LinuxMint 6 released!

craptakular · 26 Feb 2009 at 10:27

Malt_Vinegar said:
My carp old laptop is still running well with Mint, and being used daily by both myself and my lady as a web-browser and e-mail machine

Very impressed with it really. Almost totally solved a little problem for me, if only i could figure out how to get it install a wireless dongle! At the moment it has to be plugged directly into my router. Not too much of an issue as its located right next to it 99% of the time.

Whats the wireless dongle called?

matthewprince · 26 Feb 2009 at 10:29

Would you say this is better than Ubuntu?

If so why?

Matt

craptakular · 26 Feb 2009 at 10:31

matthewprince said:
Would you say this is better than Ubuntu?

If so why?

Matt

it is ubuntu, but with ccodecs already installed and new green logo's, thats bout it

bledd · 26 Feb 2009 at 10:43

da_mic_1530 said:
indeed, it's very frustrating though

After doing a Uni module on Red Hat (which I hear is not the best, I should try blah blah...) I have fell in love with Linux, but still need my Windows, the end is nigh, I'm just getting impatient

just download the install disc and run from the livecd (it comes up when you boot from it)

no need to install it until you need to

can someone briefly explain what 'xfce', 'kde' and 'Fluxbox' editions are?

DJMK4 · 26 Feb 2009 at 10:49

Why would you want something thats this easy and just works, that just throws the whole point of modern day computing out the window

craptakular · 26 Feb 2009 at 11:08

bledd. said:
can someone briefly explain what 'xfce', 'kde' and 'Fluxbox' editions are?

There different windows managers, so things like the taskbar are different in each windows manager.

bledd · 26 Feb 2009 at 11:56

ok, so down to user preference, are any considered faster than others? -at both low spec and high spec machines

craptakular · 26 Feb 2009 at 13:00

bledd. said:
ok, so down to user preference, are any considered faster than others? -at both low spec and high spec machines

fluxbox, xfce = fast, notice it more on old crappy hardware

gnome, kde - slow, byt tbh i cant noticed a difference between any of them with my q6000 @ 3.33

AJUK · 26 Feb 2009 at 13:02

Essentially yes, some are faster than others. KDE and Gnome are the big boys and have the most features. XFCE is lighter on resources and can be faster and is a good balance between functionality and speed. Others such as Fluxbox, Openbox or IceWM offer a different interface model but are lightening fast! There are other managers in the uber geeky or specialist fields, some very scary. Of course, nothing beats the speed and functionality of the terminal.

Mobius 1 · 26 Feb 2009 at 16:27

yashiro said:
Not sure why sound juicer didn't work on your Ubuntu setup. I assume it's because you didn't have lame or faac properly setup. Nevermind eh.

i think its because in mint gstreamer was installed before sound juicer, where as ubuntu ( i dont think it has sound juicer as default now) but when it did it was always installed BEFORE gstreamer thats where i think i was going wrong maybe.

edit: i find KDE 3.5 much faster than gnome, but i think gnome is more usable, i get a lot less errors with it.

AJUK · 26 Feb 2009 at 19:20

I have gone back to plain old Ubuntu for the time being. It's dirty and brown but damn it is good. I am eagerly waiting the release of LinuxMint KDE 4.2 which I anticipate will be awesome.

bledd · 27 Feb 2009 at 11:45

AJUK and Oxy, thanks for your replies

asking on a linux forum would no undoubtedly result in RTFM n000b!!!!!!11111111two

craptakular · 27 Feb 2009 at 12:13

bledd. said:
AJUK and Oxy, thanks for your replies

asking on a linux forum would no undoubtedly result in RTFM n000b!!!!!!11111111two

nah all linux forums ive come across, except maybe arch forums/gentoo they are friendly to the noob.

How would people know if they don't ask questions? Everyones gotta start somewhere

yashiro · 27 Feb 2009 at 19:42

Wherever you go there's always people who find it more important to emphasize their superiority at pressing a button than helping you out. Don't worry about it, not everyone is like that.

bledd · 28 Feb 2009 at 20:50

i don't worry about it

i always take the helpful approach myself to others who ask for assistance

dangerstat · 1 Mar 2009 at 11:04

I see Linux (Format or Magazine) have Mint 6 DVD with it this month. Can't say I'm likely to switch from Debian Lenny to be honest. Fed up of i386 releases being ahead of x64 releases in the "cartoon linux" world, FFS I mean we all have x64 setups now surely that should be where most of the development work is devoted to at the moment.

