Peppermint OS

[Jojoyee]

Continued from the discussion here, I now add a separate thread for Peppermint to discuss more about this OS.

According to this review, it says Peppermint should have been called Surprise! OS.

What about your views?

[Jojoyee]

On panel settings, Peppermint allows to set the appearance of the panel with opacity. But when I tried it, it didn't seem to work well.

After some checking, it looks like this is a bug which is an issue between the lxpanel and the 0.9.x versions of the file manager PCManFM with the latter being the culprit as discussed in this community forum.

[MidnightCowboy]

Well, I have indeed been pleasantly "surprised" by this OS

Apart from not being able to copy paste anything from my external drive and having to use drag & drop instead everything is so simple and straightforward.

On my system the panel opacity settings are working as they should be.

Couldn't work out how to get a Thunderbird new mail icon active in the panel but maybe Claws is a better program anyway and that works fine

Installed Screenlets today and no problems. Sometimes Ubuntu seemed reluctant to launch and/or keep settings for these so again it seems just a tadge more stable.

Cairo Dock seems very happy too although you do need to run Compiz to get rid of the black border.

Music, Video (FLV), movies, streaming video and radio all fine.

Somebody has put a lot of effort into getting this right and it shows

[Jojoyee]

Originally Posted by MidnightCowboy

On my system the panel opacity settings are working as they should be.

How did you set it as it still didn't work on my PC even after I'd installed the Nvidia graphic driver as I did for Ubuntu?

In Ubuntu, I choose the option "Solid color" and immediately I can see the transparency level of the panel when the Style bar is slided to left or right.

In Peppermint, I have ticked the option for Solid color (with opacity) and slided the Opacity level but the panel transparency has no effect.

What have I missed out

[Jojoyee]

Originally Posted by MidnightCowboy

Apart from not being able to copy paste anything from my external drive and having to use drag & drop instead everything is so simple and straightforward.

I am able to copy-and-paste or drag-and-drop files from a portable hard disk to the internal hard drive with no issue.

Peppermint also auto detects and mounts that drive in NTFS format, except for a particular USB stick in FAT32 format that it needs manual mounting as I mentioned in another thread.

[MidnightCowboy]

Originally Posted by Jojoyee

How did you set it as it still didn't work on my PC even after I'd installed the Nvidia graphic driver as I did for Ubuntu?

In Ubuntu, I choose the option "Solid color" and immediately I can see the transparency level of the panel when the Style bar is slided to left or right.

In Peppermint, I have ticked the option for Solid color (with opacity) and slided the Opacity level but the panel transparency has no effect.

What have I missed out

All I can assume with my limited technical abilities is that this must be a driver and/or hardware issue because I did nothing yet this features works for me.

I have Compiz installed and running to take out the black border around Cairo Dock, could this have something to do with it?

[MidnightCowboy]

Originally Posted by Jojoyee

I am able to copy-and-paste or drag-and-drop files from a portable hard disk to the internal hard drive with no issue.

This is what I get which in this instance is an Open Office Writer document containing the URL for Radio Paradise, although I get the same error no matter what type of file I try to copy/paste. Just dragging the file into another destination works fine though.
Finished_001.jpg

[Ritho]

Originally Posted by MidnightCowboy

This is what I get which in this instance is an Open Office Writer document containing the URL for Radio Paradise, although I get the same error no matter what type of file I try to copy/paste. Just dragging the file into another destination works fine though.
Attachment 790

I used to get a very similar error in Ubuntu 9.10, when copy and pasting to a usb drive. Something along the same lines stating the file or directory does not exist. But the weird thing was that the file still always pasted anyway.

[wdhpr]

If you all don't mind me saying.

These are exactly the conversations needed to be heard by the developers of Linux platforms. They all claim that their OS is just like windows.

Certain adjustments like Jojoyee's tweaking tips help. But I don't think Linux platforms will ever truly duplicate MS Windows. Something Microsoft hasn't lost track of.

Anyway are we sure we want an exact window's clone?

However I find the conversations in this forum very helpful to the everyday novice users (like me) as we make that step into the uncertain waters that is Linux.

Cheers
Wdhpr

[Ritho]

Originally Posted by wdhpr

If you all don't mind me saying.

These are exactly the conversations needed to be heard by the developers of Linux platforms. They all claim that their OS is just like windows.

Certain adjustments like Jojoyee's tweaking tips help. But I don't think Linux platforms will ever truly duplicate MS Windows. Something Microsoft hasn't lost track of.

