You know I never even noticed  Shows how much time I spend looking at the wallpaper 
The bunch of icons at the bottom is avant running, I find a dock like this more productive than the standard menu/panel layout, YMMV.

Last time I used a mac was about 8 years ago and they didn't have docks then 

I think I could load Mint soon - but it would be really nice if I had control of the Window border.
The grey windows merge into the mostly grey standard Mint wallpaper.

Could I have standard Ubuntu brown (tm) for the Window border.

PS How can I move that infinity symbol that toggles into standard Gnome 3 from the top left of the screen to somewhere less prominent?

If you look at my screen shots, when I removed the bottom panel it moved to the RHS, I don't think you can get rid of it (yet) as it a feature of gnome3 (the menu/shell thingy) Also if you move to the very top left it shows all the active windows in one screen for you to pick - not sure how useful it is, yet another feature. 

It maybe worth looking at some posts on gnome3 on Suse etc, to see how others have modified it, so far the f/b on the Mint forums are saying that the MGSE is WAY ahead of anything else on G3 

As to the w/p you can always change it 
I think once the full version is out there will be more tweaks available (the gnome config tool just says to be implemented at the mo). Should be a couple of weeks.

Downloaded Mint 12 and burnt it to disk.
Quite impressed but for some reason there is no bottom panel, it's just grayed out.
Anyway the question is this, should I wait for some of the known problems to be sorted out and then download it again and install it or could the current version be installed with updates sorting out these problems as they are resolved.
 

The RC will update to the release version as updates are posted. So if you install it now, as long as you keep it updated it will be the same as the "new" released version.

Don't know why your bottom panel is greyed out, what desktop are you in? (Mate/MSGE/Gnome 3/Gnome fallback) (If you logout and click on the "cogs" you can choose the desktop, the live cd user is mint with no password)

For the most part it is Ubuntu. 

Probably by delving into the javascript/CSS


If you don't mind having panels at the top of the screen, disable the bottom panel and install tint2 from the repos; it defaults to being on the bottom of the screen but with a bit of faffing with the config files (tintwizard might help) you should be able to get it just below the top panel (I think there's an auto-hide extension for the top panel which might make configuring tint2 a little easier).

on old machine
on new machine with a base install is what I use when installing on a new PC with bigger / faster hard drives.

That's using the same (Debian) release of course; if you're moving from Ubuntu 10.10 to an Ubuntu 11.10 -based distro it might not go so smoothly.
Might be worth dist-upgrading to 11.10 first (though if you were to do that I guess you could just add the Mint repos and install the Mint-specific packages you wanted without the hassle of a reinstall).

Have a look for some Ubuntu-like GNOME-Shell themes. Or use a less-grey wallpaper  

I wouldn't be hugely surprised to hear that someone on a...let's say PinguyOS forum, for example, says 'their' distro has the best G3 layout....

@Waldo, no there are quite a few dislikes, mostly of the g3 system  I find it buggy still, the desktop keeps disappearing/reappearing or stopping accepting keys/mouse commands. I have yet to try MATE though. 

The latest evolution of my Mint 12 desktop see attached.
This is with just the avant dock, no panels, bit more minimalist. I miss the Mint menu search option but that's about all.

I found this using Google; it looks quite similar...

 
Nah look it has a top menu and everything 

I dislike intensely the standard layout of the top bar, even with the movement of the Mint Menu up there, the fact you can't move/remove any of the icons, add the ones you actually use etc.
On my M11 top bar I have the Menu, active windows, then the comp-fusion icon, mint update, wally, remmina (vnc client), quit/kill app, and the clock thats it. All the rest live on my avant dock that's the way I like it. I don't need to see the network/volume/etc all the time & I don't use any chat clients so don't want them on the screen.

I have spent several years getting this setup like I like it, now I am being forced to change it, NO! I could stay with M11 but newer releases will want updated libs that won’t be available so forcing me to move to a newer one. Since Mint is the only one that seems to work for me (I tried Suse didn't even get a screeen!, don't like KDE any more - I started on Linux with Mandriva using KDE, back in the 90's) I have lxde on my eee with a very minimalist setup - openbox wm - but that is a bit too minimal more my main pc.

A question!

Since I have existing users with distinct UID's, but an install of Mint will wipe /etc (where this info is held), how do I make sure that Mint associates the correct UID with each user added?
(Same applies to some GID's).
e.g. my /etc/passwd file containsWhere 1000 = my UID, 2000 = my (primary) GID
I'd like to keep those numbers as otherwise I shall have to alter the permissions for every single user file! 

BTW Does Mint support the addition of emblems to files in nautilus?
It's a long standing Ubuntu feature...

No idea I only have the one user. Better asking in the Mint forums.
You can set the uid manually when you add a user under advanced options. (see screeny)
What are emblems? Ahh yes standard feature in Nautilus. (under properties I found it, never used it though.)