I have run my home PC on Linux for many years, starting with RedHat 7 and going through a several versions of Slackware and lately Ubuntu. I have noticed for a while that Mint Linux had gone into the top listing of Linux distros on distrowatch.com. So I decided to give it a try.
The install process is pretty slick and straight forward. After installing I was shocked the first time the machine booted to see a completely blank monitor. Most people would assume that something was very wrong with such a lack of even text display. Expect to see nothing when you boot Mint Linux. This is a real shame. Being able to see the boot process was always one of the things I liked about the older Linux distros.
After booting Mint Linux 11 set itself up nicely, finding my printer, setting up sound, and finding any USB devices that I plug into the machine. But it didn't take an hour of working to discover that it freezes often. There are no external programs that I can blame this on either. Sometimes I merely boot the system and view a file and everything comes to a halt. If you like Microsoft products you'll probably feel very at home on Mint Linux 11. With the periodic system freeze up a seasoned Windows user will feel right at home.
After my disappointing run with Mint Linux 11, I decided to install Ubuntu 11.04. This worked much better than Mint Linux 11. I have run the system for more than a month and it has never crashed. I am very pleased that Ubuntu 11.04 still includes the Gnome Classic Desktop. The new Unity Desktop is just a nuisance. The compulsion to constantly reinvent the look and feel of the wheel has reached its logical conclusions with the Unity Desktop. I believe that anyone will be able to navigate to files and programs more swiftly on the Classic Gnome than on the Unity Desktop, no matter how long they bang their heads against the wall leaning Unity. The developers are only after more slick looks. Ease of use is now out the window. Ubuntu 11.10 does not come with Gnome Classic as an option, but it can easily be installed.