new rolling release Mint based on Debian

[GreyGeek]

Re: new rolling release Mint based on Debian

....
Rolling with Anti-X or Sidux just makes more sense to me.
...

You must be friends with SnowHog! (You're singing his song!)

I must have been lucky. Most of my KDE4 desktops since the fall of 2008 have been very usable, or I never used the parts that were unstable...

4.5 was very good to me. In fact, I really can't tell the difference between 4.5 and 4.5.1. Both have been stable as a rock for me.

[toad]

Re: new rolling release Mint based on Debian

@GG

I understand your concern and so do devs which is why in other rolling release models such as Sidux or Arch they periodically release new install CDs - precisely to circumvent the problem you are talking about

And ditto - KDE has treated me very well, although I must say that on my old Thinkpad T41 I've moved to LXDE with KDE programmes. It is just that bit more responsive and lightweight. Ratpoison, awesome or xmonad are still a step beyond me...

[GreyGeek]

Re: new rolling release Mint based on Debian

I never install anything but Puppy or old laptops. A couple weeks ago I installed Puppy 4.3.1 on a 12 YEAR OLD Toshiba that had a joystick in the middle of the keyboard for a mouse. Worked nice! I could use it a LOT easier than I can a touch pad.

On that 486 DX2 CPU with 256Mb of RAM Puppy flew like an F16. The person was VERY happy with the performance, especially since it had been running a buggy, infected Win95 on it.

[craig10x]

Re: new rolling release Mint based on Debian

by the way, the font rendering is terrible on Mint Debian by default..because Debian itself doesn't have good rendering...Ubuntu/Kubuntu obviously must do all kinds of patching and stuff to make it look as outstanding as it does here...Many over there that have installed it, had to do their own modifications...Hope the Mint Team realizes that they need to do that on Mint Debian....The standard Mint's look great because of the ubuntu/kubuntu base, on the debian version, they will have to do that themselves...

[zlow]

Re: new rolling release Mint based on Debian

....
Well, I reckon they seek quite a different customer base as the nature of a rolling release is quite different to the current mainstream "to heck with what I had and let's reinstall" mentality. This requires users to be somewhat more involved and aware.
....

The only problem with a rolling release is that you have to get on board at or pretty soon after the initial release, because 6 months or a year down the road and you'll have a TON of files download and update and coming to the party that late becomes a REAL pain. A year would be unthinkable. Not having a point release for a year would pretty much, IMO, kill off the attraction of new users. Especially if they don't own a fast broadband connection like mine, which can pull down files at nearly 2 Mb/sec.

If they spin a new ISO every few months it'll satisfy that concern. That's what the guys over at Aurora indicated they would do.

[zlow]

Re: new rolling release Mint based on Debian

by the way, the font rendering is terrible on Mint Debian by default..because Debian itself doesn't have good rendering...Ubuntu/Kubuntu obviously must do all kinds of patching and stuff to make it look as outstanding as it does here...Many over there that have installed it, had to do their own modifications...Hope the Mint Team realizes that they need to do that on Mint Debian....The standard Mint's look great because of the ubuntu/kubuntu base, on the debian version, they will have to do that themselves...

Edit /etc/fonts/local.conf

Add:

<?xml version=”1.0″ ?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM “fonts.dtd”>
<fontconfig>
<match target=”font”>
<edit name=”autohint” mode=”assign”>
<bool>true</bool>
</edit>
</match>
</fontconfig>

This will turn on anti-aliasing for all users.

To do it just for yourself, try this:

System – Preferences – Appearance, Fonts, Enable Smoothing or add the same code above to ~/.fonts.conf and log out and back in.

[sixonetonoffun]

Re: new rolling release Mint based on Debian

Revisiting this topic LMDE has really taken off. The popularity is growing with both Mint and surprisingly Debian users. The later I'd assume are getting tired of stale versions and just want something clean and stable that provides proprietary driver and multi media support. Which has driven Mint all along.

[Ole Juul]

Re: new rolling release Mint based on Debian

. . . I just find it fantastic that the Linux world is beginning to break through this whole release-disaster inherited from other OSs.

I agree.

I've had a couple of short lived Mint installs and they both worked well. In fact one was on a machine which turned out to have a hardware flaw and Mint was the only distro which it would run.

[Crempel]

Re: new rolling release Mint based on Debian

Having used LMDE 10 64-bit (Gnome) for about 3 weeks I have to admit it is a polished distro; especially the "rolling release" aspect is appealing... However, I've tried to "convert" it to KDE and, well, it did not work. Also the fact that the normal (Ubuntu-based) Mint 10 KDE has as yet not been released leaves me to fear that we are looking at an almost gtk only distro.. And that ends my interest in Mint.

[toad]

Re: new rolling release Mint based on Debian

I've tried to "convert" it to KDE and, well, it did not work.

That is odd - worked for me What exactly went wrong?

[Crempel]

Re: new rolling release Mint based on Debian

Hi toad,
it was almost impossible to change the appearance of gtk-apps under KDE, in the end I got (and so did others checking the net) 100 % CPU used when finishing a gtk-program such as firefox or thunderbird (using gtk-qt-engine) To cut a long story short, it was frustrating, and I just wanted a KDE-distro that worked (sort of) out of the box.
Cheers

[toad]

Re: new rolling release Mint based on Debian

Ah, okay.

Yes, there is some tinkering, no doubt... Glad you like kubuntu - couldn't get a nicer community

[craig10x]

Re: new rolling release Mint based on Debian

I know it's been a long time since anyone commented on this topic here...i run both Kubuntu 10.10 as well as LMDE on a different laptop, and since this last post, they released the 64 bit version (which is what i use and it is excellent) and the iso already came with Mint 10 gnome's stuff including the ubuntu fonts as well as a new Mint X appearance theme which has the excellent kde'ish metal look...even the home folders look kind of nice as well...

It has been running very smooth for me and by the way, they do new isos about every 3 months or so so that if one is installing for the first time, you won't have tons of updates to add in...

When Debian 6.0 gets released this weekend, Debian Testing (which is what LMDE is based on) will go back to full swing for about the next year and a half (it's been in basic freeze mode for 6 months now with only occassional updates coming in)..
So i am keeping my "fingers crossed" that everything will go well from this point...Though old time debian people tell me there isn't much to worry about as testing is generally pretty stable

Jamie (nickname: "Boo" who does their KDE edition) just recently commented that he will eventually add on a mint kde package to the iso so one will have the option of doing a LMDE KDE with all the "mint goodies" when they install it...

So far, as a rolling release, 64 bit and with all the mint goodies added in, it's been really great...

Important Note: As of the December updated iso, Clem (head of the mint project) put in the proper "libcairo patches" that ubuntu/kubuntu uses and now it has the same gorgeous looks and font rendering...the difference is amazing

[toad]

Re: new rolling release Mint based on Debian

Thanks Craig - I for one would be interested when boo has finished his meta-kde-package so please keep us updated

[craig10x]

Re: new rolling release Mint based on Debian

Thanks Craig - I for one would be interested when boo has finished his meta-kde-package so please keep us updated

You're Welcome and No Problem
Will be glad to do that