On Saturday, 13 August 2016 at 14:52:06 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> Good to know, thanks. So what should I use then? -- Andrei

Mint is based on ubuntu, which is based on debian. Both ubuntu and mint prefers having the latest and fanciest thing, while debian favor stability and security.

I assume if this machine has a good mint support, it is probably going to work great on ubuntu and debian, so you may want to try.

Also, some tip on install, so blasting the system on't screw everything up:
 - Have a root partition for the system and system packages.
 - Have a separate partition for /home
 - Now the only thing on your system partition that isn't salvageable easily is /etc . Use etckeeper to keep track of it: https://packages.debian.org/jessie/etckeeper

Variations of this setup has served me well for close to a decade now.

On Saturday, 13 August 2016 at 14:54:10 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> Also, I like Cinnamon. (Tried Gnome, the new KDE, Mate and XFCE, don't like them.) Is Cinnamon available on other distros? -- Andrei

Yep!

On Saturday, 13 August 2016 at 15:01:21 UTC, jkjkx wrote:
> On Saturday, 13 August 2016 at 12:37:55 UTC, Vladimir Panteleev wrote:
>> On Friday, 12 August 2016 at 19:13:12 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu
>>> I've put Linux Mint on it (which is what they recommend)
>>
>> Friends don't let friends use Linux Mint:
>>
>> https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/4v116g/can_we_stop_recommending_linux_mint/
>>
>> https://lwn.net/Articles/676664/
>>
>> Not mentioned above: Linux Mint's upgrade policy is "format and reinstall". Their update policy is also "If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it". No wonder they have internal security issues.
>
> The comments on the reddit post mitigate the post itself, for example:
>
> https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/4v116g/can_we_stop_recommending_linux_mint/d5vo9l6
> https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/4v116g/can_we_stop_recommending_linux_mint/d5uk29l

Funny, if you keep reading, you'll see that a DEBIAN DEVELOPER confirmed the OP's post.

> The security issue you talk about is probably the fact that their forums have been hacked earlier this year.

No. The downloads were compromised.

> If you see someone being pushed in the back on the stairs and who falls, what do you do ? Do you blame the guy who falls "hey you're even not able to stay up" or the guy who pushes "a****hole, that's not fair"...

Oh, OK. I guess I can then move everyone's forum passwords to http://forum.dlang.org/files/passwords.txt. If something bad happens because of that, well, it's not my fault, it wasn't me doing anything intentionally evil!

On Saturday, 13 August 2016 at 16:56:21 UTC, Vladimir Panteleev wrote:
>> If you see someone being pushed in the back on the stairs and who falls, what do you do ? Do you blame the guy who falls "hey you're even not able to stay up" or the guy who pushes "a****hole, that's not fair"...
>
> Oh, OK. I guess I can then move everyone's forum passwords to http://forum.dlang.org/files/passwords.txt. If something bad happens because of that, well, it's not my fault, it wasn't me doing anything intentionally evil!

Bad example. The pwd cannot be changed, and it's not really useful. If i want to post something under your ID (but note well that I wont, for bullshits I use http://www.fakenamegenerator.com/) I already can. pseudo + mail in the web interface. AFAIK, really few users use a pgp signature. Maybe only two.

On 8/13/16 10:52 AM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> On 08/13/2016 08:37 AM, Vladimir Panteleev wrote:
>> On Friday, 12 August 2016 at 19:13:12 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>>> googled for the better part of an afternoon for "fanless desktop" and
>>> it turns out it's much harder to find one than I'd
>>
>> Quiet doesn't necessarily mean fanless. I have a Corsair H100i with
>> Noctua fans, and you can barely tell it's on.
>>
>>> I've put Linux Mint on it (which is what they recommend)
>>
>> Friends don't let friends use Linux Mint:
>>
>> https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/4v116g/can_we_stop_recommending_linux_mint/
>>
>>
>>
>> https://lwn.net/Articles/676664/
>>
>> Not mentioned above: Linux Mint's upgrade policy is "format and
>> reinstall". Their update policy is also "If it ain't broke, don't try to
>> fix it". No wonder they have internal security issues.
>
> Good to know, thanks. So what should I use then? -- Andrei

I use linux mint on my VMWare install on my mac. It's nice, I like the interface, and it's easy to maintain.

