Linux Mint 13 Review: My first Linux experience

Linux Mint 13 "Maya"

I’m new to Linux. Being a windows user my whole life, I really   believe that Windows is the best operating system. I’ve heard about the reputation of  MacOS  but since everything in apple has a price, I consider Windows as a practical OS. This mindset of mine hindered me from trying any other OS. To add, there are also a lot of applications out there for windows and if you can’t buy, there’s always an alternative or pirated copy of the software and or program you want. But I believe what  separates windows is it’s “plug and play”. Other than that, the speed, and performance could sometimes disappointing.

Going back, my curiosity started when I got tired of the frequent system hangs of windows. Even with system performance boosters, memory boosters, system cleaners and all softwares that supposedly would boost the system, the system still encounter problems in memory allocation. And so I began searching for another OS that could be close to windows. That’s when I learned about linux  distros or flavors. In the past I never knew there was a  lot of distros. This made it hard for me to choose the right one for me. When I searching for Linux distros that could be good for laptops and beginners like me, I was still a hard time picking a distro cause all of them are have good looking desktops. When I was reading about these top distros on site, I saw Linux Mint, and after reading the details about it by the site, I thought Mint could be a good pick. Since its color and look suited my eyes, and because of its promising reviews, I decided it would be a good distro to start learning linux.

I went to Mint’s site and headed directly to the download page without reading the recent updates. I When I got into the download page, again I was confused which one to choose because I didn’t know anything about MATE, Cinnamon and Xfce. But since I was on a hurry, I download the MATE version with a 32bit architecture. After downloading the installation cd I tried booting it on windows virtual pc and being convinced that it could be worth checking out, I made a live USB/Flash drive and booted it on my pc.

Startup seemed to be good, in fact better that a newly installed windows. Desktop could be easily customized and the response was fast. I checked the star-up menu and the look was the similar to windows. I tried the applications and everything was good, I mean for starters like me who doesn’t really know much yet, I could be easily satisfied. Another thing I tried was playing videos and music files. I was not disappointed, VLC is already included in the package.

Overall, from 1-10 I’d probably give Mint 13 MATE a 10 from a neophyte’s view, since my first OS experience didn’t encounter problems. But who knows? Maybe I wasn’t able to check out everything. Still, Linux Mint 13 is still one of the best choices for beginners to start learning Linux. Given that it's the current Linux distro champion might also make a difference.