how good a job the devs have done. I have switched back from Crunchbang 9.04 to Linux Mint 7 XFCE CE and I'm loving it. It was always the distro I recommend to new users regardless of what I use, this has not changed. I tip my hat to everyone involved and thank you all for making me very happy.