fluxam wrote: 1) firewall : Firestarter seems fine. but it should be part of a default setup.
Unless you run a server and offer services like web- or FTP-access to Internet users a firewall isn't even needed in 99% of the time. Different than Windows your default Mint installation isn't running any services that would need this level of protection (in Windows there are some ancient leftovers: standard services that cannot be turned off --Windows would stop to function-- and thus those network services need to be secured by a firewall or else bad things might happen ... Linux doesn't have that unless you installed some kind of server process such as web or FTP ...).
fluxam wrote: 2) Beryl Manager : It ought to be loaded by default.
Not such a good idea. Beryl doesn't work so well on some graphics cards. Turning it on per default could create a lot of problems for a lot of users, even on cards that should be supported it can happen that Beryl makes a big mess (e.g. totally white or completely black screen, window borders gone, and so on). It's better to be on the safe side and have it turned off per default.
fluxam wrote: And then getting the effects configured is time frittering.
But very rewarding once it works, is it not?
fluxam wrote: 3) Adding fonts : There's gotta be a better way than kfontview.
You can drag & drop fonts to your "fonts:/" folder. More details here:
http://penguinfonts.com/howto/ubuntu.php
