New Microsoft VP consigns the PC to irrelevance

[essenbe]

My Toshiba has NVIDIA GeForce 315M (graphics card)
Might this be a problem with MintMate ?
From Jimbo's comments (I assume) MintMate is RC not final release ?

@essenbe +1 ... any results yet ?

SPECS:
Toshiba Satellite C665
Motherboard: TOSHIBA Portable PC
Display Adapters: NVIDIA GeForce 315M
OS:= Windows 7 Home Premium (32-bit), sp1 (Build 7601) OEM
UI:=Classic Shell Start + Classic Explorer
Windows Indexing = disabled

I have it installed and all the software updates installed. I haven't had a chance to 'play' with it much, but did look through the software and it comes with a full compliment. I installed wine, and there are several options. I have found no problem with anything and not my Graphics card (GTX 780) The release notes state the only problems are with Optimus set ups. But, they say that they will be fixing it. So, So far everything works well and it is well laid out. I did try a few things and went on the net for a while just to see how thing were working and found no problems. To someone like me, who is not Linux savvy, Mint is a good choice. Every distro I've tried, just works, right out of the box.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Linux Mint 17 (more)

Note also until the FINAL you won't get any LIVE CD's just yet.

The ISO I downloaded runs fine as a Live Linux DVD.

@lehnerus2000, so far what are your impressions of it? I'm downloading it right now. I'll put it in a VM as soon as it finishes. I think I have too many VMs right now to keep up with. Something has to go.

I've had to move all of my VMs to an external HDD, as my internal WD HDD has started chucking sectors and occasionally vanishing from my system.


I've noticed a couple of things.

Remember to back up your fstab file (if you have created a custom one).

When I first tried to build a VM, I used VMware Workstation 7.
LM 17 didn't like it and wouldn't boot properly (some sort of display driver issue).
It might not be suitable for installing on older hardware.

It worked when I tried VMware Player 6.

It took ~10 minutes to install in a VM and then ~12 minutes to get the latest updates.
My slow internet (and failure to set my ISP as the Repository) didn't help.

On my real machine, I did a clean install this time.
Previously, I installed LM 16 over LM 15, so that may have caused the couple of glitches I noticed in LM 16.
Installing from the DVD to my real machine took ~20 minutes (and then ~12 minutes to get the latest updates).

The "Restore Data" tool on the opening splash screen didn't work correctly.
Whilst it transferred my files correctly, it didn't restore my previous software packages.

My friend located the option to use the backup package list in Synaptic, which worked correctly.
My backup package list includes:

• GParted (Linux Mint doesn't seem to have a GUI based HDD/SSD manager)
• Wireshark

The original ISO included FF 28, but the updates will download FF 29 (be warned).
I spent some time trying to rollback FF, but in the end I had to copy the FF 28 packages from my LM 16 VM.
I haven't tried to reinstall FF 28 yet (or blocking FF updates).

I still haven't found out how to transfer my old panel setup to a new install.
Manually setting that up always takes me ages (and it did this time too).

Boot time seems to be about the same as the previous version (~20 seconds).
It seems to run smoothly.
The Mint Menu was a bit "sticky" in the previous version, it seems more responsive in LM 17.

So far it has been a "boring" upgrade (i.e. few issues or surprises) so I have no complaints.

Every distro I've tried, just works, right out of the box.

That has been my experience with Linux Mint (MATE) versions 14 -17.

Additional
One new feature that I really like, is W7 style side-by-side window snapping.
Just like in W7, you can drag a window partially off of the desktop and it will change colour, at which point you can release it and it will snap to 50% of the screen width.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
I like the Window snapping feature too.

BTW VMware workstation 7 is so old I'm surprised you even bothered firing it up. No problems at all running it on VMware workstation 10.0.2 (current version) or player (6.0.2).

Works fine both on W8.1 HOST and an OPENSUSE Host . (So OK from both WINDOWS and LINUX Hosts).

I'll backup a laptop and try it on a physical machine -- I want to see if the video / audio encounter problems that some have reported. I have the INTEL HD video so I don't forsee any problems there and a basic bog standard sound card in the laptop (integrated) - using an HP envy for my test.

@Lehnerus2000 - if you are feeling adventurous have you tried installing either VMware workstation or player on LM17 and starting a virtual machine using LM17 as the host.

I'm thinking sooner or later of switching to XEN or KVM but currently VMware is a MUST have app to be working for me. I could I suppose have a go with Virtual box but I'd rather not.

(GPARTED is part of GNOME - I'd imagine if you had GNOME installed it would have been part of the distribution -- although downloading it manually is no problem -- surprised though as OPENSUSE KDE live distro has it included - start from the command line --have used that many times for messing around with partitions etc).

Now trying LM17 with KDE !!! I like KDE -- although that might not be other people's choices -- Linux gives you many many choices for desktop UI's.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[lehnerus2000]

BTW VMware workstation 7 is so old I'm surprised you even bothered firing it up. No problems at all running it on VMware workstation 10.0.2 (current version) or player (6.0.2).

It works for the majority of my VMs (W8 and LM17 excluded).

I was able to fix my FF issue, using a LM 16 VM running on VMware Workstation 7 (v7.6 actually).
I retrieved the FF 28 packages from the VM and eventually they were copied to my LM17 install.

@Lehnerus2000 - if you are feeling adventurous have you tried installing either VMware workstation or player on LM17 and starting a virtual machine using LM17 as the host.

