Since March -- when my odyssey with a malfunctioning computer began -- Taoist blogging compatriot Ta Wan has been urging me to give Linux Mint a try. It's a great Linux system, he said. His wife loves it!
It's not that I didn't believe my friend; my reticence in not giving it a try had much more to do with my RAM limitations. Most versions of Mint call for a bare minimum of 512MB and, until I got this new system, I simply didn't possess that capability. With my new system, I still didn't plan to try it because it has exactly 512MB and I had read a few reviews that urged folks not to use it unless they had at least 1GB.
But then I discovered a version called Mint LXDE 9. It's pared down a bit for older and slower computers. Since I was having a devil of a time getting Debian GNU/Linux to behave on my new machine like it did on my old machine, I thought to myself, "What the heck! Let's give it a try."
I'm here to say that Ta Wan was right!! Linux Mint is the easiest to understand of the Linux operating systems I've tried and I've tried several (Kubuntu, Ubuntu, Puppy, Debian GNU/Linux and Red Hat). After nearly 3 days of nonstop frustration, I have found a system I feel comfortable with.
I've loaded several desktop environments -- I'm using KDE right now -- and I've been trying each one out. I'll probably tinker with this new system a bit more today, then I can get back to my normal existence: reading and writing about Taoism.
It's not that I didn't believe my friend; my reticence in not giving it a try had much more to do with my RAM limitations. Most versions of Mint call for a bare minimum of 512MB and, until I got this new system, I simply didn't possess that capability. With my new system, I still didn't plan to try it because it has exactly 512MB and I had read a few reviews that urged folks not to use it unless they had at least 1GB.
But then I discovered a version called Mint LXDE 9. It's pared down a bit for older and slower computers. Since I was having a devil of a time getting Debian GNU/Linux to behave on my new machine like it did on my old machine, I thought to myself, "What the heck! Let's give it a try."
I'm here to say that Ta Wan was right!! Linux Mint is the easiest to understand of the Linux operating systems I've tried and I've tried several (Kubuntu, Ubuntu, Puppy, Debian GNU/Linux and Red Hat). After nearly 3 days of nonstop frustration, I have found a system I feel comfortable with.
I've loaded several desktop environments -- I'm using KDE right now -- and I've been trying each one out. I'll probably tinker with this new system a bit more today, then I can get back to my normal existence: reading and writing about Taoism.
Looks like you got spammed with the above comment :)
ReplyDeleteI think it is quite well documented around the web maybe even quite well on the Linux Mint site but KDE is the "heaviest" of the desktop environments meaning that it needs more computer oomph to run and get the best from it. The list is probably (from most oomph required to least)
KDE, Gnome, XFCE, LXDE
and in order of ease of use
Gnome/XFCE, KDE, LXDE
and in order of looks
KDE, Gnome, XFCE, LXDE
but there is much debate over all of that.
Mint's flagship is Gnome.
Linux though, as you will know, is about choice and freedom. So I'm just very happy you have been hooked in and the first thing you did after getting a new PC was dump Windows ;D
Ya know, if I could figure out how to get XFCE or LXDE to do a thing or two, I'd probably use them more often. The reason I side with KDE is that a) I prefer the single click to open folders/programs and b) the Menu Editor is far superior.
ReplyDeleteI know that Gnome supposedly is the easiest, but for some reason, it's the desktop environment I understand the least. Many of its schemes and protocols seem counterintuitive to me.