Apart from Mint other good easy Linux distributions (distros)
are Peppermint 3.
Thats run in part by some people who also help out with Mint, thats probably why you liked it.
Must agree its a good stable/basic OS.
Just a little slow on releases and updates due to the team working on other projects. http://peppermintos.com/team/
Puppy felt like a toy to me, and having desktop icons that respond to 1 click instead of a double-click just seems wrong somehow
Something about Puppy feels like it's a very limited world of apps, as if I'm running a toy computer with a small number of built in features burnt into a ROM, like going back to 8 bit computers from the 80s, or an Amstrad email/phone/fax machine. In some ways that's a good thing, I suppose, if it all does what it should, and a user can easily feel like they know its capabilities inside out. Quite appealing in some ways. They've done a good job with it on that score.
Puppy felt like a toy to me, and having desktop icons that respond to 1 click instead of a double-click just seems wrong somehow
Something about Puppy feels like it's a very limited world of apps, as if I'm running a toy computer with a small number of built in features burnt into a ROM, like going back to 8 bit computers from the 80s, or an Amstrad email/phone/fax machine. In some ways that's a good thing, I suppose, if it all does what it should, and a user can easily feel like they know its capabilities inside out. Quite appealing in some ways. They've done a good job with it on that score.
But I'll stick with Mint!
The default file manager on Puppy is very strange ('Rox' I think it's called). Very limited with no easy way to navigate.
Seems silly to me to have launcher icons on your desktop and then having to do the fiddly and clumsy double-click action in order to start something. Once you begin using single-click you don't want to go back to double-clicking.
There are loads of apps for Puppy. If you don't see what you want in the Package Manager then the one-stop-shop is the forum where you will find pretty much everything you need AND (unlike with some distros) the friendliest and most-helpful community that welcomes new users with open arms.
ROX is a great file manager. Easy to navigate and perform tasks. Others are available if perhaps you are accustomed to something else.
Many users run Puppy live all the time as it runs at full speed without needing to be installed, but if you want you can use the Puppy Universal Installer to install to internal or external drives. Documentation pops up and walks you through the process. Grub (legacy) or Grub4Dos bootloaders are available from the menu and again it is just a case of a few simple steps which there are clear instructions for.
I vaguely remember getting Puppy running off a USB stick with some kind of persistence (? not altogether sure) in my efforts to try out a Linux video editor I wanted to play with (OpenShot or Kdenlive, can't remember now!). It was a nifty way to play with video that I couldn't do in Windows.
But it was too weird, that single click business, after all these years of doubles. Too easy to launch something accidentally, but I suppose you'd get used to it.
I vaguely remember getting Puppy running off a USB stick with some kind of persistence (? not altogether sure) in my efforts to try out a Linux video editor I wanted to play with (OpenShot or Kdenlive, can't remember now!). It was a nifty way to play with video that I couldn't do in Windows.
But it was too weird, that single click business, after all these years of doubles. Too easy to launch something accidentally, but I suppose you'd get used to it.
The fist thing I do after a new install is change to single-click. Double clicking is for wimps.:)
Seems silly to me to have launcher icons on your desktop and then having to do the fiddly and clumsy double-click action in order to start something. Once you begin using single-click you don't want to go back to double-clicking.
There are loads of apps for Puppy. If you don't see what you want in the Package Manager then the one-stop-shop is the forum where you will find pretty much everything you need AND (unlike with some distros) the friendliest and most-helpful community that welcomes new users with open arms.
ROX is a great file manager. Easy to navigate and perform tasks. Others are available if perhaps you are accustomed to something else.
Many users run Puppy live all the time as it runs at full speed without needing to be installed, but if you want you can use the Puppy Universal Installer to install to internal or external drives. Documentation pops up and walks you through the process. Grub (legacy) or Grub4Dos bootloaders are available from the menu and again it is just a case of a few simple steps which there are clear instructions for.
I do quite like the single click method, but I can't agree about Rox. It's the most basic file manager imaginable. No way to navigate from one place to another apart from going up or down levels (unless I'm missing something?).
And the most annoying thing is the window contracts and expands depending on how many files are in a folder. :eek:
I did try installing Thunar, but couldn't get it to work at all. Some problem with dependencies I think?
Admittedly I've only played with the live CD of Slacko a few times (after hearing about it from you :cool: ), and no doubt with a bit of work I could get it how I like.
But I wouldn't recommend it as a first experience of Linux, to a beginner, unless they had a machine with 512MB or less RAM.
ETA: I've just looked up Rox, and see it's a different sort of file manager. A Spatial file manager as opposed to a Navigational file manager.
So therefore more investigation on my part is needed.
But again, it takes it away from the norm, and makes it very much an acquired taste.
I've installed Steam on my Linux Mint 14 system. They are offering a few free games and I have just tried out Team Fortress 2. It's working well.
