Mint Users

[D-Dan]

Linux Mint standard (based on Ubuntu) or LMDE (based on Debian), which do you prefer and why?

I have standard installed, but am just installing LMDE on a VM. I have to say that installation of LMDE was lightningly quick (granted it's installing from an iso rather than a physical CD, so that will help, but still, 5 minutes maximum).

I'm just curious on this.

Steve

[Glenn]

I'm still having trouble getting the wireless to work on my Mint 9 Mini 9, it worked for 1 day. 

[pctech]

I prefer Murray 

[MisterW]

I'm still having trouble getting the wireless to work on my Mint 9 Mini 9

Glenn, Have you looked at this https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx
Mint 9 is based on Ubuntu 10.04 so it should be relevant.

[Glenn]

Cheers, I'll take a look.

I can connect to the router but I can't get past it, it looks like it may need the DNS setting somewhere, but as a Linux virgin 

[MisterW]

Not totally sure on the UI for Mint, but assuming its similar to Ubuntu, there's a network icon on the status bar. Right click it and select 'Edit Connections', click the Wireless tab , select your connection from the list and click 'edit'. DNS settings are on the IPV4 tab,
select the 'method' from the drop down list. Automatic(DHCP) is the default and should set everything via DHCP, Automatic(DHCP) Addresses only will use DHCP for the IP but allow for manual DNS entry, and Manual will allow you to put everything in manually.

HTH

[atsw]

I had trouble with Wifi on my Netbook using Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook edition.  Not quite what you had, in my case the Access Point would only allow a connection 50/50.  I moved over to using Windows Drivers via the NDIS wrapper and all now 100%.

I've got Ubuntu 10.10 on my desktop, but for the last few days have been booting the Live CD of Mint 10 (AMD-64) to see how it compares.  Must say I really like the new menu layout, but do miss the ability to run multiple desktop screens (unless I've missed something somewhere of course, if so,please let me know!).  It does feel very clean, and its certainly quick. 

I took a punt on installing the Ubuntu edition of Google Chrome (as Mint is based on Unbuntu) and that all worked flawlessly as well.

Andrew

[D-Dan]

You can use multiple desktops with Mint in exactly the same way as Ubuntu, but you need to configure it. Don't worry, it's easy. Fire up Compiz-settings and set the number of desktops to however many you want. Job done.

Steve

[atsw]

Thanks Steve.   Runs off to give it a go..........

Andrew

[atsw]

Just a quick follow-up to thank D-Dan.  I followed the Compiz-settings and found the number of desktops was already at 4, but I was missing the virtual desktop selector on the panel to change between the 4 different desktop windows.  Anyway, a quick Google revealed I neede to right click on the panel at the bottom, click on "add to panel", then select "Workspace Switcher" from the list of tools. Bingo, all sorted .



Andrew

[Rik]

Thanks for letting us know, Andrew.

[JB]

You can use CTRL-ALT and left or right arrow to quickly shift between you desktops.

Just put Linux Mint 10 on my Sammy NC10 and it all works. Had to update the BIOS so that the brightness dimmer worked but amazingly the WiFi worked straight out of the box without NDISWrapper.

[Rik]

Did you notice a speed difference, JB?

[JB]

The Sammy originally came with XP installed. I replaced that with Windows 7. There didn't seem to be any speed difference between XP and 7, probably because the pre-configured XP installation had a lot of stuff running that I didn't need and didn't install with Windows 7. When I got the Sammy I immediately doubled the size of the installed RAM.

Moving from Windows 7 to Linux Mint 10 does seem to make the machine run more quickly. Boot time is slightly quicker but shut down is much quicker. It's hard to quantify, but I would guess it's about 25% quicker with Mint.

My main consideration is security. I take the Sammy when I travel and use lots of airport WiFi systems but link back to home via a VPN. I'm still considering whether to keep Mint on it or revert to Windows 7. I have been able to substitute all the Windows software I use with Linux equivalents.

[D-Dan]

If you want it to continue to run quickly then leave Mint on it. Without a lot of maintenance Windows slows down as time progresses, which is something I haven't experienced with Linux.

As an example, I have to spend about 3 hours each month on Win 7 clearing clutter, defragging, scanning and uninstalling rarely (or never) used programs, all followed by a registry cleanup using a utility, followed by a manual registry cleanup of obsolete keys left behind by, now absent programs.

On Mint I just leave it to it

I've also found on occasion some websites that choke Windows fly along on Linux.

Not to mention that Mint will be more secure on a mobile system than Windows ever would.

Steve

[JB]

Yepp. Agree with all.

[D-Dan]

An update guys.

LMDE was released as stable on 20 December, available in both 32 and 64 bit versions.

The difference as I mentioned is that this is based on Debian rather than Ubuntu, which does come with its' own share of headaches. I just finished installing it and customising (though I have yet to test hardware compatibility with the printer, TV stick and webcam) but installation was fairly painless, in itself.

New users of Linux should stop reading now, and be happy with the standard distribution.

Unlike the standard Mint, LMDE doesn't have all the eyecandy enabled, so if you like eyecandy, be prepared to work for it. Some things that don't work as standard are compiz, plymouth and emerald. Also, the filestructure is a little different (though IMO more sensible, with plymouth themes for example being located in /usr/share rather than /lib/ as in Ubuntu. This will, of course, break downloaded plymouth themes (to fix them you need to update the paths in the theme.plymouth file). The plymouth commands for changing themes are different, too - so google "plymouth debian" for corrected syntax.

Compiz is installed, but does not run by default, so you will need to enable it in startup applications if you want it running. Emerald is absent completely (both from install and the repositories).

It is possible to install emerald from a 3rd party repos (something I have done) but you need to get down and dirty with the commandline, and disable the repository afterwards otherwise the update manager will complain. It seems to downgrade compiz doing it this way. If you are really brave you could compile from source and get it running that way.

Having said all that, once installed and running, LMDE does give you access to the complete debian repositories rather than the more restricted repositories used by Ubuntu (as used by standard Mint). This should mean faster updates and patches.

OK - to correct the above, I just tested the printer - no problem. Webcam - no problem. Scanner - not recognised at present - Worked with Mint standard so I'll research (printer and scanner are an HP combo job - webcam is MS VX-3000). TV stick works.

If you fancy giving it a go it seems stable enough up to now. I'll report more when I've had a good go at crashing it

Steve

PS. I should mention that the search box in synaptic is unavailable. Use the search button instead. I'm not sure if this is an indexing thing, but it's had long enough now.

[JB]

Thanks for the update Steve.

[D-Dan]

Update - to enable quick search in synaptic install xapian. It's already on the bug tracker.

Steve