Mint 19 Opinions and Reviews

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Askey307

Mint 19 Opinions and Reviews

Post by Askey307 »

Hi Guys

So excited about the release of Cinnamon 19. Just have to wait till I can upgrade from 18.3.
How is your experience with 19 so far?
What is new and what stands out the most?
Any prominent errors?

I've been playing and working with Linux for quite a while mostly RedHat due to our company but have to say Mint is amazing. Arch came close.

Let me know what you guys think.
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Pierre
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Re: Mint 19 Opinions and Reviews

Post by Pierre »

well - - IMHO - don't upgrade - - rather do a Clean Install.
:o
in my experience - - you do get better results.
:)

just did exactly that - - on three of my PCs.
8)
that LM19 Mate - seems to work really well.
:mrgreen:
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Askey307

Re: Mint 19 Opinions and Reviews

Post by Askey307 »

Pierre wrote: Thu Jul 05, 2018 10:11 am well - - IMHO - don't upgrade - - rather do a Clean Install.
:o
in my experience - - you do get better results.
:)

just did exactly that - - on three of my PCs.
8)
that LM19 Mate - seems to work really well.
:mrgreen:
Clean install. Any apparent reason why not an upgrade? Possible corruptions?

Tried KDE Plasma for a while, was super impressed about the visuality of the distro but the performance lacked compared to cinnamon. Must say Cinnamon so far will pull me for the time being unless I can be convinced otherwise.
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Pierre
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Re: Mint 19 Opinions and Reviews

Post by Pierre »

well - - I've done Boths Ways - - and again IMHO it seems that the Time that I've spent in recovering from a Bad Upgrade,
could have been spent in performing an Clean Installation, instead.

that's not to say, that an Upgrade won't work correctly, but in most of my attempts - - it failed.
- sure - some didn't fail, but most did seem to fail.
so, I'd prefer to run a Clean Installation, these days.
:mrgreen:
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Hoser Rob
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Re: Mint 19 Opinions and Reviews

Post by Hoser Rob »

Pierre wrote: Thu Jul 05, 2018 10:11 am well - - IMHO - don't upgrade - - rather do a Clean Install.
:o
in my experience - - you do get better results.
:)

just did exactly that - - on three of my PCs.
8)
that LM19 Mate - seems to work really well.
:mrgreen:
He's right, doing a major point release via a web upgrade is definitely less reliable than a clean reinstall. This is true in both Mint and its Ubuntu base (unless LMDE) and has been for years. Sometimes libraries don't get updated to the right versions, and fixing it is a bear.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong - H. L. Mencken
SwanRider

Re: Mint 19 Opinions and Reviews

Post by SwanRider »

I did an upgrade following what Clem wrote exactly and by doing so any problems are highlighted as you go along. One false start, but then it worked perfectly from then on.
I agree that a clean install is best, because you can check the ISO before doing it. It is also a lot quicker that way.

I wanted to do the upgrade to learn how to do it and see what problems it threw up, but honestly using the above I encountered none at all and the only thing it took was time.

I reviewed Tara on my blog as I think it is the best Mint yet, but I've only been using 18.2 and 18.3, but the reviews that I have read have all been very positive. Personally I think everyone did great and really put a lot of thought into things, because while it seems familiar using it you realise how much better and quicker it is. It's like having drank a great single malt and then someone comes along and gives you an even greater.

I have looked at other distros, but Mint is head and shoulders above them and is getting better with each new addition.
ajgringo619

Re: Mint 19 Opinions and Reviews

Post by ajgringo619 »

I agree with the assessment that a clean install is the best way to go. On my dual-boot system (Windows 10/Mint 18.3 Cinnamon), I found that the installation of Mint 19 XFCE went without a hitch IF I deleted the old Mint partition first. My original try only formatted the old partition; this led to the installer bombing on setting up GRUB.

Other than that and a minor issue with the suspend function, I'm really happy with the new version. System seems faster, especially on boot-up.
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stephanieswitzer
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Re: Mint 19 Opinions and Reviews

Post by stephanieswitzer »

I chose the upgrade route on my MacMini (single boot). I followed Clems instructions and it worked perfectly. No set-up or tweaking required on my part. The initial downloads took about 15 min and the actual install/upgrade took approx 45 min. Reboot, login and I was good to go.

