1st impressions can be lasting impressions

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yehudah

1st impressions can be lasting impressions

Post by yehudah »

I've been a MS advocate and user/administrator since 1987. I've had every version of MSDOS and Windows known to man. I've pushed these products and pushed them some more. I'm what you could call a Microsoft guy.

...that is until about November of '07. After floundering with Vista for some months, and getting absolutely nowhere with MS, I'd had enough. But what was I supposed to do, what was I supposed to use? I couldn't afford to buy a Mac (for crap sake, $1600 for a macbook?).

So on one of my down days, a friend of mine was spouting about Novell Linux Desktop. We have an enterprise version at work and I played with it for a bit. He assured me that in install of SLED 10.2 would be the answer to my question.

He was wrong. I had nothing but problems: My DVD's wouldn't play, my soundcard wouldn't play, my USB headset wouldn't play, my MP3's wouldn't play, no 3D graphics, etc. I spent about a month finally getting all of the above working, except the 3D graphics. Finally I installed compiz fuzion... and totally hosed up my pc.

So, I was over it. I switched to Suse 10.3, and it was much much better. Still had the 3D graphics problem, but at least my pc wasn't dead.

Because I'm curious, I started toying with other versions of Linux: Sabayon, Fedora, Ubuntu, and finally Mint. It seemed like each distro was better than the last, and most everything would work to start with, and as a MS Windows guy, I liked that.

On Thursday of last week, another Linux buddy of mine gave me a Mint DVD to install. He told me it would be exactly what I wanted/needed.

I have to tell you, he was absolutely on the mark. I installed MInt and everything worked, and via Envy, even some 3D graphics did. The more I toy, the more I enjoy.

After geeking some today, I finally got my ATI X800GTO card to work with fuzion... OMYGOSH, awesome. I've rebooted a few times to make sure it wasn't a fluke. Amazing.

The community that supports this product needs to pat themselves on the back. This is a great product.

I have only a very few suggestions regarding install. Because this distro is meant for windows people who want linux, I think a few things should be added on installation:

-Automated 3D card drivers (instead of Envy)
-Automated compiz fuzion, dependent on video card detected

The install is already easy... but adding these two things would keep the average shmoe from having to figure out the 3D graphics.

Finally, I'm happy with this distro and looking forward to more toys for it. Nice work all.

Shalom vBrachos
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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exploder
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Re: 1st impressions can be lasting impressions

Post by exploder »

yehudah , I liked what you wrote and how you described your experience. Mint development has the best vision of what ease of use really is in a Linux distribution. The menu and tools not only make things easier they are continuously improved and fine tuned. Mint lives up to it's slogan too! The freedom you have in the Mint forum is why Mint has the elegant look it has.

I also have a Windows background. I used to be Desktop Support Technician for a global manufacturer of automotive transmissions. I took care af 300 computers running Windows NT 4. I had domain administrator privileges and took care of all hardware and software. It was an awesome job for three years! This plant is now closed and it's operations moved to other parts of the country.

I turned to Linux full time when I found myself in a lower paying job and was unable to spend thousands of dollars on new hardware and software. I quickly discovered that I could do much more with open source and that it has unlimited potential. I too went through many distributions until I saw a screenshot of LinuxMint. What I saw was the introduction of the mint menu and my first thoughts were that LinuxMint knew what user's wanted.

I look at the tools that are being developed for LinuxMint and how functional they are and the thought behind them. Clem and the development team clearly know the direction things need to go for the distribution to reach it's goals. I predict that the Business Edition that is planned will find it's way to corporate desktops in the near future. I think that if the same kind of approach that is used for the main edition is used for the Business Edition it will be one of the most successful business operating systems in the world.

My wife bought a new laptop last year with Vista pre installed, she uses it for games. I have had to use the laptop a few times when my other machines are tied up. The laptop has twice the hardware specs of the two desktops we have, yet it is the slowest machine in the house! I used the laptop last week when I was doing some testing on my main pc. I was in the middle of using a spreadsheet when it just decided to re boot on it's own because updates were automatically installed! There was no conformation given or anything! Another Windows Update crippled the machine once too, it took half an hour to repair the damage that was caused.I know what you mean about floundering with Vista!

I am glad you discovered LinuxMint and hope your experience is as pleasant as mine has been!

Welcome to LinuxMint!
yehudah

Re: 1st impressions can be lasting impressions

Post by yehudah »

Thanks for the great welcome guys....

My impression after hours upon hours of play (much to the chagrine of my wife I assure you :mrgreen: ), is that it is very user friendly. Not only that, you are right, it is screaming fast.

Exploder, you can empathize: I had to reload XP Pro SP2 on my pc because of a crash once. It took hours to load XP, NIC drivers, FW/AV software, then all of the updates. Once that is done, you can start loading your other drivers and software. It took all day long to do this.

Installing Mint was easy: Plug in the Live DVD, click the Install icon, and a few clicks later, I'm up and running. All I had to do was plug in my email info (thud), and internet links... it took about an hour. The tinkering took longer... but I wasn't down, I had email and internet to assist me.

I think LInux has come such a long way. You can d/l a mint distro in minutes (15MB d/l cable), burn it to a DVD, and be up and running in less than an hour. Can't ask for much more than that.

I work for the Fed, we are looking at standing up a SLES thin client server and pumping out SLED to about 5000 pc's. I'm the Lead Network Engineer of the activity, but I'm involved because of the network involvement. After working with Linux (this distro expecially), I'm liking a Linux solution much much more.
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