Is Linux Mint as good as or better than Linux Ubuntu?

Question

Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, and it has a sleek and cool new design, but is it better than the Linux giant, Ubuntu? I'm not sure of which one I should get. I heard that Ubuntu is great, but I don't like the orange theme. Linux Mint looks nice, but I'm not sure if it's up to par, or maybe it's even better.

I'm also looking at stuff included in the package manager. I'm not good at installing things without the package manager in Linux, so I want a distro with an extensive library of automated installations. I'm thinking that since Mint is based on Ubuntu, that it will have the same packages plus some of it's own, but I'm not sure. Could someone confirm or deny that for me please?

Thank you.

Answer 1

You could spend a lot of time worrying about which one to install - or you could install one - or install both of them - and use them.

Waste your time worrying, or flip a coin and install.  

Answer 2

Without Ubuntu there would be no Linux Mint as each release is directly based upon the latest release of Ubuntu. For Example :

Linux Mint 4.0/Ubuntu 7.10 (which I have found to be better)

Linux Mint 5.0/Ubuntu 8.04

The main difference between the two. Linux Mint has a more appealing appearance, Ubuntu has been knocked many times for how it looks. The other main difference that sets the two apart is Linux Mint has much of the most used software preinstalled and is in some cases easier to configure.

Here is the Official Ubuntu Documentation on using The Synaptic Package Manager https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Synapt...

LUg.

Answer 3

Linux Mint is Ubuntu with proprietary stuff out-of-the-box like Mp3 and flash.

Answer 4

Linux Mint is derived from Ubuntu code. They just added few tools like Mint Menu, Mint update, mint Backup, mint Assistant, mint Install etc. and gave it a new look.

Everything you have in Ubuntu will be there in Mint - including synaptic package manager.

The "main edition" of mint has some closed source stuff pre-installed like Flash, Java, audio and video codecs which you have to install manually in Ubuntu.

Also, sometimes, mint developers fix bugs that Ubuntu devs miss. Mint uses the same software library (repos) that Ubuntu uses, plus it has its own repos for mint-specific /mint-customized software.