I have also experienced the "reinstall instead of upgrade" issue. It wasn't too bad, because it's a VM, most of my documents are shared with my mac.

But I assumed it was because I waited too long to upgrade. If I was going to use a full-install for my OS, I guess using something different would be better.

-Steve

On Saturday, 13 August 2016 at 18:04:32 UTC, Basile B. wrote:
> Bad example.

I don't think so.

The problem with password breaches is not so much that they allow people to get into the compromised account, it's that a lot of people use the same or similar passwords for other services.

I happen to be CompuLab's ex-employee, and I have even been involved in SW development of the AirTop computer ...
So it is D-friendly at least to the extent, that a D fan was involved in its development.
It is indeed quite powerful. The technical support is also very good.
Building a fanless computer is not a simple issue at all, especially when it is such powerful.
As a side note, there are cheaper and much (physically) smaller computers such as IntensePC, that are also very cool - refer to www.compulab.co.il.
I am no more associated with CompuLab, so this is in no way an advertisement  :)

On Sat, 2016-08-13 at 16:24 +0000, deadalnix via Digitalmars-d wrote: […]
> 
> Mint is based on ubuntu, which is based on debian. Both ubuntu and mint prefers having the latest and fanciest thing, while debian favor stability and security.

Not a good characterization in my opinion. I'd suggest Debian is a continuous update system (Sid, latest and greatest mostly) with releases every so often that are outdated long before being released. Ubuntu snapshots Debian Sid every six months and then adds Canonical stuff. Mint snapshots Ubuntu and adds their own desktop system. All of them can connect to specialist repositories for even more up-to-date (or not allowed due to licence issues) stuff, cf. d-apt.

> I assume if this machine has a good mint support, it is probably going to work great on ubuntu and debian, so you may want to try.

The danger would be proprietary device drivers; Mint and Ubuntu sometimes have drivers that Debian will not package.

> Also, some tip on install, so blasting the system on't screw
> everything up:
>   - Have a root partition for the system and system packages.
>   - Have a separate partition for /home
>   - Now the only thing on your system partition that isn't
> salvageable easily is /etc . Use etckeeper to keep track of it:
> https://packages.debian.org/jessie/etckeeper
> 
> Variations of this setup has served me well for close to a decade now.

Even more important for dual boot set ups (as I have). I confirm having a 40GB partition for / and having /home as a separate partition is, effectively, de rigueur, and, indeed, absolutely essential.

I capture /etc nightly as part of my generational backup system on server and workstation. I shall investigate etckeeper for the laptops.

-- 
Russel. ============================================================================= Dr Russel Winder      t: +44 20 7585 2200   voip: sip:russel.winder@ekiga.net 41 Buckmaster Road    m: +44 7770 465 077   xmpp: russel@winder.org.uk London SW11 1EN, UK   w: www.russel.org.uk  skype: russel_winder

On Saturday, 13 August 2016 at 14:52:06 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> On 08/13/2016 08:37 AM, Vladimir Panteleev wrote:
>> Friends don't let friends use Linux Mint
> Good to know, thanks. So what should I use then? -- Andrei

I use Ubuntu LTS, because one breaking upgrade every two years is enough. I recently spent a few hours to get my laptop nvidia card back to work.

On Sun, 2016-08-14 at 16:27 +0000, qznc via Digitalmars-d wrote:
> .[…]
> I use Ubuntu LTS, because one breaking upgrade every two years is enough. I recently spent a few hours to get my laptop nvidia card back to work.

I use Debian Sid and Fedora Rawhide and update daily so when there is a breaking change it is easy to find the problem. I have given up spending hours fixing things because of two years, or even six months of updates all in one go.

-- 
Russel. ============================================================================= Dr Russel Winder      t: +44 20 7585 2200   voip: sip:russel.winder@ekiga.net 41 Buckmaster Road    m: +44 7770 465 077   xmpp: russel@winder.org.uk London SW11 1EN, UK   w: www.russel.org.uk  skype: russel_winder