Want a distro similar to Mint but with Gnome 3.16

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foersu
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Want a distro similar to Mint but with Gnome 3.16

Post by foersu »

Hello,

My system is Linux Mint 17.2, Cinnamon, 64 bits.
I shortly installed Evolution using Synaptic. The version installed (already some years old) sometimes quits suddenly, loosing the work of open items, likes emails being edited. It occurs infrequently, but it occurs.
Even if I can live with this drawback, I would like to have a more stable version. I have read, that the newest Evolution version 3.16 contains a lot of bug fixes and therefore I would like to install it.

As far as I understand, Mint 17.x is based on gnome 2.x., Evolution 3.16 seems to have been created for gnome 3.x.

Now my question:
would the (apparently?) required different versions of gnome cause problems, instability, or simply loading a lot of gnome 3.x aditional libraries when installing Evolution 3.16 on Mint 17.2?

Rem.: Thunderbird is not an option for me.

Thanks & regards
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xenopeek
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Re: Advisable to install Evolution 3.16 on Mint 17.2?

Post by xenopeek »

foersu wrote:As far as I understand, Mint 17.x is based on gnome 2.x., Evolution 3.16 seems to have been created for gnome 3.x.
Nope. Cinnamon started out as a fork of Gnome Shell (the default shell on GNOME 3) and is based on GNOME 3 technology like Gtk 3. (history if you want to learn more https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamon_ ... 29#History)

Linux Mint 17.x is using Ubuntu 14.04 long-term support (LTS) as a package base. Downside of that is that you a) get older software because it is a LTS release (you generally get updates to fix security issues only, not for newer upstream versions) and b) Ubuntu, but also Linux Mint, hold back GNOME 3 packages to older versions or add their own patches to them for various reasons. This means that Ubuntu LTS and Linux Mint 17.x aren't the best platform to run newer GNOME software, but it might work fine.

Evolution 3.16 isn't available on any release of Ubuntu, not even the current development release of Ubuntu (15.10). Looking at the PPAs that have versions of Evolution or general GNOME, none of those have Evolution 3.16 for Ubuntu 14.04 (as used by Linux Mint 17.x) either. So if you want this it looks like you'll have to compile Evolution from source :|

Alternatives would be to use a distro that has more current versions, like Fedora or Arch Linux (both are stable) or Debian Sid (unstable). All three come with GNOME 3.16 and thus your desired Evolution version. But these aren't Linux Mint for support period, easy of use, or support period respectively (I use all four :wink:).
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foersu
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Re: Advisable to install Evolution 3.16 on Mint 17.2?

Post by foersu »

Hello xenopeek,

thank you very much for your very detailed answer!

You mention distributions offering more recent software versions, like Fedora and Arch Linux. Which one would you recommend to a non expert user?

Regards
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Re: Want a distro similar to Mint but with Gnome 3.16

Post by xenopeek »

As we're moving away from topic Linux Mint, I've moved your topic to the Chat about Linux forum and change the subject to reflect the changed question.

Anyway which distro you go for depends on whether you want to become an expert :) I use Arch Linux most of the time, but certainly it requires much consulting and reading of their wiki to set it up the first time you do it (installation is done by hand with a few helper scripts from the terminal) and you'll be going back to the wiki often the first few weeks (OTOH, the Arch Linux wiki is the best there is—you'll find guides and solutions for most things you'll encounter there, but it does expect you to do a lot yourself). You could use Antegros, which installs Arch Linux for you with a graphical installer. So that is easier. But as it is a rolling release distro (updates every day) people say it is more likely to have problems than a point based release. That has not been my experience, but no I wouldn't recommend you use Arch Linux (or Antegros, or other Arch Linux derivatives like Manjaro) unless you want to gain more knowledge about Linux.

Fedora would be a better alternative if you shy away from that, though they take a principled stand on free software so include no non-free software unlike Linux Mint (which is more pragmatic, though all software developed by Linux Mint is developed as free software). I like it but it is no Linux Mint and you won't have the same out of the box experience (you'll have to do a bunch of things to be able to install common software like VLC and such). Notably, their releases are generally supported for about 13 months: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_R ... e_Schedule. So you'll be upgrading more often than with Linux Mint (though if you are using Linux Mint 17.x now, you might want to install Linux Mint 18 one year from now anyway--despite the fact you could continue to use it till mid 2019). Fedora 22 is the current release. You'll want to enable RPMFusion free and non-free after installation on Fedora 22, see instructions here: http://rpmfusion.org/Configuration. You'll also want to install Fedy: https://satya164.github.io/fedy/. Google "things to do after fedora 22 installation" for more tips, like adding Google repository to enable Google Chrome installation.
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foersu
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Re: Want a distro similar to Mint but with Gnome 3.16

Post by foersu »

Thanx! Great summing up answer!
Now I have a lot of stuff to think about... :idea:
Alley Cat

Post by Alley Cat »

Manjaro worked good for me during the time I ran it. They have a great forum community as well.

