[ashaiba]

Hey, I'm gonna get Linux Mint becuase i've heard good stuff about it

But I don't know which one to install
http://linuxmint.com/download.php

and I need help with linux. For example, I try to install a program, and instead of giving me a nice .exe sort of file. i get codes and s*** and I dont know what to do with it. how do you install things on linux any help?


Also, i am going to be installing Mint on my MACBOOK. will I have problems with any drivers???

[spot]

The main edition? That's the one to pick if you've no great reason to pick another. version 4 (Daryna) is the most current. There's a discussion "LinuxMint 3.0 Cassandra on Macbook" about putting Mint on that hardware, it might be worth reading it.

There's a Live CD as well, you might like to test-drive it on the hardware and see how it feels.

Installing a well-known program usually involves the installer of choice for that distribution. The quick guide will tell you the process. Installing an obscure program takes slightly more reading but it can still be done. You can treat linux as a place to use what's there or a place to do a lot of learning, it's good for either.

[ashaiba]

can you link me to LinuxMint 3.0 Cassandra on Macbook

[spot]

My apologies, I wasn't sure of the policy here of linking to other forums so I referenced a unique google quote instead. It takes you to http://linuxmint.com/forum/viewtopic...ght=mac&t=1436 and the Cassandra discussion is the final few paragraphs.

[Cew27]

you will need to get the right one for your processor arcitechture althaugh im pretty sure mint supports them all, however it isnt 64 bit.
you shouldnt have a problem with hardware at all. try daryna from the live cd if that fails go to cassandra
go here
http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/linuxmint.com/releases/
and download linux mint 4.0 iso this will come with the gnome desktop environment

[Cew27]

also installing software is a breeze
with linux you get repository's (repos) these are servers online ran by the linux community and they contain the most used and needed installation packages and software in a deb package (equivalent to an exe on all debian based distros). to install a program you first need to know it is compatible with linux, say you wanted to install msn messenger on the website it would say nothing about linux so you would go to the add remove programs in applications, select all available software at the top and the list of all applications on the repos will appear in categories. you can select a catagory and scroll through hundreds of applications or you can simply search for messenger, this search will bring up linux messengers sutch as pidgin, amsn and kopete.
for software that isnt in the repos you will need to get it online either in a deb package(it will install its self when clicked like an exe will) or as source
source is used because there are many distros out their and the creator of the program cant compile his application in loads of different formats so that everyone can use it off the bat, so he lets you download the source so that you can compile it if your distro isn't supported. this is rather easy and doesn't take long at all.

hope this post helped ;)

[ashaiba]

which one is the live cd?

also, i see
LinuxMint-4.0-XFCE-BETA-008.iso 31-Oct-2007 17:39 682M
LinuxMint-4.0.iso

is XFCE the GUI? do you recoment me using a XFCE as a beggner

[spot]

LinuxMint-4.0-Debian-ALPHA-023.iso is the Live CD to test without installing.

Xfce is a GUI, yes. It allows people to run linux on "relatively modest hardware". If you have something bigger than that then most people would use one of the two heavyweights from the beginning, KDE or Gnome. Bigger (in my opinion) would start around 512MB and 1400MHz. You're only going to want to learn one GUI.

[ashaiba]

Originally Posted by spot

LinuxMint-4.0-Debian-ALPHA-023.iso is the Live CD to test without installing.

Xfce is a GUI, yes. It allows people to run linux on "relatively modest hardware". If you have something bigger than that then most people would use one of the two heavyweights from the beginning, KDE or Gnome. Bigger (in my opinion) would start around 512MB and 1400MHz. You're only going to want to learn one GUI.

Well, I have a 1.5GB Macbook, with a Dual Core, that will be able to handle it right?

[spot]

You could single-handedly run the whole of NASA Mission Control for the next Mars landing with one of those and still play Space Invaders during the launch.