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- KevinC442, on 11/22/2007, -3/+56As if Ubuntu wasn't easy enough, they've gone and made it easier.
I'm actually looking for something NOT as easy to use. All of the BS I've heard about switching to linux, and I barely had ANY trouble when I switched from XP to Ubuntu. I feel like I cheated... - daftman, on 11/22/2007, -1/+45Use gentoo. I bet you can't install the thing without RTFM
- Tyr7BE, on 11/22/2007, -3/+37"Sound & Video:
[x] Amarok
[x] Audacity
[x] Banshee
[x] MPlayer
[x] Rhythmbox Music Player
[x] gtkPod
[x] XMMS
[x] dvd::rip
[x] Kino
[x] Sound Juicer CD Extractor
[x] VLC Media Player
[x] Helix Player
[x] Totem
[x] Xine
[x] GnomeBaker
[x] K3B
[x] Multimedia-Codecs"
That's TWELVE different ways to play music. That's right folks, TWELVE. WHY would you install this many video players? Mplayer, VLC, Totem, Helix, Xine....any of those will play anything you can throw at it. I've gotten by just fine with only VLC on my system in the past. In recent distros I've switched to Totem with the Xine backend and there's nothing that's stumped it. Mplayer plays everything under the sun and more. Are you going to be watching videos at the same time? Twelve of them?
Mint looks sort of cool and everything (except no automatic detection and activation of Compiz? WTF why not? Gutsy does it), but this guide is TERRIBLE. - oneoverzero, on 11/22/2007, -1/+26... DId you even read the description?
- baalzebub, on 11/22/2007, -1/+26you keep using Linux and you know whats going to happen? someday you will find your noob user friendly distro wont do what you want it to do, so you start investigating what it will take to get your distro to do what you want and after a little more reading and searching you will find you want to switch distros then read & learn some more and before you know it you are a full fledged Linux geek that knows how to build your own software packages from source code...
- OkydOky, on 11/22/2007, -3/+24Ask Creative.
Their Fault if it does not. - petermoffat, on 11/22/2007, -1/+20I believe Dr Cox still throws it out there.
- mrisi, on 11/22/2007, -4/+22I recently switched from Ubuntu 7.10 to this version of Linux Mint. I attest that this is a much more complete, usable and even more stable desktop environment for those of us who choose to use Linux. HIGHLY recommended, I sense that this little distro is going to change the playing field a lot in the coming years.
- BinaryFragger, on 11/22/2007, -0/+17Good point.
- bejayel, on 11/22/2007, -0/+17No its their fault for not releasing the specification to the alsa project so we can have support.
- SteveMax, on 11/22/2007, -0/+17Unfortunately, that's not available for Windows either. Or for OS X. Or for anything that will exist until our computers can actually read our minds and have free access to our credit card (assuming there will always be non-free content and/or software).
- mcduarte2000, on 11/22/2007, -4/+19I tried it, and it's great. Actually it was Linux Mint that converted me to Linux and not Ubuntu (on which Mint is based anyway). I wanted something that just worked out of the box, with which I could right away navigate on the net and watch movies. And Linux Mint is exactly that.
Time is money and having to learn how to install basic features (yes, flash and multimedia codecs are basic features) is just complicating things and an enormous waste of time. Ubuntu would turn itself in a true winner if they learned with Linux Mint (or maybe, even, adopt Linux Mint as their official version of Ubuntu with "everything" Linux should have).
Still, my first experiences with Linux told me that it needs still some years to go mainstream. I can't yet compare the easy of doing things in Windows or Mac OS X with Linux. Try for example to mount a Samba network share in Linux and access that share with Amarok. It simply will not work as Gnome doesn't create true mounts with Samba shares. In the end I had to loose time, until learne I should edit a certain file and I had to discover the exact file I should write on that file. In Windows is just clicking a mouse button.
Also, in Ubuntu, all the privileges security is simply annoying. As a user, I don't want that much security. I don't want to sacrifice easy of use (and time), for being in a system "perfect" in terms of security. For 10 years of my life always used Windows with "root" privileges and I survived. So, Ubuntu should give a choise to people regarding this matter (as Linux Mint actually does). - pyite, on 11/22/2007, -0/+14I've been using Mint for awhile, and it absolutely rocks. It is so nice to have the codecs & DVD support installed right out of the box.
