The real differences in Mint versus Win XP More to the point, despite being based on the Unix OS, you don’t have to know loads of command-line spells, rituals or be able to speak in tongues to do anything with your computer. However, if that’s the way you want to do it, you can. This makes it better than Windows as, if your old machine lacks HDD space, you don’t have to retain anything unnecessary.Ĭompared to how Unix used to look, even Lynx OS (the last version of Unix I worked with professionally), Mint has stood up to Windows and actually has something that’s not only equal to it, but I think, better. Software repositories give the user a large library of customisations, that you can either install and keep, or uninstall at the click of a button (and possibly a password entry). However, it doesn’t end there for Mint or any of the other Linux OS packages. The Windows key (which really ought to be called the Menu key as it’s not the only OS on the market) operates the menu just as it does in all Windows releases that have that logo’d button included in the interface. It’s altogether possible that the terms I have just used are copyright Microsoft, so doubtlessly there are probably alternative terms for these. On the bottom right, there is the clock and the system tray.

It has a task bar across the bottom with a menu button in the bottom left. Look and feel Standard Mint DesktopĪt first glance, the Mint interface doesn’t look much different to any of the pre-Vista editions of Windows. It will display at 1024 X 768, but by today’s standards is under-powered. It has just above the minimum amount of RAM and plenty of HDD space. In this test, I have downloaded the Linux Mint 18.2 Cinnamon 32 bit edition.Īs I described above, the makers of Linux Mint have claimed that it will run on an x86 machine, Graphics card capable of 800×600 resolution (1024×768 recommended).

512 MB RAM (1GB recommended for comfortable usage).

Graphics: Intel Extreme Graphics up to 64Mb So without further ado, let’s begin the battle… For me, Win XP was one of the best releases of Windows.

How to install linux mint on windows xp