Hi Nishit!
The following are my personal opinion and not my employers. So, excuse me if you find me rude.
On Thursday 17 Jan 2008 12:07:38 pm Nishit Dave wrote:
On Jan 16, 2008 3:16 PM, Atanu Datta lfyedit2@efyindia.com wrote:
On Wednesday 16 Jan 2008 1:49:12 pm Nishit Dave wrote:
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hmm hmm hmm.... I reviewed Mint in this issue. Can you elaborate on your claim that it is "self-contradictory". Criticisms are welcome, as that'll only help me improve. But when they are vague it's actually as good as Macrosoft's Get The Facts campaign or Steve Ballmer ranting how "Linux" is worthless. Kubuntu could be your favourite distro, and you can order it from their Ship It service-- if you would've ordered it in October, you have been running it by now. All major distros were released in Oct-Nov 07. So, by the time Jan issue hit the stands Ubuntu was an old news. Besides we asked in December issue if readers want Ubuntu 7.10 or wait for their LTS. People who wanted to skip it out numbered the ones who wanted Ubuntu. And frankly I (not the opinion of the mag) being a desktop user find distros like PCLinuxOS, Mandriva and Mint (which I tried for the first time), much more useful than Ubuntu and co. cuz at the end of the day it's all about out-of-the box experience.
Well, it's nice to see response after so many people have vented their rants. I usually do not carry copies of LFY along, so can't immediately point out the contradictions etc., but man, we really don't need vague installation experiences as well. Why can't you tell us how different the installation was as compared to Ubuntu's,
My distro reviews are always my personal experiences. I like writing it as I'd write in my own blog. The reason I've used so much of Ubuntu's reference in the article is because I wanted to point out it's a remastered Ubuntu. So, I tried to concentrate more on Mint-specific enhancements.
what steps you took for your dual install,
You kidding me? Dual boot is set up automatically eversince 2002, when I remember installing Mandrake 8.2. You still wanna learn what steps ppl take for dual boot?
what, apart from inclusion of closed codecs and drivers and new colours, would sent Mint apart from Ubuntu to make somebody want to switch, etc.?
I think I've clearly pointed out all the Mint-specific enhancements. If you find something that's missing, do let me know. And personally I dont think Ubuntu has anything that's better than Debian Unstable that would make me wanna switch to Ubuntu. People always want an out of the box solution, otherwise GNOME wouldn't have come out with the codec buddy. And Ubuntu users wouldn't have come out with Automatix. I dont even use Automatix. I use the Free mp3 decoders, and not Fluendo's. So, chill!! The only non-free software I depend on is Adobe Flash. And I don't care about patents. So, I wont stop using Free decoders unless India follows the US model of software patents and stuff.
What you wrote was (and pardon the lame analogies) like saying you took a such-and-such model of car, a notchback based on a hatchback for a spin, it sported new colours and had a hi-fi stereo as addition, and felt about the same. But uh-oh, it lacked some parts that were supposed to be there, e.g. the odometer was only for show. Of course, you can easily get the odometer cable installed from the original version.
lol!! You are funny!
I have been using Shipit since a long time. I have however never been able to find the link that leads you to get Kubuntu through it. AFAIK, K is a related project, an offshoot of Ubuntu. So kindly enlighten.
Even I've had used Shippit (ordered 4.10, and then 6.06, and then stopped using Ubuntu altogether). Ordering Kubuntu is not such a big deal.
Your last point could be very controversial. We might as well go along with Linspire, going by that credo.
I wont go with Linspire cuz I find it even more useless than Winduhs. I'm too used to non-Winduhs stuff that I would care for a distro that tries to imitate the Winduhs environment. But whatever floats you boat. Mint has it's very interesting enhancements, that's the point of the whole article. Otherwise, right now I'm still on Mdv 2008 on my work laptop -- it's always been my default OS, followed by Debian. A review is a review. It's always a personal opinion. Otherwise it would have been a documentation -- release notes were already available. :-)
Best, Atanu