Anyway are we sure we want an exact window's clone?

However I find the conversations in this forum very helpful to the everyday novice users (like me) as we make that step into the uncertain waters that is Linux.

Cheers
Wdhpr

I would point out that that there are a few distributions that can make the claim that they are "as easy as windows to use" Distros like Ubuntu or PCLinuxOS are very easy to use and in the majority of cases everything works right out of the box. I have done computer trouble shooting and support for years, and I know very well that Windows is just as fraught with problems as any other OS. The biggest problem with Linux is support for certain devices. This is not necessarily the OS developers fault, because a lot of peripheral manufactures don't support Linux.

Linux takes some getting used to. It is a different OS, and a lot of Windows users don't want to give it a chance, because it is just too different. So some distros have tried to mimic Windows as much as possible, but under the surface it is still Linux. The best way to convert someone to linux is to sit them down in front of it and show them the awesome features that some of the distros provide that are actually easier than Windows.

Take Ubuntu for example.....

1. The software center. You just search for the category of the type of program you want. You read the descriptions for the different choices available, choose one, and click install. Everything then just happens. The necessary files are automatically downloaded and installed. You don't have to go out and search around the net for a program as often. Nearly everything for Linux is free, and if it is in the software center, it is 100% compatible. Installing programs through Ubuntu's software center is many times simpler that installing something on Windows.

2. Multiple desktops by default. Yes I know you can install utilities to do this on Windows, but it is much better if the feature is a native function. Once you get used to spreading out your work across multiple desktops, you will immediately miss it when you sit down in front of a windows machine.

3. Plug and Play. I used to joke about how things are really more like "Plug and Pray" on windows. Since coming to Ubuntu I have really learned what that should be like. I have a 9 year old Canon scanner which I like very much. To install it on Windows it takes about 10-15 min to install the drivers and the driver takes up about 40MB of disk space. With Linux? I just plugged it in. 10 seconds later I found the simple scanner utility under the program menu and my scanner was already recognized and ready to go. My Samsung laser printer was exactly the same. I plugged it in the first time and it was recognized and I was able to begin printing in about 20sec. My Cannon Professional Photo Printer, the same thing. My wife has an iPod. She hates using iTunes. Plug it in to Ubuntu, no extra software necessary to upload or download music to it from your computer. The list goes on and on. Wireless Internet devices (especially usb) are the Achilles heal of Linux at this point. But it is even getting better and better with theses as well.

4. No confusing security software pop-ups and alerts. I have met people who have disabled their firewalls because they got tired of all the popups. I say, "Do you know how dangerous that is." The say they don't care.

5. Fast boot. On average most Linux distos boot to a fully loaded desktop and startup programs in far less than half the time of most average windows setups. (I am not talking about a fresh Windows install, but one with all your security softwares, productivity programs and everything else that seems to want to load some services or something at startup)

6. Customization. I used to use Windows Blinds to customize my Windows desktops. It one of the few viable options for Windows. I want my desktop to work the way I want it to, and not the way Microsoft wants it to. You know how many times the utheme.dll file has been hacked on Windows in order for users to be able to apply their own visual themes to windows, just to have Microsoft turn around and mess it up in an update? That utheme file seems to exist for the sole purpose of preventing users from using third party themes. Why is beyond me. With Linux I can EASILY customize my desktop to look and more importantly to work the way I want it to. If I want to use KDE, or another desktop environment instead of Gnome, it is as simple as installing it.

7. Pre-installed software that is actually desirable. Distro developers like Ubuntu and others actually spend a lot of time deciding what are the cream of the crop programs to include with their particular distro. You don't end up with a bunch of useless, memory hungry, bloated programs like you do with a new computer with Windows Pre installed. One of my favorites is how you can open pdf files without need for Adobe Reader, or installing an alternative. They just open in the native Document Reader. Also I used to always install a pdf printer utility under windows. Not necessary under most linux distros, since they all have one automatically built in.

These things among many others (not to mention it is free) are the reasons why after struggling with the typical new linux user problems and learning curve, I now use Ubuntu as my primary operating system. I do still dual boot to use some of my programs that I paid good money for when I was a windows user. (Mostly graphics programs PaintShop Pro, Corel Draw, Xara Xtreme, and some Games.)

This was all written in hope that windows users who try linux, and struggle with new OS "Culture Shock" will continue to give it a chance.