Newbie considering Linux, but first some questions[solved]

[duder1982]

Hello all, I would like to give a little back ground on how I got here. I am new to computer programming, and Linux. But I feel with some guidance and good reading I will be able to do what I want. Now that I think about it I have once deleted windows xp off of my computer, and rebooted it and it seemed to work fine. I have down some other small stuff, basically I feel confident enough to handle this task. Now what I have is a Hp laptop, I don't know the details as of now but will check when I get home. But it has windows vista, which with that and trying to access google, it would freeze up my computer. So there was a recommendation to get a bigger hd, and load win 7. But there was all so recommendations to use Linux Mint as it took up less space and folks seem to love it. So now to the quick simple questions.

1. What are the differences between the Linux mints.

2. Which would be best for basic music play back, and internet surfing.

3. For music play back any recommendations for programs, as I am currently using Winamp.

4. How is the lap top with Linux going to act with my external harddrive with music, photos, and movies stored.

If there is any other info needed let me know.

[austin.texas]

1. What are the differences between the Linux mints.
Mint 13 and Mint 17 are LTS (Long Term Support)releases. You don't want Mint 14, 15, or 16 - they are interim releases that are no longer supported.
Apart from personal preferences, Mint 17 xfce and Mate are generally better for older hardware, because they use less system resources. Cinnamon and KDE are more demanding.

2. Which would be best for basic music play back, and internet surfing.
Lots of options available.

3. For music play back any recommendations for programs, as I am currently using Winamp.
I like VLC for video and audio playback. There are other great options.

4. How is the lap top with Linux going to act with my external harddrive with music, photos, and movies stored.
It should be no problem. I use an external usb hard drive for backups.
You will have to get some specific advice for your type of hard drive, for the best way to access it. Provide the needed information by plugging in the hard drive, open a terminal, and enter the command inxi -zv7. Post the result in a new thread requesting advice. That would be after you install Mint, so that we know the specifics of the installation.

If there is any other info needed let me know.
It wouldn't hurt to post the result of the command:
inxi -zv7
so that we know more about your computer.
Post the text here in the Reply box inside Code tags.

[johanna]

Hello Austin, would you please tell me what the difference is between Mint 17 mate 32 bit and the xfce 32 bit version?
I have qiana 32 bit cinnamon on my 3 year old Acer netbook and it works ok. Would the the other versions in fact be better for a netbook?
regards, Johanna

[austin.texas]

would you please tell me what the difference is between Mint 17 mate 32 bit and the xfce 32 bit version?
It is hard to draw any significant difference between mate and xfce, from a usability standpoint. I like them both. It is personal preference, really. You could try both on the live DVD or USB and decide which you like best. I think I would probably favor Mate, (if I were not using Cinnamon), for two reasons. First, I like the Mate file manager better than the xfce file manager. Second, Mate is more Minty than xfce - because Mate is supported by the Linux Mint team, whereas xfce is imported. I know, that is like supporting the Dallas Cowboys because you live in Dallas...
I have qiana 32 bit cinnamon on my 3 year old Acer netbook and it works ok. Would the the other versions in fact be better for a netbook?
I have never owned a netbook, so I don't know. Sorry.

[Mute Ant]

''Windows Vista'' which is quite friendly regarding dual-boot. I would burn a Mint 17 Mate DVD-R and try it out on the machine, without installing it, for a few hours. Mate runs nearly everything acceptably in 10GB of disk space, so you don't have to wipe the whole drive straight away. Use Windows to defrag and shrink C:\ a bit to leave space for Mint to install itself.

[niowluka]

1. What are the differences between the Linux mints.
It's mainly eyecandy and resulting hardware requirements. Cinnamon is the nicest looking and needing best hardware, Xfce is the least fancy and using fewer resources (cpu, memory, etc). If you have new, state of the art hardware, any Mint will run on it. If you have older hardware, you may want to consider MATE or Xfce. You have practically the same functionality in all of them.

2. Which would be best for basic music play back, and internet surfing.
Any. See p1.

3. For music play back any recommendations for programs, as I am currently using Winamp.
I had been using Winamp in Windows XP years ago. In Linux I use Audacious.

