Excellent timing. I need a new distro. The Ubuntu I’m running now on my secondary machine is a pain and my main machine is running Win7 and is ready for retirement - and I AIN’T going to Win8. I’ve used SUSE in the past and found it wanting though their current graphic looks interesting ;-)...
Mint was fast and easy to set up, complete, and my 6 y.o. grandson, who had never used linux before had absolutely no problems hitting the ground running with Mint.
/johnny
There’s a lot to like about openSUSE these days. The package selection is very good thanks to the Open Build Service, the development approach is middle-of-the-road so that you don’t get stuff that’s too old (Debian) or too new (Fedora/Arch), and anybody with a modicum of Linux skills can build their own custom version of OpenSUSE with SUSE Studio.
A lot of distributions like to claim that they’re good for everyone to use. OpenSUSE really nails that: it’s easy enough for beginners but includes features for power users as well, mainly through their YaST control panel.
I, too, switched away from Ubuntu after Unity, and KDE on SUSE has been my home ever since.
I recently bought a new PC. Linux 8.1.
I love the new OS. However I also installed Linux on a spare hard drive, and that’s what I use.
(ubuntu)
Don’t toss out the new Windows however.
Best I’ve seen.
MINT KDE.. You have the experience.. that’s all you need to be up and running in NO time. From booting the LiveCD (USB), through getting the updates.. no more than 20-30 minutes (and only 1 reboot.. that was after the initial install).
The most flexible Linux I know of, as long as you can use terminal comfortably (don’t even need the terminal, but it helps).
(And, it doesn’t have to be Mint either... there are Debian based KDE distros out there with rolling updates so you don’t have to go through the dev update every few months... But, I stick to the Kubuntu since it gives me an excuse to do a fresh install every few months..).
Me too. Time to upgrade the Yggdrasil box.