- Philluminati, on 11/22/2007, -0/+14You wouldn't know where to begin without the docs. I'm installing gentoo at the moment and it's a really good learning experience. Download the CD and burn it to an iso. That gives you a bootable linux environment to work from. You learn net-setup and ifconfig as you connect to the internet. Then you prepare your disk partitions using fdisk. Then you download and extract a tarfile which is basically the GNU toolkit already compiled. Then you download the kernel and compile it. Then you download the programs individually, like the default gnome and stuff. It's quite easy, quite fun and it really underpins the theory. (yes i must be a geek if i said it was fun.) Then you take the live cd out and use the real system you just built :-)
Seriously tho Kev I recommend you try it out - kidcodea, on 11/22/2007, -0/+11you are making too much sense.
- waspbr, on 11/22/2007, -2/+12You mean, is it creative's fault to restrict the consumer to a single operating system? well, yeah
- daftman, on 11/22/2007, -5/+15Well for a start, it would have divx support out of the box.
- tdwester, on 11/22/2007, -0/+9There is one advantage to mint, it uses the Ubuntu repositories which have more software then ant other distro that I have used.
- suprchunk, on 11/22/2007, -1/+9I think what your university actually needs is a better English course.
- eean, on 11/22/2007, -0/+8Ubuntu has much of that stuff in their repo's as well, they just aren't installed by default. That is kind of annoying, so props to Mint Linux. ;)
- HalfGiraffe, on 11/22/2007, -4/+12Yeah, not hard for you and me maybe but totally strange and scary for most folks. Your average user just wants a big green button that says "Install all the stuff I need"
- notque, on 11/22/2007, -2/+10Linux isn't all that difficult at this point. Some of you intrepid diggers with an extra machine should give it a go.
- johnnall, on 11/22/2007, -0/+8It depends on what your goal is/was. If you just wanted to get away from Windows then it sounds like you were successful. If you want to learn more about how Linux works then the ones mentioned above will help you achieve that goal. It just depends on what you want. I think for Linux to really make it on the desktop the people who see Linux as being for the elite will have to get over that. Computers are a tool. People don't have to know the minutia of how their computer or OS works to be able to use it. If you want to know all that stuff, great. But we shouldn't discourage people who want to use Linux but don't want to be bothered with what's under the hood.
- notque, on 11/22/2007, -2/+10sudo = run something as root
apt-get (installer program)
install (flag to install telling it you want to install
and then 3 packages. Just paste it. not hard. - spvo, on 11/22/2007, -1/+8Then you have something seriously wrong with your ubuntu install. There should not be that much of a time discrepancy between the two operating systems.
- praisethelard, on 06/06/2008, -0/+7The horror!
- troydoogle7, on 11/22/2007, -6/+13They lost me at sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` build-essential xinetd
Def not noob friendly - dogpigeoncow, on 11/22/2007, -0/+7My father is a total n00b who needed a laptop for his business. Its a really awesome laptop but vista has it running ***** slow. Im gonna give this to him for sure plus his associates will be very impressed that hes using Linux.
- Heavy, on 11/22/2007, -3/+10But will my Creative X-Fi sound card work?
- inactive, on 11/22/2007, -1/+8This is the right idea for Linux. To get Linux in to the mainstream it has to be like other operating systems. Most people want to use their computer, not tweak it. Word processing, email, web surfing, entertainment, etc.
- Philluminati, on 11/22/2007, -2/+8Anybody understand that?
- kdavid, on 11/22/2007, -0/+6I've used several distros and Mint is by far the most complete, user friendly of them all. I can get around and fix many issues that I have encountered using linux , but with Mint the issues aren't there. If you just want a top notch experience and don't get your kicks by tinkering with your operating system, Mint is for you.
- notque, on 11/22/2007, -2/+8I'm downloading it right now, going to give it a go.
- mccord, on 11/22/2007, -1/+7try arch linux, you'll decide what you want installed on your system (like gentoo/slack),
with the help of a nice packagemanager (pacman, i686 optimized binary packages)
plus you can enjoy the goodness that is kdemod (kde on steroids :P) - subgeniusd, on 11/22/2007, -0/+6Assuming you forgot email your list describes the usage habits of the majority of comp users. Which does not include sitting around for 12 hours watching Gentoo package downloads. Some geeks are so out of touch.
- bigern75, on 11/22/2007, -0/+5Ubuntu is debian based. Mint is ubuntu based so its roots go all the way back to debian.
