Which version of Mint to use

[mick55]

Hello KDE'ers

I removed Mint 8 main edition from my PC for some reason or other
and installed Debian 5.03 KDE desktop.

Love KDE, love Debian....miss Mint

This is my first time using KDE and I am very impressed and want to come
back to Mint using a KDE version.I have read through a lot of the posts here
and seen a lot of negativity towards KDE 4 and also some positive comments.

My choices seem to be between
Mint 5 LTS
Mint 7 KDE
Mint 8 RC1

Not sure if I should live in the past on Mint 5, or try the bleeding edge
with Mint 8 or go with the tried and tested Mint 7.

All comments or suggestions are appreciated.

thanks
mick

[exploder]

You should be seeing the final release for the Mint 8 KDE 32 bit soon, so you might want to wait for that.

[mick55]

Hi Exploder

Thanks for the advice.

How soon is soon

I hope the Mint 8 implementation of KDE 4 is superior to the
opensuse 11.2 KDE release which is abysmal.

I installed opensuse 11.1 and was somewhat impressed, so I installed 11.2 and
was not impressed at all.It was a complete resource hog and unbelievably
unstable on 2 different machines.I had read good reviews of opensuse
so I was surprised by how atrocious it really was. I expected more from Novell.

The bloat I could handle, the instability I couldn't.

thanks again
mick

[rec9140]

I removed Mint 8 main edition from my PC for some reason or other
and installed Debian 5.03 KDE desktop.

This is my first time using KDE and I am very impressed and want to come
back to Mint using a KDE version.I have read through a lot of the posts here
and seen a lot of negativity towards KDE 4 and also some positive comments.

My choices seem to be between
Mint 5 LTS
Mint 8 RC1

I am a die hard KDE user. As far as I am concerned there is KDE and nothing else for a "normal" desktop. For situations which the hardware and/or resources do not warrant such a X WM then XFCE, etc. are perfect.

You will notice that I don't include that g*****censored**** WM.... I have:

1) HUGE -> PERSONAL <- issues with its developer and development theories... see avatar for hint!
2) The ease of use of KDE
3) The over all general better look of KDE, and no theme can improve that g*****censored**** X WM

As for what to install......

All my installs stopped at KMint Elyssa, and will not progress further till KDE 4.x gets its act together and is stable and feature for feature matched with KDE 3.5.10 which I honestly don't know if that will ever happen due to the "pretty" over FUNCTION mentality that certain KDE devs have.

I have a test machine right now with the KMint 8 Helena RC1 installed, and putting it through its paces....those test results will be posted later.

The KMint team does a great, no FANTASTIC job of cleaning up the mess Kubuntu creates... Canoncial should HIRE the ENTIRE KMint dev team to get Ubunutu on track and CONVERTED TO KDE. We differ on how certain things should be setup ie: defaut programs, themes, and what is and is not included in the DVD (THERES still 3GB worth of space to fill up on that DVD! ! !! ! HINT HINT! )

I quit COLD TURKEY at work and home from w***censored*** to Linux.

All my work PC's I use, are Linux. Servers have always been Linux.

All my home PC's are Linux

The only time I run into w***censored*** is work where I have a legacy app which will never get ported to Linux... That will be going away as it becomes a web based system and thus Linux will replace all work units as well. I actually don't even look to know what w***censored*** does... I played with the w***censored*** 7 beta and RC in a VM, I've not touched them in months, and won't be moving my work systems to that they will go from w***censored*** XP to Linux KDE, hopefully a KMint version that fixes all the issues with KDE 4.x

KDE made that change 10000x easier... I'd dabbled in Linux off and on for years, and thought once Knoppix came out that we finally were headed in the right direction.. then Klaus made a left turn on things..... KMint Daryna was the reason I was able to break the addiction to w***censored***. Install, get things done... with out spending hours adding the basics....this still continues with KMint.. this is alone is a lesson other distros could learn A LOT from KMint ! ! !

If your a previous KDE user, I think that using Elysssa will be your best bet.... if you want so called "glitz" like wobly windows and other stuff then KDE 4.x and the KMint RC may be your thing... KDE 4.x and I just don't agree, that may not be true for you... but....

All comments or suggestions are appreciated.

You may change your mind .....

[martosurf]

As someone told you above you should wait for the new upcoming KMint release.

In the while I'm using Kubuntu -which is the base of KMint- and no matter how much bad things are being said, Kubuntu is a very cool KDE4 implementation. Also I want to note my personal experience with openSUSE in general and with openSUSE 11.2 KDE in particular: it should be renamed to openSUCKS 11.2, no matter all those positive (payed?) reviews. Don't you believe me fellow brother!? Just grab a copy -it's free- and try it for yourself: installation it's a pain, everything feels canned like in W$, the main panel layout IT'S A NIGHTMARE and after using the system for a few minutes you find it rather slow.

On the same system, Kubuntu work's ok and I know Linux Mint KDE CD will skyrocketer

[tenfoot]

In response to rec9140, I started with openSUSE 10.1 and KDE and didn't really like it. Found Mint 3.1 Celena and Gnome and haven't considered anything but Gnome since. It is easily configurable, quite beautiful in its simplicity and "suits me down to the ground".

[JoeFootball]

Another recommendation for Mint 8 KDE here. I'm loving the RC so far, and Mint 7 KDE kept me happy as well.

How soon is soon

In my unauthoritative opinion, we've typically seen the final version release 3-4 weeks after the RC. Mint 8 KDE RC was release on 15-Jan-2010, so I'd guess sometime in a week to 10 days as of this writing. Again, that's simply my semi-educated guess.

I had read good reviews of opensuse so I was surprised by how atrocious it really was. I expected more from Novell.

Incidentally, me too. Even the installation process was very disappointing. I can't remember the last time I saw a GUI partition setup that bad, especially on "big name" distro.

Joe

[mick55]

Thank you all very much for taking the time to respond,
I appreciate the valuable insights.

I'm glad to see I am not the only one underwhelmed by opensuse 11.2.
I will try not to let that experience sour me on KDE 4.

Regarding my switch from Gnome to KDE...
...to paraphrase Brutus from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar"
"It's not that I loved Gnome less, but that I loved KDE more"

As I said, I am currently using Debian 5 KDE and I am happy with it
but missing that Minty feeling.

Based on the comments thus far, I am leaning towards waiting for KMint 8
and if there are stability or incompatibility issues I can fall back on Kmint 5.

peace
mick

[JoeFootball]

I am currently using Debian 5 KDE and I am happy with it but missing that Minty feeling.

As a Debian 5 KDE user myself (albeit on one PC), I know what you mean. It's certainly excellent, but Mint KDE has that "je ne sais quoi" that gives it the edge over others.

Patience will deliver the final Linux Mint 8 KDE, and then we'll all wonder how we ever lived without it. Until we're back here in six months from now pacing the floor waiting for Linux Mint 9 KDE. At least I'm foolish that way.

Joe

[Go2doug]

I was never able to fully accept Mint with KDE 4.2.x as a replacement for Mint with KDE 3.5.10, so right now I am using Kubuntu 9.10 (Karmic) with KDE 3.5.10 installed. You can grab it here:

https://wiki.kubuntu.org/Kubuntu/Kde3/Karmic

However, I recently was playing around with the live CDs of openSUSE 11.2 and Kubuntu 9.10 (both with KDE 4.3.x) and I was much more impressed than I had previously been. I am thinking that when Mint KDE 8 is released with KDE 4.4, I will finally have to leave KDE3 behind.