bjoernvold.com

I've noticed I'm the only one has dared to try Linux Mint, as there's been no further threads on it since.

There is something I can say for Linux Mint 17.2. They have the XFCE desktop. Linux Mint 12 found my wireless right off the bat at the time; in fact I installed it on wireless.

Guess what. I'm trying it again I think, although it does appear to have a fair set of issues (although I have to read them still).

It will be supported until 2019, so I should have fairly good backup there when needed.
Check out what's new with it here. It's looking impressive.

I look at it like it's not #1 on Distrowatch for no reason.

*sigh
*sniffles

Yes Linux Mint is a good distro - I have just not looked at it for a while. It has been on top "forever" (since Ubuntu went for Unity) on distrowatch.
I'll have a look at it again...Or actually have a proper look at it. Mint is a bit lacking here but that is just a coincidence.
So here we go:

Installation:
I fired up the Mint 64nit Xfce4 iso and got into the "Live CD" environment where I am offered to install to HD.
The one thing that really impressed me here was that Oracles Virtualbox guest stuff worked out of the box - in the Live CD!

I could drag the window bigger etc. That is not common for all distros.

So I went for the clearly visible install option and picked "use the entire disk".

Picked the defaults and entered my data and the install started.

Nice slideshow and no problems - probably the easiest install in the Linux world.

It worked like a charm so time to reboot then...
..and I was met by a nice login screen and got right into Mint.

Using it:
The first thing I wanted to check was if the Virtualbox guest additions still were working so I draged the window to a bigger resolution.
And it worked just fine
I have spent considerable time on Centos, Fedora, Debian and others to make this work. With Mint I spent no time at all and it just worked.

SInce I am a rolling release guy I remembered that Mint is not rolling so the first thing I did was to upgrade.

There were 239 of them.

During the update I got a lot of cryptic questions about some files like /etc/issues and if I wanted to update the file or save it for inspection and a lot of options where the default was "N" saving it for inspection - so I went for the default.

Now this reminds me a bit of those windows messages "are you sure you want to æøå¤3#&%!!" ..and no I am never sure about that - who is?
Asking questions like that is stupid; nobody is sure and everybody does the motion to get through.

Anyway the update went through just fine. Rebooting...

And everything still works fine.

I noticed that Mint 17.2 uses the elegant whisker menu (which has the worlds best Norwegian translation ). The desktop is nice and clean with classic mint colors and very ...likable.

The software center will let you point and click on any App that you want to install, and there are 73101 of them !



Inxi is installed by default so system info is not a problem and so is mtr. This is good and shows a well thought off distro; so full of optimism I went for one of my other favorites - NCDU - but that was not installed.
I was told how to install it though

I knew that, but this is great info for greenhorns and well thought off.
So time to leave the terminal and use the software center then..
I remember that in Fedoras software center there were no terminal programs like inxi or ncdu ..but here they are.
I searched for ncdu and found it - clicked it, and got a lot of information about it including that it was not installed so I installed it.
After it was finished the Software "shop" showed that NCDU was installed.

No problem.

Mint 17.2 comes wit a lot of programs like the LibreOffice suite and many reviewers spend time to describe how it looks. I don't find that very necessary but the integration of the apps in Mint is consistent with the design - and they all look good.

From the menu you can fire up the control panel which lets you adjust your settings.

In Xfce4 you will mostly find the Thunar file handler and it is a good one. In my taste I miss the split function with F3 that PcmanFM has so I will consider installing that one.
..In fact I did from the software center and it looks and works great in Mint 17.2 too.
You can make a bootable USB of your install with USB imagewriter You will find it in the menu together with the USB stick formater.

In fact everything works right out of the box so before I go on to some heavy duty and evil testing I must say that Linux Mint 17.2
Is a very good distro where everything works and no surprises

Put the CD in, and install and ENTER your way through and you will end up with a great distro ready for work

So we have established that Mint is a great distro that works right out of the box. It can safely be recommended to Linux beginners (the Xfce4 version would be the one to recommend).

What if I want to implement it in my server park as a slave or minion that has to be updated and controlled by the evil Manjaro master?

Well at this point it struck me Mint 17.2 does not use systemd I tried to start the service with
and there it became clear.
This makes Mint pretty much the only one not running systemd.
So lemme see how we started services in the old days...
Well after a reboot

showed that the salt -minion was running so I let the master accept the key et voila Mint was my slave. I upgraded and installed glances from my Manjaro master to the Mint minion.

That just works too

So yes Mint is good but one final word of caution. Mint and Gento are pretty much the only ones not using systemd and since Mint is using Ubuntu repos this can become a problem in the future.

As it is: Mint works and takes everything I throw at it - impressive!

I know... all too well... *sniffle *sniff
I want it badly, but as it was I couldn't get further than the live dvd to find it doesn't support my chipset, including the wireless.
I'm very bummed.

Some things I forgot to mention.

Mint 17.2 Xfce4 is very low on resources; uses 300 M out of the box and is very snappy.
This might be because they are not using systemd and also Mint 17 series is based on Ubuntu 14 series that do not use systemd yet either.

They will both take the plunge eventually.

I tried Mint yesterday and did not find it "low on resources". First boot after install I was greeted with a "rotating wallpaper" login screen with enormous images. That kind of stuff is fine for people who buy new hardware and like flashy stuff, but it sucks up resources that older hardware can not provide.

That can be easily changed, y'know.

I'm not saying it can't be changed... I'm saying it isn't a good example of being low on resources.

It takes 300 M of memory regardless of those shows. That is pretty lean. I don't find many distros that are better after a fresh install.

It is for the reason viking said right above me here. There are few distros who come up with that little after a fresh install. At the end of the day, it really doesn't take that much even to rotate wallpapers.
I didn't get that btw from the live dvd... it was fine and went on and it was pretty snappy.
Another thing: If you judge a distro based on one thing rather than actually checking that one thing (which would prove out "low on resources" or not for you), then my imaginary friend thinks you have problems.
I've had many come up after a fresh install using much more memory, rotating wallpapers or not.