Linux Mint 11 Gnome Review

Posted on: August 24th, 2011 by 21 Comments

Every day more users are switching over to Linux Mint, and Mint 11 proves to be the best release thus far. Loads of new features and improvements will keep you entertained and the integrity of Linux Mint 11 stands among the greatest distributions.

About Mint 11 Katya

The whole Mint 11 Katya interface is extremely polished and user-friendliness is always a primary concern.

Mint 11 Gnome Screenshot

More Mint 11 Details

The software manager received the bulk of the attention for this release, and getting new software is easier than ever. So if your current distribution just wont play nice there has never been a better time to try Linux Mint.

Gnome Desktop

First I will cover all the changes pertaining to Linux Mint 11 Gnome, but I plan to review the LXDE, Xfce, KDE, and Debian releases very soon as well.

Linux Mint 11 Gnome Features

  • The welcome screen now offers the ability to upgrade to the from the live CD to the DVD edition.
  • You can also install multimedia codecs from the welcome screen.
  • The software manager has been vastly improved, experience faster speeds and a re-designed interface.
  • Receive faster package updates with the update manager.
  • Now you can turn off the terminal fortune cookies easily using the desktop settings tool, this means no more funny quotes in your terminal.
  • The Mint-X theme now looks better with many of the popular installed applications.

Linux Mint 11 Gnome Applications

  • Nautilus 2.32.2.1
  • Banshee Media Player 2.0
  • GIMP 2.6.11
  • Transmission Bit Torrent Client 2.13
  • LibreOffice 3.3.3
  • Firefox 6.0
  • Pidgin Instant Messaging Client 2.7.11
  • gThumb Image Viewer 2.13.1

Linux Mint 11 Gnome Installation

Mint 11 Gnome Screenshot

The Linux Mint 11 Gnome installation process went very smooth. After booting to the live CD you can doubt click the install Linux Mint icon that is on the desktop.

Finalizing The Installation

When the installation welcome screen opens you can first choose the install language, or view the release notes, then click forward to move on. Then confirm a few options and accept your partitioning setup, keep pressing forward.

Installation Slideshow

Then the installation will begin giving you time to choose your location settings, your keyboard settings, and enter your login information. Next you can watch the informative installation slide show, after a short time your installation will finish and tell you to restart.

Linux Mint 11 Gnome Desktop

Not much has changed when it comes to the desktop in Linux Mint 11 Katya. The welcome screen is especially useful, from here you can see the new features of Min 11, get help, or view other helpful information.

The Main Panel

You will still find a single panel along the bottom of the screen. The main menu icon is on the left side of the panel, this is where all of your applications are stored.

Mint 11 Gnome Screenshot

Gnome Desktop Details

Many icons are also stored along the right side of your main panel, these icons are for system notifications. These icons will keep you informed on the status of your computer. The icons on the desktop can be used to launch your file manager.

Linux Mint 11 Gnome Menus

Mint 11 Gnome Screenshot

The Mint 11 Katya menu structure has not changed much, generally things are much the same as before. When you open the main menu inside your panel you will first see several important folders on your system.

About The Menu

These icons can be used to launch the file manager, the area below the places menu panel will display multiple system administration options as well. You can open the software manager, or logout of your system from here.

Gnome Desktop Details

The right hand panel of the main menu will display all of your favorite applications, you can click all applications to see more. Applications can be added to your favorites simply by right-clicking on them and choosing add to favorites.

Linux Mint 11 Gnome Panels

Again the panels are very easy to configure, panels can be added or removed at any time as you please. To begin configuring your panels you can right-click on an empty spot inside the main panel, several options are available from the pop-up menu.

Panel Options

You can add widgets to the panel, see the panel properties, or add a new panel. Panel size, color and location can easily be altered from the panel properties window.

Mint 11 Gnome Screenshot

Panel Applets

Most of the widgets and applets that users are already familiar with are still available to add to your panels. Try the pop-out drawer applet if your panel gets too full, or the force-quit applet if you have troublesome applications. Though that is not likely on Mint 11.

Linux Mint 11 Gnome Software

Mint 11 Gnome Screenshot

Much love has been given to the software manager with the release of Linux Mint 11 Katya. The software manager can be launcher from the system tab of the main menu.

Software Manager Info

After launching the software manager you will now see a cool loading screen. The main software manager window now has larger icons, and a download category for fonts.

Software Management Imrovements

After highlighting an application for installation you will notice the application installation and information window has also been improved. You can now see all packages that will be added or removed during installation, package sizes will also be displayed. Package searches will now be more accurate as well

Linux Mint 11 Gnome File Manager

After double-clicking on one of the desktop icons you will find that Nautilus is the default file manager. I have mentioned many times that Nautilus is a favorite of mine due to stability and device connectivity.

