Another Linux job – 314 days old

[Grogan]

I'm starting to get more calls for Linux installations and stuff... I booked another for Tuesday, even though it's a bit further away (40 minutes or so) than I would normally drive for a job. I'll do it to spread the Linux cheer, and also because the guy isn't going to find a shop around here that will do it. Most will throw up their arms and say "no!" (and admonish them for asking). I could have it dropped off, or meet him somewhere to pick it up but I feel this is something that will be just a waste of time if I don't spend some time with the guy to teach him to stand on his own two feet.

Anyway, the guy has a computer with Vista and "Linux Gloria" (which is Linux Mint 7) on it and needs a new distro. He's "having trouble" with Vista, and hates it. (I'll have a look at that too for him I guess... the having trouble part, not the hatred, which I will be only too happy to perpetuate)

So I figure Linux Mint 13 will be the best bet, especially since he's already kind of sort of used to Mint. That old Mint 7 Gloria distro would probably be Gnome 2 (he couldn't tell me and doesn't know the different environments) so my best bet is probably the Mate edition, right? That's the most "Gnome 2-like" GUI? (a fork of Gnome 2 if I recall). Or would Cinnamon be better? It looks a little more featureful. (I haven't used either of those). Cinnamon is like a different front end to Gnome 3 if I recall correctly.

He doesn't really know what he wants, so I am also considering trying him out on KDE, which is the richer environment by far. (We'll see what the hardware is like)

[ZemaTalon]

Yeah Mate is forked from Gnome 2 and Cinnamon uses Gnome 3. I haven't spent much time in either, but I think I liked Mate better, mainly because I could still customize things like I've been used to. It seem kind of dated, since it hasn't had time yet to evolve much yet from Gnome 2. Cinnamon looked clean, but I quickly became frustrated by its restrictions, it was still too much like Gnome 3. For someone who isn't concerned with that I suppose it's ok. But probably KDE would be the best bet to get it looking nice, and then use the traditional application menu which is more like Gnome 2's and I bet he'd be happy Maybe even give him a couple different desktops so he can decide which he likes better?

[Grogan]

I was just thinking that I'd need most of Gnome 3 anyway due to dependencies for oogabooga software in the repos, even if I install the Mate edition. I was thinking going with the Cinnamon edition would cut down on the bloat. I'm not sure how good buddy's internet will be for downloading, or how much disk space he has for Linux or much information at all really. It's a laptop, I think. (If it's running Mint 7 I'm sure I'll have no trouble with the hardware)

I guess I'll bring all three disks (Mate, Cinnamon and KDE and maybe the 64 bit Mint KDE ISO as well just in case the hardware will like a 64 bit distro). I downloaded most of the Mint 13 ISOs, seeing as I have a mirror that's 4 Mb/sec + for me, from a University that's less than 100 miles from here. If he's got shitty Internet in Bumfuck Albuquerque I don't want to have to download something like all the KDE packages. (hence, bringing the separate Mint ISOs)

[Bad Haircut]

I wouldn't discount Xfce. The three friends / acquaintances of mine who wanted to try Linux (for various reasons), all ended up becoming dual booting ubuntu gnome 2-ites, have now all gravitated to, and prefer, Xfce (Mint and Xubuntu). And two run it without Windows now as they can't tolerate sluggish speed of Windows on their laptops.

[Dark Angel]

When I update the kids' desktops from Ubuntu 10.04LTS/Gnome2 I'll be putting Mint 13/XFCE in it's place. It's not as nice as the Slack install I had on my desktop, but it picks up all the fancy new hardware that Slack didn't with no fuss and is as simple as pie to use. The menu that's by default in the bottom left hand corner is close enough to the "Start" menu that it shouldn't take much to get used to for a Windows refugee and the update manager is no trouble to use at all.
If he's used to Gnome2 then it shouldn't be much of a stretch at all. I'd show it to him along with KDE, Mate and Cinnamon and give him the option.

[Grogan]

Yes, I suppose so. When I think XFCE I think of it my way, but out of the box might be just what he might like. During our brief conversation on the phone when I asked about his desktop preference, he did mention cutting his teeth on Windows 95. It didn't click at the time, but I did criticize Mint XFCE out of the box as having a Windows 95 start menu.

XFCE is something I can easily install with a few clicks in Synaptic and it won't take that long to download, so I can set that up as an alternate desktop on whatever I choose.

[Alakazam]

I just installed Mint 13 KDE in VB this morning Gro, when it updated it had 397 files to DL, looks really nice so far, I like to use the classic start menu though.

[Alakazam]

So, what did you end up doing Grogan?

[Grogan]

It's not until tomorrow (Tuesday afternoon) but I have decided that he's getting Mint 13 KDE (32 or 64 bit to be determined when I get there, depending on CPU and RAM) with XFCE installed from the repo to fall back on. I'm also bringing Mint 13 Cinnamon DVDs in case he hates KDE or something. If I'm feeling generous with my time I may let him see both booted as Live CDs before I start. I would like to steer him towards KDE though.

[Grogan]

So I ended up using the Mint 13 Cinnamon 64 bit distro. It was a good laptop, with a Core 2 Duo, 4 Gb RAM and Intel graphics and wireless. The way he had his old Mint 7 set up, looked almost exactly like Mint 13 Cinnamon so I couldn't in good conscience change his GUI out from under foot.

All went well, I fixed up his Windows Vista install first (get the miserable crap out of the way... malware, toolbars, startup, cleanup etc.), then booted with the LiveCD and deleted his previous Linux partitions and consolidated everything into one root filesystem + swap. The system looks good out of the box (just change the fugly mint wallpaper) with a dark theme out of the box, and it's half decently snappy. The menu works well, and he was all over it. (I think I made the right decision)

I tarred up his old home directory before we started, and then put his files back in place, as well as things like .mozilla and .thunderbird directories. Those programs didn't miss a beat, and firefox even opened the same tabs he had in his previous install. Thunderbird worked, and he had his mail and address book but it kept prompting for mail password and wouldn't save, without the "master password". I think the database was incompatible with the new version, as deleting key3.db in the thunderbird profile directory solved the problem.

One thing that impressed him, plugging his big screen TV into the HDMI port worked better in Linux than it does in Vista (stuff is off screen, even when you manually change the resolution of Display 2 correctly).

I also showed him Synaptic and we installed Audacity (wow! A free sound editor)

[Alakazam]

Sounds like he was happy camper, Grogan.

[Michael_Horatio]

Good call Grogan, I'm always Leary about setting anyone up with Llinux...too many imaginary problems and worries for people who haven't used a Linux distro before...anyway job well done...hope you gave him a BBF membership so he can come here for help...no wait maybe that's a bad idea....he should remain a paying customer...