Mint 10 lacks support out of the box

[Leif]

When I first installed my nice shiny new Mint 10 64 bit I thought it was so sweet. Then I try to run a bin file and *GASP* it won't work! Trying everything on the top of my head I couldn't make it work. After much time spent trawling the internet I come across a very useful command
sudo apt-get install ia32-libs
So being the daring man I am I go ahead and run it. Apparently Mint 10 64 bit lacked 4 out of 9 compatapility packages. Yeah so just run this as soon as your system is set up and you should be set.

[rivenathos]

Leif, I am going to disagree with you on this one. Not because you are wrong, but because your needs/wants are different from mine. When I set up a 64-bit system, I do not want any of the ia32-libs on it. I want it to be 64-bit all the way or as much as possible. I would prefer the 32-bit libraries not installed by default.

However, for your use, 32-bit libraries are necessary. Luckily, you found an easy fix by adding a few packages. I know there are probably others who can benefit from your research.

[Tux91]

did you try the codes

chmod a+x name of file
sudo name of file

or

just the file name

then press enter

[canci]

My pet peeve are companies which still produce 32bit only software for Linux. On my laptop 64bit is just more responsive,
especially with distros which don't optimize builds for processors better than i686. However, I need programmes like
the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary 8, which only works in 32 bit. In 64 bit it's a hit and miss thing to get it working,
and pronunciation doesn't work at all. Luckily, Wine works well. Also, I'm more and more moving away from software
which doesn't support standards decently. Now, if the world could only stop using .doc files...

A couple of months ago, I'd agree with the original poster because of 1 thing only - Flash. But now that Adobe has got
its act together again (fear of HTML5?), we have native 64bit Flash. All other uses of the 32 bit libs are of course more
special cases, and most of those problems can be solved by googling and installing the 32 bit libs yourself, or not at all (grrr...).

[willie42]

My pet peeve are companies which still produce 32bit only software for Linux. On my laptop 64bit is just more responsive,
especially with distros which don't optimize builds for processors better than i686. However, I need programmes like
the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary 8, which only works in 32 bit. In 64 bit it's a hit and miss thing to get it working,
and pronunciation doesn't work at all. Luckily, Wine works well. Also, I'm more and more moving away from software
which doesn't support standards decently. Now, if the world could only stop using .doc files...

A couple of months ago, I'd agree with the original poster because of 1 thing only - Flash. But now that Adobe has got
its act together again (fear of HTML5?), we have native 64bit Flash. All other uses of the 32 bit libs are of course more
special cases, and most of those problems can be solved by googling and installing the 32 bit libs yourself, or not at all (grrr...).

MS office is not going away soon but Open office does support .doc files. So that should not be a problem

[canci]

My pet peeve are companies which still produce 32bit only software for Linux. On my laptop 64bit is just more responsive,
especially with distros which don't optimize builds for processors better than i686. However, I need programmes like
the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary 8, which only works in 32 bit. In 64 bit it's a hit and miss thing to get it working,
and pronunciation doesn't work at all. Luckily, Wine works well. Also, I'm more and more moving away from software
which doesn't support standards decently. Now, if the world could only stop using .doc files...

A couple of months ago, I'd agree with the original poster because of 1 thing only - Flash. But now that Adobe has got
its act together again (fear of HTML5?), we have native 64bit Flash. All other uses of the 32 bit libs are of course more
special cases, and most of those problems can be solved by googling and installing the 32 bit libs yourself, or not at all (grrr...).

MS office is not going away soon but Open office does support .doc files. So that should not be a problem

Oh, but it is, sadly. .doc support is subpar with more complex layouts, and some people are utter douchebags about
misshapen documents, regardless of whether you've done your job right. Also, the new .docx, which people tend to
use more and more, opens even worse than .doc. I'm counting on the governments here in Europe, as quite a number
of them seem to be favouring low cost IT alternatives now that the recession wreaked havoc.

[willie42]

I agree on the .docx.

[AK Dave]

As MS Office since 2007 has included native handling of ODF and PDF file formats, I have taken to distributing office-type documents in either of those formats whenever possible rather than in MS-specific formats and especially not ***x formats. The exception would be the occasional spreadsheet that is heavily dependant on complicated VB macros, where I will share it as PDF only if it must be shared or export data from it to an ODF file.

Anyone who complains to me that "Word can't open this" or "Excel won't open this" is only advertising their ignorance.

