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1 • Calculate Linux (by Chanath on 2013-05-13 10:16:45 GMT from Sri Lanka)
"Basically what my time with Calculate really boiled down to is there wasn't any single large problem which kept me from enjoying the distribution,"
That is true. It has little problems, just like other distros. The only thing that troubles me with calculate Linux is that it won't come with the Gnome-shell--lately I started liking Gnome-shell.
My laptop is more than 3 years old, with Intel graphics and 3GB memory, but it booted Calculate Linux and installed it without a hitch. I would love to see a review of Sabayon 13.04, but would you try the Gnome-shell? If Gnome-shell is not to your liking, Jesse, let it be KDE or XFCE. I am really enjoying Sabayon 13.04 after so many years of Ubuntu.
2 • Sabayon (by Jesse on 2013-05-13 13:08:40 GMT from Canada)
@1:
I reviewed Sabayon just two months ago, I doubt it has changed a lot since then.. http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20130311#feature
3 • @ #1 (by Pierre on 2013-05-13 13:11:50 GMT from Germany)
I never tried Calculate. Sabayon used to be my girlfriend's favorite until I showed her Mint because Sabayon was really really buggy the time my girlfriend used it. I cannot say if that improved during the last 2 years I have not tested it again. But back then it even messed up the partition table once so I had to fix this - although I know what I am doing and fixing the partition table was easily done thanks to TestDisk, it's always risky to work at the partition table and it cost me some nervs honestly.
Although I still prefer openSUSE over all the others Mint does a great job and we never had serious problems with it. It's the reason why I keep to recommend Mint to less advanced or novice users. openSUSE is not much more complicated in my opinion. Nevertheless adopting openSUSE seems to be a little more difficult to novice users than Mint.
Maybe this is because Mint comes - other than openSUSE - with everything out of the box and not having YaST seems to be a little more logical as well.
With Sabayon it's ever worse. My girlfriend kept me asking everything. Updates and installs were my tasks. With Mint this seems to be more logical to her, too. She doesn't need me anymore for simply installs and updates.
4 • @2 Jesse (by Chanath on 2013-05-13 14:12:54 GMT from Sri Lanka)
What I meant was a review of Sabayon 13.04, considering Calculate 13.4. They are the only Gentoo based full distros available. You've been reviewing distros, so you'd see pluses, minuses, equalities etc. Would be nice to read a review like that.
Even though both are rolling releases, Sabayon 11 and 13 has a difference. There was a difference in Calculate 11 and 13. You are always reviewing KDE flavour, so how about Gnome 3? Good day!
5 • @3 Pierre (by Chanath on 2013-05-13 14:34:44 GMT from Sri Lanka)
2 years is a long time. There were at least 4 Mint releases for that time. Your GF must've used Sabayon 8 or 9. One of them was somewhat buggy, but it is now 13.04.
I prefer Ubuntu to Mint, as Mint is always slower than Ubuntu. Mint also keeps its user away from updating through the Ubuntu repos--check the sources.list. If you like Cinnamon, all you have to do is add the Mint repos to Ubuntu's sources.list and update and install Cinnamon. Right now, you can have Cinnamon 1.8.2+olivia. You may add that to Raring or Saucy and you'd be much further than Mint 15.
OpenSuse was always nice, but it has a grub problem with my laptop, don't know why.
6 • Calculate Linux review (by Cork on 2013-05-13 15:33:19 GMT from United States)
Many thanks for taking a look at this interesting distribution. I tried to run it several weeks ago on my HP netbook but gave up quickly when my touchpad was erratic and essentially unusable after the install completed. I too found the installation procedure a bit odd. I'm intrigued by the network management tools but finding time to set up Calculate on three or four boxes at home is a tall order after reading of your experience.
7 • Calculat-Linux (by Joachim on 2013-05-13 15:35:55 GMT from Uganda)
I'm running the Calculate-Linux 13.04 cldx (with XFCE) fine on my setup.
I find it is more Gentoo-like than Sabayon, emerge downloads everything from
source and compiles, I have not encountered any ready binaries unlike in Sabayon.
8 • Ubuntu experiments with portable packages (by anandarpm on 2013-05-13 15:38:11 GMT from India)
I believe this is a good development the ubuntu team has to carry forward as this would make installation of packages easier & solve dependency problem.
