Linux Mint 17 - Qiana

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS becomes Mint 17 Qiana

I got fed up with Mint 15.

Linux distributions like to name their latest creations. Ubuntu works its way through the alphabet, with alliterative animals. There was Hardy Heron, and I remember Fiesty Fawn. The descriptors are all relentlessly positive. There wasn't (I'm sure there wasn't) a Limping Llama, and I'm sure there won't be a Slumbering Sloth.

Mint take the hurricane approach, and use female first names. They seem to be using our family. For the names, if not for the spellings. Mint 15 was called 'Olivia', but either I didn't load up the optimal version for the little notebook I use, or it had some small but irritating flaws. There was no tap on the mousepad to click facility, and, worst of all, after setting up one Wi-Fi network successfully, there was no way to set up a second, and I was limited, connectivity-wise.

There's two Linux network tools generally included as part of the big, standard distributions, and while they're virtually indistinguishable in terms of the windows they present the user, one's able to identify the available networks and, given the right password, use them. The other's a total pile of steaming horseshit that makes life difficult. That's the one Mint 15 included.

So, eventually, and noting that there was a new Ubuntu LTS (long term support) coming out, I thought I'd go for that.

It had a lot of good points.

It loaded up quickly, the installer worked well, the network tool was the one that works straight out of the box (rather then driving you out of yours). Unfortunately, either because of all the bells and whistles, or the too-frequent Browser – Flash problems Ubuntu's prone to, as soon as there were more than one or two tabs open, everything froze. Proper froze, power-off and restart froze. Impossible to work with.

I tried to load on some distributions that spectacularly failed the USB drive install method, despite receiving rave reviews. In the end I settled for the old faithful, cut-down, no frills but ultra-fast and ultra-stable Crunchbang. But...

...the latest version has the rubbish network software, and I couldn't get online. Not at all.

Back to Mint as I saw there was a new long term support version in line with Ubuntu (it's based on Ubuntu).

Everything, but everything, worked straight out of the box, it finds and logs onto any Wi-Fi network you can give it the password for. The mousepad works on the tap-click principle. The only extra software I've installed is the Calibre ebook management programme, everything else you could need or want is there already.

It even sees the terabyte external drive I have to manually mount on the Crunchbang machines.

What I'll never understand is how a free operating system, bundled with free software that does everything Microsoft and other commercial software can, is faster, more stable, less prone to virus and other attacks, starts up and shuts down faster, yet Microsoft remains the de facto standard. The Evil Empire bit here: Dell started a line of pre-loaded Linux laptops, retailing at what Dell charge minus what Microsoft charge. Microsoft threatened to withdraw support from Dell, to remove the discounts that would leave Dell unable to compete, unless they stopped it with the Linux machines. You still can't buy a new pc without paying for pre-loaded MS or Apple software, unless you build your own or go the Raspberry Pi route.