Oh, Word won't open my document? You must have 2003 or older, because all of the NEW versions support open document formats by default. Don't waste your money on Office 2010, just upgrade your office suite to OpenOffice instead.

For anyone upgrading from Office 2000 or Office 2003, OpenOffice is a huge upgrade and any re-learning will be both a) minimal, and b) accepted by the fact that they just changed software.

For anyone already happily running Office 2010, they can manipulate those ODF files already and don't make a fuss.

[redbayfarm]

As a noob installing linux mint on a sempron computer with a 1.5 gigabytes of RAM all I can say is wow this is impressive!

This is the first Linux distro I have used that out of the box detected and installed drivers for the broadcom wifi card in my Compaq V5000.

This is the first Linux distro I have used which automatically installed my network wifi printer...in fact Linux mint seems to be more compatible with my HP printer than XP...at least it works very smoothly the first time right out of the box without any keyboard gymnastics.

Additionally, I installed Linux Mint on a Dell 1100 laptop with a celeron processor and 384 megabytes of RAM. No other Linux distro would install except Puppy Linux but Linux Mint is so much more advanced and easy to use. I will be donating that computer to charity...I am so impressed with the ease of use via the well laid out GUI and I suspect that the new users of the donated computer will be able to intuitively use the computer without any outside support.

Hands down, IMO, best choice for older computers. I have a stack of ISO disks for other distributions which I have tried to install at the lower end of the computer spectrum...I'll keep the disks but the Linux Mint disc will be the first one I try when I want to convert an old computer.

Thanks to everyone who contributed in making this great distribution!

Now can you develop a pared down version that will work on my 64 megabyte of RAM 1 gigabyte hard drive Sony Vaio PCG 505tr?

[canci]

Now can you develop a pared down version that will work on my 64 megabyte of RAM 1 gigabyte hard drive Sony Vaio PCG 505tr?

That's a tough one. I think for that one you'd have to tinker a bit and roll a broader distro. If you had a larger hard drive, I'd suggest the Fluxbox version. But as things stand, you can maybe try and install Debian.

http://www.debian.org/

It may seem like a daunting task, but everything is explained thoroughly here:

http://www.debian.org/doc/

Then just choose a nice window manager -- you can make IceWM behave pretty much like the Windows 9x/ME desktop by using ROX file manager or PcManFM.

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=5450

there are actually many more options. For example, the XFE file manager is very light and reminds of old school Win 95 Explorer.

http://roland65.free.fr/xfe/index.php?page=screenshots

not as pretty though.

You definitely don't have to throw that away! Good luck!

[canci]

A setup with IceWM and the ROX file manager.

[pythagorean]

I have never really gotten that much more from 64-bit. I am running Vista Ultimate 32-bit, Mint 10 32-bit, Fedora 13 64 bit and Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit on different computers. I think it is one of those fads/bandwagons that the tech industry originally jumped on in an effort to create points of differentiation between products and now it has become standard because anything that can be marketed as "faster" whether it really is fater or not will always become standard with ordinary users who buy computers.

I wouldn't say that Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit is better or more valuable than Vista Ultimate 32 bit or that Fedora 13 64 bit is better than Mint 10 32 bit but I can definitely see how "64 bit" is a real hook for marketers who write copy and reviewers who want to write reviews about cutting edge developments in operating systems.

[canci]

Personally, I have experienced a few more FPS when playing games on the dolphin emulator. Maybe it was made with 64 bit in mind?
Other than that, there isn't much improvement. I suppose it will be viable once memory chips skyrocket to 512 GB or whatnot.
It might be hard to support this in a stable fashion with the PAE kernel patch I suppose.

[Samsonite]

I have never really gotten that much more from 64-bit. I am running Vista Ultimate 32-bit, Mint 10 32-bit, Fedora 13 64 bit and Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit on different computers. I think it is one of those fads/bandwagons that the tech industry originally jumped on in an effort to create points of differentiation between products and now it has become standard because anything that can be marketed as "faster" whether it really is fater or not will always become standard with ordinary users who buy computers.

I wouldn't say that Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit is better or more valuable than Vista Ultimate 32 bit or that Fedora 13 64 bit is better than Mint 10 32 bit but I can definitely see how "64 bit" is a real hook for marketers who write copy and reviewers who want to write reviews about cutting edge developments in operating systems.

As far as the Windows versions go, there is a 124 GB RAM difference between the 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Vista and 7.