Unofficial Mint Wiki launched, your help needed

[bimsebasse]

In lieu of an official beginner's guide type of wiki I went ahead and started one: https://sites.google.com/site/mintwiki/

It's still just a skeleton and hopefully several forum users can help flesh it out. If you're interested in adding or editing, please pm me. If it grows into something useful hopefully it can be handed over to Mint and become part of or basis of an official wiki some day. Ideas on how to organize it and what topics need to be included are very welcome even if you don't feel like joining.

[olle]

I like the font and colour selection !

On the contents, shouldn't you distinguish different LMint releases? The layouts are possibly similar to LM12 in future, but today they are different !

[bimsebasse]

Yes, that's a big problem actually - how you do basic things in Mint 12 MATE, Mint 12 Cinnamon and Mint 11 aren't the same. I tried adding an "(applies to Mint 12 MGSE and Mint 12 Cinnamon)" under the headings where that was the case, but it didn't look too good. Suggestions?

Edit: sorted with small text boxes at the right.

[rich_roast]

It might be worth talking to Emi at the Dwarf Fortress wiki here. They use mediawiki and it manages information on the same topic for different versions of the game -- click about the various game topic pages and note the hyperlinks to the alternative versions running across the top of each one.

[sunewbie]

Bodhi Linux uses Doku wiki

I am not technical, so I cannot help you in technical aspects. May be it can help you.

I also think that you should have this text available on google docs, which you could share it with everybody. Anyone can change it without logging. If there is spamming, then we can think of something different. Use Google docs for editing and collaborating and then when things are ready, they can be migrated to wiki.

I made half hearted effort, but due to my other commitments I have quit it. I would love to help, but I hardly get any free time due to some personal problems and other commitments.

Some links

Win to Ubuntu
Advantages of linux over Windows

Reactions to Unity - A slide Show by Christopher, cannot edit.

I know these links are not related to wiki. Just wanted to give you some idea.

btw, great work

[bimsebasse]

Yes I need to find something other than google sites because I can't get collaboration to work, no added users can edit even though they're set as "site owner"

Will try doku wiki out

Any other suggestions?

[sunewbie]

Please have a look at community ideas

literature references, or a library

Maybe a post in these section may find interested users who come forward to help.

Some more, though they are not directly connected, they show community interest in silimar topics

Mailing Lists , or a monthly news letter (email)

Linux Mint Mailing list

Improve the installation manual

Installer for total 1st-timers

btw, Bodhi Linux uses doku wiki. Check the documentation tab on home page.

They also have docu mailing list.

[bimsebasse]

Thanks, for some reason I always forget there's a community section. Sorted out the privileges thing, btw. Are mailing lists still around? It was literally the 90s when I last was on one.

[sunewbie]

Thanks, for some reason I always forget there's a community section. Sorted out the privileges thing, btw. Are mailing lists still around? It was literally the 90s when I last was on one.

Yup. Just as print media like old horse newspaper is still running strong inspite of TVs, 24 hr news channels, e-news, so are mailing lists going strong.

Still yahoo groups and google groups have a good userbase.

Services like feedburner (which requires a blog - not difficult to set up) can be very useful. You can have hundreds of feed and email subscribers (see www.thenextweb.com)

Google + is also a useful. Each has their own advantages.

I do not use any of these

Regarding community section, I signed in due to the fact that I wanted to help Mint in some way, but since I am not technical, I could not help otehrs in forums, so I joined community and started voting or ideas and managed to create a few ideas

There are many users dedicated only to community like kazztan, compuman2004, alexio, blueXrider (has less than 100 posts in forums). They do not interact in forums.

Problem it that this section 'Ideas and thoughts' is there since beginning of Mint and according to McLovin (community mod and a dev), it wil not be removed or locked (unlike bug reporting). Later, as mint grew, we now have a dedicated website for tutorials and ideas. Now the problem is that where to post? Some prefer forums as you can have long discussions (or feel comfortable) and some prefer community. Community has a different feel than forums.

e.g. I posted Linux Beginner Search Engine, which got appreciation from community. Later Oscar799 asked me to write it as a tutorial.

Later I posted in forums in newbie section and is made sticky. So it is more useful to other people, as it can be easily found.

On the other hand, there are many ideas, which are one year old, but labelled as new. Mint releases new version every 6 months. Though we understand that Mint team is very small, still it's a bit dis-heartening.

