In my opinion, Linux Mint 9 Isadora is THE premier Linux distro for first-time Linux users and THE distro against which all other general-purpose distros should be judged. It's user-friendly and intuitive. The software repository has well over 30,000 packages. The hardware and codec support is superior - it has out-of-the-box DVD playing capability. Linux Mint reminds me of those early Lexus commercials. If operating systems were cars, Mint would be smooth enough to handle stacked wine glasses on the hood at 145 mph and have tight tolerances that pass the ball bearing test. (But you don't need financing to use Linux Mint!) After about a year of development and release candidate, Linux Mint Debian Edition was officially released last month. The Linux Mint team has successfully replicated the Minty goodness of the traditional Ubuntu-based editions without the overhead of actually using a Ubuntu base. I'm now using LMDE with Xfce as my main distro on my home computer right now, and it's really winning me over. My next version of Swift Linux (0.2.0) will be using LMDE as the base. (If you can't beat them, join them.) Those of you who don't like the new Ubuntu really need to try LMDE. Those of you who don't like GNOME3 and are dreading the end of GNOME2 need to try the Xfce and other alternative DEs for Linux Mint. I'm amazed how well the Linux Mint team duplicates the same feel across different DEs. (I'm using Linux Mint 11 with LXDE in VirtualBox for learning Ruby on Rails.) -- Jason Hsu <jhsu802701 at jasonhsu.com>