Linux Mint Installation – Day 1

Installing Linux Mint Cinnamon on PC Running Windows 10.

The first problem is figuring out what the key is used to get to the bios and reboot from the SD Card. After a few tries, this was F2.

Running Mint from the SD Card provides a simple interface with a “Install Linux Mint” ICON. I ran it and pushed Windows 10 off the machine.

At the end it prompted for a reboot, so I removed the SD Card to reboot.
It promptly crashed the PC.

So I resorted to “Turn it off then On”
Mint booted and it appeared to work.

First I used the update manager to install updates.

Then changed the theme to dark mode.
The first thing noticeable is that the upper corners of a window are rounded, but not the lower. A quick search reveals that this is a design choice as content could extend to the bottom of window.

The second problem is that there is not an accent colour on the windows.
This is important. In dark mode, with overlapping windows it can be difficult to discern the break between windows. Windows 11 has a feature to ‘Show accent color on title bars and window borders’
I will get back to this later. It could be a feature of other Themes.

First install is jRiver.
This installs easily with a single line at the terminal,

The program works, but I need to copy some music to the PC
Time to bring out my favourite utility, Total Commander – which does not have a Linux version. BUGGER.

Windows file explorer is the single most annoying program Microsoft made. If you need to copy files, it means opening two versions or copy and paste There are better applications with two windows, like Total Commander, which has been around since 2015!
Why Linux distros persist in copying crappy Windows programs is beyond me, especially when there are better alternatives.

Alternatives:
1/ Midnight Commander has a DOS character based interface, So NO

2/ Krusader
Is a windowed application and proved to work.

Now I just have to cope with this weird directory structure

I have copied some music and my Personal Data Folder across, now to find programs that will deal with the various data formats.

FastStone Image Viewer has no Linux Version, the best alternative appears to be gThumb.
This works OK for basic colour manipulation, cropping and resizing but it does not have batch processing.

Installed GIMP, a program I have used, but this is the new version 3.
And Inkscape, If I need it. I use Affinity on Win11, so this will be a downgrade.

Lets Try Gaming

Installed Steam, I have lots of purchased games there.
Installed Ceville, an adventure game
Well, this crashes

Tried “The Inner World”
This Works.

And Factorio crashes.

In summary, for day 1…

Things I Like

1. Windows do not tuck under the taskbar when it is at the top
   This is a constant problem with Windows 10 & 11.
   https://bakernda.blog/2016/10/19/windows-taskbar-location/
2. The lack of junk, and spending a day deactivating unnecessary stuff.
   (Still doing this with Win11)
3. The Software Manager. This central repository for applications makes the operating system more like the Android Store.
   Applications are easy to install… until you come to something (Reaper)
   that is not in the store but has a Linux version.
4. Some of the Steam Games work on Linux

Things I Do Not Like

1. File and directory names are case sensitive
2. The strange file structure and new commands needed on the terminal.
3. There appears to be no ability to have the graphic elements:
   Background, Mouse Pointer, Application Colours, Icons etc
   to be saved under a single theme, like Windows.
4. Some of the Steam Games DO NOT work on Linux.