Linux Mint 17 (Rebecca)

[mattosensei]

I'm been looking around at the mainstream Linux distros with a view to replacing Windows 8.1 on a family member's laptop (they can't stand it and I'm not keen on Windows 8.1 either).

So I've been trialling Linux Mint 17.1 / Cinammon 64-bit on a persistent liveUSB and have to say I'm impressed with it. Not run into any issues yet and I like the level of customization (desklets, background auto-changers, nice panel at the bottom with weather widgets, auto-pop-up of Menu and such-like). Sure - this is kind of superficial in many ways, but in terms of providing a good-looking and reliable alternative to Windows that mirrors a lot of that functionality, I think it ticks a lot of boxes. LibreOffice even came with the correct UK dictionary (an issue I have had with other distros where I have struggled to get the right language dictionary to work).

So the 'out of box' experience I have found to be very good indeed and better than I was expecting. I last played with the Ubutnu and Mints of this world some years ago and neither impressed at that point.

For personal use I'm happy with PM5 (plus the smaller community who are great). But as a possible Windows 8.1 replacement for family member, Linux Mint 17 is my front-runner.

Only thing holding me back is the knowledge that Windows 10 is around the corner and it may just be easier to do an upgrade from 8.1 to that (as by all accounts it will be a lot better than 8.1).

Any one else have experience or thoughts on Linux Mint 17?

[PCNetSpec]

Mint's is probably the best distro out there if you like the "everything including the kitchen sink" installed by default approach .. Peppermint's not making software choices for me and it's ability to seamlessly integrate web apps that appear as though they're local apps fits me better

I'm a fan of "small, fast, sleek, yet customisable" which for me = Peppermint

[EDIT]

Here's really my only gripe about Mint and it's incredibly minor .. they make some weird choices about which updates to allow by default which make no sense to me  .. easily fixed, but still weird.

[rjm65]

my only gripe with mint is their forum, if they had a forum like peppermint has they would be unstoppable... 
I've posted on their forum asking how to do something 6 months ago still no replies...
I wonder if it would piss off anyone to know that i found the answer over here at peppermint, and not there on mint forum... 

P.S. all my personal laptops, which is about 9 total that i own, and one desktop all run mint 17 cinnamon except for one, which runs peppermint 5...
Because for some lame reason mint was just incredibly slow on that machine, peppermint is better but even it is slow, I think it is machine related though cause someone else on this board has the same laptop as I do, and they complained about slowness also....   

[10i]

Hi there, I have to second everything said here.

Mint is great, their forum not so great.

Glad you are making progress.