Mint Redux

Minty Taste Renewed:

I first wrote about installing Linux Mint here and here and here.

Among the ancient and nearly-extinct beasts found in my family's dwelling is a Dell Inspiron 2650.  This computer overheated, killing its hard drive.  However, we had another laptop, a Compaq, whose power supply had died a spectacular, flaming death.  It made sense to me to take the two parts and join them into one, sitting the hybrid laptop on a cooling pad for however long it lasts.

The Compaq ran Windows XP.  It contained the sole existing copies of some files that had sentimental value to a family member.  When I threw the Compaq's 20GB drive into the Dell, Windows would not even boot.  Unable to utilize the pre-existing Windows installation, I used a Knoppix Live CD to mount the hard drive and copy out the "My Documents" directory, where the data of interest resided.

Once I finished, I wiped the hard drive of the now-useless Windows installation.  (All of the above happened in November.)  This week, I went back to the Linux Mint site, looking at the requirements for Mint 4.0.  The computer in question has 392 MB of RAM, so some distributions would be intolerably slow, assuming that the installation even completed.

Unfortunately, the Mint site does not make it easy to find out the system requirements for any particular release.  For Mint Bianca (Gnome), 256MB of RAM is good enough to boot the LiveCD and should be enough to install.  For Mint Cassandra (Gnome), your computer should have more than 256MB to boot the LiveCD and install.  This according to the forums.  Following this advice, I also chose the Fluxbox edition of Mint.

Installation

The installation was simple.  I took all the defaults and then just waited while it ran.  When it came time to download language packs, I clicked "skip". 

GUI Look and Feel

The Fluxbox GUI is really minimalistic.  I like the almost icon-free desktop and the relatively uncluttered bar at the bottom of the screen.  The mostly black desktop looks fresh, like your neighbor's new all-black pickup truck. There is still a little lag in starting applications.

Applications

This edition comes with Firefox 2.0.0.10.  This is preferable to SeaMonkey, which comes with Puppy Linux.  For office use, AbiWord 2.4.6 and Gnumeric 1.7.11 are preinstalled.  AbiWord is a decent light-weight word processor, more powerful than WordPad, without the complex interface of either Microsoft Word or OpenOffice.org Writer.  It also has some support for .odt OpenDocument Format text files.  As for Gnumeric, well, some people use it.  I do not use spreadsheets very often, and I am glad.  The e-mail client is Thunderbird 2.0.0.6 with Lightning 0.5.  There is an IM client (Pidgin); Transmission, a BitTorrent client; XChat, an IRC chat client; a dialer program; GPaint, a paint program; GPicView, an image viewer; Exaile, an audio player; and MPlayer, a video player.

I’m expecting that computer to finish dying soon, so I’m not really planning on using most of the applications.  One thing is for sure: thanks to Mint, however long it lasts should be enjoyable.

No Longer Minty-Fresh

Background

I upgraded my traveling laptop from Windows XP SP2 to Linux Mint earlier this year.  Mint is based upon Ubuntu Linux, so it is definitely a joy to work with.  I have written about my joys with Mint and about reducing the aggravation in my life that comes from Windows.

Upstreaming

Where Rick Jelliffe unwittingly upgraded his base Ubuntu system and made his system unbootable, I actually read the upgrade instructions and stepped through them, turning my Mint Bianca system into a hybrid Mint Bianca / Mint Cassandra system.  I read the philosophy behind Mint Celena and decided I did not agree.

The Update Manager and Update Notifier were removed from Celena so users would not perform un-educated upgrades. With more than 2 releases a year and many modules affected by upgrades, stability was preferred to security in Celena. No more pop-ups telling you a new version of Ubuntu became available, no more pop-ups telling you to download the latest kernel… your system is stable, tested and it should stay that way.

So I have "upstreamed" my laptop to Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy.

Not that I’ve done it all at once.  I have thus far removed the Mint repositories from my apt.list file and then upgraded my base to Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon.  I intend to back up my home directory and then install Gutsy from scratch.  Mint's installation was so quick and easy, in part because it does not ask you about partitioning–Do you want a separate /home partition?  How large do you want /home to be?–which is fine for a casual user who will never upgrade, but horrid for someone who will upgrade in place even once.

There are a couple of minor issues.  Chief among them is that I have to enter the key for each WiFi network each time I use it.  I can save the key to my keyring, but I still have to enter the unlock password for the keyring each time I start the computer.  Most hotel networks do not have a key, so it is not a major issue right now.  If I spend more time working within commuting distance from home, it might get to be an irritant.  Secondly, for most users, enabling IP-restricted software and file formats is a must.  A quick and simple question (with appropriate disclaimers) during installation would be sufficient.  This would then automatically enable the use of Acrobat Reader, win32codecs, and DVD playback.  (Yes, I understand the reasons behind it.  I am suggesting that for users that are familiar with the issues and choose to use IP-restricted files [such as music in .mp3 format], it can be a one-click, "I take responsibility for the consequences of my choices" type of thing.)