I am a still puzzled as where to post

Coming back to the topic, positively, you may find some people who can give you helping hand. Note that this idea is considered by a mod on community. So even mods and devs wish of a wiki.

Just my 2 cents.

[Alphonse]

Suggestion for creating desktop launcher tutorial:

Home>View>Hidden Files>.gnome2>nautilus-scripts (right click on background) Create Document>Empty Document (right click on document)>(Rename as "Create New Launcher")(open document) (paste:gnome-desktop-item-edit ~/Desktop/ --create-new)>save>close (right click)>properties>permissions>check (Allow executing file as program) (close all windows). Done.

Add: To put a web site in a desktop launcher, Copy web site address, right click desktop background Scripts>Create New Launcher>Location (Give it a name and paste address in Command)>Close. Done.

Add: To change an icon on the desktop, Right click>Properties (Click on the icon displayed and replace with any image located in any folder in stored data)

Excuse the shorthand. I'm making these suggestions based on what I've learned in my few months using Mint. I tried your approach and that of 1b. in Tips and Tweaks but could never find the nautilus-scripts folder. The approach described, shorthand expanded, along with your screenshots, should allow any noob to create the desktop launchers they used in other distros.

[RETNUH]

I think we should create a new page for each number(excluding .x), this way we have some more organization and not one long page. Is this agreeable?

[bimsebasse]

I think one of the reasons Wikipedia took off is the one page with well-ordered easy to grasp contents box at the top, and nothing else in the way, simple design, no embedded pages - for now I think it's best to stick to that formula but individual pages for the various editions of Mint have been added.

[RETNUH]

From my line of thinking each number is about something different though.

Totally up to you though.

[KBD47]

Mepis has a good wiki, might check it out for ideas:
http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php?title=Main_Page
Something about software/package management might be useful. After installing and tweaking the next thing a user wants is software.
KBD47

[RETNUH]

I have a page on how to install software started, however my knowledge isn't complete on tarballs and .debs. So if someone could kindly finish those 2 parts I would appreciate it.

[sunewbie]

Beautiful header

Please mention System requirements

System requirements

Linux Mint currently supports the Intel x86 and AMD64 architectures.

Code: Select all

                                        Minimum  Recommended
Processor (x86)                 600 MHz    1 GHz
Memory                            256 MB      512 MB
Hard Drive (free space)     5 GB          10 GB
Monitor Resolution            800 x 600   1024 x 768

Note: If visual effects are desired, a supported GPU is required.

Installation does not support LVM or disk encryption.

Above table is not displaying properly. I re-typed it again and space manually, still it is not rendering properly. I tried it as a code, still it is not rendering properly Please find the table at the link attached.

[sunewbie]

Just to make a note

Pinguy OS wiki is down due to lack of use

http://forum.pinguyos.com/Thread-How-To ... he-Project

I hope this is not a problem with google sites, else making a blogger blog is a better option, but a blog is not good for organizing material, but an approved author can publish and edit posts. You you setup feed burner, you can have email /feed subscriptions (@bimsebasse: consider going back to 90's )

[bimsebasse]

(@bimsebasse: consider going back to 90's )

I would if I could - Grunge and Britpop, yo-yos and fresh prince of bel air, runs rings around the present


The wiki won't go down due to lack of use but the fact that distros like Pinguy and Mint don't really have updated and maintained wikis shows that a healthy wiki requires at least a few dedicated editors, and being a large linux distro with a knowledgeable community isn't enough in itself. I'll get it into an acceptable state soon,, still just a draft, after that hopefully it stays afloat and keeps being updated.

[RETNUH]

At the moment I'm concerned its looking more like a guide than a wiki.

[sunewbie]

...the fact that distros like Pinguy and Mint don't really have updated and maintained wikis shows that a healthy wiki requires at least a few dedicated editors, and being a large linux distro with a knowledgeable community isn't enough in itself. I'll get it into an acceptable state soon,, still just a draft, after that hopefully it stays afloat and keeps being updated.

Totally Agree. it is definitely not a one mans Job.

btw, gr8 initiative. wiki can be expanded for trouble shooting and tips and tricks and collecting good Q and A from forums. But this is definitely not a one man's Job. It requires a lot of brainstorming, time and dedication.

Hope this wiki grows and gets accepted soon