I’m having quite a peculiar problem: after I install a Linux distribution, my Windows 7 desktop icons and files don’t show up anymore on the desktop. The files and icons are not gone, they’re still on the hard drive, they just don’t show. I’ve tested this over and over again, doing a fresh Windows 7 installation, and afterwards installing Linux Mint, Kubuntu, and Opensuse. With the same outcome. Any ideas, people? Or did I find a bug in Windows 7?
True to my tradition of posting about releases I find interesting, here’s Ubuntu’s latest offspring: 9.04 aka the Jaunty Jackalope. Ubuntu is a community developed, linux-based operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. It contains all the applications you need – a web browser, presentation, document and spreadsheet software, instant messaging and much more. The main Ubuntu uses the Gnome desktop, Kubuntu uses the KDE desktop and Xubuntu uses the Xfce deskstop, and is also suited for older computers. There’s also a “Netbook Remix” version of Ubuntu. The best about all this: it’s free, and there’s a huge community out there waiting to help you in case you run into problems. Because of the different versions, I’m not going into detail about the changes.
This x64 edition of Linux Mint 6 is almost identical to the Main Edition but compiled for 64 bit processors (Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Core 2 Quad, AMD Athlon X2 64 and all x86-64 compliant processors). It comes with all the improvements featured in Linux Mint 6 Main Edition.
There are a few differences however:
* java is using openjdk instead of sun
* openoffice.org-base is absent
>> Linux Mint website
>> Download Linux Mint 6 Felicia x64 rc1
Based on Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex, Linux 2.6.27, Gnome 2.24 and Xorg 7.4, Linux Mint 6 “Felicia” comes with a brand new “Software Manager”, FTP support in mintUpload, proxy support and history of updates in mintUpdate, mint4win (a Windows installer), tabbed browsing in Nautilus and a lot of other improvements. For a complete list of new features read: What’s new in Felicia? This is the Linux distro I’ve been running myself for the past months.
Based on Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex, Linux 2.6.27, Gnome 2.24 and Xorg 7.4, Linux Mint 6 “Felicia” comes with a brand new “Software Manager”, FTP support in mintUpload, proxy support and history of updates in mintUpdate, tabbed browsing in Nautilus and a lot of other improvements.
>> Linux Mint website
>> Linux Mint 6 Felicia RC1 release notes
>> Download Linux Mint 6 Felicia RC1
I was looking for a way to disable the built-in webcam on an Acer-laptop. Ubuntu, well Linux Mint actually, tried to identify and use the webcam during boot, over and over again. This caused a huge delay in booting time. Since I don’t want to use the webcam, I searched for a way to disable it. Adding “blacklist gspca” to the file “/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist” did the trick. Now the thing boots in 1 minute 
Linux Mint is a linux distribution based on Ubuntu but with a custom desktop and menus, several unique configuration tools, a web-based package installation interface, and a number of different editions. They try to provide an elegant Linux desktop, with a lively community and user interaction. I’ve been using Linux Mint 5 Elyssa since the release candidates, and it’s by far my top choice if you’re looking for a GNOME-based distribution. So download the .iso, burn it and give it a try!
I’ve been playing around with KDE4 flavoured Linux distributions for a couple of weeks now: I’ve tried various betas and release candidates of Kubuntu, Fedora and openSUSE. And I must admit, I like openSUSE the most. Downloaded the live cd, and installed from there on without a hitch. Installation was very easy and straightforward. The only thing I did afterwards was installing Pidgin as instant messaging program, and the VLC media player. openSUSE is much more vivid and responsive on the same sytem than Kubuntu and Fedora.
On a side note: this was the first time I installed a 64 bit operating system, and I’ve had zero problems so far. Flash was easily installed from the non-oss repository and runs smoothly.