Well, the conversion to Linux Mint has taken place and the good news is the conversion was smooth as silk and completely uneventful.
After making the mistake of not setting up a /home partition two or three years back, I've always been careful about setting up new installs properly, by using manual partitioning. But any of my Ubuntu upgrades were just handled by grabbing Beta updates and I had never done a fresh install. After running a fresh install by formatting the / partition for Ubuntu and installing Mint in it's place, I'll never do anything but a fresh install ever again.
If you're new to Linux, be sure to manually edit partitions for your installation. Things will depend on how much memory your machine has, how big your hard drive is and whether or not you intend to dual-boot Linux with another operating system, i.e. Windows.
I think the minimum suggested size for the root mount point ( / ) is 4 GB. I generally use a minimum of 5 GB and if I am working on a large drive, I will allow even more room. This is where GNU/Linux will reside on your drive.
Another good idea is to set aside a partition at least as large as your computer's RAM, to use as swap, or 'virtual memory'. A swap partition is not absolutely necessary, but Linux can make more efficient use of this virtual scratch pad if it exists. I recommend setting up swap with twice the space of your available RAM.
You can then set up the rest of your available space as a /home partition, where all your data will reside. And the bonus to using this partitioning method is you can always back up /home to an external drive if you like. Plus, if it is time to upgrade your Linux distro, you can just do a fresh install to your root mount point and your data remains safe in the /home partition. (But back /home up, just to be safe, OK?)
When I converted to Mint, I used the disk partitioning utility on the Live CD to reformat the root partition and installed Mint there. I then started the process of reinstalling the software I use on my system. And that is when I got a very pleasant surprise. When I got Adobe Air and Tweetdeck installed, all my Twitter accounts were already there, waiting for me. Firefox and Thunderbird are installed in Mint by default and there was my address book in Thunderbird and all my bookmarks in Firefox. I had no idea things would be this easy, crossing over from Ubuntu to Mint, but I am sure happy they were.
I really have to admit, I don't know why more people are not using Linux instead of Windows. You can st up a dual-boot installation, so you can select which operating system you want to boot into. That way, if you have Windows programs, you can still use them. And if you want to browse the Web, you can boot into Linux, which is much more stable and secure. And the best part about using Linux is the thousands of completely free programs you can download. Some you will find are wildly different from Windows, but I find I like some of them over the Windows counter-parts. I'll never be any good with graphics, but I can do what I need in Gimp, whereas PhotoShop overwhelms me. And if someone sends me a Microsoft Office file, I use the programs in Open Office to view them.
Visit the Linux Mint site with an open mind and a blank CD or DVD. You just might find yourself using an entirely new operating system before you realize it!
Related posts:
- Living large with Linux
- Linux Mint — in an exciting, new flavor
- It never slows down
- Lucid Lynx Gets Two Thumbs Up
- Back to Ubuntu
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Good to hear your install went smoothly. That’s one of the nice things about Linux all the config files are stored in plain text and any program can access them where as on Windows stuff like this is often buried in the registry. It’s all in hidden folders under /home. Folders prepended with a . (period) are hidden by default. Press Ctrl + H in Nautilus to see them. Thunderbird’s config is .thunderbird and Firefox is .mozilla.
I drag and drop .thunderbird and .mozilla between Windows, Ubuntu, and OS X you have to change the case for Windows and Mac but it’s awesome compared to proprietary solutions.
BTW, if you IM much how are you liking Empathy over Pidgin? I tried to get used to it but just couldn’t and installed Pidgin from the repos.
Dan, the more I learn about Linux, the more I like it. I remember my first ‘real’ install of Ubuntu (outside Wubi), when I was afraid I would end up letting all the smoke out of my computer. From there I got to the point of comfortably using Ubuntu, but never really stretching my wings with it. It did what I wanted it to do, so I never bothered exploring it further. Now that I’m taking time to look around, I’m amazed at what I’ve been missing. Installing Mint over my Ubuntu install kept me on the edge of my seat, but Mint just jumped in where it belonged and it worked with no fuss.
When I am at work, I use a Windows XP box and as time goes by, I find myself having to stop and think about how to do some tasks in Windows. Which isn’t a bad thing at all.
I don’t IM. I have ADD and something like IM can really trigger it, if things start moving too fast. Matt Mecham from IPS gave me his AIM several months back and I will touch base with him every now and again, but other than that I avoid IM entirely.