Mint Update: was Why Mint? Was [Leaplist] backup application

[Steve Litt]

On Monday 01 June 2009 12:55:19 am David Simmons wrote:
> let us know when that happens.....I've got a bet of about 2 weeks until
> it's on your main machine (or you're really wanting it on your main
> machine).....I gotta get back to my bookie to let him know when you make
> the switch....it's like the movie, 'Rat Race'...
>
> -dave

Dave, your bookie's gonna want his money -- you lost your bet. But for a 
bizarre reason...

I tried Mint on a laptop. Loved it. Then on an experimental machine. Loved it. 
Then on 2 of my kids' computers. Loved it. Then on my wife's. Loved it. I was 
making plans to put Mint on my main machine when I heard about THE PROBLEM.

THE PROBLEM:

On May 2 or 3, 2009, Mint founder Clem LeFebvre wrote on the official Mint 
blog asking his community to take sides in one of these Hatfield-McCoy 
international disputes. More accurately, he said that supporters of one side 
need not contribute code or money to Mint.

After weeks of people writing Clem that his request had no business in free 
software, ON HIS PERSONAL BLOG he modified his position to say he felt sorry 
for the innocents on both sides and that everyone was welcome in the Mint 
community. But 2 months later, nothing's posted on the MINT website saying 
that people of all political persuasions are welcome. The last position taken 
on the OFFICIAL MINT WEBSITE is that they don't accept supporters of a 
certain side in a certain international dispute.

MY REACTION

Suddenly my lovely Mint had a big, ugly, bleeding infectious wart on its 
cheek. This community wants me to take a political litmus test to 
participate. I'm sorry, but that's too high of a price to pay. I couldn't 
look at myself in the mirror if I joined such a community, and we all know 
you can't get full power of software unless you join the community, at least 
on a mailing list level.

MY PLAN

For practical reasons I can't immediately wipe Mint from my wife and kids' 
computers. Instead, over the long term, I'm going to provide a Mint 
substitute, with its benefits but without the political baggage. This will be 
done using a 3 step plan:

1) Use and study Mint to find the features that make it good
2) Create scripts, install scripts and apps giving Ubuntu the Mint advantages.
3) Look for a distro that out of the box gives the Mint advantages without the 
political baggage.

PROGRESS

We discussed this plan at the latest GoLUG meeting. People knowing a heck of a 
lot more about Ubuntu than I convinced me that Mintizing Ubuntu is primarily 
installing some non-free programs and codecs from Ubuntu repositories, and 
maybe changing the user interface a little bit. They convinced me it's not 
going to be as difficult as I'd thought. I downloaded Ubuntu last night and 
will soon start experimenting.

HELP

If anyone would like to help with this, I'd appreciate it. Mint's advantages 
are:

1) Installs on almost anything.
2) Easy and quick install.
3) Works out of the box
	A) Including non free things
		i) Codecs
		ii) NDISwrapper
		iii) Other common programs
4) More intuitive and navigable user interface

The preceding is of benefit mainly to non-tech people who would otherwise 
demand Windows. If you're stuck maintaining Windows people and would like to 
switch them to a Linux distro enabling them to error-free do minor 
maintenance, and if you don't want to be required to take sides in an 
international dispute, then by all means help me in this project.

Thanks

SteveT

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