Linux Mint 19.2 Xfce installed on my laptop

I keep on exploring Linux! The Linux family is a great alternative operating system for computers. Linux is very much more than operation systems for e.g. laptops and desktops, but that is my focus in this article. 

In November 2018 I installed Linux Mint 19.0 Cinnamon on my laptop, replacing Windows 10. I have been a happy Linux Mint Cinnamon user since then on my secondary computer. However, after considering that this cheap laptop indeed has limited system resources, I came to the conclusion I should change to the Xfce desktop. I wanted to stick to Linux Mint, because it works so well.

Linux Mint may very well be the distribution I will use also when I invest in a new computer with more resources some day. And eventually become my main operating system instead of the macOS I currently have on my main computer.

A couple of weeks ago I replaced my Linux Mint 19.2 Cinnamon with Linux Mint 19.2 Xfce. Linux Mint 19.2 uses Xfce release 4.12 from February 2015. In August 2019 Xfce released 4.14, and I believe this new desktop release will be included when Mint comes with release 19.3 later this year.

The Mint team has integrated their desktop options to have similar look and feel; I definitely feel I still use Mint. Cinnamon is more "modern" and is also the desktop developed by the Mint team, it should be the best one to use with Mint, if system resources is not limited. However, all three desktop variants (Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce) can be choosen based on personal preferences.

Installation went without any issue, I updated software, configured, added some additional software, and the system works well. This time I encrypted the full SSD hard drive during installation.

I have updated my RAM resource comparison article to include this new installation.

Characteristics of my laptop; a Lenovo ideapad 100s-14IBR; CPU: 1.60 GHz dual core, eMCC (SSD) Hard drive: 32 GB, RAM: 2 GB.

Try Linux you too!

27 September 2019
Henrik Hemrin