Though dpkg/apt-get can handle dependency problem well, the novoice users who comes from windows world are uncomfortable in using dpkg, particularly when they are told about dependency errors.
I believe making installation of third party packages easier in linux attracts some more people to use linux.
9 • Not just desktop tests, please (by Thom on 2013-05-13 15:50:26 GMT from Sweden)
Jesse wrote: "Calculate comes in a variety of flavours giving us the opportunity to choose between Desktop, Directory Server and Media Centre editions."
Here's an idea; why not test, say, media centre editions when they are available either alone or in connection with desktop versions?
While I have no criticism to add to the weekly feature of such-and-such a distribution, I do feel looking beyond the desktop could add new interest and broaden the appeal of DW.
10 • Old Unwanted Computers (by gavin on 2013-05-13 18:00:55 GMT from United Kingdom)
Another idea for old computers is to give them to a school, I know the school I teach at would accept old parts for various computer clubs after school
11 • RE: Used Computers (by Michael Ross on 2013-05-13 19:13:28 GMT from Canada)
Free Geek is a very popular recycling centre found in many North American cities. They are Ubuntu centric but will recycle old computers and most hardware without a fee.
A great source for hard to find parts acquired inexpensivley.
They also have help nights and volunteers learn how to dis-assemble and them assemble computers. They are an invaluable resource and are open to opening in other cities.
They may have a presence in countries outside of North America.
I am very pleased to have given away and recycled over 30 computer in the past 8 years.
12 • old hardware (by mz on 2013-05-13 19:24:07 GMT from United States)
I've been using a firewall distro on a junky old 400MHz IBM for the past few years. My old pfSense box gives me a little extra added security, and it can be extended with things like snort. That BSD distro goes for ever 24/7 and almost never complains or goes down, unless there is a power outage. I could spend a few extra bucks on a UPS, but that would defeat the purpose of having cheap box. I've also got a 2.5 GHz single core machine that I switch distros on every now and then and use for making online purchases. I just switched it to Debian 7, and other than the graphical installer on Wheezy working poorly I'm enjoying the switch. It's fun to try something new on an old PC every now and then.
13 • Re used computers (by Earlybird on 2013-05-13 19:42:06 GMT from Canada)
10) & 11) Excellent ideas. Locally, we have government run "Ecocenters" where you can bring old electronic equipment. Some of the local "big-box" stores such as Staples (Bureau en Gross in Que.) also have free drop-off for recycling. Equipment deposited at these locations (both at the Ecocenters and the big-box stores) goes to local companies that have a contract with the local government to recycle as much as possible of this equipment. This is funded through a local (provincial) "eco-tax" which is applied to the purchase of all electronic goods in the province. Also, the companies contracted to do the recycling, are funded to train out-of-work people in electronics and recycling. This not only helps the environment, it also helps the unemployed upgrade their skills and become productive members of society again.
Personally, I've recycled tons of stuff by arranging to bring usefull stuff down to the local universities (Engineering and physics departments). Even a prehistoric 386 can be used in a lab for doing some elementary data-logging for geophysics (as an example). And parts from printers and floppy drives are useful for robotics.
For anyone interested, you might also check on Amazon for the titles: "Made to Break", and also "High Tech Trash". Really a sad commentary on capitalism, and our continuous need to grow society (Note: I am NOT saying Capitalism is all bad; just that there are some aspects that can be "improved" by borrowing some "socialist" ideas as outlined above).
14 • Portable Package Formats (by Scott Dowdle on 2013-05-13 21:22:00 GMT from United States)
The GNOME developers have been talking about producing a portable package format for a while now. The first I became aware of it was from watching a video entitled, "What are we breaking now?" by Lennart Poettering, Kay Sievers, and Harald Hoyer back in March. (See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rrpjYD373A around 38:20).
The KDE folks say they were actually first with the concept but I don't know the specifics of that.
15 • What to do with old computer equipment (by Paolo on 2013-05-13 21:26:39 GMT from Italy)
Fist of all thanks to Jesse for this week Q and A.
