[Lancaster] linux mint - quick review

[Ken Walton]

andy baxter wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Just installed linux mint - I wanted to have a look at because a friend 
> had recommended it as a good beginners distro and I wanted to see it to 
> see if I would feel happy recommending it to other people as well. 
That would be me! :-)
> It 
> also includes all the multimedia codecs by default, which is unusual for 
> a distro nowadays - the people who release it have decided that since 
> software patents are officially illegal in Europe they will take the law 
> at its word and include the codecs.
>
> I'm pretty impressed so far, with a couple of reservations. The whole 
> system looks very good, with all the window effects running by default, 
> and it's pretty simple to install. I really like the way they have 
> integrated the package manager with an online website where you can just 
> click a link to download a program - this could be really useful for 
> people who just want to know about the relatively few commonly used 
> programs through an easy interface. Synaptic is still there if you want 
> to use it.
>   
The next version (based on Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex and due any day now) 
improves that with a program called Software Manager, which has the same 
info as the website, but in a local program. Synaptic is still there. 
You can also uninstall programs from a right click on the menu.
> It was running a recent version of gnome - I hadn't seen the new gnome 
> menu before but quite like it. 
That's not the new Gnome menu, that's the Mint menu.
> There was one major bug - when I tried to 
> open an unmounted partition and then cancelled, the desktop locked up. 
> Ctrl-alt-backspace worked to get back to the login window, but this is a 
> bit worrying when I'm thinking of recommending it to beginners. 
I can't help thinking that most beginners wouldn't have a clue what 
mounting a partition was, by definition ;-)
> Also I 
> didn't think they should have enabled fortune cookies in the terminal by 
> default - the first couple I saw were just annoying. I know some people 
> like the fortune cookies, but it seems odd to have something so much 
> from the linux old school in a system that's obviously meant to appeal 
> to a mass audience. 
That is something you are (or should be) asked whether you want or not 
on first boot. The default is yes, but it does suggest you may not like 
them and gives you the option of turning them off.
> Can't think of any more problems so far, and the 
> lockup may well be particular to my machine or the way I have my system 
> set up, so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt on that.
>
>   
I've been running it for months with no problems. And I mean *no* 
problems. I often think it's a distro with a less-than-well-developed 
community, simply because very few people ever have to ask for help.

The only niggle I've found is that it won't talk to my Palm Z22, but 
that's apparently a problem with the last Ubuntu kernel, which should be 
addressed in the next release.
> Overall I'm pleased I took the time to look at this distro, and I'm 
> thinking of keeping it on my disk as a backup to my main debian testing 
> partition.
>
>   
One of my housemates, a long-time non-expert computer user, who got sick 
of XP's constant virus checking and sluggishness problems, has been 
using it on his laptop for weeks now, and hasn't once had a problem 
with. I keep expecting him to come and ask for help, but it apparently 
"just works" as the saying has it.

--
Ken Walton