differences between the coming ubuntu and mint

[jett]

what is it that will truly be different from ubuntu after release 7?

hardware drivers and codecs will be installed for countries besides the US supposedly.

will mint offer codecs, drivers, and win32 that ubuntu doesnt have?
if there is no advantage people will just stick with the free cd they get in the mail. (Ubuntu)


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 0932273543

[clem]

Well it's too early to talk about it. Ubuntu is our base, but our purpose is to make the "perfect" desktop distribution. If Ubuntu becomes just that.. then we stop the project

Now having said that, I doubt we're heading in the same direction, and Ubuntu is just one among many. For instance, some of you liked Slab in SUSE, and we can integrate that. Our objective is not to add Codecs to Ubuntu.... that's the purpose of projects like Automatix for instance. Our objective is to make a nice desktop distribution. At the moment our best base for that is Ubuntu, that's all. From there, we can continue to follow Ubuntu, or start to base our releases on ourselves... or even take other bases, if it's better for the user we'll do it, nothing is fixed.

When Ubuntu 7.04 is released we'll decided whether Linux Mint 3.0 gets based against it (which is likely to happen.. 90% chances), or if we base it on Linux Mint 2.x... it's as simple as that. An among the modifications that come with Ubuntu 7.04, we'll keep what they did better than us, but remove the rest if we find it's done better here or somewhere else.

It's really hard to talk about it since it hasn't happened yet. But although Ada, Barbara and Bea are based and compatible with Ubuntu, we're not Ubuntu as a project and our purpose is not necessarily to follow them everywhere they go, but to achieve what we think is best for the desktop.

I'd like to get some opinions about that. What do you guys think?

Clem

[antiquexray]

...but our purpose is to make the "perfect" desktop distribution....
I'd like to get some opinions about that. What do you guys think?

Clem

As one who has been playing with computer going back to the MS-DOS days and computers with a 20 meg hard drive was considered huge, I definately have an opinion. I believe that most people really don't care what OS they use as long as it's intuitive and does all the basic computer operations (work processing, spreadsheets, etc.), surf the net with little or no problems, and is affordable (if not free).

Microsoft meets 2 of those 3 criteria. However, having to spend hundreds of dollars for an OS is crazy. Unfortunately, most computers in the world use MS. But MS beware, government entities and entire countries are starting to adopted open source software.

I set my wife's laptop up with a Linux distro that did all she needed it to do, had no problem at all using it, with no cost. She really couldn't have cared if it was a Linux based OS. All she cared was it worked.

Of course wanting to listen to or watch encrypted audio and video software causes a problem; that needs to be fixed. Mint has taken the largest step in providing for that. However, it is still up to each person here in the U.S. to make the decision whether they want to load some priority based software.

In the U.S. the airwaves are owned by the people (perhaps in other contries as well). Also, many ISPs rely on the delivery of their service using the airwaves. Therefore, as soon as it hits the airwaves the the encrypted software belongs to the public so downloading codecs is ok.

I do believe that Linux is superior OS. I base that on the performance of the medical computers (driven by Linux) that I work with daily. I believe Microsoft will eventually have to offer some kind free OS; but I wouldn't worry about having to take up a collection for Bill as of yet.

BTW, if Mr Gates took a small fraction of his vast fortune and applied it to developing a free-for-personal-use, open source, linux based OS, he could find a way to make a lot of money from it.

[Nikky The Yo]

I think Ubuntu is probably the best distro on wich base an OS on, because it has a great community (almost in all the languages) and a lot of repository.
A way to make the difference for Mint should be make the passage from windows to linux easier...never thought about include a well configurated version of wine?

[jett]

i think linux mint should put a well developed wine inside the distro so people can easily run some of there usual programs.
what do you think clem?
maybe we should add cedega in there like mandrake 2007 did.
with a free game.
dont know how they worked that one out with the company but i think its a big attraction to know that your linux machine can already play video games and run windows app's.

[clem]

I really don't know. What apps do you run through wine ?

Clem

[Grenlan]

using wine or cedega to run games would be something i would be interested in

Playing decent games would take it to the next level imo.

[Nikky The Yo]

and using wine or cedega (what about crossoveroffice?) for running programs can help me and a lot of people migrating from windows for studying and working too!