I am a member of the Milano's association for social promotion "Pcofficina" ( http://www.pcofficina.tk/ )
We are all volunteers and we follow the "I fix it manifesto" (http://www.ifixit.com/Manifesto)
We repair old pc/notebook, install Gnu/Linux (mostly *buntu, pure Debian, Crunchbang,Bodhi,Puppy,Slitaz and now Antix) and we give the refurbished computers to school, free charity group and people without too much money to spend.We also teach them how to use linux for basic work at home.
The pc's are coming from factory and office (mainly) and from private donations.
We have a small laboratory in Milano in wich the member meets thursday evening from the 20:00 to midnight circa. Also sometimes the members meets tuesday evening at the same hours.
Also we as association sometimes have a place in some fair like the linuxday ( http://www.linuxday.it/) in october and some other fair about ethical living.
Personally I use Antix on a 2001's Dell Latitude C600 laptop and on a 2003's Acer 1355LM laptop, both with profit
16 • Calculate Linux plus coments (by LLO on 2013-05-13 21:37:52 GMT from Hungary)
1) Calculate
I believe Calculate Linux has some outstanding features of letter size and readability features that many distros lock . With advancing of age one's eyesight is not likely 20/20 forever. When you deal with critical issues using the command line, the least thing you need is fighting undersized purely shaped letters, translucency and other disturbing factors. Once I had to use a 2.5”-by-1.75” x-term window with something like four point size letter just to start the graphic interface that thought me to appreciate properly sized text windows. Calculate however also has a major shortcoming the lock of ability to configure non network printers.
2) OpenSUSE Edu 12.3
Internet through a modem does not work. The previous version 12.2 has worked. Improvement?! I hardly believe.
3) Auto updates
Firefox and Thunderbird have undergone some auto updates in UHU (Hungarian/English 32/64-bit distro). As a result, I cannot watch Distrowatch on Firefox anymore, and the Hungarian Language ad-on of Thunderbird has been declared incompatible. Do they really know what the hell are they doing?
17 • old computers (by zykoda on 2013-05-14 08:14:45 GMT from United Kingdom)
The relative energy cost of running old (5/10 years?) computers compared to a contemporary design is significant (typically £1 per watt p. a.). That Rpi consumes so little energy (24/7) for a capital outlay of say £40, there is no significant cost in using the most modern equipment (should it suffice to do the job!) over a time as short as one year. That most old equipment needs refurbishment (new efficient PSU, more RAM, new OS and apps, display, etc) often outways the cost of brand new. That the deferred disposal of the old contributes significantly to global energy "consumption" needs careful consideration.
18 • @ #16 (by Pierre on 2013-05-14 12:08:08 GMT from Germany)
@ #16
1) Font sizes can always be adjusted. So I see this hardly as an advantage over others.
2) openSUSE 12.3 no matter what edition works great for me. But modem connections are very rare and I haven't tested this, so I cannot judge this. Nevertheless openSUSE 12.3 saw many improvements over it's predecessor.
3) Don't know about UHU yet. On openSUSE and other distros I know not a single app runs auto updates on it's own. Can't tell about Hungarian Language add-ons here either, but normaly it should be up to the distro too to handle language packs and language pack updates.
19 • @17, old computers (by Jon Wright on 2013-05-14 12:15:20 GMT from Vietnam)
That's what I was going to say. Utilizing a high-powered-monster-that-was as a fileserver is only for those that live in an extremely cold basement - note that if the ambient temperature is on the cold side then that 'waste' electricity is what you would have spent on heating your home anyway - whereas if you live somewhere hot and steamy then it's making your aircon work harder so you lose out twice.
20 • @19, and I know it was partly in jest (by Marco on 2013-05-14 14:15:45 GMT from United States)
> 'waste' electricity is what you would have spent on heating your home anyway.
If you heat you house with electricity, yes, but otherwise, if you use as more efficient energy source, you still lose something. For example you can burn natural gas at home or in the electrical power plant, generate electricity, then transmit and distribute the electricity, only to convert it back to heat, something must be lost along the way. I will leave it to others to estimate the loss.
21 • Energy @20, 19, 17 (by fernbap on 2013-05-14 18:19:46 GMT from Portugal)
There is a lot of angles considering electricity as a source of energy, but the main issue here is how that electricity is generated.
