Mint 8 Helena defaults to GNOME 2.28.1, Font issues

[instantsaint]

I installed Mint 8 Helena. I am liking it (just switched from Windows XP) so far. I use Sun Solaris at work so I am somewhat familiar with Unix systems. Anyway, there are a few things I'd like to know so that I can become productive as quickly as possible.

1. Desktop Manager: It looks like my default Desktop Manager is GNOME 2.28.1 - I was under the impression that it was going to be Fluxbox (not that I've ever used that, but I've heard it's really great). How can I change it to fluxbox? Also, how can I come back to GNOME (incase, I don't like fluxbox) ?

2. Fonts/rendering issues: I am using FireFox browser. The text/fonts/rendering is not as good as it is in Windows. What do I need to do to fix this? I am thinking I need to two things t resolve this:
Step 1: go to a Windows XP PC, and look at all the fonts installed there, and then copy them on my Mint 8.
Step 2: Once all the fonts have been copied, change program settings and make default fonts as they were set in Windows.
Am I correct? Or is there an easier way of doing this? Like, maybe installing a particular theme?

Thanks!

[DrHu]

2. Fonts/rendering issues: I am using FireFox browser. The text/fonts/rendering is not as good as it is in Windows. Once all the fonts have been copied, change program settings and make default fonts as they were set in Windows. Am I correct? Or is there an easier way of doing this? Like, maybe installing a particular theme?

Font selections are not particularly tied to themes, which tend to emphasize colors and image/looks/appearance for the desktop; they either use the fonts already on the system or possibly include some new ones ?
--just imagine if you changed a theme and it replaced all your fonts with different ones with the same name.

As an aside not large font clutter slows down windows OS, something like Corel draw and other applications that install a large stream of fonts & font families, that hardly anyone will ever use or be interested in..

--the only people who really want larger numbers of fonts are font experimenters, since graphic designers and other who use typography try to limit their font selections to provide some unified theme and flow to their designs..

Did it work for you, did you like the results, if so then you are correct

[Aging Technogeek]

instantsaint,

1. The Mint Main Edition uses the Gnome desktop. If you want to try Fluxbox (which is really a window manager, not a desktop manager), you can download the Mint 8 Fluxbox Community Edition from the Mint main page or you can go to Package manager and install fluxbox (enter "fluxbox" in search) on your gnome desktop and choose which to run at log in.

2. To increase the font selection in Firefox, open Package Manager and search "texlive-fonts-recommended 2007". Install this and, if you want even more, install "texlive-fonts-extras 2007. You may have to install "xttcidfont.conf" also, I"m not sure it will install as a dependency for texlive-fonts.

If you still don't get the font you want. install "open-font-design-toolkit" and design your own font based on any open licensed font.

[instantsaint]

instantsaint,

1. The Mint Main Edition uses the Gnome desktop. If you want to try Fluxbox (which is really a window manager, not a desktop manager), you can download the Mint 8 Fluxbox Community Edition from the Mint main page or you can go to Package manager and install fluxbox (enter "fluxbox" in search) on your gnome desktop and choose which to run at log in.

Ok. I will try installing it through Synaptics. Thanks.

2. To increase the font selection in Firefox, open Package Manager and search "texlive-fonts-recommended 2007". Install this and, if you want even more, install "texlive-fonts-extras 2007. You may have to install "xttcidfont.conf" also, I"m not sure it will install as a dependency for texlive-fonts.

If you still don't get the font you want. install "open-font-design-toolkit" and design your own font based on any open licensed font.

I installed texlive-fonts-recommended but it did not list xttcidfont.conf as dependency. And I couldn't find it either in Synaptics. Where should I go and look for it? And how would I install it?

[Aging Technogeek]

instantsaint,

I mistyped the file name. It should be x-ttcidfont.conf. Enter that in the search box and it should come right up.