Linux Mint 12

If I don't do Mint 12 KDE it will probably be MEPIS Linux

Kinda confused about what direction I'll go, but Mepis is Debian based and since the improvement in KDE, I like the change. Easy for an old guy to get used to as compared to what gnome has done.

Also Mepis works right out of the box on that laptop, which is important for as long as it still works, as Mint 10 is due to expire as far as any updates goes in April. In the interest of trying to keep all my working computers with similar OS, I may go with what works on them all the best for me. I'm not sure, either, if Mepis is going to be rolling or not, but isn't Debian a rolling OS?

Melbo, not sure there is such a thing as a permanent solution when it comes to computers. But, rolling should be a better choice than having to constantly be upgrading to a new distro, just because the one being used is no longer supported.

 

Finally got around to test the install of Mepis on the old laptop. Everything worked great, until I tried to add new programs. I opened synaptic package manager and did a search for the programs I usually have to download in Mint and none of them where listed. I even tried adding sources and still nothing. Then I installed OpenSUSE - but had the wireless issue, so I didn't even bother trying to connect a cable to check for possible drivers. OpenSUSE might be an alternative to Mint 12 on the desktop. But, for sure Mepis is not for me.

What I ended up doing, is installing XP on the laptop, since that is what it came with and is still being supported for now. Once I get windows working on it, I will probably put Mint 10 back on it.

I also looked into straight Debian, but it is install only as in - no live DVD. Wondering about
Sabayon Linux. I may download and test it in a couple flavors. Wish I knew more about Debian, if I could download the programs I normally use, or if it is, take what they offer and have to hunt for and manually install those they don't list.

 

Well, I got XP working great with a fresh install, took most of a couple days by the time it updated and rebooted maybe a hundred times. OTT, it is windows, so nothing great, but it works.

Next I debated on a Linux distro to duel-boot with windows - one that had wireless support and had the longest expiration date. Well, one that supported updates the longest. Mint 9 got the vote for that and the most familiar of all to me. Mint 9 had about 500 updates, but took a lot less time downloading and updating than windows. Only a couple minor issues with Mint 9 that I don't care for, but nothing I can't live with, for now.

On the desktop, I am still running Mint 10, so now that I have the laptop working for a backup, I will probably start looking for a distro for the desktop. Didn't care for Sabayon Linux as far as the live dvd went, but it was the package handling method not the OS that turned me off. It was KDE so not that different from the KDE of any other OS - however I did like that bird footprint, LOL, on the screen. Kinda reminded me of chicken tracks.

I'm leaning toward a rolling distro, so I don't have to constantly be installing a new OS every couple years, but then, I kinda enjoy the process the more I do it, go figure, who woulda thought? Gotta backup my home folder and settings, make a list of all the packages I want to reload and then start looking at what I have... may start with looking at the Mint alternatives first and then experiment with straight Debian, just to satisfy my curiosity, before I settle on my next OS.

All this, and spring is just around the corner. Told the wife yesterday, I'm starting to get spring fever. Time to think about planting onions and peas.

 

Dangit Melbo you need to settle on something. Now I just gotta try Dreamlinux.

 

So today has not been a good day for my laptop. Started off with trying to setup my bluetooth dongle. It worked, plug-n-play with my last version of Ubuntu. Mint will not recognize the Bluetooth, see's it as a USB/keyboard/mouse device only. GRRR.

Now, 4 times today, the Gnome shell has locked up. This results in the only thing I can do is a hard reset of the system. It has locked up at various times - returning from a sleep/suspend mode, changing windows, downloading a file, etc.

I've tried logging in with all 3 versions of Gnome available (Gnome, Gnome Classic, Gnome something else).

Any ideas? alternate desktop ideas?
May just load a different linux OS.

 

Just got done testing AVLinux today. Not a bad looking distro from Canada, Debian based using the LXDE desktop. I checked the Synaptic package manager and found it to contain just about every imaginable package I could ever use, on a equal to Linux Mint. While avLinux is mostly designed for people who want to work with audio/video stuff, the desktop and applications can be designed around what the user likes or wants to add.

