I'm the Average Joe when it comes to computers. 3 or so years ago I installed Ubuntu but got into all sorts of problems and had to get rid and use XP again. I quite liked Ubuntu but despite it being held up as the best distro for non techies, I found I didn't have confidence that certain things would work eg printers.

My notebook is over 4 years old and I'm expecting it to die fairly soon. I begrudgingly use Windows products as I feel I don't really have a choice. I want to use something else apart from Apple but not sure and would like to start to learn a few geeky things. My ears pricked up when I heard about Google Chrome OS, but they say it's aimed at Netbooks and the roll out seems to be some way off, but not 100% sure of it.

I hear that Linux Mint is getting rave reviews and apparently it seems to have all the compatibility that Ubuntu doesn't. I just want it to work using things like Memory Sticks, and other plug ins like Ipods What I'm thinking is that I could use Mint alongside XP until I'm confident enough to go solo. I like the Open Source Philosophy and come the glorious day I buy a new machine, I want a kosher OS and would really like to avoid paying the earth for Windows.

I have a 250Gb external hard drive - would I be best downloading Mint onto it or perhaps a Memory Stick. I'm thinking that if all goes well then I would migrate slowly ie First - Memory Stick/External Hard Drive, Second - Partition Disk and then when reasonably confident use only Mint.

I'd be grateful for views on Mint - as a matter of interest, if I was using an external hard drive or memory stick to run it and stayed that way for months, would there be any problems with periodic updates?

I think Mint is available as a LiveCD; or use virtual machines to run it as a test

Just download, burn and run Mint 10 from a live CD and see if you like it.

Installed it again this weekend on an old Pentium IV computer with only 1 GB RAM - no questions asked and everything worked "out of the box"

If you live in Bangkok or surroundings, you can join us this week at: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/409242-ubuntu-it-meeting/

I also run Mint 10 on my 7 year old HP laptop and again everything worked 'out of the box" - even VirtualBox with Windows XP SP3, Ofice 2003 , no problem.

If you want to have a look at it see you this week.

Cheers,

Cloggie