LinuxMint a boring OS?

[DeMus]

Hi,

Is LinuxMint a boring OS? I tend to say yes. Now don't get me wrong, I tend to say yes because it is a good thing it is boring. Why is that? Because already during installation you feel that everything just works. You really don't need to do anything after you installed it: everything is present and working.

This weekend I made a side-trip and installed OpenSuse. Why? Because I wanted to do something, wanted to be part of the installation and configuration process.
I added a second SSD in my PC and installed OpenSuse with a couple of RAID 0 configurations (one for /, for for /home, one for /Data and one for /Music). Idea was to make things fast as hell.
Installation was a nightmare. Yes, I asked for it, I wanted to be part of it and chose the difficult version setting up partitions and RAID by hand. Then of course EFI was troubling me and cancelled the installation, until I finally found out what I did wrong. I started with the OS on a USB stick and booted from the EFI version of it while I had to use the non-EFI version. Now I could chose for a normal MBR boot partition (outside the RAID or it won't work) and now the installation worked.
But then. I had to install a lot of user programs which I normally use, just to find out they were not in the default repo's. I then had to start looking for them, some I found in rpm-format, some not. Installing Google-chrome failed miserably. Installation was cancelled by: an error we did not expect, user intervention. Well believe me (or not) but I didn't do anything to cause this error. I downloaded the rpm several times (one time it told me it could not open the deb file because there was no program connected with it, while I most certainly downloaded the rpm version. I checked and I only had an rpm version) and snapper jumped in to install it. I got a message saying some dependencies needed to be installed as well. Okay, go ahead. Then suddenly the error.
Sound was terrible. I have a 5.1 system here build out of several stereo speakers. Connection of all loudspeakers was still the same as always, still now front was back, back was middle, volume control didn't work and I nearly blew the speakers out of the boxes making my wife come upstairs to ask me what the hell I was doing.

After several hours I gave up. I do like OpenSuse and I wish I could use it, the Yast system is great and somehow you feel it is a stable system. Then why am I getting all these problems? No idea really.

I wrote the Mint Iso onto the USB stick, put it in the computer and rebooted, changed some partitions on my disks and a few minutes later Mint booted as if it hadn't been away. Of course I changed some visual things to make it my OS, added some programs from the repo's and in a jiffy my computer was up and running again.
Am I stupid for not being able to install and setup OpenSuse or is that OS so much less than our Mint? I mean, OpenSuse is not one of the smaller OS'es, it's one of the leading ones, right? Still it gives you so much head-ache. Why?

I'm using Mint again as usual, without Raid. I wish there was an easy way to set it up because I have seen the difference in speed and I like that. I know there are manuals on the net telling me how to do it. Somehow it just doesn't fit this OS which, out of the box, takes less than 10 minutes to install. Doing everything which needs to be done to setup Mint on Raid is just not Mint, since it is a boring but working system.

[karlchen]

Hi, DeMus.

Considering the message which you try to get across, I wonder why you did not call Linux Mint a "solid OS", instead of a "boring OS". In case an OS simply works out of the box then I would call this "solid" rather than "boring".

Cheers,
Karl

[DeMus]

Hi, DeMus.

Considering the message which you try to get across, I wonder why you did not call Linux Mint a "solid OS", instead of a "boring OS". In case an OS simply works out of the box then I would call this "solid" rather than "boring".

Cheers,
Karl

You are of course absolutely right, Karlchen, but it is also boring since nothing needs to be done to make it work. I sometimes sit at my computer and have nothing to do, so I come up with these strange ideas to install different OS'es just to do something. I then find out they don't work and I return to Mint. I always return to Mint cause I do need my computer.

[Pierre]

that's why you have a "play PC" - so you can try out various other O/Ss

- yeah - VirtualBox will do that do ..

or you can do both, but installing to bare metal is real nice. ..

My "play PC" is a low spec PC, but has a little more ram, than the "production PC".
and of course - a bigger HDD than this "production PC" has.

and the new 1Tb usb is slowly filling up, with backup's, & ISOs ..


This "production PC" has to have a Boring / Reliable Operating System,
which is why That Other O/S - is *not* on it.

[Pjotr]

Yes, where have all the amusing maintenance jobs gone?

Maybe you'd like to help bug hunting in Linux development, if you seek some useful and instructive activity? For example: I know that the Xubuntu developers are seeking testers for the development of Xubuntu 15.10....
http://xubuntu.org/news/xubuntu-15-10-beta-1/
You can get in touch with the Xubuntu devs on IRC:
http://xubuntu.org/contribute/

.... But there are many more opportunities for helping to develop Linux. If you're interested: the easiest way of testing stuff is by means of VirtualBox. Then you can run your wild experiments within the safe sandbox of a Virtual Machine.

[DeMus]

At the moment I am playing with OpenSuse again, but now in Virtualbox, also with 2 hard drives setup in Raid 0. Installation went perfect and till now I only found one thing which acted a bit strange, but that could be the virtual machine as well: changing the default wallpaper to a picture gave me, after applying it, a black picture. Choosing the same picture again, apply it and press OK gives me the picture.
So far so good. But why now in a virtual machine and why not yesterday in a real machine?

[trapperjohn]

wanted to be part of the installation and configuration process.

I like this type of adventuresome thrill seeking too. Definitely have a look at Linux from Scratch. http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

Note: you can do it in a VM too.