Liking it so far.
Mac-Mini running Linux Mint 20.3 Cinnamon, Intel© Core™ i5-2415M CPU @ 2.30GHz
MacBookPro9,2 running Linux Mint Cinnamon 20.3 Intel Core i5-3210M CPU @ 3.20GHz
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Joe2Shoe
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Re: Mint 19 Opinions and Reviews

Post by Joe2Shoe »

I have LM19 Cinnamon 64-bit clean-installs on 2 laptops............great.
Also have LM19 Mate 64-bit clean-installs on 2 other laptops.........great.
No problems.
Upgrades seem to leave lots of "junk" behind.
"Tolerance is the refuge of men without conviction."
"Common sense is not so common" - Voltaire
Ricardo Vieira

Re: Mint 19 Opinions and Reviews

Post by Ricardo Vieira »

I'm loving it. I used to be in LM 18 series since 18 months ago. The new version works almost perfect for my needs. I'm having some issues with sound adjustments, only. As I did in 18 version, I just made some tweaks: replaced LibreOffice in favour of WPS, installed some nice apps, like guvcview, Pinta, Xfburn, made more translucent the panel and main menu, replaced the default system font: from Noto Sans to Ubuntu Regular (a Ubuntu Unity heritage, my ancient OS).

I think Timeshift a must have, the system looks more responsible, faster. Runs smoothly. Ideal for my day by day work, specially with banking operations. It is very safe.
Askey307

Re: Mint 19 Opinions and Reviews

Post by Askey307 »

Finally installed LM 19 alongside Win10. So far from a swift look, it doesn't seem half bad. Only one thing that bugs me a bit is that the customization is the exact same as LM17 and LM18. No new themes, widgets etc. Haven't gone into depth with LM19 just yet. Is there a way to get the Widgets, Themes, Applets etc from KDE Plasma on Cinnamon?

I'll post my findings soon.
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Re: Mint 19 Opinions and Reviews

Post by catweazel »

Askey307 wrote: Thu Jul 05, 2018 10:06 am Let me know what you guys think.
Clean install, if not for any other reason, this reason.
"There is, ultimately, only one truth -- cogito, ergo sum -- everything else is an assumption." - Me, my swansong.
Benedetto
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Re: Mint 19 Opinions and Reviews

Post by Benedetto »

I mentioned in another thread that I was hoping to install Mint Cinnamon 19 yesterday. Initially I had wondered about the upgrade route, but most experienced users favoured a clean install. For some inexplicable reason the live USB method does not work for me ( it didn't for my initial 18.1 installation) so I made a DVD. Everything went well - until I updated from the Update Manager, that notorious Kernel 4.15.0-24.26. I could not seem to get around it so I started over again and blacklisted the kernel when updating after another successful installation. I do note some improvements in LM19, the scrolling is better, it found my printer immediately (18.1 did not). Overall I like it so I will install LM19 on my laptop soon.
I have now got it all - hopefully - as I want it. :lol: I did manage to get Opera working properly again using the link given in my Opera 54 thread. Firefox works fine but I am not happy with its appearance. I tried Vivaldi but soon jettisoned it. It seems that Opera is by far the best I have used - despite the odd glitch, which with advice here on this Forum, was son sorted.
The other bonus was that I was able to remove the dual boot facility and consign Windows 10 to history. :wink:
Thank you Linux people for a great operating system even if it has been a steep learning curve for am octogenarian. :lol:
Best wishes,
Linux Mint 21:2 Cinnamon 5.8.4 - Desktop
Linux Mint 21:2 - VAIO Laptop
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Re: Mint 19 Opinions and Reviews

Post by Tomgin5 »

