Nerdy types dismissing Linux Mint.

[Arch_Enemy]

I highly doubt anybody reasons like that except some bored adolescents.

Or Arch Admins....

[MurphCID]

I highly doubt anybody reasons like that except some bored adolescents.

Or Arch Admins....

I know that I asked this somewhere, but what is the fascination with Arch, and why is it seen as a "hard distro"? I would think that Slackware would win that title? I never hear about anyone using Slackware any more as well.

[Arch_Enemy]

I highly doubt anybody reasons like that except some bored adolescents.

Or Arch Admins....

I know that I asked this somewhere, but what is the fascination with Arch, and why is it seen as a "hard distro"? I would think that Slackware would win that title? I never hear about anyone using Slackware any more as well.

Arch is probably the mist difficult to install, the most difficult to configure, and the most difficult to get stable.

WHen you DO, you can tweak ANYTHING to you're liking. I managed to get Gnome 2 running on it after it had been abandoned, and before MATE came out, but one of the "rolling updates" borked a couple libraries and I was left with Gnomes dripping all over my desk...

It also has a fantastic repository and another called AUR maintained, I believe, in France. For an example, there is SO much stuff available there for GiMP that it makes Photoshop look like MS Paint.

In a fomer life I was an Operating Systems "expert" at a Help Desk, so for me this was a dream.

Until the 5th update...

[Arch_Enemy]

Slackware is still around, but with all the good distros out now, who wants to mess with all that? It even makes Arch look easy!

[whm1974]

Or Arch Admins....

I know that I asked this somewhere, but what is the fascination with Arch, and why is it seen as a "hard distro"? I would think that Slackware would win that title? I never hear about anyone using Slackware any more as well.

Arch is probably the mist difficult to install, the most difficult to configure, and the most difficult to get stable.

WHen you DO, you can tweak ANYTHING to you're liking. I managed to get Gnome 2 running on it after it had been abandoned, and before MATE came out, but one of the "rolling updates" borked a couple libraries and I was left with Gnomes dripping all over my desk...

It also has a fantastic repository and another called AUR maintained, I believe, in France. For an example, there is SO much stuff available there for GiMP that it makes Photoshop look like MS Paint.

In a fomer life I was an Operating Systems "expert" at a Help Desk, so for me this was a dream.

Until the 5th update...

Well Manjaro is your friend then. While there were a few times when I couldn't boot into to the system after some updates, I quickly was able to solve those issue by either booting with an older kernel and/or using the LiveMedia to ask questions on their forum. The Manjaro forum is about as friendly as the forum here is.

I'm not dissing Mint at all here. Both distros are suited to different folks and use cases. I'm also considering putting Mint back on my Thinkpad once 19 Xfce is out of beta.

[MurphCID]

I tried Manjaro on my wife's old laptop and it would not find the wifi, and I had some issues getting used to it, so I went back to Mint LInux XFCE since it was a lower spec'ed machine.

[whm1974]

I tried Manjaro on my wife's old laptop and it would not find the wifi, and I had some issues getting used to it, so I went back to Mint LInux XFCE since it was a lower spec'ed machine.

That's strange, did you check the AUR for a WiFi driver? Performance of both distros should be about the same.

[MurphCID]

I tried Manjaro on my wife's old laptop and it would not find the wifi, and I had some issues getting used to it, so I went back to Mint LInux XFCE since it was a lower spec'ed machine.

That's strange, did you check the AUR for a WiFi driver? Performance of both distros should be about the same.

No I did not, what is an AUR?

[whm1974]

That's strange, did you check the AUR for a WiFi driver? Performance of both distros should be about the same.

No I did not, what is an AUR?

The Arch User Repository. You will have to enable it in the Pacmac GUI Software Manager/Updater, but it offers extra applications and drivers.

[MurphCID]

Thank you for that information.

[MurphCID]

Slackware is still around, but with all the good distros out now, who wants to mess with all that? It even makes Arch look easy!

ROTFLMAO! That is funny.

[Arch_Enemy]

Well Manjaro is your friend then. While there were a few times when I couldn't boot into to the system after some updates, I quickly was able to solve those issue by either booting with an older kernel and/or using the LiveMedia to ask questions on their forum. The Manjaro forum is about as friendly as the forum here is.

I'm not dissing Mint at all here. Both distros are suited to different folks and use cases. I'm also considering putting Mint back on my Thinkpad once 19 Xfce is out of beta.

I have done Manjaro. They have a Stable branch that doesn't incorporate changes that are vetted.

I like Arch, but for every day Mint is my OS.

BTW< I upgraded from 17.3 to 19 beta and the only issues I am having so far is with themes.

