Linux Mint 5 Elyssa Review

Here's my review of Linux Mint 5 Elyssa.

Setup
Manufacturer : Dell
Processor : AMD Turion Mk-26 2.0GHz
Physical Memory : 1024 MB DDR2 Memory
Video Card : ATI Radeon Xpress 1150
Hard Disk : Toshiba 60 GB
Network Card : Broadcom bcm43xx(Dell 1390)

Installation

Mint was the first distro I'd ever tried and I was looking at it and thinking that Elyssa might be really good, so on the day it came out I downloaded the iso and burned it. Later that day I had it installed.

Initial Impressions

After booting it up I noticed that this distro really is quite elegant, if not resource light. It was using about 300-400MBs RAM on first boot. However, this is also one of the faster distros I've seen, so I see that my RAM was put to good use. It uses the hardware drivers manager, like Ubuntu Hardy does, and it works quite well. After installing bcm43xx fwcutter I had to configure it via the terminal and enable it in the Hardware Drivers manager. It was really easy, copy and paste basically from the wiki.

Visuals

After Installing the GPU drivers(and rebooting), Compiz was enabled automatically, and made this distro really awesome, it only used about 500MBs RAM with Compiz enabled, so I'm happy about that.

Extra's

The Mint tools do make the GUI very easy to use, of course they could be improved, but they are really great, it includes Env as well, but I installed the Driver from Hardware Drivers instead.

Ease of Use

This really is the easies to use distro, and I thank everyone who has worked on it, of course, Linux Vet's may want something like Ubutnu or Debian, but Mint is a VERY nice distro, it gives you a “polished” feel.

Conclusion

This is the best distro for your general linux newbies, it is polished, elegant, and easy. Know I'm going to rant about it for about 6 months or until something breaks.

Screenshots

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=529

Pros

• Easiest to use distro
• Loads of Hardware support
• Visually nice
• The Mint tools are very nice to have

Cons

• May not suit Linux Vet's

In between:

• A bit resource heavy, but it is fast

 

So, it's like a distro lighter than Ubuntu but 'heavier' than Xubuntu?

 

No its way heavier then Ubuntu, but its speed equals it out(ubuntu is a tad faster).
EDIT: Btw, Xubuntu isn't exactly light weight...

 

Looks great and good job

 

Thanks
(filler)

 

So what's it's main differentiating point from Ubuntu?

 

It includes codecs, flash, etc.
Stuff that you can't have in the USA.

 

nice simple review thomas..
the pics look nice too..

 

Whoa, whoa. wait. You can't download flash for Ubuntu if you live in USA?

 

Hey, Thanks Thomas! Nice "quicky" review. I've been wondering weather to run a duel boot Win xp/Linux Mint. Now I think I will.

+1

 

Its legal for end consumers, not the distributors, MS can't either.

Nice!
If you need any help, let me know

 

Ahhh... Scared me for a second.

 

Wow, the distro does look really good, but I still have my doubts about it being superior to Ubuntu like some people believe it is. I doubt that there's much that this distro can do that Ubuntu couldn't handle.... and Ubuntu is a pretty user-friendly distro, even to the newest of users. But I suppose I should keep my mouth shut until I actually try this distro, shouldn't I?

Does Elyssa still use the Ubuntu repos like some previous versions of Mint did?

 

Ya, its Hardy Repos.