So, a little while ago I said that I wanted to talk about installing Linux Mint. But I should probably clarify that I wanted to talk about the process of installing and not how to install Linux Mint. There are a tonne (spelled CDN way) videos, articles, blogs, forums that will give you good advice on installing Linux; just do a search on YouTube and you'll get too many to watch in a single day.
I wanted to talk about my impressions of the Linux Mint install... It was good. Ok, I'll expand.
Boat-ware
For those who aren't very computer literate, you've probably purchased your desktop computer, or laptop computer with a pre-installed operating system...more than likely a version of Windows...as well as a tonne of bloat-ware. Bloat-ware or Crap-ware is software that comes pre-installed on your brand new computer and is generally stuff you would never use...it isn't stuff that is part of the Windows operating system, it is more than likely stuff that the hardware manufacturers got a commission to install on the computer without asking the user if he/she needs 14 versions of solitaire. Another bad thing about these pre-installed programs is that more often than not, they are nothing but trial-ware. Generally you will get 3-6 months of free use from them, and then you will have to pay for the program...at a highly inflated price too. One last point is about bloat-ware is that many smart phone manufactures seem to be getting into this practice.
I won't say that Linux Mint (at least the version I loaded) comes with JUST the operating system basics, but it does give you many of the programs you'd need from a productivity standpoint. For instance, you get:
I wanted to talk about my impressions of the Linux Mint install... It was good. Ok, I'll expand.
For those who aren't very computer literate, you've probably purchased your desktop computer, or laptop computer with a pre-installed operating system...more than likely a version of Windows...as well as a tonne of bloat-ware. Bloat-ware or Crap-ware is software that comes pre-installed on your brand new computer and is generally stuff you would never use...it isn't stuff that is part of the Windows operating system, it is more than likely stuff that the hardware manufacturers got a commission to install on the computer without asking the user if he/she needs 14 versions of solitaire. Another bad thing about these pre-installed programs is that more often than not, they are nothing but trial-ware. Generally you will get 3-6 months of free use from them, and then you will have to pay for the program...at a highly inflated price too. One last point is about bloat-ware is that many smart phone manufactures seem to be getting into this practice.
I won't say that Linux Mint (at least the version I loaded) comes with JUST the operating system basics, but it does give you many of the programs you'd need from a productivity standpoint. For instance, you get:
- LibreOffice office suite (the entire suite)
- Brasero: A disk burning program
- Image Viewer and Shotwell: A Photo viewing program and a photo organizing program
- Firefox: A web browser
- Banshee: A Music Program
- MPlayer: A video player
- and lots of system utilities
You get much more than this too, but not much of it is what I would call bloat-ware. I should also point out that if you install the operating system yourself (Windows, Linux, Apple) you can avoid the bloat-ware. For the most part, bloat-ware will only be installed on systems you'd purchase from a computer store (Bestbuy, Futureshop, New Egg, Amazon, etc) In fact in virtually every instance of Windows that I have ever had, I always reformat the hard drive and start from scratch.
Lack of Advanced Installation
Another experience I had while installing Linux Mint, was that you actually didn't get much in terms of options for configuring the install. I might be wrong about this, as I may have simply overlooked it, but I didn't notice an advanced install function; something that would allow you to pick and choose which programs you wanted to install. Generally when installing Windows you can pick and choose which programs you wish to install. By doing this, you can select a default installation or a really lean mean installation. Again, if I missed this step, I hope someone will set me straight.
That being said, there was very little you had to do for the install. You select your location, enter your username, computer name and password, and that is about it.
Installation Time
Finally, I found that the installation itself went pretty quickly. I didn't time it or anything, but I perceived it as much shorter than most of the Windows installations that I have ever done.
While it was installing, it went over a few of the features that you might enjoy while using Linux, which I actually found interesting and informative.
All in all, I found the installation process a pretty painless process.
Oh yeah, one more thing that I thought was pretty cool was that I was able to configure my wireless network connection even before the installation process had completed. I don't know why I think that is cool, but it is!
Post a Comment