edited mint and fedora reviews

2 files changed, 9 insertions, 11 deletions

diff --git a/fedora25review.txt b/fedora25review.txt
index f327bdc..2342985 100644
--- a/fedora25review.txt
+++ b/fedora25review.txt
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ The Fedora project recently pushed out Fedora 25, which is the first of the majo
 
 What's perhaps most remarkable about Fedora 25 is that the move to Wayland, which is one of the biggest low level changes for Linux distros in recent memory, is almost totally transparent. Provided your graphics card is supported you're unlikely to even notice that you're using Wayland.
 
-That's partly a testament to the Wayland project's efforts, but also, with Fedora in particular, a result of the Fedora developers decision to wait before making the switch. It's been disappointing to see Wayland postponed time after time for the past few Fedora releases, but the waiting has paid off in stability and seamlessness.
+That's partly a testament to the Wayland project's efforts, but also, with Fedora in particular, a result of the Fedora developers' decision to wait before making the switch. It's been disappointing to see Wayland postponed time after time for the past few Fedora releases, but the waiting has paid off in stability and seamlessness.
 
 Suffice the say that the move to Wayland has been, for me anyway, almost totally unnoticeable in any negative sense. I haven't hit any major bugs or had any apps that won't work (some of this is no doubt due to XWayland, which is the fallback X server that runs in situations where Wayland isn't supported). I have, on the other hand, noticed that the default GNOME desktop in Fedora is considerably snappier, particularly animations.
 
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ That doesn't mean everything is perfect under Wayland. I like to use Redshift or
 
 Also be aware that if you used GNOME Tweak Tool to get desktop icons in GNOME, that won't work anymore (it was always an unofficial hack so it's not terribly surprising that it stopped working).
 
-Other than the tint-shift problem my transition to Wayland has been smooth and largely uneventful. Some people with other graphic card/driver combos have reported problems with video playback but I haven't run into that in my testing (mplayer works fine on my Lenovo and a Dell XPS 13 I happened to be testing with Fedora 25 came out).
+Other than the tint-shift problem my transition to Wayland has been smooth and largely uneventful. Some people with other graphic card/driver combos have reported problems with video playback but I haven't run into that in my testing (mplayer works fine on my Lenovo and a Dell XPS 13 I happened to be testing when Fedora 25 came out).
 
 While the move to Wayland is definitely the big news in Fedora 25, it's not the only thing that's new by any means. There's a major GNOME update, a brand new kernel and the some changes in Fedora Next lineup.
 
@@ -18,11 +18,11 @@ The most visually noticeable thing in this release is the update to GNOME 3.22,
 
 This release also sees the GNOME extensions API being declared "stable". That's mostly good news for extension developers, but it also means that updates will no longer run the risk of breaking all the extensions you rely on to customize GNOME Shell.
 
-The GNOME Software app continues to improve as well. GNOME 3.22 seems Software adding better support for Flatpak apps. If you haven't had a chance to dive into the world of Flatpak apps yet, Fedora 25 makes a good platform to experiment on. Not only can you install Flatpaks using the GNOME Software app, with Fedora 25 you can even search or browse specifically for Flatpaks via Software. You'll now be able to see the source information and sandboxing status of Flatpaks before you install them. 
+The GNOME Software app continues to improve as well. GNOME 3.22 sees Software adding better support for Flatpak apps. If you haven't had a chance to dive into the world of Flatpak apps yet, Fedora 25 makes a good platform to experiment on. Not only can you install Flatpaks using the GNOME Software app, with Fedora 25 you can even search or browse specifically for Flatpaks via Software. You'll now be able to see the source information and sandboxing status of Flatpaks before you install them. 
 
 Flatpaks are still a bit rough around the edges and the very tight sandboxing model that governs them can mean that Flatpak versions of your favorite apps are missing a few features, but they're getting closer to usable status.
 
-The other big news in GNOME Software actually arrived in the previous Fedora release -- system upgrades from the Software apps. I was able to upgrade from Fedora 24 to 25 by clicking a button in Software and everything just worked. Long time Fedora users will know that this is nothing short of a miracle. I should note that I run a mostly stock install of Fedora with few GNOME extensions or other customizations. Most of the system update problems I've seen people mentioning on forums and bug reports around the web come from library conflicts so the more stuff you have installed the greater the chances GNOME Software won't work. Still, it's worth a try. From what I've seen it's one weak point is a lack of debugging messages when thing do go wrong. If it doesn't work I'd jump over to the terminal and try using DNF to see what's causing the problem before you resort to the old Fedora nuke and pave upgrade path.
+The other big news in GNOME Software actually arrived in the previous Fedora release -- system upgrades from the Software apps. I was able to upgrade from Fedora 24 to 25 by clicking a button in Software and everything just worked. Long time Fedora users will know that this is nothing short of a miracle. I should note that I run a mostly stock install of Fedora with few GNOME extensions or other customizations. Most of the system update problems I've seen people mentioning on forums and bug reports around the web come from library conflicts so the more stuff you have installed the greater the chances GNOME Software won't work. Still, it's worth a try. From what I've seen its one weak point is a lack of debugging messages when thing do go wrong. If it doesn't work I'd jump over to the terminal and try using DNF to see what's causing the problem before you resort to the old Fedora nuke and pave upgrade path.
 
