Many of you are using Windows operating System; a famous O.S. by Microsoft. But Windows isn’t a Freeware and requires a good hardware specification to run smoothly. Once you install Windows, you have to regularly keep a watch on the O.S. so that it is not affected by Computer Viruses. Also you have to defragment your hard drives and clean up temporary files, registry regularly so that your PC runs smoothly.
So if you hate all these tasks and you want a O.S. which is absolutely free and doesn’t require much maintenance! you have to switch to Linux. There are many distributions of Linux( different flavors!) but couple of O.S. stands out, Ubuntu and Linux Mint. You might have heard about Ubuntu, the popular Linux distribution which is also FREE. Many people might be knowing it! So I’m going to discuss about the O.S. which many of you may not be knowing, the Linux Mint 11 operating system.Linux Mint 11 is based on Ubuntu 11.04 but it uses GNOME Desktop Environment and GUI whereas Ubuntu 11.04 uses Unity which is not so popular. All most all the apps which run in Ubuntu runs in Linux Mint 11 also. . . I’m currently Dual Booting Linux Mint 11 along with Windows 7. So far everything is just fine!
Hardware Specifications(Recommended)-
Processor: 1GHz
RAM: 512 MB
HDD: 10GB
Resolution: 1024×768
Take a look at a few screenshots . . .
- Desktop
As you can see the main desktop is quite stylish and minimal with the panel at the bottom( similar to task bar of windows, You can even auto hide it!) with the necessary notifications on the bottom right of the desktop.
- Menu
if you click on menu this is what you will see. Almost similar to windows but with a ‘favorites’ tab extra, where you can put the most visited application for easy access.
- Update Manager
Update manager automatically checks for updates. But you have to download and install them. Updates rated 1,2,3 are almost stable and safe to install, where 1 indicates the very stable update and so on
- Software Store
The software store has thousands of apps for you to choose and download. You can find almost all alternates for softwares you use in windows be it image editors, multimedia players, games an so on. . .
Bundled Software
Here is a list of the softwares included with Linux Mint 11. No Games are included By Default
Graphics:
GIMP
gThumb
LibreOffice Draw
Simple Scan
Internet:
Firefox- Browser
Giver- File sharing
Pidgin Instant Messenger
Sun Java 6
Thunderbird Mail/News- Mail Client
Transmission- Torrent Manager
XChat IRC
Upload manager
Multimedia:
Banshee
Brasero
GNOME MPlayer
Movie Player
Sound Recorder
VLC Media Player
Office:
Dictionary
LibreOffice
Also a virtual PDF printer which allows you to print any printable media into PDF format is pre-installed
Linux Mint can also run many programs designed for Microsoft Windows (such as Microsoft Office), through a program called Wine or using a Virtual Machine (such as VMware Workstation or VirtualBox).
Hardware-wise Linux Mint supports almost everything that Windows supports. Additional Drivers which are needed is displayed in Menu>Accessories>Additional Drivers.
How To install Linux Mint?
- mint4win-installer
Installation of Linux Mint is generally performed with the Live CD. The Linux Mint OS can be run directly from the CD( with a significant performance loss), allowing a user to “test-drive” the OS for hardware compatibility and driver support. The CD also contains the Ubiquity installer, which then can guide the user through the permanent installation process. CD images of all current and past versions are available for download at the Linux Mint web site.
Linux Mint can be booted and run from a USB Flash drive (as long as the BIOS supports booting from USB), with the option of saving settings to the flashdrive. This allows a portable installation that can be run on any PC which is capable of booting from a USB drive. Make sure that you give a top priority for booting via USB in BIOS. Use UNetbootin to burn .iso file to a pen drive and then restart the PC.
How to Dual Boot Linux Mint with Windows?
This is best when you want to have Windows running with Linux. You can choose one of them as Default O.S. Better Keep Windows as Default. Linux Mint11 shows up in boot screen, you just have to select it to boot your PC with it.
Method 1-
The Windows installer “Mint4Win”, which is based on Wubi( installer for Ubuntu), is included on the Live CD and allows Linux Mint to be installed from within Microsoft Windows. The operating system can then be removed similar to any other Windows software using the Windows Control Panel. This method requires no partitioning of a Windows user’s hard drive. it is not meant for permanent installations because it incurs a slight performance loss.
Method 2-
Linuxbsdos.com explains the best way of dual booting Linux Mint 11 with Windows. Check it out here. I followed their procedure and it works perfectly fine!
If you want to see more screenshots and a detailed review visit this link. Linux Mint 11 is suitable for beginner, intermediate and advanced Linux users.
