Mauna Linux

Reader supplied reviews for Mauna Linux Average rating 9.8 from 5 review(s) What are your thoughts on Mauna Linux? Please include a few pros and a few cons, along with your overall impression of the operating system. Our FAQ page has tips on writing a good mini-review. Version: -- 2524.7 Rating:    -- 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 out of 10 Your review (minimum 250 words): Past reviews - sort by: DateVotes Version: 25 Rating: 10 Date: 2025-09-27 Votes: 1 As a long time Linux Mint user, in particular its Mate' desktop edition, I had hoped that LMDE 7 would add Mate' to its Debian 13 based distribution along with Cinnamon as a desktop option. But it didn't, and apparently won't, which leaves few options except to remove Cinnamon and replace it with Mate' on my own - which I've been doing beginning with LMDE 6. For quite some time I've looked for a suitable Debian based replacement for LMDE, one that came with Mate' as a desktop option. I've tried quite a number of Debian 13 based distros with Mate' as a preinstalled desktop -- Sparky Linux, PCLinuxOS Debian Edition, DebLight, etc., -- finding nothing that matched up with or even vaguely approached what LMDE offers in the way of a complete, nothing essential lacking distro. Even though LMDE required me to eliminate Cinnamon and replace it with Mate' on my own - that's exactly what I've continued to do. I greatly enjoyed the traditional desktop look and feel that Gnome 2.x provided years ago, and having that exceptional DE forked and carried on in Mate' has been a Godsend to millions world wide, myself included. A short while ago DistroWatch highlighted Mauna Linux 25, a Debian 13 based distribution headquartered in Brazil that comes with an assortment of optional DEs, among which Mate' is included. With nothing to loose and time on my hands I installed Mauna Linux 25 Mate' on my Lenovo test machine and was immediately impressed with how similar it was to LMDE in every way as far as overall 'out of the box' capabilities are concerned. I wasn't particularly impressed with its 'out of the box' layout and look, seeing it as a bit scattered and unrefined. However, given how easy it is to customize and tweak a desktop's look and feel while using Mate', I quickly smoothed out and reorganized Mauna Linux's default DE, providing it the modern, streamlined, aesthetically pleasing look I most enjoy. Beyond its default layout's 'look and feel' benefiting from a bit of improvement, exploring its preinstalled software was an pleasant surprise. Virtually everything one finds available in LMDE 7, is likewise at your fingertips in Mauna Linux 25's 'out of the box' setup, along with a number of important apps that LMDE's default installation doesn't provide, including the Mate' DE. All things considered, if you like LMDE 7, and you wish like I do that it provided today's Mate' DE as an available installation choice, take a moment and look Mauna Linux 25 over more closely. With a whole lot less work than it takes to install Mate' on LMDE 7 and delete Cinnamon, you too can have a Debian 13 based virtual 'clone' of LMDE running the Mate' desktop, one that meets or beats everything that Linux Mint itself has long been famous for with its Ubuntu based Mate' desktop distro. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 25 Rating: 9 Date: 2025-09-21 Votes: 0 Mauna Linux stands out as a well-executed customization of Debian 13, offering a refined and optimized experience for users seeking stability and performance. Test Specifications: Hardware: HP Notebook Version: Mauna Linux 25 Desktop Environment: Cinnamon RAM Usage: Impressive 1.4 GB Strengths: The distribution demonstrates excellent resource optimization, with a remarkably low memory consumption of just 1.4 GB of RAM. This efficiency is particularly impressive considering it uses the Cinnamon desktop environment, known for its rich and modern interface. The Debian 13 customization has been carried out with care and attention to detail, resulting in a stable and responsive operating system. Area for Improvement: The only aspect that deserves attention is the distribution's graphic artwork, which could benefit from more visual polish. However, this limitation is easily addressable through the vast selection of themes available for Cinnamon, allowing users to customize the appearance according to their preferences. Conclusion: Mauna Linux represents excellent work by the development team. The combination of low resource consumption, Debian stability, and Cinnamon flexibility results in a highly recommendable distribution. Congratulations to the Mauna team for the excellent work! Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 24.7 Rating: 10 Date: 2025-09-19 Votes: 0 I downloaded and ran the cinnamon version 'live'. What this is, it's a Linux Mint clone. I gave it a 10 because on my machine it just works better than Linux Mint 22.1. It's faster than Mint and it boots up in just a few minutes, unlike Linux Mint. So if you like Linux Mint, - give Mauna Linux a try and then choose. There have been several good distros coming from Brazil. You'll see when you boot this disto it defaults to the Portuguese language, for English you have to make that choice. I mention that not because you might miss that but it seems to me that Mauna Linux was made with Brazil in mind. But even so I still think this is a winner, It's not just a clone, it's a better distro. Was this review helpful? Yes No See all 5 reader reviews of Mauna Linux...