I can't install VMware Player 6.0.1 due to some sort of kernel object issue.

I had to run a W8.1 VM using VMware Player 6 on Linux Mint 16.
It could also run all of my older VMs without any issues.

Now trying LM17 with KDE !!! I like KDE -- although that might not be other people's choices -- Linux gives you many many choices for desktop UI's.

My friend uses KDE on his Arch Linux machine.

I tried KDE for a couple of hours on an OpenSUSE VM.
I didn't like it, so I swapped it for GNOME 3, which wasn't much better.

 

[essenbe]

FF 28 comes on the ISO, when you do the updates, if you de- select the FF update, it does not install FF29.

 

[lehnerus2000]

My Bad

FF 28 comes on the ISO, when you do the updates, if you de- select the FF update, it does not install FF29.

I know (post #122).
I wasn't paying attention when I ran the Update Manager.

 

[essenbe]

Yea, I missed that.

 

[jimbo45]

BTW VMware workstation 7 is so old I'm surprised you even bothered firing it up. No problems at all running it on VMware workstation 10.0.2 (current version) or player (6.0.2).

It works for the majority of my VMs (W8 and LM17 excluded).

I was able to fix my FF issue, using a LM 16 VM running on VMware Workstation 7 (v7.6 actually).
I retrieved the FF 28 packages from the VM and eventually they were copied to my LM17 install.

@Lehnerus2000 - if you are feeling adventurous have you tried installing either VMware workstation or player on LM17 and starting a virtual machine using LM17 as the host.

I can't install VMware Player 6.0.1 due to some sort of kernel object issue.

I had to run a W8.1 VM using VMware Player 6 on Linux Mint 16.
It could also run all of my older VMs without any issues.

Now trying LM17 with KDE !!! I like KDE -- although that might not be other people's choices -- Linux gives you many many choices for desktop UI's.

My friend uses KDE on his Arch Linux machine.

I tried KDE for a couple of hours on an OpenSUSE VM.
I didn't like it, so I swapped it for GNOME 3, which wasn't much better.

Hi there
installs VMware 6.0.2 player / 10.0.2 workstation perfectly -- ensure all the required extra packages also installed as well.

After install you might need to re-boot but shouldn't really.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[gregrocker]

Anyone hoping Gates will redeem his baby only needs to remember he signed off on Vista before leaving the first time, and recently was the head of the CEO search committee which strangely was being turned down by many top CEO's and settled on a MS functionary who isn't changing anything. I've stopped thinking of him as a savior of anything except malaria victims.

What was needed was a dramatic reversal offering a Win7 with SP2 upgrade to anyone stuck with the Windows Ate Phone app on their new laptop or desktop, giving them a real choice instead of what they got and keeping a strong desktop option driving the world economy. Anything less is actually fulfilling the nutty prophecy that the desktop is dying. They are trying to kill it off themselves.

Even business is being ignored. For two years I read the MS IT Springboard newsletter trying to scare business into Win8 and Secure Boot. Yet world business, which must adopt secure practices to get and keep insurance, completely ignored this and is going with Win7. So where is the SP2 with USB3 drivers and everything else left behind since 2009? At some point being stubborn is corporate suicide.

 

[lehnerus2000]

In the interests of fairness; I had to reinstall LM17, as I discovered that the permissions on my home directory were screwed up.

I probably failed to set the correct options on the backup tool.
I normally just manually transfer my files to a different HDD.

So far it has been a "boring" upgrade (i.e. few issues or surprises) so I have no complaints.

Not quite as "boring" as I initially thought.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
Sometimes TOO MUCH security has exactly the opposite effect :

I remember doing a short term contract for a large UK Govt agency (Not MI5 / MI6 I hasten to say!!) and they had a rule that all passwords were to be really silly like xx78GT98bZ or whatever.

OK difficult to guess or crack but they were so silly that people just had to store them on mobile phones / write them on notepads etc etc. -- All so obvious that it was amazing managers even THOUGHT of this policy -- but those at the top just don't have a clue usually.

Secure boot is another imbecellic system -- if you are in IT support you might have hundreds of different PC's to look at and all sorts of "Boot" / Images that you want to use and deploy across an organisation.

(NOT talking about UEFI here -- that's a totally different subject --even now people confuse the two --UEFI does NOT mean secure boot has to be enabled - just that the machine is capable of BOOTING GPT disks).

Ms hosed it up big time by having that in Windows 8 in the first place and by not having proper ISO's for retail customers makes also the whole idea of BYOD now much more difficult as who knows what state the end users machine is in.

If Ms wanted the mobile route they should have separated the two basic OS forms - mobile and desktop -- no problem - probably easily done --Windows 8.1 update 1 is actually quite passable give or take a "Menu" user here or there. Windows 8.1 update 2 or Windows 9 can easily repair the rest of the damage -- but all this kefuffle could have been esily avoided in the first place. JUST SPEAK TO END USERS BEFORE ROLLING OUT major changes.

(I still also wonder if that director of the Govt agency where I did a contract who thought of that stupid password policy ever wrote HIS down anywhere - even though it was against his own rules !!!).


(@lehnerus2000 I re-installed as well -- this time did UPDATES before installing any extra packages -- SAMBA etc all working properly now -- only KONQUREOR browser doesn't play video (some flash plugin not working) -- doesn't matter as FF is OK -- took note also of disabling the FF29 update).

Cheers
jimbo