Linux Mint Forums

So I am new to Linux in general, and have so far really enjoyed my experience. There were some hick ups, and will probably be more, but my overall experience has been unfathomably better than with Windows. I had asked a couple questions in another part of the forums and the gentleman that answered had a link in his signature about 10 things to do after installing Linux Mint. I of course, being the nerd I am, was eager to click on it and learn some new cool things to do. The site it brought me to was great, I took it with a bit of skeptisism and did some googling around on some of the suggestions mentioned but all in all I felt they were great suggestions and ended up applying all of them (especially the one about getting rid of Mono.) I wanted to just drop this here in hopes that another newbie looking for things to do and learn might come across it. The url is: https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... amon-first.

There are links within the page that I followed around to find even more good info on things like optimizing Firefox for performance and privacy. Anyways, if anyone ends up checking it out I would highly recommend learning about what you are doing before doing it. Take the time to look up what the various terminal commands the author instructs (like sed, sudo, apt-get etc) do before copy and pasting all willy nilly. Check out what the things you are adding or removing actually do, like what Mono is and why it can be a risk, make sure YOU want the changes you are making and not just taking the advice of someone else. I am sure it will help those of us still learning in the long run, I know it has for me! I would also be interested in hearing from experienced users their thoughts on the suggestions presented there.

I'm glad you like my tips! They're the result of my experience with 11 years of full-time use of desktop Linux (first Ubuntu, then Mint), and squarely aimed at stability and reliability.

Pjotr's Easy Linux Tips Project is awesome! He's knowledgeable and experienced, and I'm sure I have never come across anything bad on his site. I recommend it highly, and I'm sure everybody else here would also. No hesitation whatsoever in using information from Easy Linux Tips, and no hesitation in recommending it to others.

jimallyn wrote:Pjotr's Easy Linux Tips Project is awesome! He's knowledgeable and experienced, and I'm sure I have never come across anything bad on his site. I recommend it highly, and I'm sure everybody else here would also. No hesitation whatsoever in using information from Easy Linux Tips, and no hesitation in recommending it to others.

Yes

Pjotr wrote:I'm glad you like my tips! They're the result of my experience with 11 years of full-time use of desktop Linux (first Ubuntu, then Mint), and squarely aimed at stability and reliability.

"Pjotr's Easy Linux Tips Project is awesome! "
I agree with that statement, I have come across that site a few times, have a bookmark I'm sure.
One thing confuse me, the contradiction, and maybe Pjotr you can explain it here. On the one hand you say in "fatal mistakes" to NEVER remove an application that comes bundled with the installation, then in "10 things to do" you say to remove mono, and others.

Which is it, or maybe better why is it OK to remove those particular applications. Frankly about the orca app, that is annoying. I happen to like tomboy notes though, and I'm not smart enough to know if I actually use ndiswrapper , or not, so blindly removing something I know nothing about (at the moment) would be unwise...right ?

Thanks, Rick
Hope you see this I will sub.

rickNS wrote:On the one hand you say in "fatal mistakes" to NEVER remove an application that comes bundled with the installation, then in "10 things to do" you say to remove mono, and others.

The main rule of thumb, and the exceptions. Nearly every rule has those.

Pjotr wrote: The main rule of thumb, and the exceptions. Nearly every rule has those.

Quick reply thanks,
Yes "exception to every rule", and you did say on your website that some packages would have more impact than others.
I'm looking into the ndiswrapper right now, as I noticed during update it was on screen for awhile, just need to know if I use it or not, before action.

Thanks,
EDIT here's a question (off topic ?) If I'm connected to wifi now, AND nsdiwrapper is not listed in System Monitor is it safe to say that I don't need it ?

rickNS wrote: EDIT here's a question (off topic ?) If I'm connected to wifi now, AND nsdiwrapper is not listed in System Monitor is it safe to say that I don't need it ?

ndiswrapper is only used for installing Windows wifi drivers (and does a bad job at that). So if you haven't deliberately installed any Windows wifi drivers, the answer is: you don't need it.

jimallyn wrote:Pjotr's Easy Linux Tips Project is awesome! He's knowledgeable and experienced, and I'm sure I have never come across anything bad on his site. I recommend it highly, and I'm sure everybody else here would also. No hesitation whatsoever in using information from Easy Linux Tips, and no hesitation in recommending it to others.

I like to go back over Pjotr's tips 2 or 3 times a year. As I get older I find things in there that I never saw before and things that I did see and forgot about. (Actually both are the same thing... )

Well it is nice to know that Linux can be installed on Macs without jumping through hoops. Now I could put older Macs no longer supported by Apple back in use.

I have used Pjotr's tips for sometime now, not just on LinixMint.

He's a great asset to the Linux Community.

Just don't start him off about Bleachbit.

Lucap wrote:Just don't start him off about Bleachbit.

I would have to agree with him on that...

Jim Hauser wrote:

Lucap wrote:Just don't start him off about Bleachbit.

I would have to agree with him on that...

What is wrong with BleachBit? I use it now and then to clean up my system. Of course I'm very careful about using this program since I can easily bork my system with it.

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151tom wrote:

whm1974 wrote:

Jim Hauser wrote:
I would have to agree with him on that...

What is wrong with BleachBit? I use it now and then to clean up my system. Of course I'm very careful about using this program since I can easily bork my system with it.

The problem with "BleachBit" is most new users fails to learn and understand exactly what each feature does and exactly what and how much it can and will remove when haphazardly applied.

Only my opinion.

Back when I was new to Linux, I RTFM very carefully before using applications and commands that could be very dangerous in newbies hands. I still do this now.

another discussion on bleachbit and possible programs like it as well as programs outside the repos found here...DAMIEN

viewtopic.php?f=47&t=262781

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151tom wrote:

whm1974 wrote: Back when I was new to Linux, I RTFM very carefully before using applications and commands that could be very dangerous in newbies hands. I still do this now.

I RTFM and and still make mistakes which is how I learn what not to do "tuition for the price of an education".

Same here. I forgotten how many time I ended up reinstalling Mandriva(Then Mandrake) when I start using Linux as my main OS.