A few times a month I pop over to DistroWatch to see which distro package is getting the most hits lately. I’ve been noticing this Linux Mint has been climbing the charts like a howler monkey strung out on crack, and is now claiming the 3rd spot behind Fedora and Ubuntu. I decided to take a look into the realm of Mint to see what all the commotion was about..

Linux Mint is a spin off from Ubuntu in that it uses the same repositories for core operations. Mint is now on the same release schedule as Ubuntu and the development areas are closely working together to coordinate extensive changes. The main difference with Mint is the desktop/UI. They’ve focused on bringing admin functionality out from behind the curtain, with the idea of making “scary” admin activities less daunting via friendly and intuitive helper programs, found only with Mint.

The Mint desktop was originally built from GNOME but they have recently pumped out a KDE version (slightly behind on the support/patch levels, but gaining ground quickly).

My opinion: Its Ubuntu with a new face. Hardcore Linux admins (when not ripping through the command line interface) have typically favored Fedora for its admin-friendly yet basic-user-intimidating look and feel, and Mint seems to be the Ubuntu fans way of bridging the gap between the two extremes. Will I be switching? Nope.