I may have found a distro for me.

[DAZZD88]

Last night I picked up Linux Format again and decided to get on with installing a distro on my spare laptop, as that's what I acquired it for. So as I was reading through the magazine, I noticed that Linux Mint 10 (included on cover disc 140) was apparently loaded with media codecs. So I installed it, booted up and was greeted by an interface that seems to suit my liking without requiring a lot of fiddling.

This little distro may actually see me moving further away from Windows. The biggest downside I've had in the past is the need to fiddle to get so many things working. With Mint however, my D520 needed nothing...apart from it could do with a memory upgrade and a bigger HDD but I have those if needed.



Anybody else have a similar experience? Either recently or once upon a time.

[TwoZeroAlpha]

I used mint a lot when it was 7/8. It was useful just to have everything work. I'm back on Ubuntu at the moment, but may give Mint10 another whirl.

[koryo]

Yeah i use mint 10 on my spare laptop, its quick, easy to use, and so far i have had no problems on it. Other than trying to install Handbreak from source. However i was able to use the package manager and get it that way instead. Still don't know why the source wouldn't compile, but meh im sure i will get around to finding out one day.

[DAZZD88]

Exactly why I like it. Yeah I'm using a fairly well known laptop (a Dell Lattitude D520) but everything just works. It saw my wireless and the audio worked without having to be tweaked (not like an Ubuntu install on my Aspire 5051AWXMi).

I fear I may be getting overly excited.

[koryo]

I fear I may be getting overly excited.

Nah, sounds like your having fun to me. The point is you want it to all/mostly work off the bat so you can then start fiddling and know that if it DOES screw up, you can get back to a working state quickly and easily. Fiddle time! ^_^

[CESIL]

I run Ubuntu on a Dell D610 and even with only 512Mb ram it installed fine and ran well as a basic web browsing machine. The original install was a pain to install especially getting wireless to work but once version 10 appeared even the wireless installed automatically. I have since put 2Mb in it and it's now even happier.

It must be ok as my teenage son monopolises it to chat to all his 'friends' on multiple sites simultaneously and at least I am fairly safe from the sort of nasty downloads that used to mean clean ups on our main PC

[FN-GM]

I have used mint before, its was pretty good. I think the great Geoff uses that distro.

Myself i couldnt get into Linux. I have since moved to Mac OS i love it, although it is Linux really.

[DAZZD88]

It might be a stupid question but is there a way to find out a list of commands available to use?

[p858snake]

but... but... the Hannah Montana distro...

[localzuk]

I have used mint before, its was pretty good. I think the great Geoff uses that distro.

Myself i couldnt get into Linux. I have since moved to Mac OS i love it, although it is Linux really.

It isn't Linux. Its BSD. Completely different OS.

I don't quite know why people think you have to fiddle with Ubuntu. I've been using Ubuntu since its first release and yes, back then, you had to fiddle with everything under the sun, but now? It prompts you 'you don't have the codec for this, would you like to install the codec pack?' and then just does it when you click OK.

[localzuk]

It might be a stupid question but is there a way to find out a list of commands available to use?

press tab on the console, and it'll list them all, but there will be hundreds, if not thousands.

[bossman]

+1 for Julia excellent work by the crew, the layout is brilliant and even on most legacy hardware it works tremendously well.

Usually use Ubuntu but wireless problems which took some sorting with lots of workarounds led me to use Mint 10 for the duration.

Cheers

[DAZZD88]

I don't quite know why people think you have to fiddle with Ubuntu. I've been using Ubuntu since its first release and yes, back then, you had to fiddle with everything under the sun, but now? It prompts you 'you don't have the codec for this, would you like to install the codec pack?' and then just does it when you click OK.

I have to disagree with that. Previous installs of Ubuntu I had to fiddle with on my Acer Aspire 5051AWXMi becuase the audio wasn't working properly. It wouldn't mute the external speakers when headphones were pluged in. I tried every guide I could find and yet I still had to resort to manually muting and unmuting the external speakers.

Also my latest install of Kubuntu on my desktop wouldn't detect the native resolution of my TV so I had to do numerous things to actually get it to work, things which I do not remember. I used to like Ubuntu but they've changed the latest versions and I'm not keen on the layout.


Also, thanks very much for the tip. I had no clue it was that simple.

[FN-GM]

It isn't Linux. Its BSD. Completely different OS. .

shows how much i know

[DAZZD88]

I always thought both Linux and BSD were unix based, so are fairly similar?