Linux Mint 1. 8 Cinnamon Review They Did it Again Linux Mint is one of the most popular GNULinux operating systems around, and according to Distrowatch. Linux Mint has been on the top 3 most popular distributions now its actually the number one, surpassing Debian and Ubuntu. By the way, Fedoras ranking is sinking fast, no surprise there though. Fedora is just a distribution for the coding elite of the GNULinux world and not for the average user, there I said it. And theres a good and a sensible reason for it in my opinion anyway. The reason is, with Linux Mint there is a sense of continuity where by change, it progresses. Pipelight Use Silverlight In Your Linux Browser To Watch Netflix, Maxdome Videos And More Ubuntu Linux blog. Security. Lets face it. Software has holes. And hackers love to exploit them. New vulnerabilities appear almost daily. If you have software we all do you need to. In other words, compared to the radical and often chaotic changes that some other desktop environments bring such as GNOME, change in Linux Mint is progressive.  For instance, if you look at the evolution of the Cinnamon desktop first released in 2. UI wise, yet, things have been vastly improved and hundreds of new features added. But if you look at the evolution of GNOME, by each major release 1x 2x and then from 2x 3x there has been radical changes through which an entirely different looking and functioning desktop emerged. And sometimes the end result is quite chaotic for many end users. That being said, Are radical changes bad That I cannot say. However, its usually the young and the energetic who are more prone to make radical choices. The old, the experienced and the settled, usually is more careful in their choices because experiences have taught them that there is a guaranteed positivity in change when its progressive. The best example is to look at the evolution of the Apple Mac OS. I mean look at the below screenshot. Thats how Mac OS used to look in 1. And here we are after 3. I dont know what the future will bring for Linux Mints Cinnamon desktop environment, but here I am using the latest version of it Linux Mint 1. Cinnamon after 2 years, and for the past 3 days, I experienced the same stability, fastness, efficiency and although vastly improved, the same looking desktop environment that was there, not only 2 years ago, actually it was like this from the very beginning. And the users dont complain And according to Linux Mint developers, its actually the 3rd most popular operating system used on Earth, after Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. Thats how it should be done, methinks. And speaking from a software developers point of view, I think its alright to make radical changes at the early stages where one is still in the process of creating a core identity. But once youre past it, you should move on with progressive steps not chaotic confusions. For instance, Ubuntu came up with Unity and it was a radical change back then, a totally revamped desktop UI. And they should better stick with it for many years to come. Otherwise, if all you ever do is introducing chaotic changes on how things are done, you either are a genius or an idiot who dont have a clear goal in mind, let alone displaying the lack of instinctively mastered skill. The philosophical lesson is over, lets move on with the Linux Mint 1. Cinnamon Review. So as soon as I heard a new version of Linux Mint has been released I downloaded the Cinnamon edition right away. Linux Mint is not restricted to their in house built Cinnamon desktop but also features the Xfce not updated to the 1. MATE desktop. But I always was very interested in Cinnamon I mean the desktop, yes, love the vegetable also and thats all Ive ever used with Linux Mint so I decided to use it here for the review also. The Cinnamon flavor comes with Cinnamon desktop 3. Kernel 4. 4, X. org 1. Ubuntu 1. 6. 0. 4 LTS core. The disc image size is about 1. GB. Linux Mint Cinnamon 1. UEFI is fully supported, but you need to turn off Secure Boot, otherwise youre required to do some work. I dont have performance related data from a recent Linux Mint Cinnamon release, thus I decided to compare its performance with Ubuntu 1. LTS.  However, when I was done reviewing Ubuntu 1. LTS and Ubuntu 1. Flavors comparison, I received a new laptop. So I decided to install Ubuntu 1. LTS on it before I installed LM 1. Cinnamon on the new laptop. Then I re measured the performance related data because comparing two distributions that were used on two totally different hardware doesnt make any sense. And as always, before I begin the Linux Mint 1. Cinnamon review, heres brief description of the hardware details of the new laptop Intel Core i. U, Hybrid GPU Setup Intel Broadwell HD Graphics 5. Nvidia 9. 20. M, 4. GB RAM DDR3, Hybrid Permanent Storage Setup Seagate 5. RPM, 5. 00 GB rotational disk and a Kingston 2. GB SSD, Qualcomm Atheros AR9. Wireless Adapter, Realtek RTL8. PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller, Realtek ALC3. Sound Card, LED Display 1. FPSHZ. Its an Asus laptop F3. LJ FN0. 24. H. This laptop as you can see, includes two storage devices. One 5. 00 GB rotational disk and another 2. GB SSD, both separate drives not a 2 in one type hybrid drive where a single controller controls both the SSD and the rotational disk. And since I dont have a lot of SSD space remaining, and since Ive installed the main operating system on the 2. GB SSD I use it as the root partition actually, the Home partition is located on the rotational disk, I installed Linux Mint 1. Cinnamon into the conventional and the slower, rotational HDD instead. As always, also remember that, after installing the OS, I booted into the OS 5 6 times for letting things to settle down first time wizards and background system services to be done with their setups and then I disabled the Startup Welcome screen and the Update manager from running to keep the accuracy of the memory usage readings high. User auto login was also enabled and I also added System Monitor shortcut to the task bar. And only after measuring the performance related data boot up times, memory usage, power usage, system responsiveness, shutdown delay I started to use the operating system and discover whats new. Also kindly remember that Im using Linux Mint Cinnamon with a 2 year absence. Therefore, some of what I may say new might already have had been there in the past. The Installer, GRUB Boot Up LogoIve decided to skip both the installer, the boot up logo GRUB. First of all, LM 1. Ubuntu 1. 6. 0. 4 LTS installer and Im sure you all are familiar with it. Secondly, the GRUB and boot up logo havent changed either. Therefore, Ill go over to the Desktop straightaway. The Desktop. Except for the new wallpaper, its a typical Cinnamon desktop UI where a Microsoft Windows traditional looking desktop is presented a task bar at the bottom of the screen with a XP type start menu. Come on now, you know all these details. The desktop right click context menu has changed a bit though.  Its filled with couple of useful shortcuts, Desktop Settings is a newly added shortcut if Im not mistaken. If you find it consists of too many shortcuts, then you can easily disable a few through the file manager Nemo. This is because some elements of the desktop desktop icons and the right click context menu is controlled through the file manager. For that open the file manager and go to Edit Plugins, then under Actions you can disable some of the items from being displayed on the desktop context menu. Nemo a fork of GNOMEs file manager also contains many useful features unlike the GNOME file manager.