‘Linux Mint‘ is considered the simplest and dearest Linux distro. It has comparatively very simple installation procedure(Non-intimidating), very simple configuration setup and damn good procedure to download new packages/codecs and update repositories. You will finish installation in about 20 minutes. Seconds after installation you can play MP3s and videos without installing any extra codecs using tiring complex steps. Almost all formats are supported by its Media players.
The crux of matter is that if you don’t want to involve in hard issues of Linux and just want a simple desktop machine with pleasant environment which is not Windows, Mint is for you. It is considered media-OS because of its wide support to play media files.
Lets begin installation procedure.
Download ISO file from Mint’s website and burn it over DVD/CD depending over the size and version.
Insert disc and you’ll have menu consisting of installation options.
The one saying install Mint inside Windows is something new on Linux distros. What it does that it allocates suitable space inside Windows without making a new partition, and install Mint in it. Also booting preferences are also given to host OS.
For the normal installation boot your system with disc inserted into it.
Choose appropriate option from menu and wait for next window.
Choose language setup.
Choose your zone for time. Enter the keyboard config for yourself.
Note Mint generally comes with Gnome as desktop environment but you can install others also if available.
Now this step is the most critical step. Giving disc space to OS.
If you want to dedicate the entire Hard disc to Mint, then you can do so by automaticoption which is the default setting. If not then choose manual from list.
I advise you to allocate free space for Linux pre installation. You can do it by visiting Disc manager on Windows and deleting the drives and merging them.
Now it will create partition on it ext3(Linux’s partition). Give it the mount point and it will ask for swap partition.
If you think you don’t have enough RAM then you can allocate double of your RAM size to Swap partition. Now go ahead and take a cup of coffee and after finishing coffee you’ll find that Mint’s installation is finished.
You can couple Windows with it.
This is what a boot menu look like:
The customize setting is very similar to that of Ubuntu. Even the package manager is also same(Synaptic).
See the customize tutorial for help. Both are Debian package based.
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