user
mikefreeman
United States


Software reviews
Software Score
ffmpeg
"Libav is a terrible substitute for the amazing ffmpeg package. Since ffmpeg was deprecated, I can't do much of anything with cross-platform video encoding, and DVD Styler crashes because it needs ffmpeg. Whoever thought this was a good idea has some serious delusions.."
1
googleearth
"This is just plain fun! The Julia version was just about perfect! Unfortunately, the version in Katya is substandard. Fonts aren't antialiased, it doesn't fit in with the rest of the GUI, and it looks like a Windows 95 program."
3
supertuxkart
"Fun! Great game for the kids!"
4
brasero
"Great piece of software!"
4
pidgin-skype
"If you have to have Skype running at the same time anyway, you might as well just use Skype. When I tried it, Pidgin and Skype seemed to intefere with each other, and I could only use it effectively when I was using Skype by itself."
2
mintinstall
"While Synaptic offers more control, it can be overwhelming if you're just browsing. MintInstall is great when you just want to either quickly install/uninstall something, or browse around for something new."
5
kde-full
"Shiny-looking and fun, but brings my computer to a crawl. Gnome 2 works much better for actually getting things done effectively.."
2
mintdesktop
"Nice, simple, and useful!"
4
minitube
"Ok, before complaining that it doesn't work at all, remember: to make it work on Mint 10, you MUST add the phonon-backend-gstreamer package. They really need to correct its dependencies!"
4
gedit
"Essential tool."
5
gparted
"A must-have in anyone's system admin arsenal, no matter what OS you're using."
5
alien
"Helpful on rare occasions when debs don't exist for an application."
4
openclipart-openoffice.org
"Nice selection, and good integration with OpenOffice/LibreOffice."
4
gnome-mahjongg
"Decent version. I wish there was a better way to visually distinguish between tile layers."
4
torcs
"Excellent! A lot of fun!"
5
flightgear
"The interface is very lacking in usability, but as far as flight physics and graphics, it's a great program!"
4
burgerspace
"I love the classic games! I wish there were more classic games done this well for Linux!"
5
cowsay
"Cute and funny, but really shouldn't be included as a default. Makes the greatness of Mint look suddenly corny the moment you open a terminal. Try to uninstall it, and it gets rid of things you don't want to get rid of. That's not good."
2
conky-all
"I'm not against anyone using it, but it's not for me, and doesn't seem like it's compatible with the purpose behind Mint. Just about anything I'd use it for could be done MUCH easier and also visually appealing with panel applets, screenlets, or other means."
2
konquest
"Really quite adictive."
4
dvdstyler
"Slick and quite professional!"
5
kompozer
"Very useful when I don't want to trudge through html code to edit my web page. A few bugs here and there still, but you learn what to avoid."
4
docky
"Excellent dock. Very stable, simple, and elegant!"
5
gpredict
"Fun! I enjoy astronomy and satelite watching, so this is great!"
4
scribus-ng
"This is the one to use! Don't use the older version. This one has great features and is very stable! Excellent replacement for MS Publisher."
5
winff
"Quick and easy transcoder."
5
yofrankie
"Graphics and animation are beautiful! But it's a little slow and clunky. Playable, though."
4
usb-creator
"Works great for putting the Mint LiveDVD on a flash drive."
4
firefox
"I switch equally between this and Chromium, depending on my needs at the moment. Both are great!"
5
vlc
"Really great multi-platform media player!"
5
empathy
"Didn't like it at first, but it's growing on me. Pidgin was beginning to not work way too frequently, so this is a good alternate. Wish the GUI was better, but ok."
4
funguloids
"Works perfectly fine (on my system), and is a fairly interesting game, too."
4
virtualbox-ose
"Works well. The non-free version (but still cost-free) is even better! Try version 4 - amazing!"
4
songbird
"About Songbird's Linux support... apparently there is unofficial support coming from somewhere. I see version 1.8.0 on getdeb.net's repositories, which is nearly up-to-date with the current Windows version (only one version behind)."
4
compiz
"Love it! I just wish the reflection plugin would stay out of the drop shadow. Who ever heard of a shadow having a reflection?!"
4
banshee
"The more I use it, the more I'm starting to really like it."
4
radiotray
"It's alright, but I'd actually use it if it allowed you to easily browse for new stations and genres instead of expecting you to just know where to find URLs for specific stations and making you manually type in URLs. Not very friendly for "newbies", and a lot more work than is really necessary, even for more experienced users."
