I installed the new Linux Mint 17, AKA Quina, and have used it for a few days. Here’s a great, in-depth blog post on it from Desktop Linux, June 1, 2014–this is just my experience with it.

I downloaded via Torrent using Transmission and it took 18 minutes or so; Brasaro disk burner took less than 10 minutes to burn the ISO to DVD; and install was from 16:15 – 16:45, with the usual Q and A with the software.

It went smoothly and I retained the Windows 7 partition I don’t use. I didn’t upgrade for the new features but they seem nice, like this new desktop background, and the distro retains the usual Mint goodness.

The only codec problems seem related to the awful Google Chromium browser which I do use now and then. But Opera is best for me, and all the browsers seem to load faster. Opera also works very well on my weak Samsung Galaxy Tab 3-Lite running Android. I use Firefox for sites that don’t like Opera.

It takes me a couple hours to download my saved pics, videos, music and documents from USB thumbdrive; and put my browser bookmarks back and install Chromium, Gparted, SoundJuicer, Ghostery, etc. Security seems good but not obtrusive and Mint 17 looks and acts very similar to Mint 16.

I was hoping I could get better boot-up times and restore the active-program tiles in the system tray that Mint 16, running MATE desktop, had vanished for me. And I was hoping the runaway fan control would improve.

Since MATE seemed a bit wonky on this Acer Aspire E1-571 running Mint 16, I used Cinnamon this time for 17. And largely it has worked. On Mint 16 boot-up was over a minute, now it’s just over 40 seconds. The fan is more responsive too and seems to have stopped going into full-tilt-boogie mode.

Best of all, open programs now show tiles in the system tray. With Long Term Support, good new features and shiny new graphics, I am liking Mint 17, Quina, a lot.

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