- Icecream, on 11/22/2007, -2/+7If you install 64bit gutsy and use the creative driver (beta) it works fine for me. It is buggy to others.
- Cadraig, on 11/22/2007, -1/+6No 64 bit version rules this out for me. I'm gonna stick with Ubuntu.
- ToadLeg, on 11/22/2007, -0/+5Twelve media players because each one is different. Amarok is for managing a library and syncing media players. Audacity is an audio editing program. Mplayer, Totem, and VLC are media players that are good for different situations. XMMS is an audio player. Kino is a video editing program. Sound juicer rips audio from an audio CD. Xine and Gstreamer are audio back-ends. K3b is a CD/DVD burning program.
To turn on Compiz, you have to click on it... - notque, on 11/22/2007, -0/+5Jump on this torrent and help me out here! ;)
- evilregis, on 11/22/2007, -0/+5Default install Sound & Video:
Amarok
Movie Player
MPlayer Movie Player
Serpentine Audio CD Creator
Sound Juicer CD Extractor
Sound Recorder - oobuntu, on 11/22/2007, -0/+5aptitude?
- december, on 11/22/2007, -0/+5I have to say that I've had many of the same problems on Mint install. I installed it on my desktop at work as well. The _sloooooowwwww_ response time is killing me. But I do have to say that it still could be the most friendly so far being that I haven't found one that is friendlier.
I'll probably switch back to a leaner and meaner distro when I get a slow day at work. - Waterrat, on 11/22/2007, -0/+5 I agree...Some people want to roll up their sleeves and get into the thick of Linux...Command line and all...Others do not care..Should they still use Linux,? You betcha.
- compgeek, on 11/22/2007, -2/+7looks pretty good I think I'll give it a whirl
- gadgetlust, on 11/22/2007, -1/+5But those days of poor hardware support are soon going to be coming to an end, with both Dell and Wal-mart selling computers with linux preconfigured and Ubuntu very close to a tipping point of being a plausible mainstream OS which will see consumers willing to make critical choices on the hardware they buy based on what is supported under Linux. There are many people who have decided that Vista represents the last straw in their long and painful relationship with Microsoft, and within a few years, hardware makers with poor Linux support are going to see their bottom line suffer.
Once the hardware support issue is gone, Linux starts to look like a damn good choice. Stable, secure, highly efficient (runs happily on older hardware), crapware-free (no demo software or marketing BS), it's beautiful, infinitely customizable, with robust office software that is available on a vast array of platforms (and is future proof as it can easily be ported to new ones as they are developed), the add/remove programs feature actually can ADD programs to your system.... I'd pay twice what they are asking for Vista to have such an operating system, except that Linux is free. Hell, Ubuntu will even mail me a disc for free if I ask them nicely. All of these things add up to many rational people choosing more and more to use Linux as their primary OS for themselves and for those whose computers they are constantly called upon to "fix" due to the often lamented fundamentally broken nature of Windows. - TnTBass, on 11/22/2007, -0/+4Exactly. I showed a few people an EEE PC, and they had no idea it ran Linux. It did everything they wanted, email, word processing, spreadsheets, web cam, etc.
I even had to explain that Linux is not a "dead language" (their words, not mine). Most people think the computing world begins and ends with Microsoft.
The easier the OS is to use, the better. As software becomes more compatible across platforms, the actual OS people use becomes meaningless, but rather it is the functionality of the OS that will become the deciding factor. We all know people didn't use Windows because of the functionality, they used Windows because of lack of choice. (To all you Mac/Linux fanboys, can you honestly tell me that in 2001, your OS had even half the functionality it has now, compared to XP? Now look at the same OS's today - Mac, Linux, etc - and you see a huge increase in functionality with Mac and Linux, while M$ remains stagnant - literally - XP is still the most common M$ OS, and Vista, I would argue, removes functionality only to replace it with a false sense of security.)
Its really a differnet mentality driving each development.
M$ - Where do we want you to go today?
Linux - What do you really want to do? What can I do to make that happen? - estvir, on 11/22/2007, -9/+13What causes Vista not to work, and if you have Vista installed and is not working what makes you think the people in charge of your computers will do well with Linux?
- mcduarte2000, on 11/22/2007, -0/+4Compiz worked for me out of the box...
- mawh, on 11/22/2007, -0/+4Sure, if you want Linux to keep its low market share.
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