[MintBean]

In this context, I happen to like 'boring'.

[RacerBG]

Yes, Mint is boring but sometimes the things should just work. My adventure with OpenSUSE was easier than yours but still I was having a *funny* time after the install. For example some drivers were missing and I was desperate to find them, the repos (as in your case) were a job-to-do, the mp3 files were not working because of missing codecs and the program which suggested installing them was doing nothing. Most of the installed software was not my taste so I did a lot of install this and remove that. I was happy in the end but Mint is Mint.

[DeMus]

I have installed several other OS'es but somehow I always keep coming back to Mint, just because it works. The others must work too, I can't imagine people releasing software that doesn't work, but maybe I am so used to the Mint way of doing things that I can't get the others to work properly.

Yesterday I found a way to install Mint on Raid 0 and I tried it in a VM. Works great. If, at the of the week, it is still working I will try it for real. Boost up the computer even more. The new SSD disks I put into it really impressed me. I had a fast computer already but now it's flying. Let's see if it can reach mach 1.

[thom_A]

I tried more than a dozen distros on a USB stick. I skipped the ones that are known to be for advanced users like Arch, Debian, Red Hat, OpenSuse, Fedora, etc. I don't like their names, anyway. Who would want to have an OS with names like Fedora or OpenSuse?

I started with DOS at a young age using apps like Wordstar, Dbase, Lotus123, Autocad in DOS, etc. When GUI like Windows came out I knew all these DOS apps will eventually disappear. So I'm not going to waste my time learning all the Linux intricacies. Waste of time for me. My experimentation days are over when it comes to OSes. I'd rather spend my time learning apps like Gimp, Blender, etc.

[lexon]

Mint is not boring or exciting. It is just a tool. Lets get real.

I have a real life outside of Mint. I rarely even think about the OS I use.

I will admit is is running a little slower since I started with Mint 6. More code I guess like Windows.

L

[MintBean]

Mint 6?! Time to upgrade...

[z31fanatic]

Mint is not boring or exciting. It is just a tool. Lets get real.

I have a real life outside of Mint. I rarely even think about the OS I use.

Someone give this man a beer.

[Tar_Ni]

If by boring your mean it works so well so you don't have to ''fix'' much of anything than I would say yes.

Linux Mint Xfce 17 is buttery smooth, stable and works as expected so that I can focus solely on what I need to do with my OS.

[DeMus]

If by boring your mean it works so well so you don't have to ''fix'' much of anything than I would say yes.

Linux Mint Xfce 17 is buttery smooth, stable and works as expected so that I can focus solely on what I need to do with my OS.

Right, that's what I meant by saying Mint is boring. There is hardly anything to do to make it work, to keep it working, it just works. And that is a big accomplishment for the creators.
I am using Mint 17.2 KDE, installed in 4 RAID 0 on 2 SSD's (/ and /home without my personal data) and 2 1TB sata disks for /data and /music.
It is amazing how fast it boots, how fast programs are opened, it's wonderful to see.
Thanks for making Mint so boring, guys. You've done a great job. You are doing a great job.

[thom_A]

I have a slightly different take on what is boring. Boring to me means amateurish graphics from installation, splash screens to default background, which is drab gray, dreary and depressing. Then there's the boring green color. I almost always change the background as soon as it comes out, and before installing. It's really that bad, for me, at least. It hurts my eyes.

People get attracted with good, professionally-done graphics. Mint is far from impressive.

[DeMus]

I have a slightly different take on what is boring. Boring to me means amateurish graphics from installation, splash screens to default background, which is drab gray, dreary and depressing. Then there's the boring green color. I almost always change the background as soon as it comes out, and before installing. It's really that bad, for me, at least. It hurts my eyes.

People get attracted with good, professionally-done graphics. Mint is far from impressive.

As I also wrote I change the themes to make Mint my Mint. You just do the same.
It doesn't matter which theme the devs include: it is never good for everyone. There are always people who don't like this or that. Just change it the way you want it.
I do that as well: evolvere icon and desktop theme, wallpaper is a slideshow from the best pictures of our last holiday, I change Dolphin completely to suit my taste. Now it's my Mint. One thing for sure: My Mint is an original.

[thom_A]

Yeah. Most people don't use default graphics. But it doesn't hurt presenting good graphics for defaults. And I'm open to leaving them as they are if they're good. Of course, this is subjective.

I don't know how many times I've downloaded Mint ISO'S in the past only to discard them because of this boring gray default background. I was thinking, "Do they really think it's cute and looks pro?" Give me a break. There are hundreds of artists out there who would be willing to provide good graphics for free.

And the thing is that I've probably installed the current Mint flavors dozens and dozens of time on 4 computers, testing, retesting, configuring, changing defaults, etc. It would save tremendous amounts of time if defaults are to your liking.

But I can't complain. It's free and it's running smoothly.

[fraxinus_63]

But I can't complain. It's free and it's running smoothly.

I remember a thread with a similar title to this one on the PClinuxOS forum a few years back. It got all kinds of annoyed "knee-jerk" comments from readers until they read the OP properly and could see it was a compliment to the distro!

I'm all in favour of "boring" myself. Having used Mint's LTS releases for a few years now, I simply cannot believe how little maintenance they need, even when they are being worked hard every day.