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As someone who has consistently used and liked the setup of MATE in Linux Mint, I was pleasantly surprised to see how, after modifications that weren't too hard, I could feel at home in KDE.

Linux Mint 19 "Tara" could recognize my Canon CanoScan 4400F scanner but couldn't properly communicate with it, attempts at fixing the problem led to a complete messing up of the OS, and Linux Mint 20 "Ulyana" can no longer recognize it at all.

I recently bought an ASUS ZenBook UX331UN to replace my old laptop, and installed Linux Mint 19 "Tara" MATE. This post summarizes my impressions installing Linux on it and using the laptop after a month.

The MATE edition has polished off more bugs than before and I can't really think of a bad thing to say about it. The Xfce edition is largely at the same high quality as before, while the Cinnamon edition is more stable than when I last tried it.

It's a competent distribution that is surprisingly fast & stable, but it has too many minor issues and consequently doesn't compare well to other Linux Mint editions in being suitable for newbies.

I installed Linux Mint 18.2 "Sonya" MATE onto my laptop's hard drive and have been using it for 2 weeks: it was easy to install and set up, had no issues, and was able to effectively stay out of my way.

It hasn't changed too much since the last time I tried it, meaning that apart from a few minor usability issues, it's still quite suitable for newbies on the whole.

I reviewed it as an everyday desktop distribution (as opposed to a server or other workstation distribution) to see if I could use it regularly; I find that its slowness and a handful of usability issues make it not the right distribution for me.

Microsoft has locked the default browser choice on Windows 10 S, but I'm not sure that it matters as much now as it did 16 years ago when the US government brought an antitrust suit on a very similar issue.

It isn't totally suitable for newbies due to the subtleties in changing various configuration settings, but it is easy enough for someone who may have used Linux even just a little bit to use.

Skype and Google Talk had issues that turned out to be distribution- [or even OS-] independent, but it was a bit slow throughout, and other minor issues popped up that prevent me from giving it my fullest recommendation.

As a showcase for KDE, it's pretty good, but as an everyday distribution for newbies, its configuration and hardware recognition fall short.

It's an interesting distribution that makes a pretty solid effort toward pulling in new users, yet it is somewhat let down by a bunch of weird defaults and other usability issues that are each small but add up to a less compelling experience overall.

In my experience, Cinnamon always seems to have a bunch of minor usability issues that add up, and the lack of verifiable support for Google Talk in the live session is a dealbreaker for me.

The KDE edition doesn't fix the usability issues for applications carried over from the main editions, while introducing a few new issues of its own. The Xfce edition is functionally nearly identical to the MATE edition, and is a little more customizable too.

It still works quite well, but (putting aside the issue of multimedia codecs and plugins no longer being included by default) there are a handful of usability issues that are individually minor but cumulatively prevent me from giving my highest recommendation

It's a decently put-together distribution that targets new users especially with promises of great support; I found it to be fine, though not particularly spectacular.

It works fine overall, but it has several minor niggles that seem to go against the goals of user-friendliness and consistency in the user experience (especially for newbies).

(This is a review of the new independent Solus with the Budgie DE, not of the old Debian-based SolusOS with GNOME 2.) Budgie looks slick, but there are a bunch of small usability issues that add up to make for a somewhat frustrating user experience in conjunction with niggles from GNOME 3. Also, the software selection is a bit sparse, but that can definitely change over time.

The live session had serious issues with installing packages, which is a dealbreaker for me.