If you use a coal, oil, wood or gas to generate electricity, there is a theoretical limit of the efficiency in the process. It typically is around 20-25%, which means that for each Kw you consume you need 4 or 5 Kw to generate the corrsponding electricity. Much more efficient would be to burn that coal, wood, gas directly in order to produce heat.
There is an issue of proportion here as well. You are discussing a few watts and comparing that to the watts needed to heat a room in the winter (2 Kw typically).
In most of the countries, electricity is still in a large portion produced by burning oil.
22 • old computers in schools (by linuxuser on 2013-05-14 21:47:32 GMT from Greece)
Old computers ( even PII 400 MH or PIII 600MH machines ) can be used in school laboratories as thin clients (terminals). A relatively modern computer must be used as server. More details in ubuntu WIKI pages (LTSP - the Linux Terminal Server Project)
So we can donate old computers to schools.
23 • Recycling used computers (by dace on 2013-05-15 02:29:35 GMT from Kuwait)
Most recent versions of Linux require a processor that supports Physical Address Extension (PAE). My laptop with a Pentium M processor doesn't support PAE. I can't even boot from a Mint 14, Lubuntu 13 or Debian 7 CD. I had to use older CDs for Mint 13 or Ubuntu 12.04 to make it work.
24 • Recycling used computers @23 (by fernbap on 2013-05-15 05:06:42 GMT from Portugal)
Several distros make 486 and 686 builds.
I would recomend Crunchbang, 486 build. Had excelent result with it.
Puppy is always an option, of course.
25 • @ #23 and the energy related posts (by Pierre on 2013-05-15 06:12:09 GMT from Germany)
@ #23
As fernbap already posted, there are many distros out there that are delivering 486 and 686 builds and don't require PAE. So you definitely have alternative to using old distros.
Crunchbang is really great and worth a try here. You could use antix or Puppy as well. Debian delivers 486 or even 386 builds - if I am not wrong here - which you can give a try, too.
Or if that is not enough, make a search here on distrowatch for 'older computer'. This will give you plenty of choice.
@ energy
Energy consumtion is always a topic especially on older and once powerful hardware. But for most of the tasks you might use these older PCs at home, you could let it run for a few years until it has consumed the costs of a new and more energy efficient / low voltage PC. Especially if we assume that it's not running 24/7. You could shut it down at night when you go to bed and start it in the morning after you woke up. Additionally the time it is not used it will be in power safe mode - even old(er) hardware is capeable of that. And maybe we should start to learn again that it had cost energy and resources to build that (now old) hardware, too.
Greetings from Germany!
26 • too many spare computers? (by jay on 2013-05-15 13:01:33 GMT from Canada)
set up a huge cluster
or set up a big network of servers
I love crunchbang! I've been building crunchbang on various *buntu's for about a year now. Crunchbang Linux has some great documentation on their wiki and forum! It's sightly tedious at first but if you keep a back up of your config files and using a bash script it's pretty easy to set up on most any distro!
27 • old computers (by Jon Wright on 2013-05-15 14:05:35 GMT from Sweden)
I just worked out, 50w 24x7 gets you a nice new $400 laptop after 100 months. My choice would be to unplug the old machine and get the new $400 laptop as my main machine and follow Jesse's first suggestion of occasionally booting up the old machine just to do a bit of testing.
#26: "... building crunchbang on various *buntu's ... pretty easy to set up on most any distro"
Care to expand?
28 • #27 (by zykoda on 2013-05-15 17:03:08 GMT from United Kingdom)
If energy continues to increase in cost at the present rate, the 100 months will shrink to 50. But I have no idea about electricity tariffs in Sweden. My experience with laptops also suggests that 100 months is a long life for such. Admittedly, I may be entirely wrong.
