I installed Linux Mint 11 last night. And this morning. And again this morning. I think I’m done now.<\/p>\n
I’ve been using Linux Mint for several years and just loving it. It’s the most stable, most newbie-friendly, most media friendly Linux I know. Release 7 was terrific, 8 even better — and there I happily stayed until I began having browser woes. I knew there could be hassles jumping three versions forward, but Mint is so<\/i> friendly I wasn’t worried.<\/p>\n
Ha!<\/p>\n
First time<\/strong> I tried to install, it insisted on a username and password long before any had been set. It hinted that the username it wanted was “mint,” but no password in the ‘verse would appease it.<\/p>\n After researching and finding others having the same problem — but no one having a solution — I restarted and tried again. This time it didn’t ask for any impossible information. Guess it decided I was okay.<\/p>\n However this time<\/strong>, though a combo of my own brain fart and one of Mint’s new features (really, if you’re going to have slider bars that hide until somebody mouses over them, you really ought to tell the n00bs that’s what they have to do to access additional configuration options), I screwed up the install by not mounting all my quirky little partitions.<\/p>\n Third time<\/strong>, I got the partitions right, and thought everything was just hunky-dory and nifty-zorch — until I was configuring email and noticed that the @ key was typing ” . And yes, the ” key was typing @. And the pound (#) key was typing pound as in British money, despite my having definitely chosen the standard U.S. keyboard.<\/p>\n Fourth time<\/strong> I finally got good old Mint — complete with all (or nearly all) of my saved configurations. Yay!<\/p>\n The only thing that gave me real trouble is the Thunderbird mail reader. Mint 11 comes with T’bird 3.1.9 (which is far from being the latest release, but seems to be the latest stable Debian package). And T’bird 3.1.9 Its autoconfigure feature is theoretically cool; but once it decides it wants you to use IMAP servers, not POP3s servers (which it always does, even when IMAP servers might not be available), then you’re going<\/i> to use IMAP servers (and therefore you’re going to have separate inboxes for each and every one of your dozens of email addresses) even if you opt to configure manually. The only way to avoid it<\/a>, apparently, is to erase any mail account you just created, click to create a new account, then hit STOP! as quick as you can before the autoconfigure process starts.<\/p>\n Please tell me they got rid of that in later versions of the app. I’ll be watching for new .deb packages.<\/p>\n Anyhow, the short version of the story is that I’m back in business, with only a few deadly email glitches still to work out.<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n Oh yeah. And Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II<\/i> was really good. Not great (I don’t think any of the Potter films qualify as great), but one of the best and definitely a fitting, whiz-bang, beautiful, touching conclusion to a remarkable series. Voldemort … positively Shakespearian. Neville … comes valiantly into his own. Minerva McGonagall … steals the show with her couple of tiny scenes. Snape … no wonder viewers made him the winner of the Harry Potter World Cup. And Ron, Hermoine, and Harry … what can you say? Even if not one of the movies rose to Lord of the Rings<\/i> level, it’s a pretty amazing thing to have made eight so good, with the final being among the best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I installed Linux Mint 11 last night. And this morning. And again this morning. I think I’m done now. I’ve been using Linux Mint for several years and just loving it. It’s the most stable, most newbie-friendly, most media friendly Linux I know. Release 7 was terrific, 8 even better — and there I happily stayed until I began having browser woes. I knew there could be hassles jumping three versions forward, but Mint is so friendly I wasn’t worried. Ha! First time I tried to install, it insisted on a username and password long before any had been set.…<\/p>\nsucks<\/del> is a seriously mixed bag. It’s not only filled with crazy quirks (like insisting that some, but not all, “sent” folders be subfolders of the inbox), but in the name of Windows-type automation, it makes it darned near impossible to custom-configure server settings. <\/p>\n