What version should I be running? [SOLVED]

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markfilipak
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What version should I be running? [SOLVED]

Post by markfilipak »

SOLVED: Mint 14 + Xfce is fine. My problems were caused by VirtualBox. END

Look my friends. I need a reliable guest running in VBox. What version of Linux Mint and Xfce should I be running? I'm tired of being a tester.

Thanks. All advice will be gratefully received and will be implemented.

Ciao - Mark.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
bigj231

Re: What version should I be running?

Post by bigj231 »

Since you're running a virtual machine, there's no reason not to try all of them. If you like 14, stick with it. If it gives you issues, try Mint 13.
markfilipak
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Re: What version should I be running?

Post by markfilipak »

What desktop, big guy?

Is there a desktop that's a perfect clone of WinXP?

PS: I don't know if I like Mint 14. I haven't gotten to run it much. Plus, where does the desktop end and the underlaying OS begin? And for that matter, what makes Linux Mint, Linux Mint?
renatov

Re: What version should I be running?

Post by renatov »

If you seek stability, install Debian Stable, not Mint.
bigj231

Re: What version should I be running?

Post by bigj231 »

markfilipak wrote:What desktop, big guy?

Is there a desktop that's a perfect clone of WinXP?

PS: I don't know if I like Mint 14. I haven't gotten to run it much. Plus, where does the desktop end and the underlaying OS begin? And for that matter, what makes Linux Mint, Linux Mint?
I do recall seeing distributions that strove to be exactly like XP. I do not remember what they were (are?) called. I do know that they weren't that great. And they were in Chinese.

If you like the windows feel, try cinnamon. If you want more customization options, try KDE. You might even find that you like Unity. As I said, you are running a virtual machine, so you can try as many as you want. I personally now run KDE. I ran Cinnamon for several months. That's an extremely long time for me.

The real difference between Mint and Ubuntu is Mint includes different desktop options and some extra packages, such as the DVD decryption libraries and the Mint utilities. The main editions of Mint are built on Ubuntu, and they tend to be a bit more stable at release.

And in your original question, you asked which version of Mint and XFCE. That tells me that you are trying to stick with XFCE, so I suggested Mint 13 for more stability. As renatov suggested, If you want stability, install debian stable. You will have old packages, but you will have to be trying to break your system.

Finally, The desktop environments tend to have a similar look and feel regardless of the underlying system. You won't notice a lot of difference in daily use between Fedora, OpenSUSE, Arch, Debian, Gentoo, and Ubuntu if you run KDE in all of them. You will notice large differences when you're setting them up or installing packages. RPM packages don't work in Debian, portage Doesn't work in Arch, and .DEB packages won't install in OpenSuse.

It really all comes down to personal preference. Look around in the forums and description pages of each distribution. Try as many as you can. I've settled on Mint because of it's ease of setup and convenience. Gentoo was faster and had newer packages, but it was a pain to setup and was breakage prone. Debian was extremely stable (boringly so), and was too dated for me. I never cared for RPM, and the obstinate lack of closed-source packages (flash) turned me off of Fedora. If you ask on other forums for their opinions, they will be biased towards their favorite distro, just as I am biased towards Mint. There's no small coincidence that I have over 500 posts on this forum, or that I've stuck with Mint for the past few years. I think we have a wonderful community and a wonderful OS to boot. I don't see Mint falling by the wayside anytime soon.

I like Mint. It works for me. Tasty too.
markfilipak
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Re: What version should I be running?

Post by markfilipak »

Thanks, big guy. Good for a few laughs, too.

I'm torrent downloading this: linuxmint-13-mate-dvd-64bit.iso, right now. I think it will do.

You're right about no one being impartial. And you're right about just trying different distros. However, no matter the distro, there's always a more 'seasoned' release, and if I'm to stick with Mint, I guess it'll be Maya.

Linux reminds me of Religion ...which reminds me of an appropriate story: I live in Mansfield, Ohio, but I lived most of my life in and around San Jose, California. For a town of 50-thousand, Mansfield has an incredible number of churches. Well, I always thought that it was because there's an incredible number of religious people here - certainly this is the Bible Belt. Well, when I moved back here 10 years ago I mentioned that to a friend here who is a bit of an evangelist. "Oh, no," he replied. "It's not that people here are all that religious. It's that no one can get along with anyone else, so they split off and start their own church." Sure enough. Lots of 3/4 empty churches.
markfilipak
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Re: What version should I be running?

Post by markfilipak »

Well, I tried to install Linux Mint 13 Maya twice. The installer crashed each time.
bigj231

Re: What version should I be running?

Post by bigj231 »

Yup, you got that right :) I'm just about an hour south of you, in Newark. In fact, I know a few families that drive to Mansfield every week just to go to church. To each his own I guess.

I don't care for MATE, but I think there was a thread that dealt with the installer crashing.
Found it: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=94719
There was also somewhere you could download installed and configured VMware images. I used those quite extensively a few years ago.
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