Review: Linux Mint 7 KDE
Overview:
So good news for all of you KDE fans out there! I still am not part of that group, but hey!, Pardus left quite a good impression on me, so why not try this one too? First of all, see if you have an empty DVD lying around, 'cause the KDE version of Mint 7 (about 1.1 GB) won't fit on a CD. There are plenty of mirrors available for direct download and a seedful torrent, so it shouldn't take too much time to have the image on your hard drive. Once you have it on the disc, it's pretty much a straight-forward job: boot from the DVD, wait for the desktop to load, double click the "Install" icon and go through the easy-as-pie installation steps, identical to those of Ubuntu.
The latest, 4.2.4 version of K
Desktop Environment certainly feels more stable and less of a
resource-hog than previous ones, so using it didn't make my good ol'
single core Pentium 4 machine develop an inferiority complex.
What's
the first thing you need to do after installing an Operating System?
Make sure it's up to date! So that's what I did. The mintUpdate tool
was already working in the background, retrieving all of the 76 updates
that needed to be applied. About ten minutes and a rather harmless
Plasma workspace crash later, Linux Mint 7 KDE was ready to be explored.
As
I knew Canonical didn't bother to update their repositories with the
latest version of Pidgin in order to be able to connect to Yahoo, I
wanted to see if Mint did something about that. Nope, still at 2.5.5.
Before adding the third party source, I downloaded and installed it,
just for the heck of it and, surprise, surprise, I was online.
Apparently, the Mint team couldn't include the latest version so
instead they changed the server in the account preferences. Still, that
isn't a permanent solution, as certain features (such as avatars and
file transfer) don't work, but it's better than nothing. Oh, and yes,
before all that, I've tried connecting with the included Kopete IM
client, but had no luck.
If there is one thing that I find
highly annoying about Kubuntu-based OSes, it has to be this: NVIDIA
drivers installation. Though it quickly recognized my chipset and
recommended the 173 series, when I clicked "Activate", the selection
grayed out on me and nothing happened. NOTHING! Restart the
application, try again, restart the system, try again. Nope. Still no
response. Usually, depending on your luck and how the planets are
aligned that day, the darn thing will work after a few tries. Luckily,
the Minties (is it too wrong if I call the Linux Mint team that? :) )
are probably aware of that issue and included the awesome EnvyNG driver
installation program that quickly and smoothly took care of the problem.
Read Full Review at Source Web Site: itlure.com
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