Linux and Google Chrome

So there's something you just HAVE to get off your chest, and it doesn't fit into any of the above catagories? All spam, rants, and random chatter belongs in here.
User avatar
editor
Site Admin
Posts: 701
Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2013 9:24 am
Contact:

Re: Linux and Google Chrome

Post by editor »

Mint is my personal favorite at this time. I also prefer KDE as a desktop.

Here are a few links for you:

Mint 15 KDE, 32 bit (supported until January 2014):
http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=139

Mint 15 KDE, 64 bit (supported until January 2014) [If you have >4GB memory]
http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=140

Mint 13 KDE, 32 bit LTS (supported until April 2017)
http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=115

Mint 16 has been released, but not in the KDE version, which always takes longer to come out. Here's the link:

Mint 16 Mate, 32 bit (supported until July 2014)
http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=145

The KDE version will probably come out somewhere near the end of January. In the meantime, you'd do fine to install v15. When v16 is released for KDE, do the update. That's what I would do.

If you're worried about long term support, don't care about having the newest version of the various packaged programs, and want something you won't have to tinker with for a long time, install v13, which will continue to get updates well into 2017.

Each of the above links leads to a page with numerous links from which you can download that particular version. The only difference in the links is the physical location from where the file will be downloaded.
--
Editor
Lawfulpath.com
Thomas Jeffrey
Posts: 95
Joined: Wed May 08, 2013 7:47 pm

Re: Linux and Google Chrome

Post by Thomas Jeffrey »

Gregory,

You turned me on to Mandriva a few years ago and I liked it. At some point it seemed to take a turn south, so I too, switched to Mint 10 after trying several Live Installations, and it has been great to use ever since. The last update I did was to Mint 13 KDE.

Why do you suppose version 13 would be supported until 2017 and later version are not? (Perhaps its a good thing that I don't feel the need to update every year.)

Would you recommend updating to one of the later versions?
Thomas
User avatar
editor
Site Admin
Posts: 701
Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2013 9:24 am
Contact:

Re: Linux and Google Chrome

Post by editor »

Please re-read my last post, in which I gave you links to several different versions of Mint. Any one of those would be a fine choice, and I gave you some criteria which will help you decide.

I also told you that each link leads to a page with a lot of links, any one of which will download the same file. The reason for all the links is that it's a large file, and if you download it from a physical location which is nearer to your own location, you will usually get it faster. This also puts less strain on the Internet as a whole.

If you choose to download Mint 13, which might be the best choice for certain near-extinct species of reptile, then an example of the correct link, which goes to James Madison University, would be this:

http://mirror.jmu.edu/pub/linuxmint/ima ... -32bit.iso

The key to knowing you have a good final link, is it will end with the letters: iso
--
Editor
Lawfulpath.com
Thomas Jeffrey
Posts: 95
Joined: Wed May 08, 2013 7:47 pm

Re: Linux and Google Chrome

Post by Thomas Jeffrey »

Forgive me, but I think we had a miscommunication.

I was asking if you had any idea why Mint 13, an older version, was being supported to a date beyond the later versions. I'm not quite as developer-savvy as others and I thought there might be a logical reason why developers would do this.

The second question asked if you had an opinion on whether it would be worthwhile, being so close to 2014, for someone to update Mint to one of the newer versions that only gets support for another few months. Your post read as if you were using Mint 14 or 15, so I thought you may prefer one version or another over v.13 for some reason that would warrant a recommendation to update.

Although I haven't started growing scales yet, Mint 13 has been working great. :)

God bless,
Thomas
User avatar
editor
Site Admin
Posts: 701
Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2013 9:24 am
Contact:

Re: Linux and Google Chrome

Post by editor »

Hi Thomas,

I must have been distracted. I think I was actually answering Lis' question for the second time.

Mint is based on Ubuntu. When Ubuntu issues a LTS (long term support) release, Mint does too, because the developers know security updates will continue to come through Ubuntu's repositories.

The reason for having a LTS version is for the benefit of anyone who values stability over features. It is really geared toward larger corporations, which don't want to bear the cost of upgrading every six months.

Not that the upgraded Linux software costs anything-- it doesn't. It's more of a persuasion point than anything.

You have to understand the corporate CEO mindset, after having many year's experience with Micro$oft. Any time Micro$oft upgrades Windows, corporations view it as a tax. They pay a tremendous sum for site licenses every year. Upgrades come with a big pricetag over the usual site license. Also, a Windows update usually requires newer, faster computers. Often it even requires training for employees, to bring them up to speed on new features and a different user interface. Not to mention the cost of the computer staff who have to physically perform the upgrade.

Picture yourself as the head of the computer department for one of these companies. You're trying to pitch Linux to the CEO, and you're telling him how much money this is going to save the company. "Your software gets upgraded every six months" becomes a negative, instead of a positive selling point. What the CEO wants to hear is, "Your new OS will be supported for five years."

I personally recommend updating, but waiting until two or three weeks after a new version is released.

The upgrade does take some time and effort, but some of the programs I use often get some pretty cool updates, and I like the new features. In the past I used to upgrade only every OTHER version. But support for the non LTS versions has been reigned in to a nine month timespan for Ubuntu, which translates into as little as six months for Mint. Security updates are important. So those are my reasons for keeping current.

