As i have discontinued using OS X on my hackintosh i have been deciding on a true Mac OS X alternative and rival to become my primary OS.

My one requirement was that the new OS would not be Windows based. That left me with Linux, BSD and Solaris. I chose Linux because of its kernel stability, performance and secureness.

The next question was what flavour of Linux should i use? As i wanted a true OS X alternative i wanted something with brilliant visual effects but at the same time wanted a stable and reliable OS.

I would have chosen ubuntu were it not for Linux Mint. This is an extract from Wikipedia:

Linux Mint is an operating system for personal computers. While Mint is mostly based on (and compatible with) Ubuntu, the design of the user interface differs. Design differences include:

• A distinct user interface, including a simplified bootloader, desktop layout, theme, and the custom Mint menu.
  

• A strong focus on full functionality out of the box (E.g.: Wireless drivers included, plugins required to play common media formats installed by default, screen resolution automatically set, etc.).[1] Linux Mint 6 also includes or features a free Flash player so users can view sites such as YouTube without having to install anything else.

• The Mint Tools, a collection of system tools designed to make system management and administration easier for end users.

For these reasons i chose Linux Mint and believe it to be the best Linux yet. There is no need to adjust the graphics settings, as Mint features lovely GUI effects and themes. This is a real OS X alternative!