I hate to say it but...

[civint]

I wil probably be switching distros when I upgrade my pc.
It'll be a shame to leave, but i thik what did it for me is the number of updates...celena has only been out a few months (if that) and you already have a beta of 4.0 out..to me it looks like there is an 'upgrade culture'. Not a bad thing per se, but for those of us who like to keep on having support, or latest drivers and whatnot, it can be apain in the ass. hence why a move to arch for me looks iminent...the install may be a pain in the nuts, but once it's working-no reinstall ever needed again, thanks to the rolling distro philosophy.
But I'll still be around, and though my time with mint is nearly up, I will reccomend it to all my ingnorant windows mates, lol. MInt is by far one of the best distros I have ever tried.

civint

[Husse]

Mint is young, and lots of ideas have been put into practice, that's why the update cycle has been fast.
I have recommended a slower update cycle or at least a different one to Clem, he needs some rest
But support for earlier version will be around for a long time

[GrayWizardLinux]

I just decided that since Celane original version works so well on my thinkpad - I am staying with it and not updating squat unless I am forced to redo with a clean install. I will then choose the newer version and see if it works - if not - then back to what works and celena. I too see too many updates and versions etc. apple has them too which I disagree re: their yearly or bi-yearly version updates and their minor updates are just that not a problem. I think that if you are happy with what you have stick with it. I am linux ignorant and just to have it working is a major accomplishment. why tweak what works and maybe end up with a trashed OS.

just my 1/2 cent.

[linuxviolin]

I think that if you are happy with what you have stick with it.

Yes but why a distro needs to release twice a year? Six months is a too short cycle, I think that for example 9 months is better

Or just... when the 'maintainer' is ready

[GrayWizardLinux]

sorry not sure what your problem or point is with my post - though errors in spelling. I see everyone doing way too many upgrades etc....

I meant this is the best light.

[clivesay]

This opinion isn't new. I've found many people, including myself, have grown weary of installing updated distros from scratch. I'm not knocking it as I know that many people enjoy all the tinkering, I once did too. I look here everyday and try the new releases but, I've made Sidux my home for the reason stated here originally. It's a rolling release with all the latest packages and very stable.

To each their own. I still recommend Mint to newcomers because it's a really good out of the box Linux experience. Clem is building a very nice community and product.

Chris

[linuxviolin]

OK clivesay but you go for 'rolling release'? hmm... with rolling 'things' you never have a stable distro but perpetually in development ('unstable')...

@GrayWizardLinux

I just said that I agree with you that if we are happy with a release then keep it.

(Although unfortunately with Ubuntu the maitenance of each release does not last long unlike, for example, to enterprise distros as Red Hat and its clones: CentOS, Scientific etc)

[GrayWizardLinux]

Ok - Thanks Linuxviolin.
I understand.

[clivesay]

OK clivesay but you go for 'rolling release'? hmm... with rolling 'things' you never have a stable distro but perpetually in development ('unstable')...

I know that is the perception. If you are an upgrade junky, then I would agree with you about instability. But if you are patient and have a good dev group helping the users to monitor the stability of the pool, then, yes my friend, you can be rolling and stable. My main Sidux desktop has run almost 24-7 for several months on the same installation with many upgrades without a single crash. So please don't generalize. A distro is only as good as it's community. That's why Mint is doing so well. I see the community growing and becoming more involved all the time.

As I said, to each their own. I am a Mint fan.

[civint]

mint has to be my favorite distro. I'm pleased to know that there will be suport for celena for a while yet. I'm with greywizardlinux on the upgrade thing......

I still think that for me, a rolling release would be fine, although stability would be a problem, i do like to have things working as is. HOwever, I don't like the bloat that we have in mint atm (for me, that is, it is actually quite sparse compared to others)

how ever, if there will be a better 'update' system for mint (which linuxviolin, you hinted at clem hinting at it) I may well be sticking around. The extremely quick release of daryana was almost a snapping point. looking at more sparse distros, there were too many RTFM types, as well as incomprehensible and unfriendly wiki pages for me to manage, as well as surprisingly large numbers of install disks (slack-1 dvd, or 12 cds, etc.)

