Linux Mint v17

[Daveburt714]

I have a bunch of extra parts laying around, so I decided to buy a case and put a rig together to sell on Craigslist. The one drawback was that I didn't have a spare Windows OS laying around, and didn't feel like forking out $100 for an OEM Windows disk...

That brings me to the point of this post.
I put the rig together and installed the newest version Mint on it... All I can say is WOW!
The install went very smooth and it recognized all the gear without any problems.

Hardware used:
CPU: AMD A10 7850k
Mobo: ASRock FM2 Pro4+
Misc: WD 1Tb Blk, DVD writer and 8Gb of 1600 Samsung mem

The learning curve on Mint seems really easy for a person coming from a MS background, and the system updates came in a flash! As long as you don't want to run Windows based games it's quite functional!

I've only had an hour or two to play with it (so far), but the basic functions (pre-installed) include:
FireFox, Thunderbird (mail server) and a Media Player (w/codecs) that play every file I've thrown at it including FLAC, M2TS, AVI and MP4. I'm sure this is no surprise to Linux fans, but I may have found a Linux OS I can live with...

I've not been very happy with Win 8.1 and WMC. Might be time to give Mint and XBMC a try!

Here's a link:
http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

[HuffPCair]

I have been using Mint for a few years now along side many others for much longer. Love Mint for personal use. I even let my girlfriend borrow my 2nd laptop that I didnt really use, just ran an update to put it up to date and let her have at it, and it took her no time to learn and she likes it. Of course all she does is the typical web surfing so she can't tell a difference, yet being linux it will work amazing, the virus threat is not like MS, etc.

So really for anyone that likes the MS layout I highly suggest it over Ubuntu, but any Mac people I usually point towards Ubuntu over Mint.

[yojimbo197]

I've been using Linux Mint 14 Cinnamon 64 bit for almost a year and a half. The first week or so it was pretty frustrating but after I got the hang of installing things it got easier. Now I love it. I even use my VPN in Linux, and its much more stable. I can be on my VPN for days without an interruption. Banshee is a decent audio player. I use VLC for video. Brasero is a decent no frills burner along the lines of ImgBrn or Brrn or whatever those programs were/are. I do have dual boots with Windows and MacOSX just in case I need to use some OS dependent proprietary software(Usually Word or PPoint). Heck I even have Netflix working on Linux.

I should give a shout out to D_A and Old Chap for helping me install BOINC and get WCG up and going on my first Linux boxes as well as answering questions. As well as PG and some other people I"m probably forgetting right now.

the virus threat is not like MS, etc.

That's true, but don't get lulled into a false sense of security like the iSheep. There are some nasties that will infect Linux machines. I've been using a Linux based antivirus program from Comodo just as backup. Also, I turn the built in firewall on. I would like to upgrade to a better, more feature reach firewall. I just keep forgetting to tinker with some of the ones that are available for Linux.

[OldChap]

Haven't gotten around to 17 yet but in general I have to agree with everything mentioned so far. Because I still have one Windows box I have not learnt as much as I should but from the time it takes to do a fresh install and upgrade or update to the mostly intuitive places to find stuff, for day to day use that does not require specific programs it is a breeze.

Not being anything like a power user I can get along with LibreOffice too

Now I am trying to get a very small and fast Linux running the way I want and so far so good....fits on a 1GB stick

[yojimbo197]

There seems to be some changes in LM17. Updating, driver installation, and display amongst them. Also they have HiDP and Retina graphics display support. Also they have the latest Linux kernel embedded in it:
http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_qiana_c...n_whatsnew.php

Looks like its time to update......

[Daveburt714]

You folks seem to have alot more experience with Mint than me...

Banshee is pretty cool and plays everything I need, but I can't figure out how to make music playlist's.
Is there a better option for music (Jukebox)? I'm impressed with Mint, but if you folks could help me out with what (best) packages to DL I'd appreciate it...

Sad as it may seem, I'm trying to free up the Win7 OS I use in my game room (mainly used for music), so I can use it on my HTPC.

I know I should do most of the experimenting myself, but if anyone has any tips It'd make my life easier...
What can I say, I'm frikken lazy!

Thank's
Dave

[alpha0ne]

There seems to be some changes in LM17. Updating, driver installation, and display amongst them. Also they have HiDP and Retina graphics display support. Also they have the latest Linux kernel embedded in it:
http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_qiana_c...n_whatsnew.php

Looks like its time to update......

Me too, if it wasn't for lightroom I'd ditch the virus called windows today, I know its fashionable to bad mouth MS but the way they have treated users is unforgivable, I refuse to build rigs for ppl these days if they want windows

I have an old Dull Latitude D420 lappy that used to run W7 that was a real dog due to being so slow even with an SSD but since installing Mint its soooo much more responsive

[HuffPCair]

I've been using Linux Mint 14 Cinnamon 64 bit for almost a year and a half. The first week or so it was pretty frustrating but after I got the hang of installing things it got easier. Now I love it. I even use my VPN in Linux, and its much more stable. I can be on my VPN for days without an interruption. Banshee is a decent audio player. I use VLC for video. Brasero is a decent no frills burner along the lines of ImgBrn or Brrn or whatever those programs were/are. I do have dual boots with Windows and MacOSX just in case I need to use some OS dependent proprietary software(Usually Word or PPoint). Heck I even have Netflix working on Linux.

I should give a shout out to D_A and Old Chap for helping me install BOINC and get WCG up and going on my first Linux boxes as well as answering questions. As well as PG and some other people I"m probably forgetting right now.




That's true, but don't get lulled into a false sense of security like the iSheep. There are some nasties that will infect Linux machines. I've been using a Linux based antivirus program from Comodo just as backup. Also, I turn the built in firewall on. I would like to upgrade to a better, more feature reach firewall. I just keep forgetting to tinker with some of the ones that are available for Linux.

LOL trust me I know plenty about Linux.

[I.nfraR.ed]

Dave, you could try running your favorite windows music player via Wine under Linux. For video there's VLC
That's how I run foobar2000 on my Mint installation. Works fine, except some problems with cyrillic text when I load flac tracks from .cue file.
You can also try to install a windows program via Playonlinux.

Easiest way for you would be to install wine, winetricks and playonlinux from the software manager. Then run the Wine config utility.

or you can use the console:

sudo apt-get install wine winetricks playonlinux

[Daveburt714]

Thanks Ivan,
I'll try the various Windows emulators.

I went ahead and installed the Game Room copy of Win7 on the HTPC (hopefully it'll let me validate when it gets insistent)... Win 8.1 just had too many problems running WMC, lost tuners, saying things were "copy protected" and couldn't play, just too quirky in general!!!

On the bright side, JRiver Media Center has a version for Linux! I bought it and have a key for Windows, hopefully it'll work on the Game Room PC using Mint.

Thanks for the help,
Dave

[HuffPCair]

also check out pipelight for any programs like netflix that use sliverlight, or shockwave, etc.