I think where Mint has captured my respect is in the way these guys think. Let's be honest. There are many of us that believe Mint is, in many aspects, what (k)ubuntu should have been...or at least in the direction it should have been going.

Having been a frontman for PCLinuxOS for two years, I can see where Mint is beginning to outpace them. Of course everything is colored by subjectivity so apply the applicable grains of salt to taste. Mint rests on the spectacular application choices of the Ubuntu repositories and as I grow as a Linux User, I find a need for those apps not yet available in PCLOS

I find that PCLinuxOS does not yet have the packages I find necessary for MY day to day use. Now, that changes by the day as more people come aboard that are willing to package the rpms for it, but as of now, the Debian/Ubuntu repositories are a sea of exploration as opposed to a roadside fishing hole that houses the school of PCLinuxOS apps. "School" being about 8000 apps at my last count...that's a pretty large school.

They do, in their defense however, have one of the most beautiful and complete eye candy repositories available. This is where Mint could really shine...inclusion of the metal4kde and activeheart styles would go a long way in improving Mint...that and building a control center like Mandriva/PCLinuxOS boast. You cannot argue with the pclos icon choices either...there are some in there that I haven't found elsewhere.

I agree that Mint isn't just another ripoff of Ubuntu. The talent behind this Distro (have you explored their work in fedora and debian mint?) is not only promising, it is insirational and I have no problems in supporting this distro and those behind it.

Now...is it make - make/install on this or do I have to do ./configure to get Activeheart to work...?

h