Linux Mint 7 RC1 has recently been released, and a poster over at EasyLinuxCDs.com has been good enough to detail some of the features in ten different videos. He details everything from installation to mintUpdate to even small features, such as the Xchat app. Though the bulk of the videos seem a bit elementary for most readers here, I at least found Linux Mint 7 a very good-looking system aesthetically and technically and would like to test it out sometime in the near future.
I used Linux Mint since it’s initial release and have tried version five and six in virtualization (since I recently made the switch back to Debian.) Each versino in an impressive superset of Ubuntu Linux. I always considered Mint to be Ubuntu done right! And it’s pretty!! Version seven is another innovative leap forward for Mint. Nicely done Mint team!
I’m an Ubuntu user but I recently loaded Ubuntu on a few machines and then thought – why did I do that if I installed mint I wouldn’t have to load ……
However, I loaded Mint onto my kids PC they like it I’d say it a great OS
I tried Mint from a LiveCD a while a go. While I like its looks I have to wonder some of the design choises:
1. Everybody uses a web browser, but only a few use a note taking application – yet the latter is much more accessible from the panel.
2. I’m pretty sure most people are aware of the week day or the month they live in, so why are those taking up space in the taskbar?
3. Their target group is novice users, yet the “System” is the most accessible in the menu.
4. Why are many of the things in Places duplicated on the Desktop instead of a cleaner Desktop.
5. The menu could be more accessible if it popped up on mouseover instead of having to click it (and AFAIR, you can’t even change it).
Yes, I know *most* of those can be tweaked… but sometimes I can’t help getting annoyed by obviously stupid defaults.
2) no I usually don have a clue which day it is not everyone works from monday to friday
and you can change the format it displays (it is gnome after all)
No, they don’t want to build yet another beginners linux, they try to build a comfortable kind of linux. Which is something completely different. The Mint developers are trying to tune everything in such a way, that it appeals to comfort users. Nowhere does it say that those comfort users are new to linux. Actually, my impression is that most Mint users are experienced Ubuntu users that got fed up with spending time tuning their systems.
I’m running Mint myself on my notebook, and as one of the other posters said, it’s like a ‘better kind of Ubuntu’. In my opinion so much better, that nowadays I simply use Debian for anything server and Mint for anything desktop.
Yeah well, all my points apply to those users as well IMO.
So you think Mint’s defaults are perfect for all experienced users? I’m pretty sure they’ll be tweaking Mint too. I know I would.
I agree it’s pretty good. But in the end it’s all about personal preferences.
I haven’t been able to access this site (easylinuxcds) since yesterday when I found a link on LXer. How is anyone seeing these videos?
I can, your DSN is probably outdated, try
http://12.32.36.126/blog/?p=3294
Make sure you fulfill their political views requirements before installing.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2346637,00.asp
“I’m only going to ask for one thing here. If you do not agree I kindly ask you not to use Linux Mint and not to donate money to it.”
Edited 2009-05-10 12:42 UTC
A bit of an odd thing for a foss developer, of all people, to say. What ever happened to the software being free and open and everybody should be allowed to use and modify it mentality? I thought that was what the foss movement was all about. I certainly won’t support Mint; not because I disagree with his views, but because he’s an arse for daring to say I should have to agree with him in order to use his system. That’s completely contrary to the open source philosophy. He should have posted that on his personal blog, as he has every right to vocalize his views, but it’s that last little bit about needing to agree with him that he should not have said. Hmm… now where have I seen that attitude before?
I just read it, what a daft thing for him to say/do!
He already excused himself for speaking on behalf of the entire Linux Mint team. Even though I agree with his worries on the middle east conflict, it was not the right place to comment on it. He already created a personal blog and moved the message there. We are all subject to acting/speaking with our guts when something really annoys us, and that’s what happened with him and he apologized for that.
He’s forking and starting a new distro…..Hamas Linux.
Now that made me laugh 🙂
I actually found it refreshing that a developer had the balls to take a stance. Of course, the license prevents him from keeping Mint to only those that agree with him, but that doesn’t mean that he can’t or shouldn’t ask people to not use it.
If I put a lot of work into something, I wouldn’t necessarily want it to land in the hands of what I consider unethical assholes.
Trouble with that attitude is you have no right to decide who is ethical, ethics are in the eye of the person interpreting the world around them and completely relative to that individual’s thought processes–i.e. relative to you in this case. I may not have the same ethics as you… does that give you the right to ask me not to use anything you might develop?
I’m going to draw up a comparison here, and most of you here are probably not going to like it… but it seems the mentality of deciding who you want to use your product and on what conditions comes very close to a post-sale restriction intent; the difference, in this case, being that the license forbids him from actually putting these restrictions in place and obviously there’s no actual monetary exchange. Regardless, it is in some sense the same mentality… and now for the comparison. Who in the tech world is known for establishing post-sale restrictions that exclude people, who don’t have a certain brand of hardware, from installing certain software? I’ve laid the groundwork… fill the rest in for yourselves.
For my part, I agree with his political stance, but I still won’t support what he has asked, because doing so goes against my ethics. He has no right to ask that and descriminate against those who don’t hold his view… some would call that highly intolerant.
Yes, he has the right to make his opinion known and yes, I like it when someone stands up for what they believe in–far too few do that lately. I do not support his descriminatory mindset, even though he cannot actually enforce it as such. The intent here is just as bad.
Trouble with that attitude is you have no right to decide who is ethical, ethics are in the eye of the person interpreting the world around them and completely relative to that individual’s thought processes–i.e. relative to you in this case. I may not have the same ethics as you… does that give you the right to ask me not to use anything you might develop?
I would actually say yes, he has the right to _ask_ such. He crosses the line when he tries to force such a thing, though. I don’t know if he would force that even if he could.
I dont use it. I got fed up with trying to use gNewSense or a vanilla Ubuntu as many things didnt work great. I evaluated two, Linux Mint and PC/OS and I prefer PC/OS, http://www.pc-os.org. Its cleaner, the guys over there dont pay attention to the politics and just want to deliver a good system for Linux users to use and they dont bend to the whim of the GNOME and KDE groups as they use XFCE as the default desktop.
I tried out the LiveCD and was very impressed with it. I would consider using it when it comes out but I won’t be straying too far as I use Ubuntu on both my desktop and notebook.