My date with Ubuntu and Mint

I recently spent time with 

• Ubuntu
• Mint 13 - Cinnamon or MATE

I am not going to discuss Fedora/Red Hat/openSUSE

As a technology, marketing company being aware of what is out and current in technology is important. It is difficult to recommend or even speak to things you have not used yourself. My current systems are all dual boot Ubuntu (12) and Windows (7 or XP). I have just completed an install of Mint (13) on systems and have evaluated Mate and Cinnamon flavors.

Ubuntu is a Debian distribution as is Mint. Debian GNU/Linux includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel. it is distributed with access to thousands of software packages. Mint is built on Ubuntu.

Debian is known for adherence to the philosophies of UNIX and it focuses on stability.

Most Microsoft users are used to buying and operating system then having to pay for add ons to make the Computer/Server usable where as Linux comes bundled with everything you need to use it once installed. As a compare and contract all of the Linux distros I installed fully boot in roughly a third of the time of Windows.

Like Windows Ubuntu has a GUI and icons the user can change to suit their taste as well as configure either via default or plug in screen savers which can be locked and secured. Ubuntu is formated and laid out more like MAC while Mint is like Windows. Install is easy and can be done is a dual boot or stand alone and yes wifi, networking and the other features you are used to all function.

Once launched there is a low learning curve for both. The preloaded browser is Firefox and the office suite is LibreOffice (which will allow you to open, edit and save as MS office documents (Word, Power point or Excel). Did I mention auto-save is configured out of the box. They also come an email client (Thunderbird). Did I mention that PDF support is native to Linux. While you can install Google Chrome I would suggest using raw Chromium yet I have found FireFox works far better.

Due to extensive development you can find and install just about all of the applications you need to function and aside from advanced video editing or gaming anything from a production standpoint you need is available within Linux. In fact with the WINE plug-in some windows programs can run natively inside of Linux.

Linux makes better use of the system resources and in many cases will allow you to make an older PC perform like or some would argue better than new.

You are wondering why a writeup on Linux. So often the unaware avoid Linux not knowing that they use it everyday in one for or another. You are a closet Linux user if you have one of the following devices

• A DSL and broadband router
• A Ticket Kiosk
• Some bank ATMs
• An Android Phone
• Some NAS and SAN devices

If you want to learn more about Linux as a PC Operating system:

• Debian - http://www.debian.org/
• Mint - http://www.linuxmint.com/index.php (Note: Nadia will be available November 2012)
• Ubuntu - http://www.ubuntu.com/

You take a guided tour of Ubuntu - http://www.ubuntu.com/tour/en/

Here are two reviews by InfinityGalactic

Mint Review

 Ubuntu Review 

Why is this important - simply put understanding that the definition of computers has changed MS is no longer 90% market leader when you factor in the mobility market so it is important to understand the whole ecosystem. 

As proof of the validity of this review

Look for a review on Windows 8 from Corey soon!