I am a happy Linux Mint user. No doubt in my mind it is the top of the top of Linux distros as far as user interface experiences go. However, as much as I loved the improvements to Linux Mint 7 that were available in Linux Mint 8, I found it to be nearly unusable for what I needed. No, this is not about Linux Mint itself. What it is about is the Ubuntu underbelly of Linux Mint. Karmic Koala (or 9.10) is seriously flawed! I certainly hope that Lucid Lynx will be a huge improvement over Koala. Although in part, I figure I should take responsibility for the mess Karmic left me in. As someone who has frighteningly bad luck, I should have known to stay light years away from anything with Karma in the name. But of course, I had to have the latest and greatest of Mints, so I had the problems with Ubuntu to show for it.
Although if Clem LeFebvre is paying attention to the folks..and you better believe he does!…then hopefully future Mints will depend just a bit less on Ubuntu in order to avoid the problems they have with what I feel is way to short of a release cycle.
Do you hear that, Ubuntu?? Waaaaaaaay to short of a release cycle. Try 9 months instead..that would give more time to find the massive crap underlying the surface. I am eagerly awaiting Linux Mint 9, but I might wait for a while before I just jump into it. I have been burned and am not eager to jump back into the fire.
Obsessive Compulsive Linux Disorder 
Maybe you could tell everyone what one or two of these horrendous flaws are?
Great post! Just chock-full of useful specifics that anyone would find helpful…
Microsoft fanboy, or just forgot to back up your files before choosing the wrong drive partition option?
may be you should just stick to LTS (long term support) releases, they’re supossed to be more stable…
I hear a lot of complaints about 9.10 (while some say 9.10 fixed everything 9.04 broke for them), but most of the time they at least give some details about the problems they’re having.
Hey!
My advice: try Arch – give it a serious try for one month and I doubt you will want to go back.
I know Mint and Ubuntu are supposedly easy to use and all, and I personally used “userfriendly” distros predominantly.
Today I only use Arch – I know, it’s a little difficult to install compared to many other distros, but I’m not going back to *buntu or PCLinuxOS or the likes for my machines.
The thing is that upgrading is very easy (rolling release) and if you just check out the homepage before any major upgrades (like KDE or Gnome) and read about the necessary steps to take, you are very unlikely to get in trouble – only happened to me once, it was my own fault for not reading the instructions, and I corrected the problem relatively easy using a live USB-disk and following the instructions on the homepage.
cheers, Johan
“If two men are to compete, it should be in archery. As they face the same direction, trying to accomplish the same goal, it is the most civilized of sports.” Confucius
Although I’m having my fair share of troubles with Karma and (hence?) Helena, it would be useful to actually mention the issues you’re having with Karma.
I, for what it’s worth, still seem to struggle getting embedded video (both quicktime and windows media) to play in my browser(s). And another thing: Karmic is still not capable of simply playing a bog-standard karaoke VCD, whereas previous versions of Ubuntu were (can’t remember which one, I can just remember playing the very same VCD on my Ubuntu X.YY laptop).
I’m also experiencing performance issues: Jaunty and Intrepid seemed more responsive than Karma (and Helena, for that matter). I’ve still got a Hardy partition and I find myself mostly working in that desktop environment (although playing VCDs is also off limits there).
So, Pariah, do us all a favour and some meat to the bones…
What a horrible article. You don’t justify your comments by saying what problems you were having. If mint 8 /karmic is so bad why not go back to mint 7? Or even better contribute to Ubuntu rather then supporting a fork
Please describe what is seriously flawed in Ubuntu Karmic.
To Danbuntu, what a shocker that you said “What a horrible article.” Well, if it had been an article to begin with, I suppose it would have been horrible. Since you don’t seem to know the difference between an article and a rant that comes after 4 days sucking face with the command line, then I would have to comment, “what a horrible sense of grammar.” As for the rest, wow I never once thought to go back to Mint 7. And no, that’s not an article, that’s sarcasm. As for why I support the Mint fork over Ubuntu.. it’s because the fork is better. It’s one thing to be all hip-hip hurray for an operating system but another to sound like a Puppy user with an AK-47 and a shortage of anti-depressants.
To Cherax, I believe I was trying be chock full of ambiguities. I wasn’t trying to help you or anyone else but it’s nice you believe you are important. As for being “a Microsoft fanboy”…seriously?? Apparently my ambiguous nature confused you from the start, since you missed the whole first line “I am a happy Linux Mint user” entirely. Nor have I been mistaken for a boy since the age of 15 when I got these giant knockers. As for that last supposed insult thrown my way (yes, alluding to a 1st day Linux user mistake WAS hilarious, I’m still weepy eyed) “just forgot to back up your files before choosing the wrong drive partition option?” That was just specific enough to make me wonder if there’s a little bitter truth in there for you.
To Johan Borgstrom, thank you for the suggestion and I did consider Arch Linux after reading some reviews. This was before I got back into doing artwork, which takes up a lot of time and unfortuanately I dont’ have time to spend sweating my life away over the command line. However, having said that, it’s still very much an option if I take a break from my art for a while.
[…]Good stuff […]
I like when *buntu fans get upset at mint fans for “supporting a fork” when *buntu relies on debian to function.
EXACTLY!