Updated Linux Mint on the Laptop

Linux Mint v7 came out a couple of months ago, and I ran the update process on the laptop to upgrade from v6. It worked pretty well, but a few things were off. Specifically, I had troubles with Compiz effects. Now, I know they aren't necessary, take up resources, and I rarely use them, but they're fun to show off - especially the cube.

Another issue that was a little more important was that the entire machine was considerably slower, and programs would often hang (the grayed screen of impatience) while things caught up.

Since I had an extra partition I wasn't using, I decided to throw on a fresh install of Mint. As one would imagine, the install was quick and easy. The only thing I forgot was that, as with every version of Mint or Ubuntu I've installed, since my wireless subsystem uses one of the proprietary drivers, I have to be plugged in to the network during the upgrade until I enable the driver. Once that was done, I was back on the air.

My Linux setup isn't overly customized. This makes it easy to upgrade or re-install, as I don't have to remember or document a bunch of oddball settings and utilities. Instead, I just re-installed my favorite software. And as a hard core web apps user, there isn't that much to put on. Here's the quick list:

Avant Window Manager

I like the Mac-like icon bar

Eclipse

Great of all kinds of devlopment projects. I'm using Django/Python

Firefox Add-ons

The only one I'm using right now lets me comment using icons on Flickr

Tweetdeck

Yes, I'm a Tweeter

Skype

I'm actually not very impressed by the delays that are always present in Skype, but I keep it around in case I need it.

gFTP

Everyone needs to transfer files sometime

Quanta Plus

HTML and CSS editor

jUploader

Flickr uploader

Cheese Webcam

Just for fun!

Inkscape

A vector graphics editor

GMail Notify

Makes an annoying beep sound whenever an email arrives

AcidRip

A DVD ripper

Handbrake

Convert videos and DVD rips to other video formats. Great for prepping things for the iPhone

Audacity

Used to manipulate and convert audio files. Can help record as well

VLC

I almost forgot my favorite video program. I use it mostly for playback, but it can also do capture and conversion. Also, works with almost any format without requiring external codecs.

Not a huge list anyway.

Of course, there are many programs that are included in the Linux Mint default configuration, including Firefox (web), The GIMP (graphics and photo manipulation), and OpenOffice (the occasional WP or spreadsheet task) that I use as well.

After that was done, I set up the connection to my home file server, and I was good to go. I'll wait a couple of more days before I delete the old partition and add the space to this new one.