About Nautilus

As always the Nautilus window conforms to the simple and traditional layout. The menu and shortcut panels along the top of the window will help you with almost all day-to-day file manager functions.

Mint 11 Gnome Screenshot

More Nautilus Details

The places panel along the left side of the Nautilus window will display important locations on your system, as well as a few popular items in your home directory. And the main panel on the right side of the Nautilus window is where files and folders will be displayed.

Linux Mint 11 Gnome Themes

Mint 11 Gnome Screenshot

Linux Mint 11 Gnome has 10 themes default themes to choose from, a few of the newer ones offer quite a courageous look, if you want something different. And there are a variety of neutrally color blended themes that would work well on most desktops.

Customize Your Themes

Linux Mint 11 Gnome also offers the ability to highly customize your theme to your preferences making it entirely your own.

More About Themes

You can save your own theme creations, install new themes, or get more themes online, all from one window.

Theme Preferences

To open your desktop themes preferences window first open your main menu, then click the button to show all applications. From the applications menu click preferences, then click appearance.

Linux Mint 11 Gnome Wallpapers

The selection of Mint 11 wallpapers is actually quite extensive. There are 19 high quality wallpapers to choose from, mostly nature and landscape related.

About The Wallpapers

Half of the wallpapers are also dedicated to Linux Mint artwork creations. The standard wallpaper options are available. To access these preferences first right click on your desktop, then click change desktop background.

Mint 11 Gnome Screenshot

More Background Options

You might want to try a solid color background, or you can zoom, scale, stretch, and tile your images to fit your desktop. And if the huge choice of Linux Mint wallapers doesn’t fit your taste, you can always click get more background online to open Firefox so you can see a larger selection.

Linux Mint 11 Gnome Synopsis

Well not much was left unmentioned, apart from the vast amount of application and package upgrades. The sleek and stylish Mint 11 Gnome interface is an almost flawless working environment, while remaining quite minimalistic and uncluttered. I encountered no problems at all when running this distribution, thus I highly recommend it for everyone.

Linux Mint Homepage

Download Linux Mint
Release Notes

| Posted in Reviews

  • Anon

    Give Pinguy OS a try

  • Jansen

    Pinguy OS is pretty much ok, but it is one stept too far for me.. It’s heavy and over the top. I’ll stick with Mint.

    • rijnsma

      I tried, but I don’t like panels. So I keep it Mint.
      I experimented with a lot of distro’s but I always and still return to the comfort of Mint.

  • Eddie

    Mint is a nice distro. The only real problems I have with them is the way they force control of updates. I like full control of Synaptic, not what they think I should have. The Mint Menu is another sore spot for me. I just don’t like the way it looks or works. Its got a chunky feel to it. Now the things I’ve mention are just personal preferences and in no way takes any of the quality away from the distro. I have used the distro many times in the past and even installed it for other people and it is a top quality distro. These are just my opinions and really carry no weight.

  • Stephen Green

    Uh, your kidding right! I’ve had the most unfortunate experience with Mint twice this year. Broken packages are what I find myself
    encountering. Just two days ago, while I installed it for a friend on his PC. The update manager acted up immediately? Once is an accident, twice is a problem. Pinguy is no
    better. As it still has issues with ‘Dockey’
    You media writers crack me up. And these distros are for ‘noobs’

  • http://linuxblog.darkduck.com darkduck

    >The Mint 11 Katya menu structure has not changed much

    And that’s the reason why I would not go even close to Mint GNOME edition.

  • henry

    Mint is for noobs…it is said.
    I have used mint sint helena. I have tried other distros, and always return to mint because everything just works.
    I have an asus laptop with nvidia-optimus. The majority on the ‘other’ wonderful distros don’t work. Another thing disabling touchpad clicks is a nightmare with the others.

    I am a noob…flame me if you wish. With mint I just have fun.

  • geoff

    mint 11 was no good for me, i loved it untill it did not work with compiz so it was a broken distro to me! still i got to try lots of others i was impressed with (fusion ect)

  • http://winuxguy.tumblr.com/ Ryan

    I like Mint, but ran into too many issues. Things just were not working like they should. Currently I’m using Pinguy OS and haven’t had a single issue. Love the speed and stability of it!

    I’ll give Mint another shot whenever the next version comes out.

  • Innocent Bystander

    Initially I hated the MintMenu (got used to Gnome Menu when learning Linux from Ubuntu). Then Ubuntu changes too much and I switched to LinuxMint. After spending sometimes to get used to MintMenu. I like it much better. In my opinion, it’s better than Gnome and Windows 7.

  • JIM

    Unbuntu has been messing up on my old machine and Pinguy is too slow on it, perhaps Mint 11 is just right.

  • Coyote

    A linux user since ’95 I found Mint to be a dream to install…but it would not function with the nvidea cards without flickering. The work around “fixes” were such a PIA that I wiped it off and went back to Ubuntu 10.4. Really wnat Mint to work, but not until nvidea probs are fixed.

