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With all respect, what exactly is supposed to set Linux Mint apart from Ubuntu besides (from what I can tell after running it in a VM) besides a Vista/7-esqe Start Bar, a different login skin/set of wallpapers/window borders/ and some sort of built-in backup tool?

Because no offense, I can't see why I'd use this when there's Ubuntu :/. Not trolling, I'm honestly asking a genuine question (Windows is my primary OS anyway)

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With all respect, what exactly is supposed to set Linux Mint apart from Ubuntu besides (from what I can tell after running it in a VM) besides a Vista/7-esqe Start Bar, a different login skin/set of wallpapers/window borders/ and some sort of built-in backup tool?

Because no offense, I can't see why I'd use this when there's Ubuntu :/. Not trolling, I'm honestly asking a genuine question (Windows is my primary OS anyway)

nothing. both are the bloated stepchildren of debian.

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With all respect, what exactly is supposed to set Linux Mint apart from Ubuntu besides (from what I can tell after running it in a VM) besides a Vista/7-esqe Start Bar, a different login skin/set of wallpapers/window borders/ and some sort of built-in backup tool?

Because no offense, I can't see why I'd use this when there's Ubuntu :/. Not trolling, I'm honestly asking a genuine question (Windows is my primary OS anyway)

Seems to be that it comes with a lot of multimedia features/codecs built-in where Ubuntu has you download them at first need. So I suppose it's a bit more 'ready to go' out of the box than Ubuntu. It also sticks to a more comfortable feel than some bizarre need to try things out of left field like Canonical.

/though your average purist would have you think any distribution of Linux trying to be desktop-ready and grandma-friendly is 'bloated'

//up hill, both ways! get off my lawn!

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Seems to be that it comes with a lot of multimedia features/codecs built-in where Ubuntu has you download them at first need. So I suppose it's a bit more 'ready to go' out of the box than Ubuntu. It also sticks to a more comfortable feel than some bizarre need to try things out of left field like Canonical.

/though your average purist would have you think any distribution of Linux trying to be desktop-ready and grandma-friendly is 'bloated'

//up hill, both ways! get off my lawn!

Is that....legal? I thought Ubuntu didn't do that for that sole reason?

And I'm surprised to hear you say Canonical try things out of the blue, I was under the impression they're very slow to approve things, because I remember it took them forever and a half to move to Firefox 3.5.

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Linux Mint does a few custom things like: http://linuxmint.com/wiki/index.php/Mint_tools_and_specials

I personally just like the look of it better and having the codecs already there. I know it's easy to do in Ubuntu, but I just like Mint.

They were one of the first ones to include the "slab" menu or whatever it is actually called.

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Would a normal windows user go for DVD version if he has slow net ? I mean does it matter?

The difference in size is only about 100 MB so you can go for it. Even otherwise, you can always selectively install the required packages from the repository (if and when they are needed).

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And I'm surprised to hear you say Canonical try things out of the blue, I was under the impression they're very slow to approve things, because I remember it took them forever and a half to move to Firefox 3.5.

Yes, Ubuntu's repositories lags behind the real world by months, sometimes years. Yes, Canonical are also keen on approving things of dubious value like the messaging menu and window controls on the left.

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Yes, Ubuntu's repositories lags behind the real world by months, sometimes years.

Say what?

Before I call our your post for the B.S. that it appears to be, I will ask you to tell me what package in the Ubuntu repos is "years" behind. What package has been updated two years ago, but still has an older version in the Ubuntu repos?

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With all respect, what exactly is supposed to set Linux Mint apart from Ubuntu besides (from what I can tell after running it in a VM) besides a Vista/7-esqe Start Bar, a different login skin/set of wallpapers/window borders/ and some sort of built-in backup tool?

Because no offense, I can't see why I'd use this when there's Ubuntu :/. Not trolling, I'm honestly asking a genuine question (Windows is my primary OS anyway)

Mint is more of everything you need pre-installed. Like a complete package. Which is why I like Mint so much. There is a lot of small features in it as well that sets it apart.
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even with all my bias against Mint's Kde team..............................Gnome has always been good and somewhat more rounded version of Ubuntu..

I tried just now and was very very dis-appointed........................apart from updated kernel and packages....................what's new? :angry:

this just seems to be Mint8+ security updates+new wallpapers..................thats it.pls don't talk about new mintupdate.

People at mint are very smart.Wait for ubuntu to do all work,in 1mth polish it and release it as "ubuntu++"...................

Note:

don't slam me here,i am not going to read replies... :D

With all respect, what exactly is supposed to set Linux Mint apart from Ubuntu besides (from what I can tell after running it in a VM) besides a Vista/7-esqe Start Bar, a different login skin/set of wallpapers/window borders/ and some sort of built-in backup tool?

Because no offense, I can't see why I'd use this when there's Ubuntu :/. Not trolling, I'm honestly asking a genuine question (Windows is my primary OS anyway)

agree completely..................still they find excuses to release late....................

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Say what?

Before I call our your post for the B.S. that it appears to be, I will ask you to tell me what package in the Ubuntu repos is "years" behind. What package has been updated two years ago, but still has an older version in the Ubuntu repos?

If you're using an LTS release (like Hardy, which is supported until 2011), this can be the case. Example: the Hardy repos still offer Firefox 3 and OpenOffice 2, if I'm not mistaken.

Would that count?

agree completely..................still they find excuses to release late....................

Not exactly. I've noticed plenty of of bugs in Ubuntu that were mysteriously absent in the equivalent Mint release. On Ubuntu I had to hand-edit multiple .deb and .ppd files from other models for my sister's printer to work, on Mint it was 2 .deb files, click and go. No keyboard/touchpad input in Ubuntu on my AMD machine after waking up from hibernate, no such problem in Mint. I schedule nightly cronjobs for system updates during off-peak bandwidth hours, and some time ago I woke up to find that Ubuntu wouldn't boot. Running gparted from my liveusb reported my Ubuntu installation as Debian Lenny, one of the most incredulous "wtf?!" moments I've had to date using Linux. Mint has yet to pull off anything like that.

The green paintjob and extra apps might be the most visible difference from Ubuntu, but somehow I highly doubt that's all that's going on.

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Seems to be that it comes with a lot of multimedia features/codecs built-in where Ubuntu has you download them at first need. So I suppose it's a bit more 'ready to go' out of the box than Ubuntu. It also sticks to a more comfortable feel than some bizarre need to try things out of left field like Canonical.

/though your average purist would have you think any distribution of Linux trying to be desktop-ready and grandma-friendly is 'bloated'

//up hill, both ways! get off my lawn!

See, my problem with 'ready to go' is that it is obsolete the day after you burn your CD/DVD. I'd rather use a minimal install of Debian and set my repositories to unstable/experimental and then download the current build of whatever applications that I choose. I could use that same Debian mini-CD next year and it would work just about as well as a starting point.

Debian set to use unstable binaries never really gets obsolete. Unless you b0rk your entire system there's no need for an upgrade CD. You just continually update as you go.

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Does this work with Wubi? unsure.gif

Mint includes the Wubi-derived Mint4Win, which, like Wubi, allows a within-Windows install. (Yes; I've used it. Yes; it supports Windows 7, including the x64 versions. Yes; like Wubi, it even supports being run from virtual drives, including VirtualCloneDrive.)

In terms of long-term Linux distributions, I'm still torn between Kubuntu 10.04 and openSuSE (now at 11.3 M6). The issue boils down to a stable/useful KDE 4.4.x desktop.

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