Masher

Really. I am going to get off this subject. Any minute now.

I was working last night on the Linuxworld lab documentation. At 135 pages, with 120 screen caps, it was taking me a fairly long time to work through and make sure all the things in it have been validated against the new Knoppix 5.1.1. Along about 9 pm I was in a place in the doc talking about all the version of Evolution I had tested. the point was to underline that success in the lab was not artificial. That I lived with this configuration (albeit not on Knoppix) every day.

Then, it occurred to me that I had a Mint 2.2 desktop sitting right next to my lab set up that would be perfect to do the Ubuntu 7.04 upgrade on. The desktop I read my email on and do all my calendaring with.

Same as before: I let upgrade manager install Ubuntu 7.04 'over' Mint 2.2. It chugged away for a couple hours, most of it download time. Over 1500 packages tip toed across the Interweb (A well known series of tubes...).

I was really only after one thing: I wanted to be able to say at the presentation next week that I used the Evolution 2.10.1 of Ubuntu with success for my daily version. This was the easiest way to avoid "co-req heck".

I plugged away while it plugged away, rebooted around 11 pm, and logged back into Evolution. All the Mint themes and tools were preserved, but the undercarriage was sparkly clean and new.

It is about 24 hours since then. So far, Evolution has been rock solid in the new config. I can't say I have noticed what the difference is between Ubuntu 6.10's (and therefore Mints) Evo 2.8 and Ubuntu 7.04's Evo 2.10. Screens are about the same. Nothing on any of the pull downs or in the preferences dialogs looks different. HTML email still formats the same. I could look at the release notes, but where is the fun in that?

But it just works, and that is what I wanted to know.

Another thing working so far: Beagle. Ubuntu 7.04 includes 0.2.16.3, and the Beagle project web page documents that as the current version. This currency was not the case in the last version of Ubuntu, and caused (fixable) problem.

Mint: it's more than a theme

A quick aside here: You might think I use Mint for everything these days (when I'm not mashing it) and you would be mostly right.

Linux breaks down into two categories for me. There is the Linux I just need to work. There are systems I use that I just need to work. Right now, those are Mint 2.2 systems. Mint is less valuable on a desktop (to me) than a laptop because I seriously love MiniWifi. But I also do not care for the default brown theme of Ubuntu. Mint is a easy fix for that too. Sure, there are other ways. But Mint is just easy. When I need something to just work, out of the box, these days it's Mint.

Most people would call that stable version their "Production" version, but no one would probably be willing to do the things to their "Production" systems that I do. It is for this reason that my wife hates sharing a computer system with me. She never really knows what it will be doing from day to day. Well, that and she uses a Mac. A locked down, hidden from me Mac.

Then there are all the others. The experiments and test versions and you name it. In "7 habits" terms, these are the ones I use to "Sharpen my Saw". My day job is "Manager of R&D Support". That means new knowledge about things like Linux is an evening and weekend project, even if it sooner or later feeds back to my day job. That is in fact how I ended up feeling safe being on a full time Linux desktop.

I have the T41 running Fedora Core 6 right now, and a couple of ancient M300's and a handbuilt computer and VM's out the ears running all sorts of Linux versions. VMware, Parallels, QEMM and now something new called VirtualBox VM's. I reserve the right to change my default Linux at any time when something works more to my *personal* liking. That means install-ability, ease of maintenance, themes, speed, tools, etc.

Sure, there is Mepis and Xandros and FreeSpire and all sorts of things available. Mandriva. PCLinuxOS. Hundreds, and I know I have not played with them all.

My default Linux has morphed over the years. In the early 1990's it was Slackware. Then RedHat, then SUSE, then Mandrake. A long period of being primarily Fedora ended with Mint. Who knows where it will go to next.

Linux does not stay the same. It is always in motion, and one distro leapfrogs another, and the others catch up, die, or spawn new projects.

That is why this is an Adventure.