Well, you prompted me to dig out my 'powerful' backup/travel laptop (a Via C7-M HP 2133) - maginificent resolution for a small screen!

Mint 13 (Cinnamon) installed no problem, apart from the obligatory connect via ethernet until BCM43xx wireless driver was downloaded.

I've hated the blank boot screen since it was introduced a few releases back and it resists all my footering to get a textual boot up. 😞 Even tried installing Plymouth themes, for a graphical boot, to no avail - yet.

Yes, you now have to manually install Startup Manager, which blissfully ignores requests to use text/splash.

Strangely, I don't get the old startup sound (which I actually quite liked) but normally have the volume turned down to minimum, so no great loss.

Took me a while to realise that Alt-Right Click on the bottom task/status bar is the new way to add in applets and move them around. So, I've now got the usual desktop switcher, application killer, notification icon and so on - including the weather one 😉

Also discovered a better weather applet in Synaptic, that has a nearest weather station that is not 30 miles away 😉