Every Debian based distro I have checked into seems to be miles ahead of Mint 12 with gnome3. I'm thinking about just going with LMDE Mint as it is the most familiar to what I'm used to, either that or straight Debian. When and if it inherits gnome3, I can always switch to the lxde desktop. It remains to be seen, what Debian will do with gnome3.

Well, the testing will continue, not doing any Ubuntu or unity based OS's as I had some bad experiences with those. Some are worth a look, if that is what a person likes. It's all about personal taste, and there are so many flavors out there!

What I like in an OS is, a simple menu, no icons on the screen and a bottom panel with quick launch buttons for the most used programs. If an OS does that, similar to the way I have Mint set up, it will get serious consideration. Otherwise, not so much as a passing glance.

 

Thanks for those links - I'll be sure and look into them. However, I have Mint 10 on my desktop and am now playing around with the LXDE and to some degree KDE desktops, gotta really have a reason to leave Mint if it comes down to that. I kinda like the simplicity of the LX desktop environment, just some issues I've yet to figure out. I tend to download way more packages than I need or use and so a fresh install cleans the hard drive out whenever I upgrade. Otherwise, all my home folders of pics, videos, docs, etc. I just backup those anyway on externals and then routinely back up thunderbird and firefox folders. Everything else gets overwritten in the upgrade. I may give Debian a test drive before I really make up my mind, but I too am leaning toward LMDE for it's rolling-ness, especially if the LX desktop turns out to be a replacement for what gnome3 has become. Of course, they may finally get gnome3 straightened out someday too and cinnamon-session might work as another alternative - it just didn't work on my laptop, which is getting old (7 yrs, I think). I haven't completely ruled out that avLinux OS I tested, It being Debian based, I could surely customise it to be a long lasting system, but I could do the same thing with LMDE and have something I'm more familiar with.

 

Kckndrgn, I really can't help you, but I am just wondering if there is a driver needed for what you are trying to do. I was unable to get my wireless connection working in anything newer than Mint 10 on my old laptop. Try as I could, I was not able to find the right driver for wireless operation on it, an old HP laptop. Don't know about bluetooth as I don't use that function. It is no secret here, that I'm more than a little disappointed in what gnome3 has become. Maybe, I just haven't given it a chance, but I do not think I'm alone on this as, why else would the developers of Mint have decided to come out with cinnamon-session if gnome3 was so great?

I'm downloading the debian live dvd image now and will probably test it out later this week. Till then, I have to get busy with other things around the mini-farm.

 

WT, after spending most of the day yesterday trying to get my BT working what I think the problem is, is that the systems needs to switch the mode of the BT device. There is supposed to be a program, hid2hci, that will do it, but I could not get it compiled/working.

All I know is that with the last version of Ubuntu that I had it worked great, better than on any windows machine.
I was also still having problems with the desktop environment locking up on me, even after a clean install of Mint 12. Thought about downloading and installing Mint 9, but since I already had the iso image for Ubuntu, I started the load process on the LT before I left for work.
I have been on Ubuntu for a while now and got used to the environment, though looking at the distrowatch site, there are so many flavors of Linux out now it can make your head spin trying to find the one that works best for you.

 

FYI, I got used to Mint, (thanks Melbo), but if ubuntu works for you, I see no reason to switch. And, yes, there seems to be so many Linux distros it does make a guys head spin, LOL!

Also, just looked at this site and found that Mint 13 will come out with the cinnamon desktop as it's default DE. By then, I will see, but will probably switch to a debian based OS, even if it is Mint LMDE and not Mint 12. I have tested the KDE Mint 12 OS, but have not gotten done testing KDE in Mint 10 yet, to see if I could live with that.

 

Got a chance to test the debian 6 live dvd this AM on both the netbook and the old laptop. Also tested on this desktop. Not sure if the old laptop would work wireless as the driver would need to be located, but on the toshiba netbook, it worked as it should. On the desktop, I tested it live for a couple hours of playing with settings, moving panels, checking for updates, etc., etc. Has a couple things I wasn't used to seeing in Mint, but had a work around. Only slight things I would have to get accustomed to, but looking like the direction I will take.

