Linux Mint 9 on Acer Aspire 5532

[andyc]

Upgraded my wife's laptop to LM9 RC over the weekend using the 64 bit version.

The minor problem (http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=44748) I had with wireless drivers (network drops, spotty signal) using Helena have disappeared and LM9 works fine out of the box including the proprietary ATI video drivers.

Funnily enough, it's the minor things that make a big difference. For example, my wife likes 'Firefox' and 'Thunderbird' icons on her desktop which is now quickly done using right-click 'Add to desktop' whereas it was slightly more convoluted in LM8.

Nice to get Thunderbird 3 too and a wealth of choice in 'Software Manager'.

My only slight disappointment was the startup boot time which was supposed to be reduced. I see no difference (on two boxes) from LM8 - if anything I suspect it's slightly slower although stupidly I didn't take stopwatch timings to backup this claim.

Fantastic news that the i386 and AMD64 versions now ship simultaneously. Well done to all who made it possible.

[Aging Technogeek]

The boot speed can be significantly effected by the position of the OS on the hard drive. You didn't say, but from your comment on timing the boots, I assume you are dual booting Mint 8 and mint 9 RC. If this is the case, the second OS on the hard drive may boot 2-5 seconds slower than it would if it were the first OS.

I have tested this myself and found it to be true. Time the boot for both OS, reinstall in the reverse order and time the boots again. With Mint 7 32 bit and 64 bit OS on one drive the difference in boot times was nil with 64 bit Mint 7 on the drive first, but when I reinstalled with the 32 bit first, it booted 4.5 seconds faster than the 64 bit.

[andyc]

Unfortunately because I am idiot, I blew LM8 away so only have LM9 installed so can't do any comparative timings.

As I said, it's purely a gut instinct and probably wrong.