I have done 2 installs of LM 19 Cinnamon 64.
One on a desktop Dell Optiplex 990. This one was a clean install replacing 17.3. The only carryover was I exported the old address book from Thunderbird and imported it into the new install. There were about 300 documents that I had pulled from the 17.3 and installed in the 19. It runs a little faster. The old terabyte drive is the slowest thing. :?
The second install was in a Lenovo SL500, with a new 480GB SSD and a Ram upgrade to 4 GB PC2. All the 2008 laptop could handle. It is running very well as it used to be running and bricked with Windex. :mrgreen:
Hoser Rob
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Re: Mint 19 Opinions and Reviews

Post by Hoser Rob »

For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong - H. L. Mencken
Askey307

Re: Mint 19 Opinions and Reviews

Post by Askey307 »

Hoser Rob wrote: Tue Jul 10, 2018 7:25 am How about a non newbie review?

https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/lin ... -tara.html

I love any type of reviews. For me there is not really a newbie review but a valued one instead. But your article is damn interesting. Thank you.
reeyetta

Re: Mint 19 Opinions and Reviews

Post by reeyetta »

I just finished installing Linux Mint 19 on an HP 6530b laptop with the XFCE desktop environment. My laptop has a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo processor with 4 gigabytes of memory. There were a few setbacks I encountered, but was able to fix them along the way. First off, the DSL/PPPOE selection, on the Network Manager in the Ethernet tab should point to a Device MAC address for the hardware to be used to establish an internet connection. Without it, the Network Manager will not recognize it as an existing device connection. I was able to work around it by using "pppoeconf" in the command line terminal. A word of advice: Do an "apt-mark hold" on "pppoeconf" and stick with version 1.21. The newer version that the Update Manager detects and wants to install is unstable and will permanently drop your internet connection unexpectedly at any given moment. I wound up in a vicious cycle of having to uninstall and reinstall it again to get it working. Also, the newest hplip version 3.18.6 for my HP printer, is incompatible with the python version that comes with Linux Mint 19. I was able to also get around the installation issues by using an older version - 3.17.10. Finally, timeshift turned out to be a resource hog and I ended up uninstalling it. Once I fixed these issues, it's been a real pleasure to use. Given the outstanding reputation that Linux Mint has earned, I'm sure the DSL/PPPOE issue will be fixed in an updated release.
ajgringo619

Re: Mint 19 Opinions and Reviews

Post by ajgringo619 »

I ended up removing NetworkManager due to NICs not awakening after suspend. So far I haven't noticed Timeshift hogging resources, but my system has 16GB RAM and an AMD FX-8350 Eight-Core processor. I definitely notice the HDD activity when it takes a snapshot, though.
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Re: Mint 19 Opinions and Reviews

Post by Flemur »

I upgraded 18.3 to 19 twice.

The first time I had the 'mesa' problem, which was more theoretical than anything; and I had two version of wine installed (stable and development) without explicitly doing anything about wine.

The second upgrade, the only issue was that the 'wine' install process was kind-of messed up: the "mintupgrade" process removed my wine repos, after fixing that it was OK.

Summary: don't really see any difference in anything.

Edit: and with "upgrade" rather than a clean install, I still have gksudo. Since pkexec never works here - Yay!
Please edit your original post title to include [SOLVED] if/when it is solved!
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Re: Mint 19 Opinions and Reviews

Post by majpooper »

Hoser Rob wrote: Tue Jul 10, 2018 7:25 am How about a non newbie review?

https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/lin ... -tara.html
These two quotes from the article's conclusion sum up Mint in general for me;

“In overall terms, Mint 19 is a good choice for people looking for a stable everyday distro. . . . .”
Mint IMHO fills the role very well

“Tara is consistent with the 18.X family, which started low and improved. Perhaps 19.1 will be a blast.”
This is exactly why I do not move to any new release right away - I always wait for the .3 release to soak for a few months until it is rock solid. I definitely never install anything but a proven .3 release for others - if they are asking me to install a new OS for them then they sure don't need something that has not had the bugs worked out.

There is a third thing that he brings up that I tend to overlook after being a Mint fanboy for 5 years. That is after every install either for me or for the family and friends who I support I always do a myriad of tweaks - they started out as Pjtor's tweaks, which are a MUST IMHO and then I add my own that I have added over the years. So in the end I have an OS which is somewhat different than what came out of the box.
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