[manishk]

Talking about the differences with Ubuntu...will we be able to access Ubuntu repos with the next releases?? If you can say something about that, this early.

[clem]

Yes definitely.

Clem

[npap]

Yes definitely.

Clem

The reason for Mint's success is the fact that it uses Ubuntu as it's base, Which means having all the repositories available in Ubuntu. But improvements added by Mint are welcome and desirable. Adopting what's better, even if it comes from another Linux flavor, is a wise choice.
I believe that Linux Mint will finally end up to be the most desirable distribution because of the desire to offer what is best for the newbie.

[thorhr]

Well it's too early to talk about it. Ubuntu is our base, but our purpose is to make the "perfect" desktop distribution. If Ubuntu becomes just that.. then we stop the project

Now having said that, I doubt we're heading in the same direction, and Ubuntu is just one among many. For instance, some of you liked Slab in SUSE, and we can integrate that. Our objective is not to add Codecs to Ubuntu.... that's the purpose of projects like Automatix for instance. Our objective is to make a nice desktop distribution. At the moment our best base for that is Ubuntu, that's all. From there, we can continue to follow Ubuntu, or start to base our releases on ourselves... or even take other bases, if it's better for the user we'll do it, nothing is fixed.

When Ubuntu 7.04 is released we'll decided whether Linux Mint 3.0 gets based against it (which is likely to happen.. 90% chances), or if we base it on Linux Mint 2.x... it's as simple as that. An among the modifications that come with Ubuntu 7.04, we'll keep what they did better than us, but remove the rest if we find it's done better here or somewhere else.

It's really hard to talk about it since it hasn't happened yet. But although Ada, Barbara and Bea are based and compatible with Ubuntu, we're not Ubuntu as a project and our purpose is not necessarily to follow them everywhere they go, but to achieve what we think is best for the desktop.

I'd like to get some opinions about that. What do you guys think?

Clem

I installed Bea on my laptop an IBM T23 1200 P3 M and I am amazed at how well everything works, it detected the S1 video card out of the box and 3D is enabled, my wireless card also, all i had to do was enter my Essid and password. I am going to run Bea for a long time.This is a very good operating system!!

[rlozano]

it's really too early to say at this point in time as to what's with ubuntu 7 and what's the future of LinuxMint.

from my humble perspective, both are doing good and i have to commend clem and his team and coming up with something like LinuxMint, which in a way, presents an alternative for those things not immediately in ubuntu and for those users who are in their infancy stage of embracing linux.

but, just a note though, i believe that LinuxMint will not be in this blunder situation, a "DREAM TEAM" OS is not at all good also. (meaning to say, putting almost, if not all, all the good and best points of existing distro into one, will not really make-up for it at the end of the day.. IMHO....

[justo]

I load a lot of PCs.I find older ones and load Linux so someone can have a PC that can't buy a new one.On the old ones that must be loaded by floppy I use Xandros 2 in.The reason I do is because I can make a floppy on a PC I have already loaded and use the floppy to load an old one.I think if Xandros has this system to make a floppy from a loaded PC then why not Mint? I don't know what extra work it is to do that.

[thorhr]

I would like to see you base Mint on Debian. I have been using Debian Sid for the past year on one of my computers and i have have never had any trouble.As you already know it is almost imposable to install Nvidia drivers.that is the only thing that bothers me.Debian is an awesome operating system.I have an IBM A20M laptop and I tried to install Mint on it the install went well 3/4 of the way then it froze up.So I installed Debian Etch and it works with no problems. The laptop has a700 mhz processor.

[JohnH]

One of the things that helped me jump ship from Ubuntu to Mint waste fact that Mint is Ubuntu based. I've tried many Linux distros over the years (I go back to CPM80 pre MSDOS) and I must say that Ubuntu and its community have been excellent. I also have a soft spot for Mepis and Fedora. In fact it was a messed up upgrade to Fedora 5 that forced me to Ubuntu.

Keep close to Ubuntu and Mint will do well (why else did Mepis make the same decision). I agree that making the desktop experience simple and good is very important. In my job I have an opportunity to get the whole organisation to move to Linux. I will not push this until I am convinced the desktop experience is going to be simple, pleasant and works. Mint has gone a long way in the right direction for me.

Regards
John