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Linux Mint downloads (briefly) compromised

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Re: Linux Mint downloads (briefly) compromised

#141

Post by callinyouin »

m00dy wrote: post #3

Whos using Mint these days anyway ?

I am, although I use the Xfce version. Back in the day, before I learned to program, I used distributions like Arch, Slackware, Gentoo, etc. that generally required manual configuration and knowledge of the system and Linux in general. I realize this seems backwards, but these days I'd rather spend my time developing things than configuring my workstation. My interest in computers has moved from administration to creation, and using an operating system that takes care of the former allows me to better spend my time doing the latter.

That said, in light of Mint's issues I'm seriously considering moving back to Xubuntu or some other disto that has Xfce as a first class citizen. I'd be interested in suggestions.

Re: Linux Mint downloads (briefly) compromised

#142

Post by splintercell »

unixhero wrote: post #90

I realize they have not taken security seriously in designing their delivery mechanisms. However I do not care. Linux Mint solves all my problems of configuration. It is configured so nicely and with Cinnamon it comes with so many useful bells and whistles, I'm not moving anywhere. It's great. Mint will be back after this blow and I am sure it will not happen again. I use it daily and I am super productive on it as m…

This. Because of Linux Mint, I don't even notice my Operating System anymore(which is a good thing).

Everybody else here is recommending 'safer' options, but seriously I don't want to pay the cost of fighting with my OS (which is what every Linux experience has been for me since 1996). Linux Mint has been the only OS which makes me forget that I am using Linux. It beats OS X in almost everything.

Re: Linux Mint downloads (briefly) compromised

#143

Post by ChuckMcM »

snarfy wrote: post #24

I remember installing it when it was relatively new and people were gushing over it. A few weeks later a new version came out. I tried upgrading when I found there was no upgrade path. Upgrading Mint means reinstalling Mint. I remember the days before apt-get when there was only dpkg. Before Debian I used Slackware so I'm all too familiar with package management (or lack of). The idea that someone would release a new…

That was my experience as well, and after interacting with them a couple of times on issues with name space collisions I realized that it was more like some person's distro rather than a new mainstream distro. The difference being are you in the release management business (hard) or in cobbling together a set of packages that you like for you (easier). I went back to Kubuntu and waited to see if they would grow into that. After all, everyone has to start somewhere.

The compromise on their site with Wordpress was sad, but the best description I've heard for Wordpress was that it was "a rootkit with a blogging package ride along." It is so hard to secure a wordpress install and keep it that way.

Re: Linux Mint downloads (briefly) compromised

#144

Post by rplnt »

purpled_haze wrote: post #40
jnbiche wrote: post #21

I've used Mint in the past, and it was my go-to distro for family members who aren't so technical. I'm not bothered by the licensing issues mentioned, and I'm ambivalent about the namespace issues, but I've been increasingly uneasy for some time now about Mint's security practices. Serving downloads over http and not providing GPG signed SHA hashes like every other distro is fairly irresponsible in this day and age.…

I'm curious- what do you think of Fedora? It's in the top 5 distros along with OpenSUSE, Ubuntu, Debian, and Mint, and yet I hardly ever hear people talk about it. I had personally given up on Fedora years ago, but recently was told I should give it a second look and I've not had time to try it out.

There are two huge disadvantages why I wouldn't recommend it to everyone (though I use it myself):

1) strict licensing restrictions - lots of basic functionality/software missing from official repositories; there is rpmfusion of course, but that's not something my mom should know how to install

2) Very short support. You'll be stuck without updates in no time, and upgrading to possibly broken release (that might radically change things) every few months is ridiculous.

So.. if they were to offer LTS version, I'd happily recommend it to everyone. As it is, it's great if you don't mind the caveats mentioned above (especially everything that stems from 2nd point). CentOS is not a viable alternative, as it is "enterprise" OS stuck with archaic software.

Re: Linux Mint downloads (briefly) compromised

#145

Post by kuschkufan »

geostyx wrote: post #128

I've been using Mint for the past month or so, should I be using something else?

Given the grave lapses that are described here, I hope it's obvious to you that absolutely yes, you should be using something else. I'll guess that Ubuntu might be your cup of tea.