Conclusion

Like most users, I would not mind from-scratch installations if the default was to have /home on a separate partition, where I can easily keep my data and customizations across upgrades.  Even though Windows does not keep home directories (e.g., "C:\Documents and Settings\") separately, it does leave them pretty much intact during upgrades.  This is an area where Linux distributions can improve their installation processes and make their operating systems even better.

Update (2009-10-01)

I’m pretty likely to be back to Mint soon. The old laptop is slowly dying, and there were enough pains in the upgrade to Ubuntu 9.04 that I’ll be glad for a more stable distribution.

Vista Not Spurring Computer Sales

Bob Sutor brings a link to a Yahoo! News story.

“The release of Microsoft Windows Vista operating system at the end of January has, so far, failed to stimulate the market in the way many hoped,” Gartner analyst George Shiffler said in a statement. “Our market data suggest Vista has had very limited impact on PC demand or replacement activity.”

In what I'm sure is just a coincidence, the Windows Genuine Disadvantage (WGA) license-checking snoopware recently became mandatory.  Even on WinXP computers that had been blocked from installing that "update", it is now installing.  It surely can not be a way to force WinXP users to switch to WinVista.  I am sure no one in Redmond has thought of that.

But I have serious questions about this WGA snoopware.  Is the Dept. of Defense excluded from this?  Or is the nation's safety in the hands of a group of power-obsessed and money-obsessed managers in the Northwest?  Why hasn't anyone else mentioned this?  False verification failures were common last year.  Has WGA become more accurate since then?  Perhaps our government needs to adopt FLOSS instead of putting public safety at risk because of someone's greed and power-lust.  If I may make a recommendation, Ubuntu Linux or Linux Mint are wonderful desktops.  Xandros is said to be pretty compliant with Active Directory.  Ubuntu Studio is enhanced for multimedia creation and would be a great addition to the PR branch.

Many users of computers where this update had previously been blocked report seeing the gold shield saying that important updates were ready to be installed, including WGA.  Others reported that they went to the updates site and had to install it in order to get any other updates. 

Can mandating OGA for MS Office 2000/XP/2002/2003 users be far behind?  Will users soon find themselves forced to use Not-so-open XML for their documents?  No one outside of Redmond knows for sure.

You can also read the original Information Week article.

Living In The Mint Field

Previously, I mentioned moving this computer from WinXP to Linux Mint:
»A First Look At Linux Mint
»Second Look At Linux Mint
I also mentioned some of the issues I faced helping a co-worker get online with WinVista.

The Vista user was able to get online quickly using a D-Link DWL-G820 wireless bridge.  In fact, this should be a piece of required equipment, since any kind of search for "Vista wireless DHCP" comes up with pages of people unable to get an address, and not just Toshiba users.  It may be that many of these people are using the same Intel chips on their wireless cards, but since it appears to only cause problems with Vista, I would look there for an answer.

I converted this computer to Linux Mint 2.2 ("Bianca") in May.  I have been pretty happy, even thrilled, with the way everything just works—most Linux desktops are not quite this usable out of the box, and Windows certainly isn’t.  When I plug in my external DVD drive, I don't have to install drivers first and I don't have to fight with Nero after it seizes control of all media files.  I can record ISOs without having to install Roxio or Sonic first.  Most fairly modern peripherals work without requiring additional drivers.  Since I am on the other side of the country, my printers are at home, but using the LiveCD before I left, I was able to autodiscover two of the three printers (one of them uses a print server and I have to install the network versions of drivers for it–the Windows driver has no network capability, although I can print through a Linux computer using IPP by telling Windows it is an AppleWriter using PostScript–it works).  A good idea is to plug in a USB hub with a couple of external hard drives, a DVD/CD burner, a couple of flash drives, and a printer or camera before you install (don't forget to turn everything on), because most of these items will then be pre-configured and instantly visible when you plug them in later. 

Now for the negative part of the story.  This month, Mint 3.0 "Cassandra" came out.  The recommended way to upgrade was to install from scratch (the Fedora method).  Since my installation was not even a month old, and since I had some configuration changes to preserve, it did it the non-recommended way.  Anything that you've removed will be reinstalled during the upgrade process, while some things you’ve installed may be removed.  My experience with VMWare Server and VirtualBox says you should remove them first, since you’ll have to remove and reinstall them anyway.  Your virtual machines will be okay, especially those stored on external media.

(Note to InnoTek / VirtualBox: you need support for storing virtual machines on external VFAT/FAT32 drives, including splitting a virtual hard drive into slices that will fit into the file system.  VMWare supports this quite nicely.  This can make a virtual machine portable between computers.)