Sent from my XT1045 using Tapatalk
trava90

Re: Want a distro similar to Mint but with Gnome 3.16

Post by trava90 »

I also recommend Manjaro. Great distro, I've been using it for over a year now with no problems. As mentioned, they have a great support forum as well.
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Re: Want a distro similar to Mint but with Gnome 3.16

Post by foersu »

Hi,

I do not know if it is proper to come back to may initial concern, but I found an article describing how to install Evolution 3.13.4 to Ubuntu 14.04 based systems (like Mint 17.x!).
What is your opinion regarding the risk of doing that? As said, I do not want to loose stability of the system because of installing non compatible packages.

Thanx!
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xenopeek
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Re: Want a distro similar to Mint but with Gnome 3.16

Post by xenopeek »

As long as you install it from a repository or from a .deb package you're fine. It will check dependencies on your system, that it won't cause any known breakages. And if some application that hooks into the evolution libraries (like pidgin) does break you can always revert to the evolution packages from the Linux Mint repositories.
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foersu
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Re: Want a distro similar to Mint but with Gnome 3.16

Post by foersu »

This is a very relaxing and comforting statement! Thanx a lot again xenopeek.

If I install Evolution 3.13.4, should I first remove the current installed version 3.10.4 or can I have both (for an evaluation time) "in parallel"? (I use an IMAP account, insofar there is not problem with fetching the emails into one version).
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Re: Want a distro similar to Mint but with Gnome 3.16

Post by xenopeek »

If you install another version, it will overwrite the current version. You can't have them installed side-by-side normally (you can, but it's some work to install to another path).
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foersu
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Re: Want a distro similar to Mint but with Gnome 3.16

Post by foersu »

Hello,

once again I would like to ask for your advise: I tried to install the Evolution version 3.13.4 by following the steps as indicated in http://linuxg.net/how-to-install-evolut ... e-systems/:

Code: Select all

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fta/gnome3

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get install evolution


After the last command, I just got the message "the last version is already installed" (or similar) and nothing happened. I could verify, that the installed version was still 3.10.4.

- What am I doing or understanding wrong?
- How can I remove the gnome3 ppa if no upgrade of Evolution is possible? ( I guess I won't need it any more).

Thanx again.
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Re: Want a distro similar to Mint but with Gnome 3.16

Post by xenopeek »

That PPA doesn't support trust, only vivid and utopic: https://launchpad.net/~fta/+archive/ubuntu/gnome3 (click on the series selection box to confirm)
It may have supported it a year ago, when that article was written, but it doesn't today.
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foersu
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Re: Want a distro similar to Mint but with Gnome 3.16

Post by foersu »

Ok, quite complicated stuff... :?
So I suppose, I do not need the ppa any more. How can I now remove the installed parts? Or do they do not have any influence on the system, e.g. making it slower because more packets or whatever have to be loaded at star time?
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Re: Want a distro similar to Mint but with Gnome 3.16

Post by xenopeek »

Nothing could have been installed from this PPA, as it doesn't support the Ubuntu package base (trusty) used by Linux Mint. You can remove it from Software Sources program in your menu, on the PPA tab (left sidebar button).
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DCP

Re: Want a distro similar to Mint but with Gnome 3.16

Post by DCP »

You could try Korora 22 (23 should release in early feb'2016)
https://kororaproject.org/
Its like what Mint of Fedora.
Has Gnome, cinnamon, mate, kde, xfce

No need to install fedy as Korora comes in with all free and non-free repos pre-added.
I tried it on desktop and found it attractive+stable.

Only issue in K22 was software manager is slow.
however, installation and updation through command line is fast
frodopogo

Re: Want a distro similar to Mint but with Gnome 3.16

Post by frodopogo »

The current release of Ubuntu GNOME has the GNOME 3.16.4 shell.

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-gnome/ ... 0/release/
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Re: Want a distro similar to Mint but with Gnome 3.16

Post by Fred Barclay »

You want Gnome 3? <Gasp... falls over backwards in disbelief and horror> :lol:
Kidding aside, Ubuntu Gnome would probably be the closest to Mint (sharing the same userbase, after all) though if you want Gnome 3.16, as frogopodo pointed out, you'll need to go with U. Gnome 15.10, which isn't the same Ubuntu base as Mint.

Though I never tried Manjaro Gnome, I can't imagine anything from the Manjaro team being less than first-rate, so I'd definitely recommend trying them. And then (this one's for you, xenopeek!) there's Arch linux if you're feeling adventurous. It's a tough distro at first but is one of the best.
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