About the low battery time I am pretty sure it is a linux problem and not so much a hardware. Battery is really one of linux weaker spots. However I read that the optimization ubuntu is doing for phones will help the overall battery situation. I guess we can just cross our fingers that its true.
Indeed I have and used it pretty much from the time Unity became mandatory up until Cinnamon became stable enough to use day-to-day. I do like Xfce more than Unity, but not enough to keep using it. I actually really quite love Cinnamon and Mint in general, although it could do with a lot of polish, especially the default login manager which isn't the best. mint-update is very buggy too and half the time just doesn't work. Overall though, it's a happy experience and it looks better to me too.
Being a scandinavian, I have to start by saying I do not agree on the positvie light of this article.
But having said that I thought I wanted to add a few facts. First of oil, both in Denmark and Norway plays a huge role for sustaining the welfare state. Sweeden is the biggest arm exporter per. capita. Also about armies, Denmark is the country in the world with the biggest loss per. capita in Afghanistan. And then as many say the uniformity is key to have a lot of public services. There become less choice and more standards. Those who are not able to fit the mold is having a hard time in these countries.
Oil contributes about 3% of the Danish government revenues (~US$5 billion out of ~US$150 billion), so while it's nice, I wouldn't say it has a "huge role" in financing the state.
