Linux Mint Forums

Motivated by a passionate dislike of KDE4 I have recently been teaching myself to like XFCE, and it wasn't a difficult transition. As I am already a Mint user ( I have XFCE running over the top of a Gnome install) it was a natural progression to try the XFCE CE. I like it enough to make it my default boot, so anything else I might say about it should be regarded in that light.

I have three issues that might just be classed as bugs, although they are not at all serious. Firstly the 'Quick Search' window in synaptic is greyed out. A shame, since it is a very useful feature, although not the end of the world as I can just type within the list of programs and search that way. The second issue again was not serious for me but might have been if I had been a newb. The install failed to populate fstab, all it showed were my windows partitions and the root partition, none of my other Linux partitions showed up - I had to add them myself. Thirdly the 'Removeable Drives and Media' section in Control Centre doesn't do anything, it is just dead.

The next items I will mention really come under the heading of personal preferences rather than criticism. I applaud the inclusion of VLC and Exaile by default as these would be my choices in any case. I can't help wondering why with these two installed you need mplayer as well? I have nothing against it, it is an excellent program but I would have thought that the other two had most bases covered. Likewise I applaud the inclusion of Thunderbird. For me (and I appreciate I am probably in a minority here) the automounting of USB devices is the work of the Devil, so having Mint disk do this by default really annoyed me especially since I didn't know what was causing it for a while. It also annoyed me that every time I deleted the 'Network' folder from 'Home' it recreated itself. It took me a while to find the 'automatic browsing' section in Mint Desktop was enabled - I don't have a windows network so I don't know why it thought I did.

The last item though is my biggest criticism. It has taken 10 years to get to the stage where the Linux world has a reliable Network Manager and that only happened quite recently. You now want to turn the clock back at least 5 of those years by installing Wicd as the default network manager - insane! As soon as I realised what it was I tried it out, it failed of course, I then ripped it out and put Gnome network manager in its place which worked straight away as it always does these days. Not everone would know how to do that and you would be adding even more to the raft of people on the net crying "Help, I just installed wicd and now I can't connect any more.".

All in all though it is a pretty good effort, and certainly something I will use on a day to day basis.

viking777 wrote:Motivated by a passionate dislike of KDE4 I have recently been teaching myself to like XFCE, and it wasn't a difficult transition. As I am already a Mint user ( I have XFCE running over the top of a Gnome install) it was a natural progression to try the XFCE CE. I like it enough to make it my default boot, so anything else I might say about it should be regarded in that light.

I have three issues that might just be classed as bugs, although they are not at all serious. Firstly the 'Quick Search' window in synaptic is greyed out. A shame, since it is a very useful feature, although not the end of the world as I can just type within the list of programs and search that way. The second issue again was not serious for me but might have been if I had been a newb. The install failed to populate fstab, all it showed were my windows partitions and the root partition, none of my other Linux partitions showed up - I had to add them myself. Thirdly the 'Removeable Drives and Media' section in Control Centre doesn't do anything, it is just dead.

I did not realize this worked in other editions! Yeah, I was wondering about that also. If you click the arrow next to the search box you will get a drop down that says "search." Just click on that.

The next items I will mention really come under the heading of personal preferences rather than criticism. I applaud the inclusion of VLC and Exaile by default as these would be my choices in any case. I can't help wondering why with these two installed you need mplayer as well? I have nothing against it, it is an excellent program but I would have thought that the other two had most bases covered. Likewise I applaud the inclusion of Thunderbird. For me (and I appreciate I am probably in a minority here) the automounting of USB devices is the work of the Devil, so having Mint disk do this by default really annoyed me especially since I didn't know what was causing it for a while. It also annoyed me that every time I deleted the 'Network' folder from 'Home' it recreated itself. It took me a while to find the 'automatic browsing' section in Mint Desktop was enabled - I don't have a windows network so I don't know why it thought I did.

Thank you!!! I am in Vista now (homework) so I cannot check this, but I do know that my automatic browsing is also enabled. Unchecking allows deleting the network folder? This would be awesome! I delete all the other folders from /home as well. Stupid default!!! If I want a folder I will create it myself!!!