Re: Linux Mint downloads (briefly) compromised

#146

Post by Avshalom »

LeonidasXIV wrote: post #105
DanBC wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fedora isn't for non technical family members. Here's a bit of mild whinging that's only relevant if you want to give it to non-technical people. There's a move to give stuff generic names, rather than the obscure names they had in the past. For example, Nautilus has been renamed to Gnome Files, or just Files. When a non technical person needs to search for hep this new name makes it impossible for them to create a u…

> There's a move to give stuff generic names That's not so much a Fedora thing but a GNOME move, as the RPM containing "Files" is still called Nautilus. Also, I am a bit surprised since it goes contrary to your argument, because when a user looks for a file explorer he's much more likely to find that looking for "Files" rather than the (rather strange, really) name of "Nautilus". I would see myself as a technical use…

Who is this user though? Apple has Finder, Microsoft: Explorer, Android/iOS: nothing, and unless they've installed the CLI/minimal edition of a linux distro it has a file manager and they launch it not by selecting the application from a menu but clicking on a folder icon.

Making the name basically irrelevant unless they need to ask a question about it in which case enter googlability.

Re: Linux Mint downloads (briefly) compromised

#147

Post by lucb1e »

jsjohnst wrote: post #138
jnbiche wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to use Fedora with KDE 5 or so years ago. I liked it fine. The only think I lacked was the convenience of deb packages since so many projects offer debs, and using alien to install debs with yum was painful (they've changed package managers now, if I'm not mistaken). Probably, if I move away from the convenience of a Debian derivative these days, it will be to FreeBSD.

What projects are you looking at that primarily only package a deb? I frequent far flung corners of the web and have never had trouble finding an RPM (have on occasion had trouble finding a deb though)

I've had both, depending on what I was looking for at the moment. Server and/or enterprise stuff, perhaps some management system for something, never offered debs. Lots of user software seems to give me debs a lot more often than rpms. It also shifted over time I think, debs being more popular recently and rpms less so.

Re: Linux Mint downloads (briefly) compromised

#148

Post by eatonphil »

jnbiche wrote: post #46
purpled_haze wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious- what do you think of Fedora? It's in the top 5 distros along with OpenSUSE, Ubuntu, Debian, and Mint, and yet I hardly ever hear people talk about it. I had personally given up on Fedora years ago, but recently was told I should give it a second look and I've not had time to try it out.

I used to use Fedora with KDE 5 or so years ago. I liked it fine. The only think I lacked was the convenience of deb packages since so many projects offer debs, and using alien to install debs with yum was painful (they've changed package managers now, if I'm not mistaken). Probably, if I move away from the convenience of a Debian derivative these days, it will be to FreeBSD.

If you do end up switching to FreeBSD and are looking for some help, feel free to email me! It'll be a bit of the blind leading the blind; I finally got FreeBSD working [wifi, desktop] 6 months ago. But I'd been running Ubuntu for the past 5 years before this so I'm familiar with some of the transition-confusion. I've been using FreeBSD exclusively for work and and servers with the exception of work servers (which are still Ubuntu).

Re: Linux Mint downloads (briefly) compromised

#149

Post by moonchrome »

zwarag wrote: post #63
purpled_haze wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious- what do you think of Fedora? It's in the top 5 distros along with OpenSUSE, Ubuntu, Debian, and Mint, and yet I hardly ever hear people talk about it. I had personally given up on Fedora years ago, but recently was told I should give it a second look and I've not had time to try it out.

Fedora has come a long way from where it came from. It is much better then it used to be and has become really fast, secure, and yes: user-friendly. I use Fedora @work and Ubuntu @home. The reason I use Ubuntu @home is that my roommates run Ubuntu too and we get all the same Versions on whatever software. But @work I run Fedora. There aren't any particular reasons except that it just "feels" better to work on that on…

Ubuntu is just too dated for development work IMO - I need to rebuild everything from source or find 3rd party PPA for anything remotely recent - I'm fine with compiling deps for production but for development the distro really shouldn't be getting in my way of trying new stuff out.

That said I've had many performance issues on GNOME - I like the way it looks and the "feel" and I got used to the UI over the last year or more but frankly it's constantly hogging my PC down, both desktop an laptop - when I switched to KDE/plasma 5 I saw my WebGL chrome app go from 40-50 FPS to consistent 60 FPS - both tests done after a clean start and simply starting the app letting it run for a while. The entire system feels more responsive - can't trace the issue but the results are measurable and noticeable

I've had flicker and stability issues with KDE 5 when I last tried it a year ago but now it appears quite stable. My only complaint is that themes/design community are nowhere near to Gnome.

Re: Linux Mint downloads (briefly) compromised

#150

Post by [deleted] »

mathnode wrote: post #69
m00dy wrote: post #3

Whos using Mint these days anyway ?

The poor saps who have it recommended to them or installed for them. It's a desktop environment theme at best, and could be packaged as such. Maintaining a distro for general consumption (it's pitched to new users as "Windows like"), is very hard work and carries a lot of responsibility.

[deleted]
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