Lightweight Linux distros

[m654321]

Review of Linux Mint - Xfce / Cinnamon versions

Curiosity got the better of me with this distro - it was always at the "number one" position in the Distrowatch rankings, so it has to be good - doesn't it?  So, I just had to try ..

POSITIVES

• a very polished & professional-looking OS, nice sharp graphics, lovely wallpapers
  
• recognised nVidia & Intel graphics cards in setup[1], in footer below) -  Optimus with its dual graphics card switcher was easy to install using the terminal
  
• impressed by hardware compatibility, e.g. LM instantly recognised the two pairs of Fn keys that control backlight brightness for both the keyboard (F3+F4) and the display (F5+F6), with out the need to edit the file /etc/default/grub file
  
• comes prepackaged with most, if not all, of the software you'll need 
  
• a large archive of information from their forum community
  

NEGATIVES

• I found the size of their forum community a bit overwhelming - you never really got to know anyone
  
• the kernel is not updated automatically within a kernel release, as it is with LL & other distros - it more or less states that kernel updating is done at the user's own risk!  - a dangerous view as ignoring kernel updating will presumably lead to instability and increased vulnerability ...
  
• LM crashed on me a few times in setup(1). According to a comment by Quidsup in his Youtube video review, entitled Linux Mint vs Ubuntu, LM is known not to always cope well with nVidia graphics cards, so this may have been the reason for it crashing a few times over several months
  

          In the end, the significant negatives outweighed the very impressive positives - a shame really as it's a                    distro with a lot going for it .