29 • too many computers (by RyanEpod on 2013-05-16 05:08:22 GMT from United States)
Reminds me of when I had 40 IBM Netiva's laying around I got them all for 4$ so I kind of felt compelled at the time. about 3-4 months I realized the horrible mistake I made now this was back in 2008-09ish and they all had Pentium 4's (about 30 of them ran and had Ram and harddrives the other ones ran but didnt have ram a harddrive or both) but 30 working systems was pretty good for 4$ I got pretty good use out of about 5 of them for various projects I had a BSD box, Open Solaris Box, Solaris 10 Box, one of them ended up being my firewall box, and my last one was an experimental box which had off shoot BSD (like dragonfly) I decided to put Windows 3.11 on it for a little bit which was funny i dabbled briefly in trying to keep a Debian Sid/Experimental box which was most Debian Experimental I used Minix on it which is interesting and I even tried React OS on it which has good intentions i guess but manages to fall completely flat in execution for the 35+ Machines I didn't use I mostly ended up selling the Ram out them first ( for some reason in 2008 DDR ram was all the rage ) i sold the Pentium 4 processors for like 2$ not sure why anyone would have wanted one of those but I didn't ask and almost all of them had AGP video cards ( Nvidia somethings) which people bought up for seriously unknown reasons I know they here pretty lowend even for 2008 after I finished parting them out I just sold them to the melter I got like 40$ and my 5 machines I used I eventually installed Ubuntu ( 9.04 i think ) on all of them and sold them for 10$ a piece w/ Maxed out ram that was the last time I took someones bargain PCs though I mean all in all there pretty limited I felt like I was working as a A+ Techie again and was happy to see them all go the only bargin PCs ill still take nowadays are Highend Power Mac G4 ( mostly just Quicksilvers though Ill take anything Zif-Digital Audio if the processor is aftermarket ) I'll also take Power Mac G5's with atleast dual processors but prefer G4's I'll even take B&W G3's as long as the chipset is Rev B and has a Zif G4 processor or aftermarket G3 processor PowerPCs are just a hobby though I like running BSD on them I'm just sitting on 3 Computers at the moment though an iMac Intel, a Toshiba Satellite with the newish APU processor that dual boots Windows 7 and Xubuntu 12.04 LTS and I have a Yikes! G4 lol I overclocked it to 387 MHz but it currently resides in my closet with an undiagnosed problem that I'm probably never going to fix. and I'm done rambling on here..... .. Laters -Epod.
30 • old computers? (by Dean on 2013-05-16 11:03:06 GMT from United States)
Jesse, the Fire Department of the little town you live in has 17 old donated computers running various flavors of Linux, mostly Peppermint 3 modified with remastersys and a few Lubuntu 13.04's. Small world, huh. You can borrow one if you want...[vpn will probably show me from Chicago area...]
31 • Mint 14 - Ext4 errors (by Verndog on 2013-05-16 18:03:09 GMT from United States)
I installed Mint 14, and have experienced Ext4 journal erros. It only happens using the Mint partition. Using Ubuntu's partition , Ext4 is clear.
I read the Distrowatch's message: "http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20121105#qa", and many other sites, but I'm thinking its Mints shutdown timing that may be the issue.
The only way to know if your having the issue is to either boot from another partition or use a live cd, then "sudo fsck /dev/sdaX" on the Mint install. Otherwise you may not know your having issue as well.
Another command to check is "cat /var/log/syslog | grep -i recovery".
I would like to know if anyone else has this problem.
BTW, I did install several kernels hoping it was fixed. All the way up to kernel 3.10. Stall errors. Which leads me to believe its Mints shutdown timing.
32 • Donated computers (by Jesse on 2013-05-16 18:23:20 GMT from Canada)
@30:
Dean, I am impressed. The local fire department is quite small, 17 computers would be just about enough for each firefighter to have their own machine. Glad to hear they have found a home and new life running light distributions.
33 • old computers? (by Dean on 2013-05-16 20:22:54 GMT from United States)
Jesse, the Fire Department of the little town you live in has 17 old donated computers running various flavors of Linux, mostly Peppermint 3 modified with remastersys and a few Lubuntu 13.04's. Small world, huh. You can borrow one if you want...[vpn will probably show me from Chicago area...]
34 • Linux Mint 15 RC (by Chanath on 2013-05-17 10:53:43 GMT from Sri Lanka)
I was thinking, whether I should write about this this week, or in the next DWW, maybe I'd do that in both.
