Reply #11: This is true

[pokerfan]

and it can be a construed as one of Mint's advantages. Ubuntu is extremely customizable. You can make Ubuntu look like pretty much any desktop, even Mac OS or Windows 7 for the perverse. Mint provides a mostly consistent look from one install to another and I think that the developers have made some good choices. Ubuntu has always had a developer feel to it, e.g. moving/reordering windows buttons, dropping beloved apps (though they're easy enough to install) and the latest, flirting with Unity and exploring the possibility of providing one consistent user interface for everything from phones to netbooks to tablets to desktops. Will it work? Who knows, but Ubuntu is willing to experiment. Mint is more conservative.

I'm currently using Ubuntu but I carry Mint on my thumb drive for a couple of reasons.

1) It looks marvelous and makes for a great impromptu demonstration when I'm at someone's house and they either want to see what Linux looks like or they want my help rescuing their borked Windows box.

2) Mint comes complete with the codecs that with Ubuntu you have to download from the internet. Not a big deal and true, I could always configure a persistent Ubuntu version on my thumb drive, but it's just nice to have the multimedia working out of the box.

I recommend Mint for beginners and Ubuntu for slightly more advanced users.