Linux Mint 13 "Maya" - A Quick Overview

Launched on the 23rd of May 2012, Maya is the 13th release of the Ubuntu based Linux Mint. Just like it's predecessors, Linux Mint Uses the GNOME 3 user interface with the of 2 shells, Cinnamon or MATE shell. In this example I have chosen MATE, which gives the windows and interface a brushed steel themed look.

After booting up Linux Mint for the first time, you can straight away witness a combination of simplicity and elegance as you enter the log in screen. The desktop layout is quite welcoming and looks quite easy to navigate around.

Log In Screen for Linux Mint 13 MATE

Desktop with Welcome Screen

Desktop of Linux Mint 13 "Maya"

Unlike Ubuntu and it's Unity shell, Linux Mint's layout is much simpler but still elegant looking. It features a Windows style task bar located at the bottom of the desktop with a neatly organised and simple menu which makes finding your applications a breeze. On the right hand side of the task bar, you can view the info and status such as: date & time, sound and network status.

"Windows Like" Taskbar and Menu

Linux Mint 13 "Maya" comes with plenty of bundled applications. Some of the most notable applications are: Firefox Web Browser, Thunderbird Email Client, GIMP Image Editor, Banshee Media Player, LibreOffice Suite, Pidgin, Transmission and much more.

More applications can be downloaded and installed through the Software Manager, this is almost identical to Ubuntu's Software Center and a similar concept to the App Store on Apple Mac and iOS devices. This really makes searching, downloading and installing your application a breeze as the Software Manager takes care of downloading and installing your app.

Firefox Web Browser in Linux Mint 13 "Maya"

LibreOffice Running on Linux Mint

To some, the user interface for Linux Mint may seem bland. Comparing to Ubuntu's Unity interface, it is plain but more practical in my opinion. I find the task bar in Linux Mint quite useful and I find launching applications is much easier than Ubuntu. Also remember that GNOME offers hundreds different customisations that you can download and add some eye candy to Linux Mint.

As most Linux distributions, Linux Mint is very light weight and requires very minimal system specifications to run. This makes Linux Mint perform very fast and reliably, especially when running on current hardware.

System Requirements are:

600Mhz x86 processor (1Ghz recommended)

512Mb RAM (1GB recommended)

5GB Hard Disk Space (10GB recommended)

800x600 Monitor