It says it is Linux Mint 15 RC, but what is this not-yet-ready RC here? Mint 15 is based on Raring, which is already released. So, whatever parts of Ubuntu, which is anyway largest part of Mint is already ready. What might not be ready would be the Mint parts of it. So, if you mark out (#) the Mint repos and leave the Ubuntu ones, when updating and upgrading, you'd not break the distro.
Whatever that might be not up to the release level is with the Mint Olivia repos, and not with the Ubuntu Raring repos, so, the user could wait until the final day and take off the # in front of Mint Olivia repos and would have a perfect Mint 15, without downloading it again.
By the way this is the same with all other Raring based distros.
35 • @ #34 and Linux Mint 15 RC (by Pierre on 2013-05-17 15:04:26 GMT from Germany)
@ #34
Although Mint is based on Ubuntu and Ubuntu got already released does not mean it is really ready.
Ubuntu is pushing out distros in time always and sees very buggy releases from time to time. Additionally the Mint team does not only highly customize the Ubuntu base but also are sometimes fixing bugs etc.
If you ask me it's no good idea commenting out the Mint Olivia repos. If you do so you could install Ubuntu and use that instead. Furthermore I think it's no good idea to use operating systems in RC state in productive environments either.
It isn't so hard to wait for the final and stable release.
@Mint 15 RC
I personally like the changes and new features. At least this release is much more exciting than the Ubuntu release - well, shouldn't be hard to beat that anyway, should it?
Whatsoever, one thing I don't understand that Mint somewhat takes the same direction like Ubuntu in redeveloping many things on it's own, that already has really good options available.
One good example at this point is the MDM.
Why develop a completely new display manager if there are so many out there already, like GDM, KDM, LightDM, LXDM, SDDM and even more... Reminds me a little about the Wayland/Mir-thing that Canonical started.
Anyway, looks like a nice and exciting release.
Just my two cents... Greetings from Germany.
36 • @35 Pierre (by Chanath on 2013-05-17 23:00:34 GMT from Sri Lanka)
Thanks for commenting. Just because Ubuntu releases distros on given days doesn't mean it is buggy. If you look at Mint sources.list, you'd find nothing there. The sources had been moved to the folder sources.list.d If you want to add a ppa, even after installing missing apps to enable adding ppa, you'd still have a problem after adding the ppa. Why?
It'd come as olivia main, not raring main. You'd never get any successful updating to install a ppa. You have to go into that folder and change a lot, so apt-get would recognize it. That's not tweaking by the Mint devs, but spoiling the works. If I am to use Mint, I always change mdm to anything else. Now it had become so large, it looks ancient.
I've been playing with Mints for sometime, and know where their problem lurk. It is not a big deal to make a Mint any more, when you have the released Ubuntu and the new Mint repo.
There are only 2 Ubuntu based Mints, Cinnamon & Mate. These are made just not to use Unity or Gnome shell. Mate is Gnome 2, so it is staying in the past. Cinnamon is Gnome 3, but still trying to stay in the past. Let's say, Mint is somewhat polished than Ubuntu, so one likes to use it, but neither Unity nor Gnome shell is there. I can't get used to Unity yet, maybe to Unity Next. But, I am quite fond of Gnome shell, which is getting better and better.
So, download the Mint 15RC, mark off Mint Olivia repo, as nothing in it is needed for further use or update, leave the Ubuntu repos as it is, install Gnome 3.6 or 3.8, you have a "polished" Gnome shell distro. Mint Update, Mint Software Manager, Mint Updater, Mint Sources, MDM etc are not needed for the distro's work, neither is Cinnamon.
I don't like the thickness of top bars in Gnome shell Firefox, but like the thinness of Firefox in Mint, but don't like to work with old fashioned menus, panels etc, so I get myself a semi Mint based, more Ubuntu based Gnome 3shell distro. I hope you understood, what I am trying to say, Pierre.
37 • Writing again after an 8 month break (by Caitlyn Martin on 2013-05-18 01:01:06 GMT from United States)
I've started writing about Linux again after a much needed 8 month break. (I had been writing for 8 years straight before that.) I've started in my own blog, which I just revived, by following up on a Linux Advocates article which expressed one, but by no means all, the reasons I recommend Red Hat Enterprise Linux and the various free clones: CentOS, Scientific Linux and Springdale Linux. The post is business-centric, but if anyone is interested you can find it at: http://thelinuxworks.blogspot.com/2013/05/linux-standards-and-enterprise-why-red.html
I've also been invited to write for Linux Advocates. I may even submit the occasional review or how-to here if Ladislav will have me back :) Don't worry, I'm no threat to Jesse and his excellent reviews. I'd just be here now and again given the chance.
