Hi Everyone in this video I will be taking a look at Linux Mint
17 the KDE version, ok well I pretty much
missed ballpark on reviewing most distros based on Ubuntu 14.04
but since they are a long time support release, being around for five years
my review will still be relevant for some time yet. This is the first time
I've reviewed
a Mint Distro that is based on KDE
I've reviewed Mint before but that was Cinnamon or Mint versions
and I'm reviewed KDE Distro's before In-fact I'm item using one here which is Kubuntu
so how does it compare to the other
KDE desktop releases I've looked at in the past
will not great, it's near bottom list
NetRunner being at the end which is more the glitz and glamoury desktop
Kind of has the excuse there of been more bloated
just seems to be pretty much a standard KDE desktop
and doesn't really match the rest of the theaming that they have done on Cinnamon and MATE
so what would draw me to this system
Hmm Nothing. Simple as that
I can see at first glance some of the features they have done and that's
installed restricted extras
and Bind the Windows key to the launcher
that kind of handy if your new user and you wanted that
really if you are a new user
I would recommend that you try SolydK if you're after KDE desktop
if you wanted more the glitz and glamour KDE desktop then I recommend
you try NetRunner So realistically Mint 17 kind of falls in
that gap of not really being suitable on any particular level
the only point it wins at is it can be better on drivers
I've heard of a lot people have been better luck for drivers for a more obscure hardware
so maybe that's its winning point there
Lets take more of a look at the system
Ok starting with the layout of the desktop it's pretty simple really it's just got
application launcher on the left-hand side
you got a show desktop icon, shortcut to Dolphin file manager
on the system panel we got the Update Manager Volume Control
Network icon Notifications Time Calendar
and the cashew to add widgets or locked them all in place
since I've got the update manager open here we'll take a look at it
it slightly different than it has been before because that now shows
the level 4&5 updates by default
I've just taken it as it is out of the box here
not done anything, we do have the option now of installing the level 4 or
level 5 updates
which Linux Mint consider may damage your system
yeah kind of dubious sometimes they do and sometimes they don't
but then again you got security risks with kernel eventually
this is something I've pointed out in another video
with KDE we have the option of adding various widgets
We'll take a look here at what comes pre-installed
didn't really look an anything particularly noticeable of being unique the system
They're all what you can get in Kubuntu I can't remember if you get the Lancelot
launcher out of the box
but you got that
Logging is activated, ok
So yeah lets take a look at Lancelot launcher, that's the launcher I thought they would use
which is kinda closer to
the rest of their systems. There are more plasma widgets available through
Software Center
either through Synaptic package manager or the Software manager
now that would be Plasma. Oh what did they call them?
Plasma Widgets
Oh here we go type in "Plasma" and you get a few appear
There you go a few different Plasma Widgets to choose from
now one of the
more unique features with Linux Mint is the better handling of the drivers
in its they seems to be able to allow more obscure hardware is work in Linux
for example a wireless network card that won't work in any other Distro
maybe it will work in Mint. They did have the VirtualBox guest additions
pre-installed on system which
does bulk things out if you're not using it in VirtualBox
Ok well it made it easy for me testing out here
can't complain at that but err I can complain about the bulk
and additional bootup it does cause, it's about three seconds longer
in VirtualBox compared to Kubuntu. It doesn't sound like much but is more than
10 percent increase on boot-up time
without much more notable about the system instead look through what they have
pre-installed
so on the Graphics we do have the GIMP Image editor
under Internet we have Firefox for the web browser
and KMail for the email client and under MultiMedia we have AmaroK for the audioplayer
and Dragon player and VLC Media player
and as I mentioned earlier we do have Restricted Extras pre-installed
for Office it's the partial suite of LibreOffice version 4.2
under System we do have one to Mint's
own tools here which is the Backup tool and there should be Domain Blocker
as well somewhere
where was that... System settings looks pretty much like
a standard Kubuntu system. We got Mint Display Manager
login settings because evidently it uses
the Mint Display Manager for the login screen ok we'll take a look at that
in a moment as well now I was trying to think where this Domain Blocker was
so I gave up typed in "Domain Blocker"
I'm just looking across there and have a rather large spider crawling up the wall
so I'm going to make this a bit quick and get rid of that spider
before it interrupts my review any further BBC dot co dot UK
close that, go to Firefox
and we'll see I'm unable to connect to
page because it's now blocked It's a pretty crude
simple way of blocking the web pages Now I'll log out and take a look at
Mint Display Manager
login screen. Oh look it's animated
Doesn't that look quite nice?
And we got auto login. Cool
Here's what I thought of Linux Mint 17 the KDE version
it comes ready to use up the box
and it comes pre-setup with the launcher bound to the Windows or Super Key
on the downside there, the Update Manager
is balanced on stability rather security but at least it does give you the option now
of showing you that the updates are available it just doesn't select them by
default
so you have got the choice a going Hmm should I potentially break my system
or shall I keep running? Since the Distro could be around for five years
yeah it's kind of a dubious one you might want to update kernel at some point because
its going to pose a risk
as I've said in the past on another video
and as its final downside there, its not really much better
at first glance than Kubuntu with Restricted Extras and KSuperkey
I did mention at the beginning you do have the advantages with it being
potentially better for
drivers of obscure hardware, you might be better off with
Linux Mint ooo one obscure bug that I wish I'd taken a screenshot of
I missed err missed that chance now
that the installer said on completion my hard drive would be
one Byte large large. One Byte!
I don't know when computers were last at that size on harddrive
probably never. Overall I've given it
Eighty Percent, which is only about 2% worse than Kubuntu is
thanks for watching I'll see you later