 Along with Wayland and a new version of GNOME, Fedora 25 is notable for the update to Linux kernel 4.8.6, which should go a long way to fixing many of the [Skylake bugs](https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1353103) that cropped up with Fedora 24. Kernel 4.8 was a major update with improvements for GPUs, networking, ARM support and file systems updates among other things. It was disappointing that Fedora 24 missed out by a couple of weeks, but at least it's here now.
 
diff --git a/mint181review.txt b/mint181review.txt
index c92be52..2bf4a58 100644
--- a/mint181review.txt
+++ b/mint181review.txt
@@ -1,22 +1,20 @@
-The Linux Mint project dropped a last minute holiday gift on the world in the form of Linux Mint 18.1 
+The Linux Mint project dropped a last minute holiday gift on the world in the form of Linux Mint 18.1.
 
-As with the previous cycle of Mint 17.x releases, Mint 18.1 builds on the same Ubuntu 16.04 LTS release base as Mint 18.0. The result is a smooth upgrade path for 18.0 users and the relative stability of Ubuntu's latest LTS effort, 16.04. 
+As with the previous cycle of Mint 17.x releases, Mint 18.1 builds on the same Ubuntu LTS release base as Mint 18.0. The result is a smooth upgrade path for 18.0 users and the relative stability of Ubuntu's latest LTS effort, 16.04. 
 
 Mint's goal in sticking with Ubuntu's LTS releases is that instead of chasing Ubuntu updates, the project can focus on its own efforts like the homegrown Cinnamon and MATE desktops, as well as the new X-Apps set of default applications. This process worked quite well throughout the Mint 17.x release cycle, but with Mint 18 we're starting to see some of the downsides. Mint 18.1 is a nice enough update for the Mint-specific parts of the stack, but it definitely lags a bit in some other areas. 
 
 The most obvious lag is in the kernel which is 4.4 out of the box, though 4.8 is available through the Mint repos. It's unclear to me whether Mint 18.1 fully supports kernel 4.8. It's available in the repos, and I've successfully updated one install on a Lenovo x240, but n=1 evidence is not the best support for running off to update your kernel. 
 
-Frankly I would have to assume that since Mint 18.1 ships with 4.4 you should probably stick with 4.4. If you feel out of date with 4.4, maybe install Debian 8 in a virtual machine and marvel at the fact that it still uses 3.16. 
-
-Of course if you don't have newish hardware -- particularly Skylake or Kaby Lake based machines -- the older kernel might not matter to you.
+Frankly I would have to assume that since Mint 18.1 ships with 4.4 you should probably stick with 4.4. If you feel out of date with 4.4, maybe install Debian 8 in a virtual machine and marvel at the fact that it still uses 3.16. Of course if you don't have newish hardware -- particularly Skylake or Kaby Lake based machines -- the older kernel might not matter to you.
 
 Provided the older kernel doesn't bother you, or you're okay attempting a kernel update, Mint 18.1 does a nice job of continuing to refine the Linux Mint experience for both its primary desktops -- Cinnamon and MATE.
 
-On the Cinnamon side you'll get Cinnamon 3.2, which is notable for some nice new UI features, including support for vertical panels, sound effects along with your displaying notifications and some new menu animations. Cinnamon also dispenses with a visual element called box pointers. Essential menus that load from a button or other menu no longer visual "point" back to the menu. This makes more sophisticated themes possible since developers don't have to overcome the pointer visual cue if they want to completely relocate a menu.
+On the Cinnamon side you'll get Cinnamon 3.2, which is notable for some nice new UI features, including support for vertical panels and sound effects, along with your displaying notifications and some new menu animations. Cinnamon also dispenses with a visual element called box pointers. Essential menus that load from a button or other menu no longer visual "point" back to the menu. This makes more sophisticated themes possible since developers don't have to overcome the pointer visual cue if they want to completely relocate a menu.
 
 The vertical panels support is also welcome for anyone working on a cramped laptop screen, since they're typically more unused space horizontally than vertically.
 
-Cinnamon 3.2 also has a completely re-written screensaver and my personal favorite the ability to run apps with optirun if Bumblebee is installed. That is, if you have dual graphics cards and bumblebee installed you can set the default to the less powerful card, but then right-click an item in the menu and launch it with the more powerful card, for example GIMP, a video editor, or graphics-intensive game. 
+Cinnamon 3.2 also has a completely re-written screensaver and, my personal favorite, the ability to run apps with optirun if Bumblebee is installed. That is, if you have dual graphics cards and Bumblebee installed you can set the default to the less powerful card, but then right-click an item in the menu and launch it with the more powerful card, for example GIMP, a video editor, or graphics-intensive game. 
 
 While Cinnamon is the flashier of Linux Mint's two desktops, MATE is every bit as good in my experience and with Linux Mint 18.1 MATE has been updated to MATE 1.16. Most of what's new in MATE 1.16 is under the hood, particularly the fact that MATE has nearly finished the transition to GTK+ 3 components, which goes a long way to improving some of the lingering little UI problems of previous releases.