I'm writing this after reading a sad little post in the Newbie forum. The poster had a simple requirement: to install Mint xfce on an old computer. The installer crashed. Well, that happens sometimes. And the usual cure is to install from the command line instead.

I've recently installed AntiX for a friend and I had much the same experience. But AntiX, like many linuxen, has a cli installer on the same disc, so I used that and had no further problems. With Ubuntu, I think you need a different disc to do a cli installation. Well, I just googled to see what you do with Mint in such circumstances.

I found several pleas for information about a command-line installer, but no responses. It seems there is no cli installer in Mint. Mint is newbie-friendly so it's graphical. End of story!

Now here's a long-standing beef of mine: systems start out to be user-friendly and end up as anything but. We so often recommend Mint as a first distro precisely because it has this friendly reputation, but if the graphical installer doesn't work on your hardware and there's no alternative provided, what do you do then?

I agree, although I disagree with myself.

What I mean by that is, I also find that "user friendly" all too often being "here, let me get in the way". It's so frustrating.

But the reason I also disagree, I guess, is because Linux has nothing if not options; to be fair, I think the real "crime" here is that Linux Mint is an installable distro in the first place. The "right" way (IMHO) to do this would be to have a distribution (let's call it Debian in this case, but it could just as easily be Slackware or Fedora), with "Mint"-branded packages. You want "Mint"? install Debian, and add to it the "Mint" mod pack; you get the desktop, the green icons, the upgrade policies, and whatever else Mint wants to grant its userbase. The fact that our answer to "I want me own version of Linux" is "create an ISO" flies in the face of everything Linux stands for. This should be a modular process.

That's what I think.

1 members found this post helpful.

When I was more so a was always hungry to try other distros*. Since have settled into a base system or three but I administer my own. Here is where I draw a blank: people what to run a computer but not be the admin? It's like driving a car, you need some spidey sense or you're gonna crash...

1 members found this post helpful.

I don't understand why it is always Mint, is it really the best distro out there?

Mint does not make a Mini installer, or a network install.
Installs "crash" because they don't take the time to read.

Pentium D is pretty old.
Don't believe Mint 18 Xfce/64 is gonna work on it.

1 members found this post helpful.

OK, rtfm is always useful advice. But that doesn't alter my basic point: that too much "user-friendliness" is often counter-productive. Graphical installers are known to fail sometimes, so there should always be an option to do it from the command line.

When I first started using Linux, back around the turn of the millennium, the thing that blew me away was how easy it was to fix problems. Now that is my definition of user-friendliness.

Here's another example. I haven't come across it personally because I don't use Gnome, but I've often seen it posted:
Now please tell me what use that is! It's obviously trying to be "friendly" but it tells you nothing -- neither what has actually gone wrong nor how to fix it. If I got an error message like that on my machine, I would be sorely tempted to smash it up.

That is why there are alternative desktops. Personally, I've been using Mate instead of anything related to Gnome 3, or Wayland.

The message vagueness itself is partly due to the fact that it could be running under either X, Wayland (or even Windows)... and it can't tell the difference. All the software can determine is that the graphics failed.

This is also why a number of us old timers try to avoid systemd (same problem).

1 members found this post helpful.

...

4 's the number 1 !

period !!

next ...

4 "reviews" ie opinions ≠ necessarily functionality(.)!?

I would rather find out why the installer crashed (considering you were installing on a old computer).

Did you check the md5sum ? Since there was a post on LQ that a hacked linux mint .iso was circulating. Usually graphical installers dont crash, since sometimes its the only way to get linux installed (as in Mint).

Actually, on all of my systems, the "usual" logins are not administrators and therefore cannot sudo.

If I want to be Spider-Man, I must put on my Spidey Suit. And I will go back to being Peter Parker at the earliest opportunity.

Thus, if some bit of rogue software (without my knowledge or consent) tries to do something nasty, it finds that ... "it's just Peter." It can't become Spider-Man. Every now and then I visit some new web-site ... perhaps one with some advertisement that I'm not yet blocking ... and I see entries in the logs where it tried to sudo very-terrible things, and was denied.

Yes but apples/oranges and LQGuru/...

You need a drivers license for a car and if you're smart, have a healthy fear and respect with heavy machinery.

What percentage of home computer users consider themselves the IT? You can't take your old Linux box into the geek squad and say you're having software troubles.

as was pointed out is post 2
there are way too many cookie cutter "distros" out there
all based on the SAME base code

and then there is the issue that all Microsoft has taught THE WORLD it to
ONLY POINT AND CLICK -- post win 95 / 3.1

then people have STICKER SHOCK when they learn that YES you have to well TYPE a few things

add to this mix that NO primary schools out there tech kids HOW!!! to use a computer
only to point and click in a MS windows program

so

people that ONLY want to "point and click" really do need to stay with Microsoft
because they DO NOT want to LEARN something NEW and different



now as to installing the current mint on a almost antique PentiumD


Debian7.8 or Centos 6.8 will do fine , depending on other hardware

there are legacy support os's

@Hazel

Not exactly newbie friendly. But A 50MB Ubuntu minimal install cd can be set up I bet for a Minimal type Mint install <like Fluxbox, Midori,etc....> by changing the Ubuntu repos to Mint repositories.

I have never done this myself. And. May be just blowing smoke. But it seems feasible to my biker mentality.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/In...tion/MinimalCD

http://packages.linuxmint.com/

Like I said. Not easy. But should be do-able with help like from people like you or me.