Snowlinux can be described as a German Mint, with versions based on both Debian and Ubuntu. The naming of versions can be confusing: ‘White 3’ replaces ‘Cream 2’ (Ubuntu) and is unconnected with ‘Crystal 3’ (Debian). It comes in two versions, one with Mate and the other with Cinnamon and Gnome Fallback. I tested the 32-bit versions of both disks.

If you are going to adapt Ubuntu, you need to remove the bugs! These disks had the current problem of only working with certain video chips, solvable by adding ‘xforcevesa’ to the boot command. Luckily, the installer is a version that works. Unlike Mint, codecs are not included and they (with over 100 other unspecified things) were downloaded during the installation.

The main programs are LibreOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird, Empathy, Shotwell, Totem, and Rhythmbox, all of which ran without serious warnings. The problem for me was the high CPU usage of many programs. Totem ran at 95% (35% in CentOS) and was too slow to use; even Caja and Nautilus ran at 100% while slowly reading directories. It’s difficult to see what’s happening, but you obviously need a fast computer, or at least a different one to mine.

The user forum has only 131 members: evidently not enough to test it on a reasonable variety of computers. The Debian-based versions have been passable, but the Ubuntu-based ones just aren’t good enough to compete with the likes of Mint.