Debian just released Debian 6 a day or so ago. It has the proprietary blobs
removed, but they allow users to download and install the missing bits. Not
sure how that works since they were removed from the kernel. However, it is
good that they are providing some relief because it would have been a real
hardship without it because many network cards and graphics cards are
proprietary and there are no open source solutions. Good thinking to include
it, but it is awkward to say the least to remove something on principle and
then make it available. However, Debian has never been known to compromise
so I still have hope for them.
I agree about apt and Synaptic being great package management. I have used
alien, but a long time ago (years). Once Red Hat packages were the preferred
format of third party developers, but that is no longer the case. Ubuntu is
the preferred format and it is RPM users who must convert. When you factor
in PPAs there is not much that you cannot get pre-compiled for Ubuntu/ Mint
which is another reason why it would be foolish for Mint to switch to
Debian. Admitedly, they will likely look as a better alternative compared to
Debian than Ubuntu, but it is Ubuntu that is driving change and Debian is
still playing catch up. Mint has been in Ubuntu's shadow, but it has
benefitted from some of the decisions that Canonical has made and it could
continue to do so.
Unetbootin is no panacea, but it works well with most distributions. I find
it works better than Ubuntu's Startup Disk Creator, but SDC has persistence,
if you can get it to work. Unetbootin is cross platform which is a plus if
you use Windows at all and it can download the latest ISO for you if you
have not already done so.
As I understand the situation Mint 11 will be based on Ubuntu 11.04, but it
will likely use the current GNOME and not either Unity or GNOME Shell. Mint
is playing it cool and taking a wait and see approach about Canonical's
aggressive changes. However, Mint Fluxbox is going to be based on Debian and
become a rolling release. The developer prefers Ubuntu, but it comes down to
practical use of resources. He also produces PeppermintOS so has his hands
full. It is easy to read too much into it when you look at it on the
surface, but when you hear them speak then you know that these decisions are
being made for other reasons and not to make it into something more than it
is. I have heard bot Clem Lefebvre and Kendall Weaver speak about these
changes on various podcasts.
Roy
Using Kubuntu 10.10, 64-bit
Location: Canada
> OK, good info there, Roy. I'm not sure that I feel that I will "have" to
> move from Isadora per se, maybe just a feeling that I will. Of course I
> don't tend to keep up with info very well, therefore I didn't realize that
> Mint 9 would be supported for two more years, maybe longer. I guess I
> assumed that the Mint crew were going to abandon Ubu for Deb. And I do like
> to change things periodically, even though Mint has been and still is very
> good to me. One of the many assets of G/L over the others-- you can change
> much more than Settings and Appearance. Sometimes the inner geek wants to
> come out and play, even though I'm really just a "desktop" user. Hell, if it
> weren't for Apt and GDebi I don't know what I'd do. Still can't get the hang
> of untarring, sad to say.
> Someone (the other Linux fan in this sad area) told me about an app that
> converts other packages to .deb's. I believe it's "alien", though I'll be
> looking up all the apps he told me about. Have you used it?
> Not sure what issue I had with unebootin. It may have been something as
> small as not being able to create a persistent stick but that means that I
> was probably just using the wrong version.
> Anyway, thanks for your feedback, Roy, and have a good one!
> Mark
>
>
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
No comments:
Post a Comment