38 • Selling the product (by Ben Myers on 2013-05-18 02:07:38 GMT from United States)
The people who announce their products need to sell what the product is and what the product does. Not to pick on Mint, which is a very nice distro, the Mint announcement says: "The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 15 'Olivia' RC. Linux Mint 15 is the most ambitious release since the start of the project. MATE 1.6 is greatly improved and Cinnamon 1.8 offers a ton of new features, including a screensaver and a unified control center. The login screen can now be themed in HTML 5 and two new tools, 'Software Sources' and 'Driver Manager', make their first appearance in Linux Mint. MDM now features 3 greeters: a GTK+ greeter; a themeable GDM greeter for which hundreds of themes are available; a brand new HTML greeter, also themeable which supports a new generation of animated and interactive themes."
That's all well and good. But tell me and others what sets Mint apart from the thousands of other distro. SELL the darned thing! Even just a couple of sentences would suffice. Same thing with most of the distro home pages, which pre-suppose that you know what the product does. And we all wonder why all the Linuxes have not had greater success? Even with Windows 8 to compete against! ... Ben
39 • 38 • Selling the product Ben Myers (by Chanath on 2013-05-18 02:34:37 GMT from Sri Lanka)
What sets Mint apart from others--Ubuntu based distros--is the Cinnamon and Mate desktops. Maybe also the Mint apps like Mint Update, Mint Software Centre, MDM etc. Moving into Cinnamon, when Ubuntu went Unity and Gnome went Gnome3 was good business point at that time, when both Unity and Gnome3 were just trying to crawl, but now?
There was such criticism against Unity & Gnome3, even Clem joined that.
Unity is coming out with Unity Next, Gnome 3 is evolving so fast, would the old-fashioned panels and menus keep up with that? Cinnamon is mostly a menu and a panel and with some 3D effects. What else?
I installed Gnome 3.8 in Mint 15RC. I don't need Cinnamon, so do I need Olivia repos?
40 • Linux Mint Saucy Gnome 3.8 (by Chanath on 2013-05-18 06:22:44 GMT from Sri Lanka)
Uninstalled Cinnamon, Nemo went with it, not a big deal as Nautilus had come with Gnome 3.8. Changed Raring to Saucy In the sources.list, marked off Olivia repos, updated and upgraded. I have now the bleeding edge Linux Mint Saucy Gnome 3 edition with Linux kernel 3.9. Don't know how to call it, maybe Mint 16 RC or just Saucy-Mint. So far so good! It works. It is bleeding edge. It can break any time, but I won't believe it would do that. I was with Raring all the way until it was finally released. Nothing broke down in that, so I'm sure nothing would break in Saucy-Mint. It'd be fun!
41 • Latest kernel on all my 'buntu distros, incl Mint 16 RC, easily. (by gregzeng on 2013-05-18 13:19:47 GMT from Australia)
Multiboot from a choice of 6 distros, on two hardware drives. The 'buntus, including Mint 16 rc, allow installing the compiled version of the latest kernel. These latest kernels appear a few days after the pre-compiled version appears.
Had to remove the last Mint, because it is inflexible, compared to Zorin and XFCE-based distros. My 24-inch landscape screen favors the task bar on the left (a la Unity). Mint only allows space wasting the top and/ or botton areas, mocking my slit-eyed look of my East-Asian face. Ergonomically, it is easier to speed-read text in vertical columns, than in forcing the text into 16:9 landscape mode.
Now trialling the non-Debian distros, such as the 'rolling releases' based on Slackware, etc. When I allow updating after installing, they seem not to install the latest version, unlike my 'buntu experiences.
42 • old computers (by knsridhar on 2013-05-18 16:20:23 GMT from India)
Puppy linux performs very good on any old computer including 486 , P1 etc .it has got all what a desktop needs
Number of Comments: 42
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