Dell Inspiron Mini 12 Review
User Experience
Ubuntu, a Linux based operating system, is fairly new to the scene first appearing in 2004. It aims to offer the user stability and ease of use and comes complete with a range of applications; from a full-fledged office suite, web browser and email client to a range of instant messaging, multimedia and games software, all included as standard.
Upon first starting the user is greeted with a simple wizard which prompts them for their username, password and so on.
Startup Time (seconds)
Lower is better
- Dell Inspiron Mini 12 65 (90%)
- MSI Wind 52 (72%)
- Macbook Pro 39 (54%)
- Macbook 38 (52.6153846154%)
The Dell Inspiron Mini 12 goes from off to a working desktop in just over a minute which is reasonable for a Linux system.
Desktop
Dell presents the user two different interfaces upon starting - the Dell Desktop and the Ubuntu Desktop. The Dell desktop offers the user an easy to use launcher which orders applications by category, ranging from Entertainment, Games, Learn, Productivity and Web. Instead of using labels like Firefox, Pidgin and Gimp, Dell opts for far more sensible names (to a new user at least!) like Web Browser, Instant Messenger and Paint. There's a lot on offer and it's very easy to use - credit goes to Dell for making the system simple and straightforward for the new user.
The Ubuntu desktop consists of the desktop itself, the launcher menu on the top left, the taskbar along the bottom of the screen and a notification area in the top right for the system to display notices for the user's attention.
Applications are launched from the launcher menu on top left of the screen which categorizes them by their use eg. the web browser is found under the Internet sub-category, the media player under Sound & Video etc. Launched applications appear in the taskbar along the bottom of the screen and can be brought to the front by clicking on their taskboar icon.
Next to the application launcher is the Places menu which gives the user a drop down menu containing links to their home, documents, music, pictures and video folders. In addition it shows any mounted network shares and USB storage devices as well as a Search feature to find files.
