Linux Mint 14 KDE:The Best Desktop Linux

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

Linux Mint 14 KDE:The Best Desktop Linux

Wow Linux Mint have done it again! The thing I  really admire about Linux Mint 14 KDE is the ability to work on any type of system and refined interface that it brings on the table – every time! After Mint Maya KDE, I was wondering if I had seen any KDE system more complete than this. With the Mint Nadia KDE release my impression has changed. This edition not only looks fabulous but the KDE bloat-wares are gone to actually give the users a more functional set of applications.

Linux Mint 14 KDE Desktop actually completes the release cycle for Nadia with Cinnamon, Mate and XFCE already out. The 32-bit works with both 32-bit and 64-bit machines.

From Mint 13 to 14, the 32-bit ISO has gained a little bit of bulk and now stands at 1.1 GB. KDE desktop is upgraded to 4.9.2 (which upgrades to 4.9.3 after the first update) and Linux kernel to 3.5.0, same as Kubuntu 12.10. Plus there are quite a few incremental improvements in this edition, like

• Dolphin 2.1 has now back and forward buttons, better artwork, ability to show metadata like ratings, tags, image & file size, authors, etc. and even group files based on metadata information.

  Linux Mint 14 KDE

• Incremental improvements in Konsole, Kontact, Kwin, Korganizer, etc. to make them faster and more stable.
• Software Manager (MintInstall) has some serious improvements to showcase, like it no longer uses aptdaemon but its own apt client which come with full debconf support. It means that you can now install debconf enabled packages like Wine, Microsoft fonts, etc. from the software manager only & not resort to synaptic package manager. Plus, it now runs as root and now it doesn’t require the user to type password every time an application is installed.
• Mintstick replaces USB Image Writer and it has better GUI and progress reporting.

To test the distro, I first did a live DVD and then booted it up on my Lenovo B520 3.1 Ghz Core i3,8 GB RAM desktop with a 8 GB partition allocated for Linux testing. When satisfied with live boot, I installed it on the 8 GB partition mentioned above.

I don’t know if other users have experienced it or not, but LM 14 KDE takes a bit of time to settle down after live boot. Initially, on all the systems I tried, it was painfully slow but after 5 min. I could see the real performance. However, there was no such issue after installation. Touchpad and Wifi detections were immediate and automatic. Sound worked perfectly – I could boot up and start playing my favorite movie!

Applications As mentioned, Linux Mint 14 KDE practically has all the applications that I wish a system should have. The list is well thought out and more than sufficient for regular needs. Office: LibreOffice 3.6 suite, Okular Document viewer, KAddressbook, Korganizer, Ktimetracker, KContact Internet: Firefox 17, Ktorrent, KGet download manager, Akregator Feed Reader, Kopete IM, IRC Client, KMail, Kvpnc VPN Client, Adobe flashplugin 11 Graphics: GIMP 2.8, Gwenview Image Viewer, Digikam photo management, KSnapshot, Xsane image scanner Multimedia: Amarok, Kaffeine Media Player, VLC 2 and multimedia codecs Others: Kate text editor, K3b disk burning, USB Image Writer, Upload Manager, Backup tool, Ark archiving tool, KGpg encryption tool, Klipper clipboard, Knotes, Kcalc, Kmag screen magnifier, Konsole, Root Konsole Only addition I can suggest is Skype 4 to the list instead of having two media players (Kaffeine & VLC) doing the same thing. Otherwise, complete.

All the multimedia codecs and flashplugin are already present in LM 14 KDE. Right after live boot / install, I could start playing my favorite youtube video online or listen to music apart from watching movies.

Appearance The looks haven’t changed much from the last release, but I could see the marginal improvements in design and aesthetics, as given in the release notes. In general, aesthetics are really good and sufficient attention has been given to the details, like fonts, color combination of the applications to suit the theme, etc. KDE 4.9.2 as usual looks shiny and bright. Dolphin 2.1 is much better than Dolphin 2.0 functionally, if not in looks. Further, animations are subtle and doesn’t cause distraction, which is good.

Installation Installation was pretty much the same as Ubuntu and it took about 30 minutes. Steps are like language, location, keyboard, user name and password, installation drive, etc. preferences followed by installation from the ISO. No surprises there and things went smoothly at a single go. CPU and RAM Usage Linux Mint 14 KDE is best-in-class in terms of resource usage. Mint KDE 14 is idea for any  laptop, even low powered netbooks and will bring any antique PC into life. Everywhere Linux Mint 14 KDE booted up well.

On my Lenovo B520 14 KDE used 1-5% CPU and 255 MB RAM with task manager running, which is marginal improvement over LM 13 KDE (270 MB RAM) on the same machine. Further, based on the previous tests I did, I see that it’s performance is actually much better than any other KDE Linux system.

Overall If you are looking for The Best Desktop Linux, Linux Mint 14 is for you. It looks elegant & shiny, performs better than any other KDE Linux system and has a really good ensemble of functionally useful apps. Plus it works on whatever systems you have – even on low resource systems! Definitely one of the better KDE Linux system of the year and I safely recommend it. In my last couple of days of usage, I found it to be really fast and stable distro. The subtle animations don’t hamper with productivity and it is really smooth to use. Download Linux Mint 14 KDE from

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Linux Mint 14 KDE