4. How is the lap top with Linux going to act with my external harddrive with music, photos, and movies stored.
Unless it's some super obscure drive, there should not be be any problems.

[duder1982]

OK folks, thanks for the input. This doesn't sound to bad, from recommendations, I am going to Mate. I purchased a couple of dvd+r, I am off to down load. So first things first, load the disc to my laptop and play around with it. One more quick question, am I able to down load it to the current computer I am using, burn the disk then try it on my laptop.

[austin.texas]

One more quick question, am I able to down load it to the current computer I am using, burn the disk then try it on my laptop.

I am sure that Windows Vista is capable of burning a DVD from the downloaded .iso file.
If you wanted a live Mint usb drive, you could use rufus - http://rufus.akeo.ie/

[all41]

from recommendations, I am going to Mate.

I use Mate very much as you have outlined and it works great--
I think you have made an excellent choice and will be very pleased with the multimedia capabilities
of the Mate desktop. Welcome to Mint and to the forum.

[Spearmint2]

OK folks, thanks for the input. This doesn't sound to bad, from recommendations, I am going to Mate. I purchased a couple of dvd+r, I am off to down load. So first things first, load the disc to my laptop and play around with it. One more quick question, am I able to down load it to the current computer I am using, burn the disk then try it on my laptop.

Before you do anything after burning the DVD's do the "integrity check" choice on the boot menu. Before burning you can do an md5sum check on the ISO file and maybe save a DVD if you got a bad download. It happens, has happened to me.

[johanna]

Thank you Austin for your explanation.
I have Mate on my desktop which is old too and on an ancient laptop and I like it very much. So I think I will stick with that.
I have Qiana cinnamon 32 bit on my netbook next to windows 7 (for travels), before I knew anything and I should have asked for advice....
But oh well, it seems to work .

[Mark Phelps]

One more quick question, am I able to down load it to the current computer I am using, burn the disk then try it on my laptop.

Been so long since I used Vista, I don't remember if it came with a DVD burning app.

You should download and install ImgBurn on your Vista PC. Then, when you have downloaded the ISO file, it's a simple matter to open that file with ImgBurn and burn a DVD from that.

[duder1982]

1. What are the differences between the Linux mints.
Mint 13 and Mint 17 are LTS (Long Term Support)releases. You don't want Mint 14, 15, or 16 - they are interim releases that are no longer supported.
Apart from personal preferences, Mint 17 xfce and Mate are generally better for older hardware, because they use less system resources. Cinnamon and KDE are more demanding.

2. Which would be best for basic music play back, and internet surfing.
Lots of options available.

3. For music play back any recommendations for programs, as I am currently using Winamp.
I like VLC for video and audio playback. There are other great options.

4. How is the lap top with Linux going to act with my external harddrive with music, photos, and movies stored.
It should be no problem. I use an external usb hard drive for backups.
You will have to get some specific advice for your type of hard drive, for the best way to access it. Provide the needed information by plugging in the hard drive, open a terminal, and enter the command inxi -zv7. Post the result in a new thread requesting advice. That would be after you install Mint, so that we know the specifics of the installation.

If there is any other info needed let me know.
It wouldn't hurt to post the result of the command:
inxi -zv7
so that we know more about your computer.
Post the text here in the Reply box inside Code tags.

What are code tags

Code: Select all

System:    Host: nick-HP-Pavilion-dv6700-Notebook-PC Kernel: 3.13.0-27-generic i686 (32 bit, gcc: 4.8.2) 
           Desktop: N/A Distro: Linux Mint 17 Qiana
Machine:   System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Pavilion dv6700 Notebook PC version: Rev 1 Chassis: Quanta type: 10
           Mobo: Quanta model: 30CC version: 79.29 Bios: Hewlett-Packard version: F.52 date: 03/24/2008
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core2 Duo CPU T5550 (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 ssse3) bmips: 7314.86 
           Clock Speeds: 1: 1000.00 MHz 2: 1000.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (primary) bus-ID: 00:02.0 
           X.Org: 1.15.1 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1280x800@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel 965GM x86/MMX/SSE2 GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 10.1.0 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card: Intel 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.13.0-27-generic
Network:   Card-1: Broadcom BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY driver: wl bus-ID: 02:00.0
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller

[austin.texas]

What are code tags

To put text in Code tags (as Pilosopong Tasyo did above) when you are composing your reply in the Reply box, you can select a bit of text and then click the Code button above the text area.

