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Chuck Wintle
05-30-2011, 7:32 AM
i recently tried the latest Ubuntu release and I didn't like it. It seemed to be still buggy. I found Linux Mint to be very good, almost windows like, easy to install and equipped with an impressive range of software. Available in 32 and 64 bit versions...so this is a +1 for Linux Mint.

Curt Harms
05-30-2011, 11:03 AM
Have you spent time at ubuntuforums.org? Much passion, mostly against Unity. Gnome 3 seems to be favored but getting it installed on 11.04 is not for the faint of heart, it seems. Gnome 3 w/Unity will be the default DE in Ubuntu 11.10 so it should be smoothed out by October. There's a fall-back option on the sign-on screen on 11.04 to "classic" Gnome 2.x which works pretty well. The Applications-Places-System menu doesn't appear by default but it can be added to the top panel with a couple clicks. And yes, Mint has its fans. Mint is an excellent choice for a Linux newbie because a LiveCD loads audio/video codecs and restricted drivers etc. that Ubuntu doesn't. The other options are to install the XFCE or LXDE environments. I'm using Lubuntu on a P3 ThinkPad with 512 RAM. It works better on that machine than Windows XP ever did, uses about 100 meg. RAM with Firefox open.

For those who are curious, a LiveCD will give you a 90% function PC without touching what's there now. I say 90% because some hardware may not work without downloading restricted drivers then rebooting. When you reboot, the downloaded software disappears and doesn't get loaded, sort of like a Windows update that doesn't get written to the hard drive. On my machine it's 100% functional because all hardware is supported without downloading anything. The other side of the coin is that when you reboot from a live session, everything that was downloaded goes away including any crapware, tracking cookies etc.

Stephen Tashiro
05-30-2011, 1:11 PM
I recently installed the default Fedora Core 15 spin on a machine. It's going to take some time to adjust to Gnome 3.

I have yet to see a simple solution (in any OS) to the problem of customization. Getting a computer to where you want it involves hours of tweaking things like the display time-out time, etc. With modern hard drives being so large, I prefer to have most of the non-foreign-language-support software installed and that's a big download. I've seen IT people write scripts to use anaconda to install Linux over networks and clone installations that way, but I don't know how the typical homeowner can do it.

Curt Harms
05-31-2011, 7:56 AM
I recently installed the default Fedora Core 15 spin on a machine. It's going to take some time to adjust to Gnome 3.

I have yet to see a simple solution (in any OS) to the problem of customization. Getting a computer to where you want it involves hours of tweaking things like the display time-out time, etc. With modern hard drives being so large, I prefer to have most of the non-foreign-language-support software installed and that's a big download. I've seen IT people write scripts to use anaconda to install Linux over networks and clone installations that way, but I don't know how the typical homeowner can do it.

Stephen, I haven't tried it yet but how close does creating a separate /home partition come to that goal? I know it wouldn't be 100% because of edits to files not in the /home directory but have you tried it?

Bryan Morgan
05-31-2011, 5:54 PM
I recently installed the default Fedora Core 15 spin on a machine. It's going to take some time to adjust to Gnome 3.

I have yet to see a simple solution (in any OS) to the problem of customization. Getting a computer to where you want it involves hours of tweaking things like the display time-out time, etc. With modern hard drives being so large, I prefer to have most of the non-foreign-language-support software installed and that's a big download. I've seen IT people write scripts to use anaconda to install Linux over networks and clone installations that way, but I don't know how the typical homeowner can do it.

We just use kickstart files to install things the way we want... seems to work ok... Although it doesn't do me a ton of good because every system I build is for a different purpose... go figure...

Bryan Morgan
05-31-2011, 6:01 PM
i recently tried the latest Ubuntu release and I didn't like it. It seemed to be still buggy. I found Linux Mint to be very good, almost windows like, easy to install and equipped with an impressive range of software. Available in 32 and 64 bit versions...so this is a +1 for Linux Mint.

I am not a fan of Ubuntu distros. Its cool they are trying to convert people but I still see it kind of as Linux Lite or the Fisher Price Linux. I don't really care for GUIs but if I must use one I much prefer KDE over Gnome. I'm more into Red Hat based systems (CentOS for servers and Fedora for workstations)... though I still prefer a shell over all that flashy pointing and dragging and clicking. Who's got time for that? :D Although Ubuntu has a pretty decent repository system, I like to compile my own software for my own systems (usually with my own compiled kernels) and for me its easier in a Red Hat based OS because thats what I was "raised" on (that and SCO Unix).

Curt Harms
06-01-2011, 7:34 AM
I am not a fan of Ubuntu distros. Its cool they are trying to convert people but I still see it kind of as Linux Lite or the Fisher Price Linux. I don't really care for GUIs but if I must use one I much prefer KDE over Gnome. I'm more into Red Hat based systems (CentOS for servers and Fedora for workstations)... though I still prefer a shell over all that flashy pointing and dragging and clicking. Who's got time for that? :D Although Ubuntu has a pretty decent repository system, I like to compile my own software for my own systems (usually with my own compiled kernels) and for me its easier in a Red Hat based OS because thats what I was "raised" on (that and SCO Unix).

Ain't it great to have a choice, though? Fedora 15 with Gnome shell is getting pretty good reviews--or leave Gnome shell off. AFAIK all the major distros can be installed without the "pretty face". The useful thing about Ubuntu and its spins is hardware support. Wireless networking used to be border line impossible-If you were lucky there was source code that didn't need TOO much editing. Now it's oftentimes plug & play.

Bryan Morgan
06-01-2011, 6:30 PM
Ain't it great to have a choice, though?

Thats the clincher right there. When I do use a GUI, its nice to use features from Windows or MacOS all at the same time. I have noticed Apple ripping off some old compiz/beryl stuff and calling it "new features" in their OS... :)