Using Linux Mint

Linux Mint 10 KDE Julia proved to be much more stable that Kubuntu 10.10, however, after about week or so of running, it would either freeze or get so sluggish that it was unusable.  This appeared to occur when memory usage got up over 85% or more.  I suspected the problem was due to problems in Linux when using swap space.  After adding another 4 GB to the component to bring the total to 8 GB, Mint 10 was rock solid, at times running over a month with no issues.

Mint 10 KDE was a good platform and the CUDA SDK (version 4.0) worked on this system.  CUDA was not needed for this project, but is needed for a work project, the reason for going to Linux in the first place (which was also required).  Mint 12 KDE Lisa (based on Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot) was released (there was no Linux Mint 11 KDE Katja).  I installed Mint 12, but there were a number of issues.  Since I made the system dual boot (or should say multiple boot because the original Windows XP system and even the Kubuntu 10.10 install was still available), I just went back to Mint 10 as it was stable and met my needs.

However, sometime early last spring when the then next version of Firefox and Thunderbird was released, I thought it strange after many weeks the new versions were not showing up in the repositories.  When I investigated, I learned that Mint 10 was at end-of-life (meaning no more updates).  So it was time to move to Mint 12.  Some time was spent getting Mint 12 working they way Mint 10 was.