I’ll throw my hat in here; Ubuntu MATE doesn’t force you to make a choice of file manager at the expense of the rest of the desktop. I’ve written a guide about using Nemo in UM if you’re interested in following that to the letter. The only caveat is that nemo-preview
isn’t something you can install into it, but a bunch of other, more capable tools exist for this purpose.
Linux Mint, on the other hand has a better OOTB experience, and as mentioned before, has some pretty impressive system tools. synaptic
is pre-installed, as well apt-xapian-index
so that’s a big bonus for first-time users who want to get their hands a bit dirtier, but this is just an illusion as installing certain things can cause other, different things to break. You have to be careful about 32-bit libs especially as some common ones that work fine in Ubuntu may want to rip half your system out. I’m not kidding! Here’s the response when trying to install some 32-bit libs I needed for a game;
sudo apt-get -s install libsdl2-2.0-0:i386 libglew1.10:i386 libalure1:i386 libdumb1:i386 libmodplug1:i386
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
libegl1-mesa:i386 libgbm1 libgbm1:i386 libwayland-client0:i386
libwayland-cursor0:i386 libwayland-egl1-mesa:i386 libwayland-server0:i386
libxcb-xfixes0:i386 libxkbcommon0:i386
Suggested packages:
glew-utils:i386
Recommended packages:
libegl1-mesa-drivers:i386
The following packages will be REMOVED:
gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad libmodplug1
mint-meta-codecs vlc vlc-nox vlc-plugin-notify vlc-plugin-pulse
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libalure1:i386 libdumb1:i386 libegl1-mesa:i386 libgbm1:i386 libglew1.10:i386
libmodplug1:i386 libsdl2-2.0-0:i386 libwayland-client0:i386
libwayland-cursor0:i386 libwayland-egl1-mesa:i386 libwayland-server0:i386
libxcb-xfixes0:i386 libxkbcommon0:i386
The following packages will be upgraded:
libgbm1
1 upgraded, 13 newly installed, 8 to remove and 27 not upgraded.
Remv mint-meta-codecs [2014.06.02]
Remv gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad [0.10.23-7.2ubuntu1.1]
Remv gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad [1.2.4-1~ubuntu1]
Remv vlc-plugin-pulse [2.1.6-0ubuntu14.04.1]
Remv vlc-plugin-notify [2.1.6-0ubuntu14.04.1]Ubuntu
Remv vlc-nox [2.1.6-0ubuntu14.04.1] [vlc:amd64 ]
Remv libmodplug1 [1:0.8.8.4-4.1] [vlc:amd64 ]
Remv vlc [2.1.6-0ubuntu14.04.1]
Inst libalure1:i386 (1.2-6 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [i386])
Inst libdumb1:i386 (1:0.9.3-6 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [i386])
Inst libgbm1 [10.1.3-0ubuntu0.1] (10.1.3-0ubuntu0.4 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty-updates [amd64])
Inst libwayland-client0:i386 (1.4.0-1ubuntu1 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [i386])
Inst libwayland-server0:i386 (1.4.0-1ubuntu1 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [i386])
Inst libgbm1:i386 (10.1.3-0ubuntu0.4 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty-updates [i386])
Inst libxcb-xfixes0:i386 (1.10-2ubuntu1 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [i386])
Inst libegl1-mesa:i386 (10.1.3-0ubuntu0.4 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty-updates [i386])
Inst libglew1.10:i386 (1.10.0-3 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [i386])
Inst libwayland-cursor0:i386 (1.4.0-1ubuntu1 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [i386])
Inst libwayland-egl1-mesa:i386 (10.1.3-0ubuntu0.4 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty-updates [i386])
Inst libxkbcommon0:i386 (0.4.1-0ubuntu1 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [i386])
Inst libsdl2-2.0-0:i386 (2.0.2+dfsg1-3ubuntu1.1 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty-updates [i386])
Inst libmodplug1:i386 (1:0.8.8.4-4.1 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [i386])
Conf libalure1:i386 (1.2-6 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [i386])
Conf libdumb1:i386 (1:0.9.3-6 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [i386])
Conf libgbm1 (10.1.3-0ubuntu0.4 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty-updates [amd64])
Conf libwayland-client0:i386 (1.4.0-1ubuntu1 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [i386])
Conf libwayland-server0:i386 (1.4.0-1ubuntu1 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [i386])
Conf libgbm1:i386 (10.1.3-0ubuntu0.4 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty-updates [i386])
Conf libxcb-xfixes0:i386 (1.10-2ubuntu1 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [i386])
Conf libegl1-mesa:i386 (10.1.3-0ubuntu0.4 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty-updates [i386])
Conf libglew1.10:i386 (1.10.0-3 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [i386])
Conf libwayland-cursor0:i386 (1.4.0-1ubuntu1 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [i386])
Conf libwayland-egl1-mesa:i386 (10.1.3-0ubuntu0.4 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty-updates [i386])
Conf libxkbcommon0:i386 (0.4.1-0ubuntu1 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [i386])
Conf libsdl2-2.0-0:i386 (2.0.2+dfsg1-3ubuntu1.1 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty-updates [i386])
Conf libmodplug1:i386 (1:0.8.8.4-4.1 Ubuntu:14.04/trusty [i386])
Why did all of that removal stuff need to happen? That made no sense. And UM agrees.
Mint MATE is still better for first-time Linux users because of the OOTB experience, if you have said user stick with 64-bit software. For everyone else, there’s us.