NO!
Here is a scratty, itty-bitty post that I have wanted to see, take off here.
Who knows?
Honestly, this is going to be a sort of blog filled with, hopefully yours and my "Good, Bad and Ugly" aspects of Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon Rosa as stated above in the title and maybe give some helpful hints about this system along the way.
If you are using Mate, Xfce or KDE please make comment. But be aware that some things work out of the box in one fork, and not the other.
Seeing as we now have a dedicated "All about Linux" category on the forums here, and you may be using a slightly different Linux OS to what is in here, you may want to start your own Ubuntu or Zorin thread etc. Although all are free to make comment here.
This is going to be a "what I have found out" thing.....................a "where I got it from", "screen-shots" and "did it perform well" sort of thing.
Do not hesitate to chip in if you are using the same system..............
I am certainly no expert in this field but, I have managed to maintain a perfectly usable and stable system for a good few months now and that is much more than I could ever say for Microsoft, when I first started using their OS in '98. Mint is far more than Win98 and compares favourably to Windows7. The once "Holy Grail" of Systems.
Hopefully along the way, my somewhat amateur and limited input will be of some usefulness to those among us that are novices where Linux is concerned. Maybe an expert or two will join in and help us put our wrongs to rights again.
(Hopefully.........hint)
Anyway..........
We are so used to Windows now that the mere thought of it (Linux) makes most people shudder about using a "dark force" to do our daily business and chores on. No, its not actually like that; it is quite a friendly system once you can get your head around it. The only problem is GETTING your head around it.
I am shortly about to give you a simple user tutorial about installing it and somewhere along the line, give you an idea of which packages you may possibly want to use to your benefit, as well as a good few slices of my experience, as I chug along daily, with Mint 17.3 Cinnamon Rosa installed on a 64bit, 4 core machine, with an AMD chip-set.
I am fairly sure that Linux will be chasing after Microsoft's tails, in its relentless push to make us BUY all the "up to the minute software and eye-candy performance departments". But to be honest, I don’t give a rats-ass about M$ and their software or policy’s.
All I want to do is share information freely, download, upload, watch films, play music and surf the net without big brother breathing down my neck every time I switch on a PC or a laptop (and getting screwed into the bargain for it).
In time, I am hoping we can fill some pages with a good deal of interesting things that you and me, the "End User" can use, FREE OF CHARGE from Open Source Technology...............................
Linux is becoming a more and more viable option in my opinion, as greedy old Microsoft is openly trying to throttle us, as well as trying to steal as much information as they possibly can from us before someone eventually puts a stop to "legal data-theft"
Why not use Linux? Its getting better and better all the time.......................you will see, soon enough for yourself; here in the pages of
ChattChitto
Later folks.
Its dinner time
Some time later that day........................
Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa – Cinnamon Installation
Linux Mint is arguably one of the easiest and most user-friendly Linux-based operating systems to come by in the Linux world; and while it might be second to Ubuntu in popularity, it remains the favourite of a large majority of Linux users around the globe.
It’s easy; Linux Mint is essentially “Ubuntu done right”. While the latter might not be bad in it’s own right, it is no news that the stability and flexibility the former offers is unmatched by Ubuntu.
Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa - Cinnamon Installation, Review and Customization
Linux Mint developers have taken the Ubuntu code, refined and made it into what is one of the world’s most reliable system.
And with every new iteration of Linux Mint is a much more refined software that continues to trump over Ubuntu.
While some Ubuntu devotees will argue that Linux Mint is no better than the varying distributions based on Ubuntu it is worth noting that Mint is one of the very first to take the Ubuntu codebase and refine it for better usability and stability.
Mint is available in quite a few flavors which include Cinnamon, KDE, and Xfce with LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) using an entirely different Debian base.
Linux Mint
Here I will walk you through the installation process of the Cinnamon variant on the latest Mint release – 17.3 Rosa.
Prerequisites, we must get.
Head on to the Linux Mint download page and get an image (one that suites you preference) – in this case, we are going with the 64bit Linux Mint Cinnamon variant.
Once booted to the desktop, there you’ll find the computer, home and install Linux Mint icons (which you can’t miss).
Linux Mint 17.3 – Cinnamon Desktop Installation
1. You go ahead and launch the installer and almost immediately, you’re prompted with a language selection screen where you select your install language before proceeding.
Select Linux Mint Installation Language
2. At this point, you see the installer confirms that you have all the recommended configurations needed for the installation to continue, after which you may now click continue to proceed.
