LinuxMint Cinnamon
There are usually multiple reasons why I decide to explore an interesting distro, and this one is no exception. Years ago, I used LinuxMint for a while, and really liked it. Lately in the forum there's been a lot of chatter about the Cinnamon DE -- even a suggestion that Solus should add a Cinnamon edition. And I can't remember ever using Cinnamon, so naturally I'm curious. I would enjoy taking a look at it. I also expect Mint to be an easy distro to work with, and not generate a lot of drama. I created an EFI version of the VM with no complaints at all.
First, I'll do an update and install some basic software if I find that what I'll need isn't already here. I'm not going to try to work with the VM at full-screen, because its host is using Wayland, and I'm not interested in locking up everything. So I'll just maximize the VM's window, which will get me to a usable size, won't lock up anything, and will give me access to both the VM's and the host's lower panels. Maybe I'll log on to an X11 session later, so I can use the VM at full-scren then.
Using apt I updated 357 packages, so apparently this version of Mint has been around for at least a little while. I was also able to install everything I need for this adventure using apt, except for Vivaldi. I know I can fetch a .DEB file from the Vivaldi site and load it from that, so I'm pretty well set for now.
I launched Firefox, fetched Vivaldi.DEB, and used GDebi to install it. Thunderbird was already present, so all I need to do with that is to add a couple of email accounts. Vivaldi will be a little more work, as I plan to sync it. Before I configure those two apps, though, I'm going to install my bashrcAdditions macros, add mounting info for my NAS shares to /etc/fstab, and see whether I can access them from Mint. It's not obvious how I can create some virtual desktops, but it shouldn't be too hard to figure that out.
When after modifying /etc/fstab, and trying to mount the NAS shares in the folders I'd created on /mnt, I got an password prompt saying that permissions were needed to launch the gvfsd-admin daemon. I entered the password, and immediately I was able to access any of the shares and its contents. That makes me wonder about all the other distros that did not allow me such access. Maybe if I'd started that daemon (first installing it, if not already present) on those other distros, I would have had access to my NAS shares on them as well? I made a note to remind me to experiment with that the next time I'm in that situation.
I deleted most of the folders inside my home directory, and created symlinks to replace them with shares that I'd mounted in /mnt. I.e., I replaced Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and Videos. The Files app now accesses those instead of the original enpty folders.
So far things have been going very smoothly, and I'm pretty impressed with Cinnamon. But I really need to figure out how to create virtual desktops before I can go much farther, as I plan to have a lot of applications running simultaneously, and I want no more than one on each desktop. A right-click on the bottom panel (as on MATE) doesn't reveal any obvious way to add them, so I'll try looking through the system settings (as on Plasma).
Actually, it required both. I needed to enable editing the panel, install a Workspace Switcher, and then find the workspace properties in the system settings. There, I could create more than the four default workspaces, and name them accordingly. I had absolutely no problems configuring Thunderbird, sync'ing Vivaldi, or configuring the three solitaire games I usually install. The only setting I couldn't find yet is one that will show application icons in the workspace switcher, representing the apps that are running there, but I haven't given up yet.
Here's how it looks so far (this is Vivaldi, with a sync done.
There's more that I intend to do, but I'll do it tomorrow, as it's getting close to time to retire for the day and read for a while. I want to connect Thunderbird to my Google calendars, maybe create tab stacks on Vivaldi, and then work with everything for a while -- play some sessions with each game, etc. I'll keep looking for a way to show the application icons in the workspace switcher, and eventually I want to start an X11 session and see this VM in full-screen mode. Here's a neofetch image, since everything is now installed. I'll write a conclusion tomorrow.