Review: Linux Mint 5 Elyssa XFCE Community Edition RC1

The fine folks at Linux Mint recently upgraded their line of Linux distros to version 5 (codenamed “Elyssa”) to coincide with the recent releases of the Hardy Heron version of Ubuntu. And now they have added an XFCE Community Edition for those who prefer Xfce over GNOME. I am one of those who prefer Xfce over GNOME, so I am pleasently pleased to see an Xfce edition of one of my favorite Linux distros.

After downloading the disk image (it’s about 685 MB) and burning it to a CD-R, I rebooted and used the easy installation process to install it alongside Windows XP in a dual-boot configuration. (NOTE: I still use Windows XP and InterVideo WinDVR 3 with my TV tuner because I have not found a suitable PVR application for Linux, including MythTV or Freevo.)

The first thing I did in my new installation was update my apt sources (sudo apt-get update) and then install the Firestarter firewall (sudo apt-get install firestarter). Even if you use a Linux distribution, you need a firewall to protect yourself from intruders and snoopers, including the NSA types. It’s also helpful if you install an anti-virus tool as well. Even if there are virtually no Linux viruses, there are Windows viruses that can be unknowingly transferred via email (Thunderbird, Evolution, etc.), so it’s important to protect others from getting viruses in their emails. I installed the ClamAV antivirus tool using sudo apt-get install clamav.

After getting everything set up, it was time to play with the system. Compiz Fusion is installed by default, and it’s easy to turn it on. Just click on the Elyssa “start” menu button, go to System, and choose XFCE 4 mintDesktop. Then click on the Compiz Fusion tab and click on the Enable/Disable button to turn Compiz Fusion on. In addition, you can remove the ugly borders that surround the text on your desktop icons. To do this, click on the System Tweaks tab and click on the Enable/Disable button beside Remove Border around Desktop Icons.

Mint 5 Xfce also includes the standard fare of Linux Mint apps you’d expect to find on an Xfce-based distro including Exaile, GIMP, Pidgin, Firefox, Thunderbird, and Brasero. Unlike most Xfce-based distros, Mint 5 Xfce comes with the OpenOffice.org office suite; most other Xfce-based distros come with the AbiWord word processor and the Gnumeric spreadsheet application. If you prefer AbiWord and Gnumeric over OpenOffice.org, you can use sudo apt-get remove openoffice.org-core to remove the entire OpenOffice.org office suite and then use sudo apt-get autoremove to remove any dependencies which are no longer needed. Then you can use sudo apt-get install abiword gnumeric to install AbiWord and Gnumeric.

As with Xubuntu 8.04.1 LTS, it is easy to add new users and manage groups. Just click on the start button, choose System, and then choose Users and Groups. Click on the Unlock button, then enter in your user password. You can now add new users and manage groups.

After spending the day tinkering with Linux Mint 5 Xfce CE, I have to say this is a GREAT Linux distro. I prefer Xfce over GNOME and KDE because in my opinion, GNOME and KDE use too much memory and CPU power, while Xfce is much lighter on resources. There are other desktop environments which are even lighter than Xfce, but they aren’t as useful or as stable as Xfce. I am a little disappointed that Exaile and Gnomebaker are installed by default; I prefer Rhythmbox over Exaile and Sound Juicer over Gnomebaker. I give this a 9.5 out of 10