Mint 18.3: The best Linux desktop takes big steps forward

zdnet. ^ | 12 12 17 | Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

[dennisw]

Linux Mint isn't just the best Linux desktop, it's the best desktop, period.

I run many operating systems every day, from macOS, to Windows 7 and 10, to more Linux desktop distributions than you can shake a stick at. And, once more, as a power-user's power user, I've found the latest version of Linux Mint to be the best of the best.

Why? Let's start with the basics. MacOS has been shown to have the worst bug I've ever seen in an operating system: The macOS High Sierra security hole that lets anyone get full administrative control. Windows, old and new, continues to have multiple security bugs every lousy month. Linux? Sure, it has security problems. How many of these bugs have had serious desktop impacts? Let me see now. None. Yes, that would be zero.

Oh, and by the way, in using Linux desktops for over 25 years now, I have never needed to use an anti-virus program because, for all practical purposes, there are no Linux viruses. Yes, I know you've read stories saying they exist. And, they do, but you must actively try to infect your system to get them.

Then, there's ease of use. Despite ancient FUD, Linux, especially the new Linux Mint 18.3 but really all current Linux desktops, are simple to use. Mint's Cinnamon interface uses a classic Windows, Icons, Menu, and Pointer (WIMP) interface. If you've ever used Windows XP, you'll feel completely at home.

Want to install an application? Sure you can use shell-based tools such as apt-get on Debian-based Linux distributions or yum on the Red Hat family of operating systems. But, ordinary desktop users need not bother with these. Instead, they can just use an app store approach such as Mint's Software Manager. You search for your app, you point, you click. Not very hard is it?

Want to update your system to a new one? With Macs and Windows, that can take hours. With Mint, it took me less than an hour and most of that was waiting for the download to complete. Compare that with Windows, where as a friend recently pointed out, just updating a Logitech mouse driver took about 10 minutes.

Linux desktops are also fast even on older hardware. High Sierra runs as fast as pouring maple syrup on a cold day on my maxed out Mac Mini with its 3.0GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 CPU and 16GB of RAM. Windows 10, on my Dell XPS 8700 with a 3.6 GHz Intel Core i7-4790 processor and 16GBs of memory, runs fast enough to be useful, but fast is not the word I'd use to describe its performance. Mint 18.3, on my 2011 Dell XPS 8300 with its 3.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor and 8GBs of RAM, charges along like a champ. I wouldn't waste my time trying to run Windows or macOS on a six-year-old box.

But enough about Linux vs. the others, let's talk about Linux Mint 18.3.

If you've never installed Mint before, you can download its ISO files from the Mint Downloads. There are still both 64-bit and 32-bit versions for the Cinnamon desktop, but unless you're running a really old system, just down the 64-bit version. Then burn the ISO image to a DVD using a tool such as ImgBurn. Or, you can put it on a bootable USB stick with a program like Rufus.

Then, boot your computer using the DVD or stick and make sure Mint works with your computer. If it does -- and I've never met a PC it wouldn't work on -- you can then install it. For further details see my How to install Linux Mint on your Windows PC article.

The one possible problem is if your PC has a newer NVIDIA graphics. In that case, for a better display, use NVIDIA's own drivers rather than the open-source ones provided by NVIDIA. To do this, take the following steps:

Run the Driver Manager Choose the NVIDIA drivers and wait for them to be installed Reboot the computer

If you're already running an earlier version of Mint 18, click on the Refresh button in Update Manager to check for any new version of mintupdate and mint-upgrade-info. If there are updates for these packages, apply them. Then, refresh the packages and install any updated package. Finally, launch the System Upgrade by clicking on "Edit->Upgrade to Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia". Within an hour, you'll be running the latest, freshest version of Mint.

This version is based on Ubuntu 16.04.3. Like 16.04, it's a long-term support version. Mint developers will support it until April 2021. This distribution is based on the 4.10 Linux kernel.

[Fiddlstix]

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[dennisw]

MY BIG QUESTION

How much space does a Linux Mint installation take? 20GB?

I want to install Linux Mint on a separate SSD (desktop computer) to test and experiment. What size SSD should I buy?
60GB is enough?
120GB?

(I am a Windows user)

[SpaceBar]

You can run linux from a floppy disk. How much bloat you add is up to you.

[brianr10]

Will it play wmv files?

[Little Pig]

The OS itself occupies less than 4GB as an installation image on a USB stick. Installed, it’s somewhat less than that. 10-15GB is probably more than enough room to get a good pilot installation of Linux with typical applications and space to store documents. 60GB is plenty adequate for an actual in-service workstation, unless you have an absolutely huge media collection you want to store.