  • KH

    I’m one of those “noobs” to Linux Mint you salty dogs rant on about. For a “fresh” convert, Linux Mint has done EXACTLY what I wanted “Linux” to do for me… TRANSITION. You tards ranting on about how noobish it is to use mint need to stop and thinking with that pea sized brain in your head. (A) You want the linux distro (REGARDLESS OF FLAVOR) to expand it’s influence… yet when people come along you shove them off. HELLO… shooting yourselves in the foot. (B) If Mint, as a distro, helps achieve that end goal (expanding linux influence) Then I’d say it’s a huge success. For me, a “NOOB”, it has made working with linux LOADS easier and I have yet to encounter a problem that hasn’t been easily figured out. Remember kids… the name of the game is to “GROW” the group… not have a “SMALL” group of non-noobs…. you’ll die one day and then what??

  • vortex59

    Linux Mint user since Elysa. However Mint 11 isn’t quite “the best” in Mint series. For now I switched back to Mint 10 (Julia) due to some small annoying issues (compiz+emerald even won’t start). Anyway now it is a critical period due to Gnome 3 and other changes (possible switch to Debian). Hope the Mint team will find the best way. It is really an excellent “Transition” OS for those who want to start with Linux.

  • rijnsma

    I use Mint in several flavours now for more than 4 years and it is the best of Linux I know (with PCLOS as second). Speed, smoothness, style, Gnome 2.3 I’m happy to see, a ten on the scale of 1 to ten. And a big applaus for Clement Lefebre and his team.

    I’ve tried and did over time work with Mint (6, 8, 9 LTS and 11, Mint (LMDE), Lxde and I use at the moment Xfce (very configurable and capable with speed). These are alle winners as far as I’m concerned. I hope they will survive UEFI/EFI Secure Boot, which is a real danger to Linux in several ways…

  • Sivabalan

    How to install the team viewer software and skype software to linux mint 11. Please give me the solution as soon as possible.

  • chipbuster

    Hey all, just a heads up: the default sources list for Mint 12 Debian is stupidly stupidly broken. It feels like half the multimedia tools have unmet dependencies, which is really a shame, since you can fix it just by adding a few sources to /etc/apt/sources.list

    If you’re trying to install software from the software center but can’t (from Software Manager, you click on the program and it highlights but doesn’t go to the install page, from command line it spits back the dependency issues) the correct sources list can be found here:

    http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=141&t=79533

    For those of you who aren’t used to working in command line, do the following:

    ONLY DO THIS IF YOU ARE RUNNING MINT DEBIAN!

    1. Open up a console

    2. Enter the following command
    gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

    3. Step 2 should open up a text editor, a little like notepad from Windows. Replace things in there with the following (copy-paste):

    deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ debian main upstream import

    deb http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest testing main contrib non-free
    deb-src http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest testing main contrib non-free

    deb testing/updates main contrib non-free
    deb-src testing/updates main contrib non-free
    deb testing main non-free

    # deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ debian main upstream import backport romeo
    # deb-src http://packages.linuxmint.com/ debian main upstream import backport romeo

    4. Save. Close gedit. And you’re done! Programs like OpenShot and WinFF should no longer complain at you about all the packages they’re not getting for Christmas.
    • chipbuster

      Hah, except that Mint Debian doesn’t actually have a version number. Sorry about that, I’m a little tired from crashing KDE Debian and reinstalling Mint today.

      • http://linuxlibrary.org thinkinhurtz

        Haha, I can see you are looking forward to the new reviews. I have been busy working on the back end of the site, 80 fresh articles waiting to be released! I have been using KDE more and more lately, but I am looking forward to testing out Mint 12 as well. I am excited to see all of the recent changes, though it probably won’t be the Debian version this time around. Thanks for the heads-up on some of the package problems though, that is always helpful! Still trying to decide if I want to test Xubuntu or Mint next, OpenSUSE is overdue as well… so many options!

        If your looking for Debian distro’s why not try plain old Debian on your system?? I have had fantastic success with Debian myself, and I found that it was beautifully customized in my opinion. Everything down to the font was well chosen in my opinion. But I subject every distribution to a vast amount of customization leaving them almost unrecognizable. I should just start doing my own builds but I am too lazy…

        • chipbuster

          I actually tried installing KDE Debian on my system. 2 hour install, X crashes within 3 minutes of boot. Reboot, same deal. I’m starting to think that my system has a fatal allergy to KDE :( It took me less than 20 minutes to put Mint back on my system.

          I’ll get around to trying Debian (GNOME version this time) again sometime when the fever strikes me, but I just spent two hours on a bum install, and I really don’t want to burn more time on another :(

          P.S. The install was stupidly long because I’m totally not used to the installer asking me questions along the way–all the ones I’ve used so far store all your options and then just go.