On 1 March 2011 00:40, Zed <zed@zed.net.nz> wrote:
>
>
> Hi David
>
> My apologies for the delay in replying. I've been visiting my daughter in
> Palmerston North, some 500 km away and have had no internet access.
>
> "dbneeley" <dbneeley@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Zed,
> >
> > I am very curious...
> >
> > After saying the "Ubu base has been wonderful" and "gotta love those Ubu
> > repositories!"--you moved to LMDE and hope it is the new standard for
> > Mint?
>
> The above was written by <m_alexander61@yahoo.com> in reply to a message
> from Roy <linuxcanuck@...
>
> > In what way, please, is it superior to the mainline Mint based on Ubuntu?
>
> Clem Lefebvre just announced Linux Mint 11"Katya" and it will be based on
Ubuntu 11.04, Natty and will include GNOME 3 and not Unity. So it appears
that Mint is staying as an Ubuntu base, but choosing the new GNOME over
Unity.
LMDE is based on Debian testing whereas Ubuntu is based on Debian sid or
unstable. That means that regular Mint will always have newer kernel and
packages. Mint 11 will ship with kernel 2.6.38 for example and that will not
make its way to LMDE for many months. So it all depends on your perspective
as to what you see as being superior, latest and greatest or more thoroughly
tested, but older.
> If I may bring forward what I did actually say previously:
>
> > > I've used LinuxMint since v3.0 Cassandra but when Clem issued LMDE,
> with
> > > the warning that it was experimental, I decided to try it. There have
> > > been a few niggles but even I, lacking a technical bent, have managed
> to
> > > resolve them without too much hassle. Currently I am running LMDE 64bit
> > > on my desktop and LMDE 32bit on a Thinkpad T60. Both work well and I'm
> > > hoping that Clem and the development team decide to use Debian as the
> > > base for the main Mint edition.
>
> Why do I hope that Clem and the developers change over to a pure Debian
> base? Mainly because I like Debian with the Mint tools and the concept of a
> rolling release.
>
> I must stress that I am not a programmer; have only average computer
> skills;
>
> but so far have found it relatively painless to solve the very few problems
> I've had with LMDE.
>
> Whether I will feel the same way in, say 5 years time, when I'll be 85, I
> do
> not know :-)
>
> You may change your mind after Debian 6 was released with binary blobs
stripped out of the kernel. That means that some hardware will not be
detected correctly or will just have basic functionality. That can play
havoc with graphics and wifi adapters. This is good if you are of the mind
that free is the only way, but if you are a newbie and just want things to
work then it will be added frustration. LMDE could use the regular kernel,
but then you are getting away from the Debian philosophy and it becomes a
bit pointless.
> [snip]
>
> > Personally, I am thinking about going to a distro which has a continuous
> > upgrade model rather than the wholesale replacement every six months
> > approach. However, to do so I want to be sure I am not giving away other
> > very strong advantages that come with the Ubuntu constellation of
> > distros--such as so many apps being written to be compatible out of the
> > box without much fiddling to give just one example.
>
> I have a fairly old machine: ASUS motherboard, AMD Athlon 64 Processor
> 3500+, 512MB Cache, 2BG RAM, and have had no compatability issues.
> Everything has just "worked out of the box".
>
> > I am also considering constructing some sort of installer script that
> will
> > re-install the various utilities and programs I have come to use commonly
> > so doing a complete version upgrade can be done in a somewhat more
> > foolproof method than trying to do it piece-meal.
>
> Way beyond my abilities :-(
>
> [snip]
>
> Again, my apologies for the long delay before replying.
>
> Zed
> --
> Zed
> Gambling: The sure way of getting nothing for something.
>
I am not sure to whom I am writing because inline posting does not translate
well when you get it via email. I have replied my 2 cents inline to add to
the confusion. I am not sure how the Mint community will like GNOME 3. Just
today GNOME removed the window controls for example. You can only close
windows. You cannot minimise or maximise. It is one size fits all. That is
going to frustrate newbies.Also the workflow is radically different. I am
not saying it is bad. It is just very different from what people have used
previously. It is a big gamble for GNOME and for Mint. However, so is Unity
on Ubuntu. Current users of Mint or Ubuntu can stick with what they have
until support runs out, but new users will get either GNOME 3 or Unity and
possibly wonder what they have got themselves into. Because LMDE is older it
means they can stall a little longer.
Roy
Using Kubuntu 10.10, 64-bit
Location: Canada
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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