Assorted Beginner Questions

[tinker123]

Hi,

I'm getting a new PC in March. I've been thinking about putting MINT on it. I've been using Ubuntu for a few years. I have a few miscellaneous questions.

1. Id like to install MINT natively, learn how to use VM software and then install Windows 8 in the VM. The custom computer shop told me they would sell me a computer and give me the Windows disk without installing it. It has been about 10 years since I installed windows. Should the installation disk have everything I need and will the install be unproblmatic as long as I follow the prompts? Will I be able to run MINT from a bootable CD and install it to the hard drive, without the hard drive having an operating system on it?

2. I've been thinking of trying the KDE version of MINT. I've had trouble with the KDE being very buggy and the project slow to fix bugs. That was YEARS ago. Is this still true?

3. During the last several years upgrades of Ubuntu have not been unproblematic. Usually I would have at least one problem to fix, even waiting a month after a fresh release. Granted, that could have been because of my old hardware. Have people been having the same experience with MINT upgrades?

4. How often does MINT update/ugrade...........about as often as Ubuntu?

5. How far apart are LTS releases.

6. 98% of my home PC use is browsing the web and watching videos. Would I notice any difference between MINT 13 and MINT 14?

7. If I choose to go with using LTS editions, will I miss out on anything noticeable, from an enduser's perspective?

8. Does MINT come with Oracle's Java installed or the open source version Ubuntu comes with?

9. Does MINT use a "software center" ( if so, what is it called ? ) or a package manager like semantic?

10. Does MINT have automated updates ( you get a pop up asking you to update ) ?

Thanks in advance for any information

Steve

[zerozero]

hi welcome to the forums
it's best practice to open separate topics for separate subjects but with that said i think i can try to answer some of your questions

1- yes you can install mint without having any other OS in the computer.

2- i'm using kde for ages and it's the most stable and feature rich DE at this moment (but things vary a lot depending on hardware and distro)

3- mint doesn't have a in-place upgrade like ubuntu; we recommend fresh installation.

4- mint has 2 releases: one following debian testing and one following ubuntu: the last one sees a new release short after ubuntu.

5- same as ubuntu: last lts was mint 13 (based on ubuntu 12.04 precise) released on may 2012 and supported until april 2017. see http://www.linuxmint.com/oldreleases.php

6- no.

7- lts (specially this one supported for 5 years) are supported for a very long period of time; the only thing we can say is that for now you won't miss anything, the most relevant improvements (from an enduser point of view were backported from mint14 to mint13, see here >> http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2225

8- same as ubuntu

9- mint has its own software manager and also synaptic.

10- mintupdate does neither: it displays a different icon in the panel when updates are available and it's up to the user to start the process.

you're welcome

[tinker123]

Regarding your answers to #3 and #10.

Do you mean that per installation/upgrade, mintupdate will take care of updating software for that version, as long as your press "ok" when it prompts you. However when it comes time to upgrade to a new version of MINT, you are on your own, as downloading MINT and overwriting your hard drive as if you were installing a new distro?

Thanks for the fast and useful answers.

[zerozero]

hi,
regarding #3
- the recommended procedure is fresh installation however (if you want to take that risk) you can follow this howto http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/2