And that's it.  Using Mint, I can watch Numb3rs, which I otherwise could never do.  I can still watch Gary Brolsma videos on YouTube.  Thanks to OpenOffice 2.2, I have a better office suite and can use both international-standard ODF format and a pretty good interpretation of the proprietary secret-sauce formats used by the market leader.

Giving Up On Vista

In Come On In, The Water's Fine, I mentioned the Linux (and Mac) conversion stories of some of the influencers out there.  This continues that line of thought, except instead of influencers, it is just regular people.

A coworker got a new Toshiba notebook with Windows Vista preinstalled.  Since I am 2700+ miles away from home and he is even further away, it is important that it work with the hotel’s WiFi network.  The problem is, it works infrequently, and even when it works, it only works for a short period of time.  Disabling the firewall for short periods of time will sometimes help, and the registry fix on the Microsoft site also seemed to help for about thirty minutes.  However, at this point, nothing seems to work reliably or repeatably.  At this point, he is ready to go back to XP.

In some of my recent calls home, I learned that one of MJ's friends (the one we know as "Game Boy"), the one who has been the most pro-Vista, has decided that he wants to get rid of some of the six computers his family has (all except one running Vista) and replace them with Macs.  MJ has decided that one of his two WinXP computers is going Ubuntu or Mint in the next week or two.  The other one will probably be converted soon after, now that he sees that the family administrator is less and less willing to spend his evenings and weekends fighting Windows to make it obey the wishes of the computer's owner instead of the wishes of the dark lord of Redmond and his apprentice.

Some may feel that this is harsh or anti-Microsoft.  It isn't.  Like anyone that has been very successful quickly, there is an arrogance and entitlement in the Vole that is at least as bad as the one coming from the Hilton residence in Los Angeles.  Yet, most of us see Microsoft as an essential part of the software ecosystem, and therefore we wish nothing more than to have them humbled (by becoming "just one of the bunch" of leading software companies, rather than being dominant), so that they learn once again value and respect both consumers and competitors.

Since FLOSS and free culture help to spread the benefits of software and arts and information to all of society, the continuing attacks on FLOSS from Redmond are attacks on consumers, citizens, and individuals, not just attacks on perceived competitors.  I call upon the Softies to begin to respect us all by ceasing the anti-FLOSS initiatives.

Come On In, The Water’s Fine

James Robertson is giving up Windows at home, because of the administration load.  He joins a growing chorus of people switching to Mac and some to Linux instead of quietly accepting the forced march to the Vista compound.

In my household, I am slowly upgrading existing Windows computers to Linux.  Currently, I do not own any Windows machines myself, although there are still three in the house.  I have recently been watching DVDs, watching videos on YouTube, playing streaming net radio, and watching Numb3rs, and using hotel wireless networks reliably.  All the same things I did before and more, with little change to the quality.  One improvement is in the reliability of wireless networking.  The dropped connections seem to have decreased since the switch.

So Mr. Robertson, even though you will not be able to push Windows out of your workplace, I congratulate you on your decision to save yourself a little hassle at home.

Enjoying The Mint

On the weekend that I was going to convert my main laptop (and last remaining Windows computer) from Windows XP to Linux Mint, I got the call to come to New Jersey.  Since then, I have been pretty busy—a few projects I was working on have been on hold while I am gone, which usually means they never get completed.  But then, I was getting frustrated with the slowness and crustiness that a Windows installation acquires after a year or so.  For example, I often had to reboot the computer in order to burn a CD or DVD.  Why?  Because when I inserted a blank disc, Windows could not see it.

This example event was by no means a new thing: I experienced it early on in the life of this Dell XPS M140.  MJ went ahead and did a full system restore on his Dell, trying to speed the thing up.  I, unfortunately, spent my intended conversion weekend in airports and the highways of New Jersey. 

As a result, when I could not stand it any more, I spent part of Mother's Day installing and updating and configuring the computer.  Right away, the annoying restart to burn a disc was eliminated.  I have also found that the Linux drivers for the wireless card seem to work at least as well as the original Windows drivers.

Does a computer user need Windows?  In my opinion, for most people, the answer is a qualified no.  Like anything else, there are some tradeoffs that you make.  For example, I give up the option to fight with IE7 to try to get it to respond to my wishes instead of someone in Redmond or some fiend in the banner advertising industry.  I gave up the option to use certain Windows-only programs that I support in my workplace.  Not that I owned or used any of them myself, but if I one day had wanted to, I could have.

I also gave up the "option" to have Windows reporting back each time I turn it on so that MSFT can decide whether my license is still legitimate.  I gave up the option to have MSFT continually trying to download and install ever more draconian anti-theft measures into my bought-through-the-OEM operating system on my Dell laptop.  I gave up the option to support someone who opposes the very freedoms I support.

All in all, I’m happy with it, the same way someone in the old Soviet empire might be happy to cross the Berlin wall and give up the option of having midnight visits by secret police seeking "explanations" of privately-made comments that might be interpreted as non-supportive of the government.