Linux Mint Forums

I would guess that most of the regular forum users have heard about me by now, but for those that have not.......

I was one of the original Ubuntu testers (started very shortly after Warty was released) & stayed with Ubuntu as a Alpha-tester until November of last year. For reasons that most can see with the Natty release ...I decided to look elsewhere & as Mint was starting a Debian rolling release.....well you can fill in the blanks...

I have been a Gnome Shell tester for 2 years & one result is the Shell thread...there are several like-minded people here that want Sid-installs or like myself---want to hang out close to or on the bleeding edge...

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=141&t=70230
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=141&t=73029
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=141&t=73388

And several more general threads that want more than Testing....

What I propose is a "Testing & Development" forum that is devoted to playing with our choice of OS
That would allow support for a growing segment of this community & decrease the "noise" for users that want to just maintain their system.

A plus would be like the "Testing & Development" forum in Ubuntu--quite a bit of innovation came out by "normal" (we were normal?) testers--code was modified--played with & accepted into "mainstream", so its really a win-win for everyone

I really like the idea although my own Debian install is not very Minty, but is testing with apt-pinning to unstable.
I do follow the forums, in part to keep up on Mint Fluxbox,which is going to switch Debian base.
Also as Mint is easier for new users, and I have friends I am trying to wean from proprietary OSes.

I didn't see a "Testing & Development" section at the Ubuntu forums at first, but under "Development & Programming" I see that there were five different release-specific "Testing & Development" sections -- all closed now -- under the Ubuntu Forum Archives section.

I'm not against the idea, but where exactly would you draw the line between wanting to simply maintain the system and running a "modified" system?

Yes--Natty Testing was just closed & the next one will most likely be starting up very soon...those forums were great fun...everything from "heads up" threads to banter about mod work, coding & debug. A great example in this forum is GeneC's Breakage thread ( http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=141&t=70230 ) It started as a heads up thread & has branched in many various directions--most would warrant their own thread in a "D & T" forum....

As far as "drawing the line".....I think it would be safe to say that anyone running Sid or Experimental sources would be under a "Modified" LMDE...People running Testing or Stable Squeeze might drop in to see what the "crazies" are doing

I think that "Testing & Development" would be a good name due to LMDE Sid or Experimental's rolling nature....I had proposed several times in the Ubuntu forums to make a rolling test group to get a head start on the next development cycle--always seemed "bright" to come to a complete stop with a release & then start up again......better debug is done when people can stay with it.

We could contribute quite a bit to upstream with a "D & T" --And it would be a good idea to encourage D & T "members" to do regular bug work...I debug for Gnome (bugzilla member) & have started with bug work for Debian---more eyes catch more problems.

I don't see what creating a new forum would HURT. Worst case scenario it sits there with 0 posts.

But for instance, right now I want to post about my experience with Linux kernel 3.0RC and the proposed forum would be the best place to do this. Posting it now would just clutter up a bugs thread where it doesn't belong, or post it as a new thread in one of the existing forums. It would be out of place in any of the existing forums, and users who are interested in experimenting with or who are currently using the 3.0 kernel would have to search in out of the way places to find the thread, because it would be in forum not best suited for the topic.