Linux Mint 21.2 and Cinnamon 5.8 desktop take shape Linux Mint project lead Clement Lefebvre has shared some more details about the forthcoming version 21.2, including new versions of both Cinnamon and Xfce. The latest post on the Mint project's monthly blog reveals some more details about the next release, including a new version 5.8 of the Cinnamon desktop and enhancements to …
Pre systemD, I might have written a simple executable automount map script, which checks for the home network (or other conditions as desired) and performs the mount, else exit.
Executable maps have been supported by autofs-style automounters for a long time; what's the systemD sort of hammer for this nail?
From Linux to Linux I'm generally fine with the out of box tools.
Warpinator looked promising for Windows to Linux (or vice versa).
I couldn't get it to work. This is very probably because I did something wrong, but after an afternoon of web search and fettling I could no longer be bothered. It got uninstalled.
-A.
In my experience the problem is almost invariably on the Windows side. The OS has an annoying habit of classifying new network connections as "public" (which is prudent, and a far cry from the pants-down permissiveness of older versions of Windows) but then hiding the UI to make them "private", a known glitch on Windows 10 at least. It can't be DNSthe firewall, there's no way it's DNSthe firewall... oh. It is DNSthe firewall.
I tried warpinator myself between 2 Linux Mint 20.3 machines a few weeks ago and couldn't get it working either. I tried disabling the firewalls and still neither machine could see the other.
I didn't really spend too long on trying to trouble shoot it so it might have been trival to resolve, but in the end I installed SSH server on one machine and copied the files using SFTP instead which did work so I know it wasn't a network issue.
Call me behind the curve, but I prefer MATE. Mint is my choice on my personal machines, which date from 2016. Still quite zippy with plenty of RAM and SDDs. I'm a happy penguinista and have been for many years.
I'm qute impressed with its stability. Only objection I have is that some of the packages in the repo are seriously behind the releases on their PPMs, but that's easily remedied.
[Author here]
> I lean towards XFCE
Agreed.
I had a debate with a colleague at SUSE a few years back. He told me that he liked Xfce, but he used GNOME because of all the handy things it it, and asked me if I didn't mind the loss of functionality I got with Xfce.
I told him there was no loss of functionality. Zero.
He boggled. I showed him the app finder, the virtual desktops, the storage of ssh keys and automatic sign in, the VPN client... at that point, the overview function was only in alpha, I think, but TBH I don't love the overview myself; I just know a lot of GNOME fans love it and say they are not willing to lose it. Now you can have that too if you want.
There is *nothing at all* I'm aware of in GNOME, MATE, or KDE that I can't do just as well in Xfce. You might have to install a few extra bits but it's also fairly well-documented.
I don't mind MATE. It's fine, it does what GNOME 2 did and I used that happily for a decade. But GNOME 2 couldn't do vertical taskbars, and neither can MATE. (GNOME 3/4 can with extensions, but poorly, and it's fragile.)
For me, that's really important, and as there is literally nothing else in MATE that I want, I don't use it.
I think there is this vague generalised belief that using a lightweight desktop means you're losing something, that they're missing features... but they really aren't.
The one thing that does surprise me is that LXQt could do vertical taskbars at least as well as LXDE -- i.e. functional but not very customisable -- but LXQt 1.x can't. That's a very strange oversight to me.
I have been watching UNIX from the mid 90's, and linux from the 2000's and can say I don't use any, but if I were to give it a go, it would be mint. It seems like the most potential and approachable. I like the idea a lot. I am not afraid to try it, I just need to know it runs the software I need. It's not there yet.
Don't feel like you have to wait and then switch over. Try installing Mint (or any other linux) on a spare computer, or in a VM. There's a good chance it won't do everything you want, but you'll pick up a bit of knowledge, and it's just a spare computer so it doesn't matter if you just wipe it off afterwards. Then next time you try you'll have a little bit more starting knowledge, and can get just that little bit further.
I still don't run linux as my main desktop, and I don't think I ever will, but I do now 'have' to have a linux VM constantly accessible, just so I have an outlet when I need to do linux-y stuff.
I have been thoroughly enjoying LMDE 5. I use it on my personal work XPS laptop daily which has only an i3. I prefer MATE but cinnamon works just as well for me. Other desktops like NsCDE and MaXX were easy to install and try. The only thing that ever broke it was trying to update GRUB. Don't do that.
My company managed tens of thousands of RHEL servers so for desktop I went to Debian just for something different. After I sold my company, I landed on Mint (around 2008 or so) and just have stuck with it. I no longer had any interest in different OS or distros about then, so haven't ventured out to anything else. Mint Cinnamon just works, upgrades are seamless so all is good.
Plenty of other distros that I've heard good things about, just no interest in checking them out.'
"...upgrades are seamless so all is good."
I just upgraded a 2006 white macbook from 18.1 to 21.1. It took a few days including two full disc copies using dd but was remarkably easy. After having two complete failures to upgrade Ubuntu on ARM boards in the past I was a bit sceptical but seeing as the macbook's CD drive failed ages ago and it wouldn't boot from a live USB stick and a new install would have required installing rEFIt again I thought that the upgrade path was the best option. Installing on a later macbook does not work either due AFAIR to the limitations of the EFI implementation on the really early macbooks.
.
The macbook will be 21 years old by the time 21.1 stops receiving updates, assuming the hardware holds up. Mint Xfce zips along fine running off an SSD.
I've been a Mint user for a few years, first installed 17.1 when a replacement main board arrived with more ram than XP could hack, & W7 licence didn't arrive. Had to have something to play with over that Xmas... Never went back to the Borg. Now have 21.1/cinnamon on a 12yo laptop. A tad slow, but works perfectly.
As for Warpinator, works great if you let it apply firewall rules. Only anomaly I have seen is between 2 Android devices. Mint to Mint & to LMDE and the one windows instance (booted once a year!) I still have all works great.
Had an opportunity to speak with a relative who works in R&D for a major US defense comppany. He says he and all his coworkers use Linux for their work. Windows where absolutely necessary to interface with corporate IT, but their real work gets done on Linux systems. I was [pleasantly] surprised to hear that...well, perhaps not, as my boss was recently investigating how to dual boot his corporate laptop between Win10 to Linux.
I read that to indicate that the published percentage of desktops using Linux/Windows/MacOs may not be totally accurate.
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