Linux Mint: I sense a strange disturbance in the force...

I have chosen to NOT address the whole Ubuntu Unity desktop controversy, for several reasons. 

First of all, I tend to be pretty liberal and embrace change.  First impressions are often flat out wrong, and nothing bothers me more than people who won't even give something new a chance.

Second, I have heard very good things about Unity from people that I respect.  That DOES mean a lot to me, and by no means have I written off Unity altogether.  In fact, I recently installed Ubuntu (with Unity) on a Macbook Pro 6,2 and I'm really trying to get used to it. 

That said, I can't help but feel as if there is a major shift going on here, in the world of popular Linux distributions.  I don't remember exactly when Mint passed up Ubuntu on the page hit rankings on distrowatch, but it sure seems like the times they are a changin'.

So today I burned my first Mint DVD.  Like any Linux user, I have drawers full of all sorts of old Linux cds.  Some of those helped me get out of a mess in the past, and some opened the world to a new distribution.  Some failed so miserably that I couldn't even get them to boot up, but that's a different topic.