For those people wanting to try out this new gaming platform for Linux check out the following link http://www.dedoimedo.com/games/steam-linux-beta-here.html
In general terms if you are starting off in in Linux you should always choose a distribution with a large user base and well supported by the distributor (whether a company or a volunteer group)
You would also need to avoid specialist distros and choose a good all-rounder distro
This would be
Ubuntu (or derivatives such as mint)
Fedora (Red Hat) - my personal choice
SuSE
In general terms if you are starting off in in Linux you should always choose a distribution with a large user base and well supported by the distributor (whether a company or a volunteer group)
You would also need to avoid specialist distros and choose a good all-rounder distro
This would be
Ubuntu (or derivatives such as mint)
Fedora (Red Hat) - my personal choice
SuSE
Not too sure many people would advise Fedora to a newbie Linux user.
Comments
http://schoelje.nl/lmdekde/lmdekde32_up6sr1_201212.iso
Thats run in part by some people who also help out with Mint, thats probably why you liked it.
Must agree its a good stable/basic OS.
Just a little slow on releases and updates due to the team working on other projects.
http://peppermintos.com/team/
Not good practise to link directly to an ISO. It immediately started downloading and I had to cancel it.
Its not good practice to have youre system setup to auto download stuff. :eek:
If i click on the link it asks me what to do with it.
Thats on Win 7 default setting.
I'm on Chromium on Linux Mint, and it just started downloading it to the Downloads folder (default behaviour).
Anyway henm2 should have linked to the parent page, and we could have read up on it.
Why would they assume anyone wanted to download the 32bit ISO?
Thats naughty of Chromium...
Just tried my Mint cinnammon firefox
Tried my XFCE firefox
And windows was firefox
All 3 asked me what to do with it.
Not disagreeing with you, was just curious.
Wonder why Chromium decided to make it the default?
Chrome is the same
Thats naughty of Chrome to have that set as a default operation.
Yeah, it is a bit of a pain and it's classed as an advanced option to disable it.
You are right
Sorry I slipped up there
Something about Puppy feels like it's a very limited world of apps, as if I'm running a toy computer with a small number of built in features burnt into a ROM, like going back to 8 bit computers from the 80s, or an Amstrad email/phone/fax machine. In some ways that's a good thing, I suppose, if it all does what it should, and a user can easily feel like they know its capabilities inside out. Quite appealing in some ways. They've done a good job with it on that score.
But I'll stick with Mint!
The default file manager on Puppy is very strange ('Rox' I think it's called). Very limited with no easy way to navigate.
Seems silly to me to have launcher icons on your desktop and then having to do the fiddly and clumsy double-click action in order to start something. Once you begin using single-click you don't want to go back to double-clicking.
There are loads of apps for Puppy. If you don't see what you want in the Package Manager then the one-stop-shop is the forum where you will find pretty much everything you need AND (unlike with some distros) the friendliest and most-helpful community that welcomes new users with open arms.
ROX is a great file manager. Easy to navigate and perform tasks. Others are available if perhaps you are accustomed to something else.
Many users run Puppy live all the time as it runs at full speed without needing to be installed, but if you want you can use the Puppy Universal Installer to install to internal or external drives. Documentation pops up and walks you through the process. Grub (legacy) or Grub4Dos bootloaders are available from the menu and again it is just a case of a few simple steps which there are clear instructions for.
But it was too weird, that single click business, after all these years of doubles. Too easy to launch something accidentally, but I suppose you'd get used to it.
The fist thing I do after a new install is change to single-click. Double clicking is for wimps.:)
Downloading as we speak.:)
I do quite like the single click method, but I can't agree about Rox. It's the most basic file manager imaginable. No way to navigate from one place to another apart from going up or down levels (unless I'm missing something?).
And the most annoying thing is the window contracts and expands depending on how many files are in a folder. :eek:
I did try installing Thunar, but couldn't get it to work at all. Some problem with dependencies I think?
Admittedly I've only played with the live CD of Slacko a few times (after hearing about it from you :cool: ), and no doubt with a bit of work I could get it how I like.
But I wouldn't recommend it as a first experience of Linux, to a beginner, unless they had a machine with 512MB or less RAM.
ETA: I've just looked up Rox, and see it's a different sort of file manager. A Spatial file manager as opposed to a Navigational file manager.
So therefore more investigation on my part is needed.
But again, it takes it away from the norm, and makes it very much an acquired taste.
Thanks for that. Will check it out.
For those people wanting to try out this new gaming platform for Linux check out the following link
http://www.dedoimedo.com/games/steam-linux-beta-here.html
You would also need to avoid specialist distros and choose a good all-rounder distro
This would be
Ubuntu (or derivatives such as mint)
Fedora (Red Hat) - my personal choice
SuSE
Main problem with puppy is the limited choice of apps especially compared with fedora or ubuntu(Debian)
Not too sure many people would advise Fedora to a newbie Linux user.