And for those of you who say "why do you still need windows", come on, there's tons of stuff Linux can't do at the moment, read or play BluRays for example, it's still well behind Windows for gaming and even with the most stable of releases (Debian etch for example) the "average" user will still get problems installing certain packages via apt-get which aren't easy to sort out. Personally I think having so many different distro's is massively harming the development of Linux at the moment, why can't we all hold hands and make one decent distro!

craptakular · 1 Mar 2009 at 11:20

dangerstat said:
I see Linux (Format or Magazine) have Mint 6 DVD with it this month. Can't say I'm likely to switch from Debian Lenny to be honest. Fed up of i386 releases being ahead of x64 releases in the "cartoon linux" world, FFS I mean we all have x64 setups now surely that should be where most of the development work is devoted to at the moment.

And for those of you who say "why do you still need windows", come on, there's tons of stuff Linux can't do at the moment, read or play BluRays for example, it's still well behind Windows for gaming and even with the most stable of releases (Debian etch for example) the "average" user will still get problems installing certain packages via apt-get which aren't easy to sort out. Personally I think having so many different distro's is massively harming the development of Linux at the moment, why can't we all hold hands and make one decent distro!

you cant just have one distro, How could you merge things like "it just works" ubuntu with Gentoo or Arch, what about incorporating distro's like DSL, puppy or tiny core?

I think having hundreds of different distro's is great. You can pick a distro based your needs, which one YOU feel is easier to work with, not having to adapt your working ways to use the OS.

I don't really get the idea that linux should over take windows, I see it as more of an alternative. I dont care really if it ever crushes Billie Gates. As long as im happy with my linux distro i dont mind.

You must admit that distro's like ubuntu (mint as well), opensuse, mandriva & PClinuxOS have advanced 10 fold in last 3 years. It's at the point now were you can use a GUI to have a proper desktop, all codecs installed, 3d acceleration, dual screens, all office products, dvd burning, photo editing, printing, etc etc etc all without ever touching the bash prompt.

Pretty impressive I say.

dangerstat · 1 Mar 2009 at 11:37

I agree that some of the major distributions have improved over the last couple of years for sure. But not in the right areas. I think whilst Ubuntu has done lots to attract new users to Linux I think it's been to the decrement of linux development. A lot of the things we love in Linux (for example Compiz Fusion) is lacking developers, whilst it's unfair to blame this totally on having lots of seperate projects / distributions rather than having developers working on bells and whistles for Ubuntu / opensuse / fedora what Linux really needs to get forward is those guys working together on some of the major problems Linux still has.

Basically it's my opinion that developers are a limited resource, and at the moment they are spread too thin and core development is being compromised so that little GUI type nonsense is produced for tons of different distros. IMO all the different distros should get there heads together and outline and agree on what the major problems facing Linux currently are, all should provide a certain about of their developers time to core projects.

slylittlefox · 1 Mar 2009 at 11:45

dangerstat said:
I see Linux (Format or Magazine) have Mint 6 DVD with it this month. Can't say I'm likely to switch from Debian Lenny to be honest. Fed up of i386 releases being ahead of x64 releases in the "cartoon linux" world, FFS I mean we all have x64 setups now surely that should be where most of the development work is devoted to at the moment.

And for those of you who say "why do you still need windows", come on, there's tons of stuff Linux can't do at the moment, read or play BluRays for example, it's still well behind Windows for gaming and even with the most stable of releases (Debian etch for example) the "average" user will still get problems installing certain packages via apt-get which aren't easy to sort out. Personally I think having so many different distro's is massively harming the development of Linux at the moment, why can't we all hold hands and make one decent distro!

It's not that bad - considering there's a distro to cover every need and/or taste, and at no point (well, for the vast majority) has anybody been paid to code the amazing OSes that we are given for free - I personally think it's amazing. We have OSes that now rival Microsoft's offerings, and that's even without industry backing.

As Oxy said - I'm quite happy to have Linux as an 'alternative' rather than a Microsoft killer. As support steadily grows, and gradually more and more people begin to wonder why they've paid so much money for something they can get for free, Linux will slip past Windows like a ship in the night. Only for the next day for all the paper's to run "SECRET NEW OPERATING SYSTEM BEATS MICROSOFT: MEET LINIX"...

As for making just one big distro - are you mad?! Fair enough, maybe some consolidation would be beneficial - but the diversity in distro's, each with their own little niche, is fantastic.

And finally, you can play BluRay on Linux, though it is a little tricky to do so...

craptakular · 1 Mar 2009 at 12:13

you also cant play blu-ray on xbox 360, or any apple products as far as im aware

I think developers working on "cartoon linux" and "bells and whistles" has helped bring more users to linux, thus helping to improve linux as more people help the community improve linux.

Take this thread for example, theres quite a few people who have now tried linux for the first time because of this "cartoon linux" i.e. ubuntu/mint. Not everyone wants to fiddle with bash in a dark room on a saturday night like me and im assuming you