Code: Select all

That will put your text inside tags that look like this: [code]text...

[/code]
Alternatively, you can copy the text from your terminal, or wherever, click the Code button to create the tags, then paste the text inside the Code tags.

[austin.texas]

As for your concern about the size of the internal hard drive, the default installation of Mint will require about 4.5GB - so generally Mint is installed to a root partition of about 13 to 20GB, to allow room for growth.
You can get more specific advice if you post the result of the command:

Code: Select all

inxi -po

(because your results for inxi -zv7 were incomplete.)

[duder1982]

Ok thanks I will try it again this afternoon.

[Spearmint2]

However the install program will require almost 8GB space available before allowing the install.

[duder1982]

Code: Select all

System:    Host: nick-HP-Pavilion-dv6700-Notebook-PC Kernel: 3.13.0-27-generic i686 (32 bit, gcc: 4.8.2) 
           Desktop: N/A Distro: Linux Mint 17 Qiana
Machine:   System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Pavilion dv6700 Notebook PC version: Rev 1 Chassis: Quanta type: 10
           Mobo: Quanta model: 30CC version: 79.29 Bios: Hewlett-Packard version: F.52 date: 03/24/2008
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core2 Duo CPU T5550 (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 ssse3) bmips: 7314.86 
           Clock Speeds: 1: 1333.00 MHz 2: 1000.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (primary) bus-ID: 00:02.0 
           X.Org: 1.15.1 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1280x800@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel 965GM x86/MMX/SSE2 GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 10.1.0 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card: Intel 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.13.0-27-generic
Network:   Card-1: Broadcom BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY driver: wl bus-ID: 02:00.0
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller 
           driver: r8169 ver: 2.3LK-NAPI port: c000 bus-ID: 06:00.0
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
           WAN IP: <filter> IF: eth0 ip: N/A ip-v6: N/A IF: wlan0 ip: <filter> ip-v6: <filter> 
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 250.1GB (1.9% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: FUJITSU_MHZ2250B size: 250.1GB serial: K617T8427YK4 
           Optical: /dev/sr0 model: N/A rev: N/A dev-links: cdrom
           Features: speed: 24x multisession: yes audio: yes dvd: yes rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram state: N/A
Partition: ID: / size: 227G used: 4.5G (3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 
           label: N/A uuid: 99b07d82-a17a-4609-91ac-53b1a4760f50
           ID: swap-1 size: 3.21GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5 
           label: N/A uuid: 867566c4-c13f-4fc4-b442-7d9c14de76ef
RAID:      System: supported: N/A
           No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
           Unused Devices: none
Unmounted: ID: /dev/sr0 size: 1.07G label: N/A uuid: N/A 
Sensors:   None detected - is lm-sensors installed and configured?
Info:      Processes: 146 Uptime: 12:49 Memory: 278.8/3020.8MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.2 Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.4 

Did that work, or does every line need to be their own code.

[all41]

Hi duder1982,

Your inxi -zv7 results are posted properly.
Looks like your good to go.
There are no sensors detected and it is prompting you to install lm-sensors (optional)
This will allow reading of various temperatures and fan speeds--depending on your motherboard.
You could install lm-sensors by:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install lm-sensors

[duder1982]

Hi duder1982,

Your inxi -zv7 results are posted properly.
Looks like your good to go.
There are no sensors detected and it is prompting you to install lm-sensors (optional)
This will allow reading of various temperatures and fan speeds--depending on your motherboard.
You could install lm-sensors by:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install lm-sensors

So this would help keep my fans running efficiently, They haven't been running much, maybe not enough. I installed the command, thanks for the tip.