Well Firefox 5 was out on the 21^st June. I’ve barely gotten used to Firefox 4 released around 3 months ago. The rapid releases are a reaction to the rapid release schedule of Chrome, another popular browser.

This release doesn’t seem to have any whiz-bang features but it does have a solid set of under the hood improvements to improve the overall experience for developers and users of the browser. There’s security fixes, improved Linux integration, better standards support, many performance improvements and better spell checking in some locales.

So the result is looking the same as Firefox 4 but is a richer, faster experience.

More than Just Not Unity

Release Date: 9th May 2011

Developer: Linux Mint Team led by Clement Lefebvre

Base: Ubuntu, Gnome, Debian

Mint. Minty Fresh? You know, I absolutely hate peppermint but I do love Linux Mint.

But I am getting ahead of myself. I am that altogether too common Ubuntu migrant checking out Mint to see if I like it. I didn’t like Unity which is not only integral to Ubuntu, but also Ubuntu’s future when they dump Gnome in Ubuntu version 11.10.

I’ve wanted to try out Mint for quite a while given its out of the box ‘It Just Works’ kind of promise and positive feedback I’ve heard. Unity gave me a good push to give it a go. As such a lot of commentary will admittedly be in comparison to Ubuntu.

Installation was straightforward with the easy replace Ubuntu option and copying goes on while doing the settings followed by a sideshow talking about some of Mint’s features. Basically the same as Ubuntu’s excellent installer.

Dabbling very briefly in the Linux Mint user community it looks promising. Active and respectful with a good mix of user levels. The community is important in Linux because this is where most of the support comes from.

To make it quite clear Linux Mint does not use Unity but opted for Gnome 2.32 instead.

Mint’s menu is beautiful. Not your standard Ubuntu Gnome menu, it presents things well to be easily accessed. There is a nice search function as well as a favourites and all applications toggle. The menu is easily configured and lets you add things to the panel. It has to be used to be appreciated but here’s a bit of a look.

Linux Mint’s default programs are much the same as for Ubuntu, including LibreOffice and Firefox 4.0 however Evolution is nowhere to be seen with Thunderbird being used for email. I’ve never liked Evolution and usually used Thunderbird on Ubuntu! Gimp, Sun Java 6 and the VLC media player are also included. Gwibber is not included. I usually used Tweekdeck which runs on the decidedly not open source Adobe AIR. If you want it, you will need to install that yourself whether you use Ubuntu or Mint but it’s easily done.

The real difference is you don’t have to spend time with Medibuntu etc getting all the codecs, flash, fonts and other simple usability improvements working. It also helps that most of the default software is a good choice. Linux Mint was originally designed with this ease of use in mind. It’s focused on the users and usability not on the open source ideals, which is Ubuntu’s focus. Neither choice is really better or worse, it just depends on what matters more to you. So Linux Mint largely delivers on the ready out of the box experience.

Mint still has the same silly overlay scroll bars as Ubuntu has but I do not actually dislike them. I guess they are there for space saving on small screens typical of the devices that Ubuntu has been aiming for. Mint’s desktop does not come with a trashcan, which is easily found in the menu. Not sure if I like that or not but it’s not a very significant thing.

It is quite true that pretty much any operating system, including Ubuntu, can be changed from its default theme to something more attractive. However, it is nice that Mint’s default theme is slick and attractive from the get go. Yes it’s true, I am not a fan of brown tones which make up Ubuntu’s default themes.

Like Ubuntu, the simpler Software Manager of Linux Mint is much improved and would say Mint has done the better job. A great tool for newer Linux users.

There is only one minor criticism of the OS as I saw it. The sound defaults to mute on install which is naturally easily fixed. I’ve tried it out a fair bit but it’s really quite stable. If you find any faults yourself comment on them below.

Linux Mint is free and open source software available here. I recommend getting the stock standard 32 bit DVD version unless you know what you’re doing.

Overall Mint is very nice and likely to stay at least till the next 6 monthly churn. Where it all goes from there is a big question. There’s the Ubuntu Unity push and there’s also Gnome 3 which is still in the early stages and has garnered more than a few critics. Linux Mint is excellent for new users of Linux and I recommend it for that purpose.

I have just installed Ubuntu 11.04 ‘Natty Narwhal’ just released. Installation was trouble free, I have chosen to dual boot with Windows 7 Professional, the other operating system I use.

The Short Version:

Pretty Unity is not good for multitasking. It may be good enough one day. OpenLibre will probably replace OpenOffice. The rest of Ubuntu 11.04 is ok but it is not as stable and bug free as other releases.

The Long Version after the fold:

FlightGear is an open source, free flight simulator. From all accounts it is a reasonable game and you can learn a lot about flight this way. It has lots of aircraft to choose from but the graphics don’t stack up to the commercial competition just yet.

Unfortunately the way I found out about FlightGear is from spam regarding Proflight Simulator or Pro Flight Sim. Pro Flight Simulator is apparently just a copy of FlightGear with rebranding and a price tag. There are several similarly named games which do the same thing. This is completely legal and really a shortcoming of the open source system.

The real problem is less the reselling and more the method of reselling. We’re talking real testimonial, spam and ‘review’ scumbaggery here all powered by enormous commissions. Naturally profits are high as the costs are marketing not development.

The good news is it means FlightGear really competes with retail flight sims and FlightGear is free. Free of cost, free of spam and free of stress.

If you really want to get the most out of wine this article is for you. Here I show you my experience in getting more games to work under wine and the general pattern of how it all works. A basic knowledge of the command line interface (CLI) really helps. Try this tutorial if you want to learn more about CLI. This is a very long post so be warned.