[Billthedrill]

I finally got torqued off at yet another Creator's Update that failed late last week, sucking up all my high-speed bandwidth for the month (second time in a month, incidentally, both 1703 and 1709 took a dump on one of my four computers and not the same one) - anyway, slid a new SSD into the smaller box and installed 18.3 Mint last night. Flawless. Within one hour I had a new OS from scratch, functioning email, word processing, music, and YooToob on a functioning browser (I was a little worried about the codecs but it was perfect). That's it. I don't have to spend days troubleshooting Redmond's screwups four times a quarter.

The downside is that I have to give up certain games that I enjoy. These don't like VirtualBox so I'm going to have to play with WINE, but it's a small price to pay.

I've used other Linux implementations but this one seems as smooth to install and with the lowest learning curve I've seen to date. So far very impressed.

It really didn't have to be this way. I like Windows 10 if they'd just leave it alone. Mint will be fine for 80% of what I want to do and that's going to have to be enough. When I finally do get decent bandwidth, and it's coming, I'm really not sure it will be worth going back to Windows.

[vikingd00d]

>> How much space does a Linux Mint installation take? 20GB?

System requirements:

1GB RAM (2GB recommended for a comfortable usage).
15GB of disk space (20GB recommended).
1024×768 resolution (on lower resolutions, press ALT to drag windows with the mouse if they don’t fit in the screen).

[Westbrook]

60 GB should be enough for the Linux Mint OS, but I’d go for the larger 120GB, which is a little more than $50 on Amazon.

Better to have more disk than you need than to need more disk than you have.

[Bob434]

[[If you’ve ever used Windows XP, you’ll feel completely at home.]]

Except when you have to install something not in the software distribution menus- then nope- it’s not like windows- it’s quite hard infact. and when a problem arises trying to find help that isn’;t written in super uber geek speak is difficult at best- but thankfully those two scenarios do not come up for casual users often if at all

[[Run the Driver Manager Choose the NVIDIA drivers and wait for them to be installed Reboot the computer]]

The nivida drivers were not listed in my driver manager in linux mint 18.1 are they listed now? - had to go through some other ppa to finally get them-

I do love mint linux, but at times it can be incredibly frustrating if a problem arises to those of us not familiar with using the terminal commands, or used to installing programs from scratch which is quite hard to newbies- like myself- one progam i will wholeheartedly recommend is easystroke- it takes a little finagling to get it installed, but it’s a supremely helpful program i can’t live with out- it’s like mouse gestures- and makes navigating and opening programs very simply with a mouse gesture- i navigate back and forth between tabs, between pages, close with a quick downward swipe \ and close down my computer with an S curve gesture- open notepad, terminal etc all with gestures- navigating pages and very very quick now with swipes up and left \ up and right/

Well worth the effort to install

[Billthedrill]

You asked about room at a good time - fresh install, less than 100 MB of personal data, looks like this:

219,147 items
5.8 GB used

I used a Samsung 850 256 GB SSD - they're pretty cheap these days - and it's rattling around in there.

[Geoffrey]

Nothing wrong with Mint, but I am a big MX-16 fan as a replacement for windows os.

A little more hardcore is Manjaro.

[Westbrook]

If your CPU has virtualization support, use a windows virtual machine for your games and other stuff you can’t get on Linux.

[enduserindy]

I followed a link in this story to the crossover 17. That sounds interesting. Wonder how broad a spectrum of windows programs it will run.

[Billthedrill]

Oh, and that installation did take all the bundled third-party apps (Office Libre, Firefox, etc).

[Bob434]

def get 120- they are pretty cheap these days- I bought the 1 terabyte one and have BOTH windows 7 and linux runnign on it with plenty of room to spare- but that is overkill- but i needed it for photography which take up lots of room

[Bob434]

i never had luck with virtualization- so i dual boot isntead- works well-

[Bob434]

[[ The downside is that I have to give up certain games that I enjoy.]]

Nope nope nope=- dual boot- it takes a little knowhow to do but is worth it

[Pollard]

I’m running the latest KDE Neon on 2.53GHz Intel Core Duo

Runs just fine on this 12 year old Thinkpad but it’s almost a nightly build sort of thing so I’m thinking about swapping to kubuntu. I’ll still get the Plasma 5 desktop but it would be based on ubuntu 16.04 LTS so there would be way less updates.

Neon has 260 updates right now - been a few weeks since I updated. Still, it will sit there in the background and update away. If the kernel needs updating, I may have to restart but it will be a quick restart, pretty much a normal restart.

When/if I go with kubuntu, all I have to do is back up my home folder and then restore it after install and it will be like nothing ever happened.

I’ve tried 20 or so flavors of linux, all ubuntu based and liked mint well enough but it ran a little slow on my last machine which was under 2GHz. Another one I liked was ubuntustudio. I could create screen casts and edit the resulting videos on this 2.53GHz processor. UbuntuStudio runs in low-latency mode which allows it to just chug along with heavy applications like that.

[dennisw]

Thanks for all the advice on SSD size to get for my Linux Mint install. I will look at SSD prices and even though 60GB is enough (thanks for confirming) I will get 120GB if the 120GB price is not much more