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Mint 17.3 may be the best Linux desktop distro yet

arstechnica.com

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Re: Mint 17.3 may be the best Linux desktop distro yet

#51

Post by collyw »

twic wrote: post #36

I've been out of the desktop Linux world for a while. How does Arch compare to Mint? I rather like Arch's rolling release model, but Mint sounds like a seriously polished piece of work.

Mint also has a rolling release based on Debian.

I looked at Arch but the install looked difficult, so I ended up on Manjaro. Arch based with an easy to use installer and package manager. Works great on the laptop I am currently typing on, but its a bit crashy on my Gigabyte brix (though Mint had problems on that box as well).

Re: Mint 17.3 may be the best Linux desktop distro yet

#52

Post by shonn »

pan69 wrote: post #46
oakhaven wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how about {x,k,l}ubuntu?

Since the Ubuntu/Unity/Gnome3 disaster happened I switched to XUbuntu and I have been extremely happy with it. Xfce with XUbuntu is very much like the olden days of Ubuntu/Gnome2. The only real issue with XUbuntu is the lack of window resize control. The window borders are a single pixel wide and it can be extremely frustrating to resize a window. The only way to reasonably get it done is by using the either one of t…

Different styles have different window border widths. This aggravated me until I found out.

Settings->Appearance->Style.

Re: Mint 17.3 may be the best Linux desktop distro yet

#53

Post by lingben »

xorcist wrote: post #50

Last time I looked on Mint there was no support for upgrading the system. It doesn't matter how easy installs are, I'm not going to tell my mother-in-law to reinstall twice per year. This review consists of someone who clicks through an installation and tell what it looks like. That's not very interesting. You only install once, and colors are configurable, if you care about those things. Supported hardware must work…

Not sure what you mean by 'support'. There is an extremely easy and stable upgrade process as well as guides, forum help, etc. However, it isn't necessary to upgrade frequently if you go on the LTS track.

As for 'reinstalling twice per year' again, not sure where you're getting this from. Linux mint 17.3 is supported until April 2019. That's almost 3 and a half years before you need to upgrade.

http://linux.wikia.com/wiki/Linux_Mint

And in the meantime you get continuous upgrades for software you've installed in an intuitive and easy to use UI.

You ask, 'Are those things there for Linux Mint yet?'

Yes, yes they are :)

Re: Mint 17.3 may be the best Linux desktop distro yet

#54

Post by atmosx »

tajen wrote: post #39
VonGuard wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use this now, but I also try to use it on some seriously old Dell laptops at my non-profit. Sadly, that means I must first install Ubuntu, vanilla. This means I then must login to Unity and install Gnome-Flashback. Normally, this takes about 10 seconds on a modern machine. On these 10 year old Dells? Unity chugs... A task that should take me 5 minutes takes an hour because Unity lags so far behind the mouse and slo…

What are the pros of Ubuntu in serverland over Debian?

sudo is pre-installed :-P

Seriously, none. I always go for debian, have worked on various ubuntu servers.. The only difference is that Debian is more barebones.

Re: Mint 17.3 may be the best Linux desktop distro yet

#55

Post by collyw »

VeilEm wrote: post #12

Reading this post I am reminded just how much more work it is to have a functional linux desktop that ends up running worse than a Mac or windows box. More for less. Less battery life, less games, less driver support. Old hardware. I've been running OS X for many years now but I think in the future I see myself going back to windows and using docker toolbox to get an easy to start and maintain linux development envir…

Only when it is preinstalled. Otherwise Windows is just as much grief.

Re: Mint 17.3 may be the best Linux desktop distro yet

#56

Post by jrcii »

justinsaccount wrote: post #24

I run cinnamon on one of my thinkpads. It's interesting to me how there are a ton of things is does usability wise better than my work OS X laptop: * The desktop overview 'expose' like thing gives me a large 2x3 grid of mini desktops, each containing mini windows that I can drag between different desktops. OS X displays a tiny 1x6 list of desktops and you can't drag windows between desktops directly. * When I click t…

You can fix the calendar popup problem with an app called Day-O, which I agree should be the default.

Re: Mint 17.3 may be the best Linux desktop distro yet

#57

Post by atmosx »

VeilEm wrote: post #12

Reading this post I am reminded just how much more work it is to have a functional linux desktop that ends up running worse than a Mac or windows box. More for less. Less battery life, less games, less driver support. Old hardware. I've been running OS X for many years now but I think in the future I see myself going back to windows and using docker toolbox to get an easy to start and maintain linux development envir…

Tools? It took 2-3 hours of reading howtows, tweaking and experimenting before getting Win8 in a "workable" state on a computer without touchscreen. Its like Linux backwards: to make the system work have to go backwards, disable every single "new" feature! If you wanna automate something, good luck, with that... Are you going to launch a VM to run a ruby or py script??? Docker support came last to windows and many nice tools dont run on windows at all.

Windows make sense to me if you wanna do specific things but a dev/admin OS outside the MS ecosystem is a awful.

Re: Mint 17.3 may be the best Linux desktop distro yet

#58

Post by atmosx »

VeilEm wrote: post #12

Reading this post I am reminded just how much more work it is to have a functional linux desktop that ends up running worse than a Mac or windows box. More for less. Less battery life, less games, less driver support. Old hardware. I've been running OS X for many years now but I think in the future I see myself going back to windows and using docker toolbox to get an easy to start and maintain linux development envir…

Tools? It took 2-3 hours of reading howtows, tweaking and experimenting before getting Win8 in a "workable" state on a computer without touchscreen. Its like Linux backwards: to make the system work have to go backwards, disable every single "new" feature! If you wanna automate something, good luck, with that... Are you going to launch a VM to run a ruby or py script??? Docker support came last to windows and many nice tools dont run on windows at all.

Windows make sense to me if you wanna do specific things but a dev/admin OS outside the MS ecosystem is a awful.

Re: Mint 17.3 may be the best Linux desktop distro yet

#60

Post by sampo »

xorcist wrote: post #50

Last time I looked on Mint there was no support for upgrading the system. It doesn't matter how easy installs are, I'm not going to tell my mother-in-law to reinstall twice per year. This review consists of someone who clicks through an installation and tell what it looks like. That's not very interesting. You only install once, and colors are configurable, if you care about those things. Supported hardware must work…

> Last time I looked on Mint there was no support for upgrading the system.

Some years ago, the recommended way to upgrade Mint was indeed to do a full reinstall [1]. For a couple past years, there has been a simpler way, involving a bit of command line acrobatics [2]. Still not good for your mother-in-law.

Apparently [3] only in 2015 Mint finally started to have the "normal" way, where you just click on an upgrade button, and the system upgrades itself. But even now, this does not upgrade the kernel. Weird.

[1] http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/2

[2] https://gist.github.com/hgomez/7074150

[3] http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2871

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