A Linux OS that just works…

So I was putting together a spare PC for my parents.  I didnt want to use Windows because they don’t know what they hell they are doing with clicking links.  So I opt’d for unix/linux OS.  First off, I’m a FreeBSD fan.  So I went with the desktop flavor PC-BSD.  I tried both the 32 and 64 bit addition of 9.1.  I found that it was a bit sluggish and I had a few issues with installing applications but for the most part, it picked up all my hardware flawlessly.  Now the sluggishness wasnt from the core FreeBSD side of it.  I put FreeBSD 9.1 on and built the desktop environment from scratch to test and it was way faster.  Seems that maybe PC-BSD may be bloating their distro.  However, I didnt want to use FreeBSD for the sake of ease and convenience and everything “just working”.  I knew at this point I was jumping into linux world.  I didnt want to go with Ubuntu.  Don’t care for Unity and the layout would be horrible for my parents, plus I’ve had bad experiences in the past were the OS just stops supporting a certain piece of hardware in a small update and hoses everything.  Didnt want to use Fedora, it changes to much and there isnt the ease of use.  Finally I remembered a little OS called Linux Mint.  Its based off Debian/Ubuntu.  Last I used it, several years ago, it was pretty solid then.  So I thought I would read reviews and check it out.  Needless to say, the OS rocks.  It picked up the hardware, it install EVERYTHING you need in an OS today to be able to play media files, quicktime, mp3’s, flash, java, etc.  I didnt have to do anything.  AMAZING OS.  I just installed it and it was done.  I’m still amazed.  The GUI is so crisp and clear and smooth.  Everything works.  I highly recommend anyone to try it.  Also, it gives you an option of two different flavors of desktop environments.

Oh…also…the shutdown process took 3 seconds from the time I hit the “shutdown” button.  Fucking amazing.

Hardware:

AMD Dual Core
Biostar mbd
ATI Radeon integrated VGA
500GB SATA2
4GB of DDR2

Tags: linux mint, linux mint review