Test Drive: Linux Mint 18 “Sarah” on the EEEPC

It has been some time since my latest “test-drive” of a linux distribution on the EEEPC. I must be honest about it: the EEEPC is getting everyday older and I’m slowly loosing interest in improoving its use. By the way afrer reading of the newly released Linux Mint version, powered by Cinnamon 3.0, I’ve been tempted to write a live disk on my USB stick and try how it performs on my old netbook.

First impressions

After boot Linux Mint starts with the usual, “good-old” fashioned, Cinnamon desktop

Cinnamon applications menu offers a modern interface to start applications with all features a good application launcher need

Test Drive: Linux Mint 17 “Qiana” on the EEEPC 900

Some time after Ubuntu release also Linux Mint has came out with its latest version: number 17 codenamed “Qiana”. Even if a little late since the release date I decided to give Mint Qiana a quick look by running it live on the EEEPC. I've been a Mint user for a while, what mostly interest me is to observe evolution of Mint desktop: Cinnamon. The EEEPC 900 is getting old and, even if it's still functional, Gnome Shell is getting less responsive every update. I was so thinking about switching to a lighter window manager.

First impressions

Here is how Linux Mint 17 looks like:

Test Drive: Linux Mint 16 “Petra” on the EEEPC

With the end of November the latest Linux Mint distribution release has arrived. Even I haven't got Mint installed on any of my computers anymore I decided to give it a look to see how it behaves, at least running live, on the EEEPC. I so downloaded Mint 16, the version shipped with Cinnamon 2.0, and prepared a USB disk using Unetbootin.

First impressions

The system started with reasonable speed and booted into the (good) old fashioned view of the Cinnamon desktop.

Mint 16 behaves smoothly enough and is responsive even on the EEEPC 900 limited resources.

Test Drive: Linux Mint 15 “Olivia” on the EEEPC

Less than a couple of months passed from latest Ubuntu arrival and the new Linux Mint 15 (codenamed Olivia) also has been released. I prepared a bootable USB disk in order to give it a look. I was, as usual, mostly interested to the new Cinnamon version (1.8) it comes with.

First impressions

Linux Mint welcomes you with a reassuring plain old styled desktop.

The application menu is responsive and it fits quite well even on the small EEEPC screen.

Test drive: Linux Mint 14 (live) on the EEEPC

I must reckon I haven't been recently paying much attention to new Linux releases. I so missed Linux Mint 14 release last November until some days ago. I so downloaded Linux Mint 14 “Nadia”, the one with Cinnamon 1.6 included, in order to give a look on how it would perform on my EEEPC 900. So after creating a bootable USB disk using Ubuntu's disk creator tool I restarted my netbook and started exploring the new Mint.

First impressions

Needless to say that Cinnamon, more than Mint itself, is the main object of my interest. I had been positively impressed from it while testing Mint 13 and the latest version only strengthened my opinion.

The EEEPC has been stable and responsive during all the time I tested Mint 14. Cinnamon settings are a bit improved over last version.

Test Drive: Linux Mint 13 “Maya” on the EEEPC 900

I know I'm unforgivably late but, at last, I managed to give a look to the latest Linux Mint release running live on my EEEPC. I've been a bit busy in this time bu the truth is also that I'm quite satisfied with my Mint 12 installation so I'm not really eager to upgrade. On the other side I've been positively impressed by new Mint's desktop environment, Cinnamon, and I was curious seeing it on my netbook computer.

First impressions

As usual, I downloaded Mint 13 disk image, using bi-torrent protocol, from Linux Mint download page and prepared a bootable USB disk using Ubuntu's disk preparing utility.

After a relatively fast boot (for a live version) here is how Mint 13 appears.

Mint me too!

Upgraded from Ubuntu 10.04 LTS to Mint 12

 

At last I decided to upgrade my EEEPC 900! The Ubuntu installation I was still using on it (10.04 LTS Netbook edition) was getting old so, after many live testing, and some “Test Drive” post I settled for installing Linux Mint 12 “Lisa”.

Why Mint?

If you read my post about Linux Mint test you'll have certainly noticed that it impressed me quite well. I mostly liked the Mint approach to user interface both open to innovation and respectful of old users. But what eventually led me towards a Gnome3 based distribution has been discovering, thanks mainly to Linux Mint, how this desktop environment can be expanded. I discovered, in fact that Gnome3 can be expanded using Javascript programming. Many extension are being developed and can be downloaded and installed from a Gnome3 page. Plenty of documentation and examples are available. Gnome3 guys didn't give of flexibility that had been Gnome2 characteristic, they just left it well hidden.

Installation

I prepared the installation, like usual, by writing a bootable SD card with Ubuntu's start-up disk tool. I then booted the EEEPC and started the installation program.

Linux Mint 12 RC: Gnome 3 for the human beings?

I promised myself to give a try to Linux Mint many times (and tweeted this intention a couple of times too) but I ever postponed this post until now. My personal dissatisfaction about new (Unity and Gnome3) user interfaces and some good reviews I read on the 'net triggered in me the decision to download Linux Mint 12 (RC) and place it on a SD memory card for a live test on the EEEPC.

I so downloaded the 1GB DVD image, using torrent, from Mint download page and prepared a bootable SD card with the tool provided in Ubuntu. I had no problems doing so, I suppose because Mint is a Ubuntu-derived distribution.

MGSE: the Mint way to the desktop

What makes Mint different from other distributions is that, in spite using Gnome 3, it welcomes the user with the familiar desktop interface we all were working with until less than a year ago.