Josh Saddler - Latest comments on Alternative distros: Linux Mint

In response to: Alternative distros: Linux Mint

gerryk [Visitor] — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 06:10:47 +0000

I am running Mint 5 & 6 on an old Celeron P4 1.7 ghz. I am not experiencing the long bootup time you mentioned. I tried the Xfce first because Xubuntu seems to be my favorite of all the flavors of Ubuntu. The VLC player works beautifully with MINT. The auto mounting of the partitions seems to work great. I am a musician and a wordsmith, but not a code poet. Still I think any distro of LINUX is such an improvement over Windows that the bashing seems uncalled for.

In response to: Alternative distros: Linux Mint

Linux Spirit [Visitor] — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 03:16:39 +0000

nice post. i am using linux mint and gOs. really like it. goo... linux ubuntu

In response to: Alternative distros: Linux Mint

Darth Chaos [Visitor] — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:21:29 +0000

I actually like Mint Fluxbox. It does seem weird to right-click to open the Fluxbox menu, but anybody can right-click. Anyway, I find Mint Fluxbox easy to use and configure. I love the fact that it uses Thunar as its file manager. Thunar is my favorite. I like it a lot better than Nautilus. I find that a lot of software works great with Mint Fluxbox, even the CNR client Linspire makes for Linux Mint. Only thing I don't like about Mint Fluxbox is the included software. I don't like Exaile, so I always replace it with Rhythmbox. I don't like Gnormalize, so I replace it with Sound Juicer. I don't like Mplayer, so I replace it with VLC. And adding applications to the menu is easy as pie with the Fluxmenu.

In response to: Alternative distros: Linux Mint

yoga [Visitor] — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 13:24:53 +0000

I agreed with AnonymousWatcher, you might want to try burning them on a normal CD-R media instead of CD-RW. Old CD drive tend to have problems in reading rewritten CD-RW media. It'll be a waste of space, but could _really_ help you experiencing each disto's true performance.

As for Puppy linux, I don't know much but I suggest you to visit their forum. This distro could be your ultimate answer.

In response to: Alternative distros: Linux Mint

AnonymousWatcher [Visitor] — Tue, 27 May 2008 06:09:23 +0000

I had to laugh when i read about your wish to throw the CD-RW across the room :-)
I tended to use them for scrapspace and ecological reasons also, but with USB-Sticks getting more and more common? Anyways, in my experience strange things may happen with RWs. Including your described..errr..symptoms. Burn the same image on a normal CD-R and everything works in the speed as expected. Sometimes, at least, when the software itself isn't the culprit. I guess CD-RW isn't implemented that carefully in the firmware of the most drives.

In response to: Alternative distros: Linux Mint

Ed [Visitor] — Tue, 27 May 2008 01:06:01 +0000

Please bear in mind that the distro you tested is a community edition and still a beta preview.
I think you should have stated this more clearly since you're giving a bad image of Linux Mint whose main and only official version is Gnome based.
As the new version of Linux Mint, Elyssa, is about to be released, the fluxbox CE project is now focusing on this new base.
I hope you'll get a better experience with that one.

In response to: Alternative distros: Linux Mint

Kevin Miller [Visitor] — Tue, 27 May 2008 00:55:46 +0000

I do like Linux Mint 4 Darya and can't wait until the next release. Unfortunately, as you mentioned, the install even on a high end system is a bit slow.

I was considering using it for a local NGO here but after waiting 30 minutes for the install on a two year old computer, we gave up. I was disappointed a bit since once installed, it really is a good distro.

On that same note, both Ubuntu/Kubuntu 8.04 took forever to install as well on my high end desktop though once installed, I did like the distros.

It is odd how Gentoo seems to install faster than most distros these days :-)

In response to: Alternative distros: Linux Mint

Josh Saddler [Member] — Mon, 26 May 2008 23:23:54 +0000

@Don:

Yeah, my laptop is definitely not able to handle Mint, at least not in Mint's current state. But the version of Mint I tried is intended to be a lightweight version, lighter even than the Mint Xfce edition.

Given that all the other light WM-based LiveCDs (even other Ubuntu-based ones, like Fluxbuntu) performed better, I think it's fair to assume that Mint is the culprit here. Something's wrong with it; it's the only intolerant distro.

Which is too bad, since it does have some good ideas, like including everything you need for multimedia playback and offering "restricted" hardware drivers right up front. Mandriva may offer the same, but there's no way I'd dare try it on this machine; it's too much of a beast.