I also didn't think that I would get this sort of response from my post, thus proving that this has to be one of the best linux forum communiies that I have had the pleasure of being a part of, lol (followed by fedora-but it's bloaty as rik waller after a megamac (for anyone who reads the linux format blogs..) I apologise for fat joke..no offense to anyone)

celena will be sticking on my desktop, for now, at least and I'm gonna be experimenting with the levels at which it can be stripped to squeeze performance out of my aging (for the programs I like to run) machine (2.66GHz celeron-chugs like a santa fe, 512MB ram). That is, until I get my own version of linux running, for personal use, which will be based off mint so I can borrow repos

thankyou for help, posters.
civ

[GrayWizardLinux]

I am running celena on a refurb R51 Thinkpad with 1.5 Ghz Intel Pent M and 512 ram - actually seems to be like 508 ram as such so a few Mg are not working or accountable for and this is running quite nicely. Your's should be screaming compared to mine. maybe?

I am genuinely pleased with Celena and Mint.

[BlahBlah_X]

I tried arch yesterday. Made me frustrated as hell. I know you are supposed to configure stuff yourself, but god was this bad. For example, there wasn't even a metapackage for Xorg, so I had to hunt for parts for about 30 minutes.

After 4 hours, I had a semi-working xfce install. For about 2 hours, I was following directions form the irc channel or the official wiki.

When I say semi-working, I mean xfce ran, but I could only get a few apps to install and run properly.

I did love pacman (the packaging system) though.

[linuxviolin]

@ BlahBlah_X

Rather try Frugalware. http://frugalware.org/
It's young and comes from Hungary but it is already a good and very interesting distro.

From Distrowatch.com:

Frugalware Linux is an independently developed general purpose desktop Linux distribution designed for intermediate users. It follows simple Slackware-like design concepts and includes the "pacman" package management utility from Arch Linux.

From http://frugalware.org/about/en:

Frugalware is a general purpose linux distribution, designed for intermediate users (who are not afraid of text mode).

Question: What is "The Frugalware Philosophy" about?

Answer: Briefly: simplicity, multimedia, design. We try to make Frugalware as simple as possible while not forgetting to keep it comfortable for the user. We try to ship fresh and stable software, as close to the original source as possible, because in our opinion most software is the best as is, and doesn't need patching.

Question: What architectures does Frugalware support?

Answer: Currently we support x86 and x86_64 platforms, and inside x86, only i686 (Pentium Pro or higher instruction set) and inside x86_64 only k8 (amd64). If there are any claims, an i386 port will be created, but currently we don't have resources to build and maintain those packages. Outside x86, currently we don't have any non-x86 hardware, but happily accept such patches or any effort to create non-x86 optimized packages. We are also working on a PowerPC port

A review, in French (sorry), about the last version at http://www.frlinux.net/?section=distributions&article=201 writes in conclusion:

To advise ... if you are looking for an alternative more comprehensive at Slackware.

I did love pacman (the packaging system) though.

Frugalware use also Pacman

To some extent Slackware + Arch = Frugalware

[poision]

Hi linuxviolin do you think we should keep trying disto after disto?Actually what i feel every linux disto has some pro and some cons.Example is suse's yast,synaptic of ubuntu n many more.Abt upgrade issue yes there should be some lit long gap in each distro.Mint is new n as it ll grow up everything ll be smooth.Thanks
regards

[linuxviolin]

do you think we should keep trying disto after disto?

No. I just replied at BlahBlah_X post in which he stated that he tried Arch.
It was just a suggestion if he wanted to try something else ...

[clivesay]

I think it's good to try other distros. Thanks to virtualbox you can do it very easily without going through the cd burning process. I have virtual machines of the last 2 Mint releases that I like to use to get ideas.

[poision]

I think it's good to try other distros. Thanks to virtualbox you can do it very easily without going through the cd burning process. I have virtual machines of the last 2 Mint releases that I like to use to get ideas.

oh yes with virtual box its possible.But i ll prefer to stick on mint.Its growing now.But i ll try other distro with your idea of virtual box.Thanks