Linux Mint User Guide
http://www.linuxmint.com/documentation/user-guide/Cinnamon/english_17.0.pdf
>You should have this downloaded and on your desktop in Linux Mint so you can refer to it as needed. You may also check this out before installing Linux Mint.
>Note: It's a little out of date right now and some stuff is wrong, e.g. ctrl + windows_key is no longer necessary to open the start menu, you just preses the windows key and that's it. The user guide is actually pretty shit overall.
Linux Mint Hardware Compatibility Chart
http://community.linuxmint.com/hardware
>Find out if your computer or one you want to buy has hardware supported by Linux Mint
>Note; even if it's not properly supported you might still be able to get Linux Mint running with some extra effort also desktops generally just werk more than laptops. Cheap shitty laptops especially are the least likely to just werk with Linux Mint Cinnamon (or any Linux distro at all).
>Some computer hardware will never just werk with Linux due to the jewry of hardware manufacturers, in that case you might have to replace that component or you will want to carefully buy a new computer that you know is going to be well supported (and if it isn't you can return it I guess).
>Find out what all the hardware inside your computer is (Soundcard, Wifi card, graphics processor, etc.) and search online to see if it's supported or ask on the Linux Mint forums or IRC after giving specs.
>Remember if you have a USB Stick, your computer has a USB 3.0 or 2.0 port, and you want to try out Linux Mint on your computer it is very easy to format your stick and write the ISO image to it then live boot it from the USB stick without even installing it to a partition.
>If you can't get WiFi right away then install to a partition on your hard-drive (it's easy to dual-boot with Linux, you don't need to get rid of Windows) plug in ethernet cable and install all the updates and maybe you will have WiFi then or else you might have to look up your specific WiFi card and find a fix for it online.
How to install Linux Mint via USB
http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/744
>Works, tried it myself, prefer the USB method, I have used both mintStick method (on Linux Mint itself to make another copy of Linux Mint) and PenDriveLinux Universal USB Installer (on Windows).
>For me while my ayylienware is loading I have to hit F1 and then F12 to bring up the extended boot menu where I could choose to boot from the USB stick. Search "How to boot from USB" for more information.
Linux Mint Tutorials
http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/search
>Lots of good tutorials in here, wish I knew about this earlier.
Want to add programs to Linux Mint Cinnamon's Start Menu?
1. Right click the menu and select Configure from the dropdown menu.
2. Open the menu editor.
3. Now you can add new menus, new items within each menu, and edit items already in there to launch the newer versions of software you have downloaded without using the out-dated Software Manager in Linux Mint.
I will expand on this later in a future version of this tutorial with some specific examples.
Want to add Microsoft fonts to Linux Mint and other fonts too?
http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/25
(Adding the Microsoft fonts is as simple as opening the Software Manager, going to the Fonts category, and installing ttf-mscorefonts-installer which as of the time of me writing this is right at the top of the list due to being most popular)
Want to fix the way font renders on Linux Mint to make it beautiful?
>Start Menu search "Fonts"
>Configure System Fonts
>set the Desktop font to be some other nicer font like Droid Sans Mono Bold (size 10) or leave that as it is and change around other fonts and their size if you like
>set Antialiasing to Grayscale
>set Hinting to Full
>click once on your desktop to make it update and show the changes
>close the Configure System Fonts menu
Final note: I may do video tutorials to show how all these things are done visually later.