I wait a couple weeks after the release, because that gives developers time to respond to the biggest problems and do bugfixes. That way I don't have to be one of the guinea pigs.

There is a potential snag-- I prefer KDE. The KDE version of Mint always comes out a month or two after the base version of Mint. Security updates will last about nine months, so I'm mostly okay. But by the time I wait two or three weeks to let the new version mature, I'm cutting it close.

Mint 16 was released November 30. The KDE version's "release candidate" (meaning beta) was released earlier this week. The actual release will be another week or two. Waiting a couple weeks to upgrade puts me into that gray area, in which I may or may not receive every security update.

For most regular users this is not a huge deal. Linux is pretty secure anyway, certainly much more so than Windows. I keep up with these things because I run a couple servers. On my production server, I run the LTS version. On my desktop, I run the shiniest new version I can get.

I know, I'm rambling. Bottom line is, whether or not to keep up with the most current release is a personal choice. It's extra work to keep up, but you get the advantage of having the newest versions of your software.
--
Editor
Lawfulpath.com
Thomas Jeffrey
Posts: 95
Joined: Wed May 08, 2013 7:47 pm

Re: Linux and Google Chrome

Post by Thomas Jeffrey »

Thanks, Gregory, that explains a lot. I was under the impression that the newer versions just contained a few new tweaks to the kernel and perhaps some cool new desktop images or icons, but your explanation makes a lot of sense and sure helps to understand the purpose of the LTS releases.

Thank you for the help and God bless,
Thomas
Thomas Jeffrey
Posts: 95
Joined: Wed May 08, 2013 7:47 pm

Re: Linux and Google Chrome

Post by Thomas Jeffrey »

I was re-reading the posts and thought of something that may help Lis:

Just in case this is new to you... when you download an .iso file from one of the links, it will be an image file of the software. You will need to burn this .iso file to a DVD as a disk image. If you do not have a program that can do this such as Nero or Roxio, there are many free programs for download that can burn disk images to a DVD. Do a Google search for free .iso burning software. Try to pick one from a trusted source, and perhaps one that others may have favorably commented on in software forums or reviews.

The one that I use on my wife's Windows computer is CDBurnerXP. you can find it at https://cdburnerxp.se/help/Data/burn-iso. There are probably much better ones out there, but for the 2 or 3 times I've used this, it has worked well.

Once the image has been burned to the DVD, if I remember correctly, you need to restart your computer and boot from the DVD. Make sure your computer BIOS is set up to boot from a Disk. Once your computer starts, the disk will guide you through the installation.

I hope this helps.
Thomas
User avatar
editor
Site Admin
Posts: 701
Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2013 9:24 am
Contact:

Re: Linux and Google Chrome

Post by editor »

Thomas,

I think that will be helpful for Lis, thanks.

Sometimes it's hard to put myself into the head of someone still using Windows. I've been using Linux for 15 years now.

I was happy to hear you had been using Mandriva. That was my distro of choice for a long time. It was so stable, and so... just really great, that I got kind of lazy. I had something that worked, and I stopped reading much about what was happening in the open source world.

I started to get the idea there might be trouble on the horizon when, in 2010, I bought a new printer. Mandriva didn't have a driver for it, but when I went to HP's website, they had one I could download and compile the source myself. It was then I started reading about Mandriva's financial troubles, but it was another eight or ten months before I had time to make a change.

In retrospect, Mandriva's downfall has been good for me. It has forced me to get back in touch again, and discover some of the things I was missing. I subscribed to Linux Format magazine, which I have really enjoyed. Although now I might want to switch to Linux Voice, which is a brand new magazine run by the former staff of Linux Format. Long story.

Anyway, free and open software is one of the things that bring great happiness to my life. Sounds silly, I know. But there it is.
--
Editor
Lawfulpath.com
Thomas Jeffrey
Posts: 95
Joined: Wed May 08, 2013 7:47 pm

Re: Linux and Google Chrome

Post by Thomas Jeffrey »

Thanks for sharing that. I think it's far from silly. It falls right in line with a guy's need to tinker.

After I grew out of building forts with the neighborhood "he-man woman haters club", I started tinkering with cars with my dad in the garage trying to get the last ounce of power or that nice low growl from the engine. By the time fuel injection, chips, and smog systems became the norm, most cars that were fun to work on became scarce and out of my price range. Enter computers.

Computers and software have become the way a lot of guys get to satisfy that "tinker itch". To get under the hood, so to speak, to tweak and explore the technologies as they come out. It's good stuff!
Thomas
Lexington Bill
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2015 9:36 am

Re: Linux and Google Chrome

Post by Lexington Bill »

lis wrote:Sorry I'm such a dinosaur, but I'm trying to download Linux and all the links and sites I've been to lead to something, somewhere else and I'm STILL not able to download and install onto my laptop. Can anyone give me a no nonsense link to 'download' please? It doesn't matter if Mint or Puppy or whatever. Thanks.
I don't see where you got an answer. If the question is still unresolved, please contact me and I will try to guide you through the process of installing Linux.
Post Reply