3. At the next step of the installation, you’re prompted to choose your installation type which always defaults to the first option and depending on your system, i.e, if you already have an operating system installed, you’d be asked to continue in a dual-boot configuration or triple boot (as needed).
Select Linux Min Installation Type
However, if the system is a clean slate, the options will default to “Erase disk and install Linux Mint” as see in the image.
The options right below are for advanced users and you probably don’t want to touch them except you really know what you’re doing.
4. Once you click the “Install now” button, a quick dialog window shows you the changes that will be applied to your disk accordingly – pops up with all the configuration that will follow once you’re done installing the operating system.
Confirm Linux Mint Installation Disk
5. Once you’ve successfully gone past this point, you’ve crossed the most crucial stages after which you’ll now select your region on the map.
Hint: it auto-selects provided you’re connected to the Internet.
Select Your Country Region
6. On the next screen, you’ll choose your keyboard layout and if you’re uncertain, you can as well type into the empty white box with grayed out text then proceed by click the small rectangular box right below it.
Select Linux Mint Keyboard Layout
7. The next screen is where you input your details – Your name, password, etc.
Create User Account
8. Installation begins once you might have entered your details as needed.
Linux Mint Installation Process
9. Once done, you’re prompted to continue testing or to restart your PC; in which case you select which options suits you at the moment – I’d take that you’d go with the latter.
Linux Mint Installation Completes
10. I’d assume you went with the latter after which your system restarts. At this point, you’ll input your username and then your password as needed and press enter to proceed.
Linux Mint Login
11. Once on the desktop, you’re greeted with a welcome screen at which point you want to go to your lower right corner and untick the “show dialog at startup”.
Linux Mint Welcome Screen
12. Once you’ve done that, you must update your system as it is a good practice with every Linuxer or any good PC user for that matter.
Update Linux Mint
Brief Linux Mint 17.3 Review
It is without doubt that Mint has made an example with its exemplary Cinnamon desktop to other Linux distributions and desktop environments alike.
You can almost certainly attribute Mint’s success to this day to the Cinnamon DE which is not only simplistic with a UI akin to Windows but also, intuitive as it doesn’t get in your way but rather makes your most basic tasks easier to get about with it.
This, of course, was a necessity at the time Linux Mint started to become a thing and Windows users that were looking to transition to Linux easily felt right at home with Cinnamon.
Cinnamon is currently at version 2.8 which got released with Linux Mint Rosa 17.3 (which is based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS) and it features a host of improvements and a few new nifty additions here and there.
While it might not seem like a lot, there’s has been a lot of stability improvements to boot not to mention the loads and loads of bugs that have been squashed with this release.
Following the world popularity of Linux Mint’s Cinnamon, we can as well argue it to be the best desktop environment in Linux – which, is of course, subjective.
Clearly, it’s simplistic way of doing things derails from the likes of GNOME 3 of which it shares its core codebase, it is worth noting that it has since then matured to the extent of stripping as much of Gnome from its shell.
Also with its own dedicated filemanager (Nemo), system update software and a few others, Mint with Cinnamon (which is the flagship of the bunch) is slowly approaching singularity.
While Cinnamon hardly has any learning curve to it, it is worth noting that there might be some cases where you can’t access some applications from the standard pre-built software centre in which case you’d have to go with the PPA way of doing things or downloading .debs from external sources.
Which shouldn’t be too much of an hassle considering that the distro is based off Ubuntu 14.04 LTS; meaning there are ample resources online that will get you on with whatever it is you might need do.
Most importantly, Linux Mint with Cinnamon provides an “out of the box” experience which has mostly spelt out the success of this operating system.
An added advantage of the Cinnamon desktop environment is its extreme configurability which can be achieved via applets, extensions, and desklets.
Customization also extends to the the panel, calendar and themes. The image below shows is a good example of the extent at which I customize Cinnamon to give it a Google Material-like look and feel at the time I was still using it.
Conclusively, Linux Mint together with Cinnamon or whatever flavor you decide to go with (as they share the same underlying code) is quite the distro that lives up to its name especially if you’re the type of Linux user that looks to be more productive rather than explorative, Linux Mint will do you more than just justice.
Provided that the latest release 17.3 Rosa is based on an LTS, you’ll continue to get updates for the next three long years which is when Trusty Tahr expires and you’ll have to upgrade to the next 18-ishh version of the operating system that will be based on the next LTS of the time.
Homepage: 
512MB RAM (1GB recommended for a comfortable usage).
Installed & Very nice indeed. I've been modifying my own theme with a fair amount of success, but this looks far nicer/professional.....