Linux Mint Helena was finally released, new theme with the same good style.

Linux Mint has been a favorite Linux distribution of mine for the past couple of years now. This group takes Ubuntu and dramatically improves the visual style to give a this distribution an eye catching look. They have also improved some core components of the distribution for ease of use.

One feature most users will notice first is Linux Mint’s ‘mint menu’. This menu is a huge step up from the default menu available in Ubuntu. It gives the user access to all of the favorite application on the first view, and gives the user the option to view ‘All applications’ if they want to. You have the Places portion of the mint menu which lists some common folders most users will want to access. Linux Mint 8 has improved this portion of the menu to allow you to control what shows up in the Places and System area of the menu. You can add custom folders, and hide any of the defaults. You can make any of these changes from the ‘Preferences’ of the menu. There are also icons to access the Software and Package managers in the left hand column of the mint menu. A terminal icon is accessible in the left hand column at all times and also an icon which will open the improved ‘Control Center’.

The Control Center is not a new thing. I first saw it used in the OpenSuSE distribution, but it was great decision to implement this into the Linux Mint distro. The Control Center has a great ‘Groups’ feature in the left hand column. This allows you to choose the group of icons you want to view. This way you can isolate the icons you want at the moment. You also have the choice to search, or ‘Filter’, what you are looking for.

What I originally liked about Linux Mint was that it implemented multiple software packages that I liked to use by default. Gnome-do was, at one time, installed by default. Linux Mint 8 has dropped that from the default install and you will have to install that using the software or package manager on your own. Linux Mint 8 does still include all of the main codecs that you will need to play common multimedia files, which is a smart move. Having these items included and configured by default saves huge amounts of time. Ubuntu user will need to download and configure them manually. Linux Mint 8 chose to stick with the Pidgin instant message client as the default which I agree with. Ubuntu started using Empathy for their IM client, they claim it was for performance reasons.

One great thing about Ubuntu 9.10 was that it included the Ubuntu One client by default. No need to install anything. Linux Mint 8 does not include this client and must be installed manually. This is not a huge problem, but I use the Ubuntu One service and this client is a must at this point. Not including it just added an extra step to my install, I chose Mint for fewer steps and a great look. The steps seems to get greater and greater at each release.

Overall this is a great distribution. It has a great look and really tweaks some areas of a normal Ubuntu install. There is quite a gap between the release of Ubuntu and the release of Mint, so I tend to switch between the two around the release date. If they could put out Mint closer to the Ubuntu releases, I would never go back. Until then, the original Ubuntu is number 1.