Mint Helena Options

[Code Dog]

I decided to look at the next Mint release candidate now that I have SATA drive trays to change drives again. This is only a release candidate but it sure is nice. The two things I see is the software manager looks a bit different but is easy to understand and use and they have added a Lock Screen button on the start menu. I always wondered why it didn't have one. It's just a habit from work that you always lock your machine when you get up from your desk. Good security practices, LOL. Oh well, here's a screen shot.

This post has been edited by Code Dog: Nov 28 2009, 07:24 PM

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[Code Dog]

So, my take is as follows.

Crashed with a kernel panic, unrecoverable, reinstall.

All things video are not as fast or smooth for me from previous version. No idea why.

I don't see the point of the software manager, I'm just used to synaptic I guess.

All summed up, unremarkable.

However that's just my opinion.

[Mike DeTuri]

All summed up, unremarkable.

However that's just my opinion.

I've been hearing bad things about the Ubuntu 9.10 upgrade. One laptop did fine with it. My wife got a new desktop and I put Ubuntu 9.10 on that, then migrated over all her stuff and that's been fine too. It's actually pretty nice.

I'm holding off on upgrading my work desktop. I'm planning to switch it to Arch over the holidays.

I'm not sure about the video issues. ATI's drivers have been acting funny for me on my Arch laptop. Arch is using the 2.6.31 kernel and they added ATI drivers to it. So far the kernel version isn't as good as the drivers I had installed before, but they aren't bad enough to make me want to switch back. I read that they ATI was getting better kernel support in the next version.

[DougJones]

All things video are not as fast or smooth for me from previous version. No idea why.

I don't see the point of the software manager, I'm just used to synaptic I guess.

All summed up, unremarkable.

However that's just my opinion.

If I can get it to boot from a LiveCD, I'll have a more informed opinion. For some reason, I've always had terrible experiences trying to get Mint to run on my computer. I've never had those issues with any other distribution, just Mint. Darned if I know why.

From what I've seen on the Mint home page, it sounds like they've added something (even a little better) to what Ubuntu did in the 9.10 version. I think we're getting tripped up by being so used to using package managers. Sometimes being experienced gets in the way. Having said that, I really do like the software manager. The more I get used to it, the nicer I think it is. Everything categorized, with good descriptions, and it's a snap to install or uninstall software with it. While I still use synaptic for a lot of packages, I've gotten a little addicted to the software manager. My overall opinion is that this is much, much easier to show the new user.

[Code Dog]

OK, I'm a distro hopper. Right now I loaded Mandriva 2010 and am in love. It's solid, fast and really quite nice.

I'm a closet Mandrake lover for years!

The whole Ubuntu video issues are a PITA IMHO!

Mandriva is smooth and fast and the new software manager is nice too. NO video issues.

[MarshaG63]

Is your computer older or newer? I have a pentium 3 with a broken CD-Rom that I have been struggeling to install something on without taking it apart - alas - I did take the harddrive out, put it in a USB case and was able to install Mint Helena, but then ran into boot issue with the poor old computers hardware. In the process I also accidentally upgraded from Mint 6 to Helena (amazingly I managed to save all files in Home directory, but all apps I added were wiped out because I messed up grub on my machine, not getting it installed on the USB enclosed drive - oops. I like Helena from what I've seen so far.

MarshaG.

OK, I'm a distro hopper. Right now I loaded Mandriva 2010 and am in love. It's solid, fast and really quite nice.

I'm a closet Mandrake lover for years!

The whole Ubuntu video issues are a PITA IMHO!

Mandriva is smooth and fast and the new software manager is nice too. NO video issues.

[Code Dog]

My PC is 1 year old, home built. Intel dual core 2.8 GHz. ATI Radeon 3850 AGP 8x with 512 VRAM. 2 GB RAM. I have internal IDE 40 GB back-up drive and IDE CD/DVD burner and a tray for the boot drive that is SATA 2.

I have loved MINT for many versions but for some reason the newest is acting quite odd. I saw some posts elsewhere with video issues in Ubuntu and all it's children, seems they may have made some changes that didn't work so well. Maybe it's my AGP video since it is considered old now and PCIEx16 is the new standard. I've even had the screen saver in Mint lock up my machine when I was just previewing them, not good!

For any one installing that has more than 1 drive, make sure on the last step you click ADVANCED and select the drive to install the boot loader on, seems the default is the IDE drive and I'd guess any drive other than USB too.

[MarshaG63]

Great advice! - would have saved myself a lot of trouble if I would have just double-checked my choices --- DOH! LOL!

Sounds like a nice rig you built yourself! What's a "tray" for the boot drive?

MarshaG.

My PC is 1 year old, home built. Intel dual core 2.8 GHz. ATI Radeon 3850 AGP 8x with 512 VRAM. 2 GB RAM. I have internal IDE 40 GB back-up drive and IDE CD/DVD burner and a tray for the boot drive that is SATA 2.

I have loved MINT for many versions but for some reason the newest is acting quite odd. I saw some posts elsewhere with video issues in Ubuntu and all it's children, seems they may have made some changes that didn't work so well. Maybe it's my AGP video since it is considered old now and PCIEx16 is the new standard. I've even had the screen saver in Mint lock up my machine when I was just previewing them, not good!

For any one installing that has more than 1 drive, make sure on the last step you click ADVANCED and select the drive to install the boot loader on, seems the default is the IDE drive and I'd guess any drive other than USB too.

[Code Dog]

Drive tray is a device that allows you to swap drives. The front door opens and you just slide in the hard drive then close the door. The door is equipped with a drive ejector to push the drive out the front as you open the door.

This way I can have different operating systems and not have to mess with boot managers too much.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817198026

I buy all my stuff from this company, they're great.