The last item though is my biggest criticism. It has taken 10 years to get to the stage where the Linux world has a reliable Network Manager and that only happened quite recently. You now want to turn the clock back at least 5 of those years by installing Wicd as the default network manager - insane! As soon as I realised what it was I tried it out, it failed of course, I then ripped it out and put Gnome network manager in its place which worked straight away as it always does these days. Not everone would know how to do that and you would be adding even more to the raft of people on the net crying "Help, I just installed wicd and now I can't connect any more.".

All in all though it is a pretty good effort, and certainly something I will use on a day to day basis.

This is too bad!!! I love wicd!! I never heard of it until I used Mint 5 and I had a problem getting it to work initially also. But it is simple to use and much better than NWM!!! In fact I now ditch NWM in other distros and replace it with wicd! Someone else made this very observation in here, you should really give wicd a chance.

I am double posting as I also want to comment on Mint 6 Xfce CE and I did not want to start another thread and this is a good place to put it. Merlwiz and whoever else had any input on this one, I believe you have created the perfect Linux distro! My only complaint is an intrepid problem and that is the exclusion of the ath9k module. Every other distro now automatically recognizes my Atheros 5007EG, it is a sad shame I have to tinker with it in Mint. This was a stupid, silly decision on the part of the Ubuntu kernel guys. That said, the backports-modules solution works fine. Everything else? Wow, what can I say? I have been using Mint 6 Gnome with Xfce installed on top for the last few weeks. It had a few problems, mainly integration stuff. But from the very moment I installed the Xfce edition I felt at home. The only other quibble I have is the different loader screen (the one between grub and greeter). I dislike the plain black background, preferring the carbon fiber look, and also the bar with the white on green. Hey whatever...This is the most beautiful distro I have ever used, it is perfection. Ideally I would change some default apps, but this is just my personal preferences and the ISO has to suite the whole community.

My thanks go out to all those responsible. A few stray bugs and a few projects in the making, but I would say we are there with this one. It just dont get no better!

I did not realize this worked in other editions! Yeah, I was wondering about that also. If you click the arrow next to the search box you will get a drop down that says "search." Just click on that.

I don't have an arrow next to the search box, although I do have an icon that says 'Search', but the 'quick search' window is far superior because it searches as you type which is far more efficient - this certainly works on my Gnome/Xfce install.

Thank you!!! I am in Vista now (homework) so I cannot check this, but I do know that my automatic browsing is also enabled. Unchecking allows deleting the network folder? This would be awesome! I delete all the other folders from /home as well. Stupid default!!! If I want a folder I will create it myself!!!

Couldn't agree more. If I want a network folder then I will create one too. As for whether or not it works, well all I can say is that I don't have a 'Network' folder now and I did have before.

This is too bad!!! I love wicd!! I never heard of it until I used Mint 5 and I had a problem getting it to work initially also. But it is simple to use and much better than NWM!!! In fact I now ditch NWM in other distros and replace it with wicd! Someone else made this very observation in here, you should really give wicd a chance.

Well we will have to agree to disagree here. For me using wicd in your latest distro is like using the engine from a Model T Ford in your new car. As I said - insane.

FedoraRefugee wrote: Merlwiz and whoever else had any input on this one, I believe you have created the perfect Linux distro!
My thanks go out to all those responsible. A few stray bugs and a few projects in the making, but I would say we are there with this one. It just dont get no better!

Amen!
I've been praising the XFCE version since I started using it, this is as good as a distro can get imo.
I have a minor problem with my sound card, but this is not Mint's fault, but on a kernel level I believe - whatever!
Mint XFCE - the best there is!

To all the lost souls out there who hasn't tried this version yet, do yourself a favor and give it a spin!

Shameless self promotion mode=ON
BTW, I mentioned it's release in my rarely updated blog!
Shameless self promotion mode=OFF

Good to hear you are enjoying the Mint 6 Xfce RC1.

As far as linux partitions go its been a quirk with the installer for a while. Any linux partitions besides your / and home are not automatically mounted and setup during the install. You have to use the Manual option during the partitioning stage and set which partitions are to be mounted and their mount points.

Wicd in mint 5 xfce never worked properly for me but works without any issues in mint 6 xfce. Wifi still seems to be a hit or miss area of linux these days. Many people have no luck with nm and wicd works for them and vice versa. The dev for wicd has been busy in the last year providing new features and fixes to wicd. The wicd version included in mint 5 xfce was 1.4.8 and its already at 1.5.8 so it's defintely not a dead project. Having more than one option esp when it pertains to wifi is a definite bonus imo.

Dale