Mint has Mate, Cinnamon, and KDE too if you prefer those. The Live CD pops up with a very nice Xfce desktop; here I chose "Install Linux Mint".
I could encrypt the disk and use LVM but I simply chose to erase the disk and install.
I picked my language and set my userID and chose proprietary drivers - all very easy!
After that the installer started to copy over the files - and that was it!
Installation finished - rebooted and:
I noticed that I did not have to enter the root data during install so I went to a terminal and typed
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su
That worked like a charm so the installer does that for you without asking.
That makes the installation real easy and is a dream for a beginner.
Using it:
The first thing I do after an install is to update so I did a:
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apt-get update
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apt get upgrade
I never liked apt-get that much so I will install pacapt so that I can use the Arch method now....
That worked right out of the box !
For people that do not know what a terminal is (and don't care) there is a nice "App store":
Just take your pick and click and install - it is easy.
All the Office programs are there and they look great.
You get an update manager that lets you manage your update policy:
That is convenient.
Mint is quite a "looker" - everything simply looks great.
More importantly - every thing just works too
This is an easy distro to like and clearly something to recommend for a greenhorn.
Don't get me wrong; Mint is very capable for the experienced user too - but it is better than most/all for beginners.
I just like it and hereby recommend it for beginners.
If I will use it? I am close...but probably not since I am to "Archefied".. tormenting myself with very complex updates and manual interventions
You don't get that with Linux Mint.