Only thing, I'll have to change my avatar if I go with debian, maybe this one would work!

 

Kinda partial to this one Trapper

 

Switched over to debian on my desktop. Tried to use the image from my post to change my avatar, but got a "Unable to save image" message.

The switch over went well until I tried to locate firefox and thunderbird. I ended up downloading them from Mozilla and installing them manually, but they are the most recent updates of the packages. They work great but can't figure out why debian didn't list even the older stable versions. I see the same issue with Google-Earth. I haven't tried to get that by download yet and may not. Don't use it very much anyway.

I got my panel customized just about the way I like it and have only a few things left to do to it. The screen is a bit cluttered with some basic icons that I would like to hide, but it is not really bothering me that much.

I used the install disc, which is not the same as the live disc. If I had it to do over, I would have just used the live disc to install from. A much quicker download and has enough of the core files needed to get started.

 

OK, so I downloaded the "live dvd" of Dreamlinux 5. I was NOT impressed with it. Well, at first I was, but when I tried to configure some of the system settings, there was no access to the system control panel. Dug around for about an hour and a half online trying to get the system panel up so I could configure my wireless, but no go. Just did not have a good feeling about it.
Next I had downloaded Mint 9, due to its LTS, did a live DVD of that and loved it. Liked the layout of the desktop, could easily configure my network, my bluetooth adapter still does not work but I guess I'll just have to find one that's compatible with Linux.
I installed Mint 9 on the laptop, then did the package update. Looks good, nice and fast.

 

Mint 9 - 11 are not bad for just about everything I need them for. I'm not even worried about their expiration dates as far as upgrades go. Gnome 2 makes them solid and quite stable. I'm not so impressed with Mint LMDE as I was, due to having to change source info etc. to correct the way it upgrades. Still experimenting with it on that old eMachine out in the barn on warmer days.

As I said above, I have converted to debian 6 stable on my main desktop. Eventually it may inherit gnome 3, but not right away from what I'm reading up on it. Many of the main programs or packages in debian stable are very much like what Mint 9 came packaged with, so switching over wasn't much of a change.

People or organizations that don't like or want people messing with the configuration probably are the folks that rave about the gnome 3 desktop look and feel. Those of us that like to personalize their desktop - not so much joy about it. I will look at Mint again when 13 comes out setup with cinnamon already set as it's DE. Until then I will keep debian stable on my desktop and Mint 9 and 11 on my two laptops. LMDE on the old eMachine, will eventually get the issues fixed - probably.

I've had debian a couple days now and gotta say, it is a comfortable OS for me, but may not be for someone new to Linux. The install method is more complex than Mint and not all the packages mint has are in the repository for debian stable. I use Firefox and Thunderbird on all my computers and on both windows and Linux systems, so when I first fired up debian, I was a little frustrated that they weren't available by the synaptic package manager. Maybe there is a way to change that, I didn't try, I just went to the Mozilla site and downloaded the install files, and installed them manually.

 

Remember that iceweasel is Firefox, just a differrent icon. All the inner workings are the same. Actually, a couple things are different, which is why Mozilla made the Debian fellows "rebrand" it. But it's essentially the same.

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Thanks, I did discover that after the fact, as I had never used debian before. However, I'm not sure if iceweasel would have recognized my add-on and links -etc. as it would matter to me, regardless what brand it carries. I have kept those through many complete upgrades to the OS.

 

Come on Mint 13!

 

I downloaded and installed Mint 12 LXDE on the old eMachine I keep in the barn. The processor in that thing is really slow even with 2 gig of ram also video is very slow, but it has been that way ever since I've had it. Remember, I got this machine free at a yard sale and was told it didn't work, but it did.

So, except for the slowness and LXDE being what it is, everything looks and works fine. I had Mint Debian on it, but could never get the repositories changed to upgrade properly, so I was ready to reinstall Mint 9 on it, but thought I'd give LXDE a chance.

Mint 13 not due out until fall I think, we'll see. I tested LXDE on my old laptop, but figured it too would have the problem with the unsupported wireless driver.