Mint's value is as a way to wean people off Ubuntu/Windows - and as a stepping stone Cinnamon is ok, but I wouldn't run it on a server.

Wonder if there's any places like FreeGeek around here...

Free Geek is awesome! I might volunteer there, and spread my brand of brazen ignorance among the underclasses. Apart from it being a 90-minute commute.

It turns out I probably would have spent less time on configuring a clean install as I have on a 'few, minor tweaks' to mint just so I can get it to serve vnc. Which isn't fait accompli by any means.

The gpu is even worse, it only does the desktop in software rendering, which looks like shit. Not a deal-breaker for a headless server though.

The box is real pretty, and real small, deffo the smallest desktop I've owned.