2013: Taking the Mint userbase to the next level.

[sofasufi]

Great comments all-round. Ultimately if the Mint development team keep up the good work - and we keep supporting them & spreading the word - then the Mint distro should continue to develop & grow.

[anandrkris]

Hi All - A fruitful discussion going on here. I am following all the Steam updates and it is much encouraging to see new users taking onto Linux. Pre-install will surely change the desktop adoption of Linux.

However, sadly, due to lack of proper hardware support (graphics card) in some cases and Ubuntu (recommended Linux OS by Steam) not living upto expectations is allowing negative news, like the below article - more of a rant , to be spread amongst public.

http://www.pcgamesn.com/tf2/how-install-ubuntu-alongside-windows-grab-your-team-fortress-2-penguin-and-get-hell-out-there

This one surely does not make for a happy reading, I know we should ignore these articles but it pains me when such paintstaking efforts of open-source community is taken for granted. Perhaps there are some lessons for open-source community as well. Ubuntu - Amazon search debacle, for instance, is surely questionable.

Update - A better article by the same author, at least bit polite than before

http://www.pcgamesn.com/tf2/four-stupid ... -2-penguin

[cliste]

I don't understand why Wine is not installed by default with a new distrobution ? it should be in EVERY linux out there that is on a mission to win over Windows users, even if users dont use it it is a mere few hundred mb of space that is consumed. Little things like that can really add to the easy of use section, because right now anyone that wants to run any kind of game must first install wine before he can even attempt to launch any kind of setup.exe file, and to a new user its not always the easiest thing to do. I have a friend who wanted to run linux as well and he had endless problems setting it up, i had to help him install wine, has to help him setup software in wine that games required ( DX, .netframework, XNA etc etc ). It kinda really put him off Linux and he went right back to windows. Wine should be part of the linux packadge, and whats more, framework and DX should also be pre installed. that way you can just install a game out of the box and play it with minimal problems. and this applies to windows software as well, not just games. Hell, they can even build a seperate Distrobution called "LinuxMint - Wine edition" that would have all the bells and whistles pre-setup with Wine, this will be more attractive option for Windows users looking to move over to linux.

I'm going to disagree with you about Wine,

It is not a user friendly app, it is quite fiddly and the results aren't always the greatest.

If people are to convert to linux they need to throw themselves into the linux experience 100% - Native linux apps have that extra bit of smoothness that is needed for new users. Then later if they are happy with the basics and still feel they need windows applications they can try installing them with wine.

[Brahim]

I have been around In Tunisia and noticed that most Dell laptops have a Ubuntu sticker on them