3
electricsheep
"One of the few screensavers I can just sit and watch and never get bored! Simply stunning!"
5
chromium
"Really great and incredibly fast!"
5
cheese
"Fun little program. My kids love playing with the effects."
4
playonlinux
"Absolutely a must-have if you need to install a Windows program."
5
wine
"Good tool when it's compatible with something you HAVE to run. I strongly recommend using PlayOnLinux to run install scripts for some programs and to sandbox all your programs into their own prefixes. Keeps things much more sane."
4
ri-li
"Fun game! I just don't quite get the quiz between each level. At least it's not something that people in the U.S. need to know, so it's more of an annoyance and detracts from the game. If there's a way to turn that feature off, change the subject of the questions, etc. it would be much better."
3
compiz-fusion-plugins-extra
"Great! Should be installed by default!"
5
frozen-bubble
"Great game!"
5
celestia
"Always loved this program! But since I've switched to Mint, I can't get the GTK version (which I prefer) to run. The KDE version works well enough, though."
4
gwibber
"Ok, but could be better."
3
xiphos
"Great Bible program. I only wish the "proprietary" Bibles (NIV, Message, etc.) would come out with compatible modules. Makes it hard to quote verses from when people are expecting certain popular versions."
4
stellarium
"Nice, well-done, feature-full program!"
5
adobereader-deu
"For those who are frustrated that this is in German: Deu is short for Deutsch, which means German. Get the English version if you speak English (the package is called acroread)."
4
emerald
"Excellent for glassy, transparent window borders!"
5
synaptic
"I use this and MintInstall equally, for different reasons. Both are great!"
5
indicator-me
"Once you set it to offline, it doesn't let you change it back. HUGE bug that hasn't been fixed in a long time."
3
mintmenu
"Not bad as these things go, but not my favorite menu. Theme doesn't match the default system theme at all - which gave me a bad first impression. A little awkward to use. A bit too Windows-like (I came from Mac, so don't like the Windows one-button-menu-on-the-bottom scheme, but can appreciate this menu's target audience). Have to move the mouse too far from the menu button to get to the applications, and I don't want ALL the apps I use clogging up the favorites list. I personally prefer the normal Ubuntu-like menu bar applet better. Good thing Linux Mint has so many options!"
3
openoffice.org-draw
"Seems to me to be more of an attempt at a desktop publishing interface (like MS Publisher) than a strict graphics program. It has some good uses, in that respect (Scribus is best for that, though)."
4
openuniverse
"Celestia is similar, but has a much bigger array of space objects you can look at, such as other stars, newly-found extra-solar planets, our entire galaxy from the outside perspective, etc."
3
picasa
"Love this program, but wish there was a native Linux version instead of an old Windows version running on wine."
4
celestia-gnome
"This does not work for me. When run, it simply freezes until I force it to quit. Terminal output gives no indication that there is a problem. I have to use the KDE version instead, although I would rather have a Gnome-based version.."
1
virtualbox-guest-additions
"Makes Virtualbox work almost seamlessly with your system."
5
ubuntu-tweak
"Excellent way to get the most out of your system!"
5
virtualbox-3.1
"Works great! The only way to run almost all Windows programs without dualbooting."
5
wine1.2
"Wish that it ran more software and up to my system's graphic potential. The few programs I can get to work run very slowly. Sadly it doesn't run .NET 3, 3.5, or 4, which eliminates many of the programs out there."
3
acroread
"The only PDF viewer I've found that can use tabs for different documents. Doesn't handle them nicely, though."
3
rhythmbox
"Decent iTunes alternative, especially with the Ubuntu store plugin added in."
4
skype
"Must-have if you've got to VOIP call an average Windows user."
4
tuxpaint
"My kids' favorite program by far!"
5
openoffice.org
"Best office suite on any platform!"
5
handbrake-gtk
"My favorite DVD/video file transcoder!"
5
scribus
"Great!"
5
gimp
"Excellent graphics program! If it doesn't have what you need, it's probably just a plugin away."
5
openshot
"One of the easiest Linux video editors. Great!"
5
worldofgoodemo
"Best Linux game I've seen, and when you buy the full version, you get all three Linux, Mac, and PC versions, in case you have any of those "other" OS's, too. Well worth the price for the full version!"
5