[whm1974]

I have done Manjaro. They have a Stable branch that doesn't incorporate changes that are vetted.

I like Arch, but for every day Mint is my OS.

BTW< I upgraded from 17.3 to 19 beta and the only issues I am having so far is with themes.

Yeah I installed Mint 19 Xfce on my Thinkpad T430 yesterday evening and testing it now.

[Portreve]

Mint is as reliable as a wood burning stove and that is what I want on my computer.

I totally agree. Even for personal use, my computer is a production machine.

BTW< I upgraded from 17.3 to 19 beta and the only issues I am having so far is with themes.

I haven't had any technical troubles with themes, but the thing for me (and maybe I'm the problem here) is that I often see how other people have their desktop themed and tricked out, but when I try to do that, it never really seems to turn out as nicely. Invariably within a couple minutes I switch back to the system default ones.

There are some which are just gosh-awful ugly, or just too harsh for me to stand, but even for the "nicer" ones... I really don't understand what it can be that turns me off of all of them. Do you (or anyone else here on LMF) have any ideas, or any suggestions? What am I doing wrong?

[Arch_Enemy]

Mint is as reliable as a wood burning stove and that is what I want on my computer.

I totally agree. Even for personal use, my computer is a production machine.

BTW< I upgraded from 17.3 to 19 beta and the only issues I am having so far is with themes.

I haven't had any technical troubles with themes, but the thing for me (and maybe I'm the problem here) is that I often see how other people have their desktop themed and tricked out, but when I try to do that, it never really seems to turn out as nicely. Invariably within a couple minutes I switch back to the system default ones.

There are some which are just gosh-awful ugly, or just too harsh for me to stand, but even for the "nicer" ones... I really don't understand what it can be that turns me off of all of them. Do you (or anyone else here on LMF) have any ideas, or any suggestions? What am I doing wrong?

Well, I certainly don't! A lot of the blue themes turn white...I mean, the whole screen, no separation in any selection "bars" and no deifinition. But then I am trying to use some GTk2 themes and some others that have been 'massaged',, and also I installed over 17.3, so I may have a double whammy working against me. Most of the stock greys and BlackMATE work well, and I have one grey theme I modified slightly and it is working OK.

[merlock]

Or Arch Admins....

I know that I asked this somewhere, but what is the fascination with Arch, and why is it seen as a "hard distro"? I would think that Slackware would win that title? I never hear about anyone using Slackware any more as well.

Arch is probably the mist difficult to install, the most difficult to configure, and the most difficult to get stable.

I think I would have to say LFS wins that title, hands-down.

WHen you DO, you can tweak ANYTHING to you're liking. I managed to get Gnome 2 running on it after it had been abandoned, and before MATE came out, but one of the "rolling updates" borked a couple libraries and I was left with Gnomes dripping all over my desk...

Well, that's the one thing LFS has over every other distro. *You* have to update your own libraries, and doing so can really bork an entire install.

It also has a fantastic repository and another called AUR maintained, I believe, in France. For an example, there is SO much stuff available there for GiMP that it makes Photoshop look like MS Paint.

LFS has some great repositories, too: git, bazaar...

merlock
--
CITIZENS do NOT say "I have nothing to hide!"
OpenPGP preferred. My key: 0xF24B2F77

[whm1974]

Funny I thought about build a LFS distro at one time, but I didn't have a spare computer to do it on. Maybe I'll use my notebook.

[merlock]

Funny I thought about build a LFS distro at one time, but I didn't have a spare computer to do it on. Maybe I'll use my notebook.

I (personally) would be leery of attempting an LFS build on a laptop, unless you have a dock with a great cooling fan. Some serious processor power is used when compiling some of the base system (Glib, GCC, kernel, etc.)

[whm1974]

Funny I thought about build a LFS distro at one time, but I didn't have a spare computer to do it on. Maybe I'll use my notebook.

I (personally) would be leery of attempting an LFS build on a laptop, unless you have a dock with a great cooling fan. Some serious processor power is used when compiling some of the base system (Glib, GCC, kernel, etc.)

Good point, but I did buy said notebook for testing other distros without messing up my desktop.

[Arch_Enemy]

LFS has some great repositories, too: git, bazaar...

merlock
--
CITIZENS do NOT say "I have nothing to hide!"
OpenPGP preferred. My key: 0xF24B2F77

I purposely left out LFS. Definitely the hands-down winner, however.

When I first started if you had any "special" drivers you needed you had to compile the kernel yourself. On a Pentium III....start the process and go have a 7-course dinner and hope you didn't leave something out...