Linux Mint 10

[madokie]

http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

[struggle4progress]

1. thanks!

[struggle4progress]

2. Downloads are apparently imposing very heavy demands on servers

I'm having trouble staying connected

[madokie]

3. I started the download as I was heading off to bed last night

and when I got up there it was all ready to go. I've been playing with it some today and I like it fine. I like that it uses thunderbird as the default email rather than evolution.

[ConsAreLiars]

4. Mirror sites for Mint 10 are listed at:

http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1587

The main servers are being hammered. See: http://www.linuxmint.com/

I began using it yesterday. A minor few glitches caused by configuration settings that were carried over from Mint 9 since I kept that same /home partition instead of creating a new one. One bug, may also be a function of keeping the old /home, but widely reported is the too-small icons on the Mint Menu. Easily fixed if you encounter it. Otherwise rock solid and delightful.

Features list is at: http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_julia_whatsnew.php

[struggle4progress]

5. put it on an AAO, after using unetbootin to put the 32-bit live dvd on a thumbdrive

installation was reasonably fast
configuring the wifi for my network was easy

[struggle4progress]

6. boots quickly enough

appearance not as customizable as latest ubuntu

[madokie]

7. A little bit slower but I can live with it

after I get through removing the shit I'm not going to be using it may pick up some boot time but if not no biggie. I've decided to give mint 10 my undivided attention for a few days, weeks, months or whatever. I like that it has as default the programs I'm used to using so I don't have to retrain. If I could just figure out how to get rid of the awfull green I'd be all set. Even with that its no biggie.

I was using ubuntu 10.10

[RoyGBiv]

8. Awful green ...

You can change the color scheme.

It's kinda funny. The one thing I tend to hate about my favorite Linux distros is their default color schemes. They make me crazy.

Usually, the first thing I do before I go customizing anything is change the color scheme. I can't think straight until I do.

[ConsAreLiars]

9. Right click on the background.

That will bring up the Appearance Preferences utility. Get more Backgrounds online is an option. Another of the tabs is "Theme" which also has a link to add more themes from online.

[struggle4progress]

10. menus don't seem as easily customizable as in ubuntu

also -- last time i double-clicked a debian package in ubuntu, it simply installed; mint, otoh, simply unarchives the package. <edit:> might have rememembered wrong, right-click and choosing package installer seems to work fine in mint

[pokerfan]

11. This is true

and it can be a construed as one of Mint's advantages. Ubuntu is extremely customizable. You can make Ubuntu look like pretty much any desktop, even Mac OS or Windows 7 for the perverse. Mint provides a mostly consistent look from one install to another and I think that the developers have made some good choices. Ubuntu has always had a developer feel to it, e.g. moving/reordering windows buttons, dropping beloved apps (though they're easy enough to install) and the latest, flirting with Unity and exploring the possibility of providing one consistent user interface for everything from phones to netbooks to tablets to desktops. Will it work? Who knows, but Ubuntu is willing to experiment. Mint is more conservative.

I'm currently using Ubuntu but I carry Mint on my thumb drive for a couple of reasons.

1) It looks marvelous and makes for a great impromptu demonstration when I'm at someone's house and they either want to see what Linux looks like or they want my help rescuing their borked Windows box.

2) Mint comes complete with the codecs that with Ubuntu you have to download from the internet. Not a big deal and true, I could always configure a persistent Ubuntu version on my thumb drive, but it's just nice to have the multimedia working out of the box.

I recommend Mint for beginners and Ubuntu for slightly more advanced users.