Linux Mint: Some notes on recent happenings
Some of my blogs, including this one, have turned into platforms for only occasional and inconsistent blogging. I do like this little blog, as through happenstance, I seemed to have designed it in a way that I at least think is clever. But this blog has turned into a place mainly for thoughts on tech like things, and sometimes my experiments with html audio and video. I also sometimes continue to use it for my fiction scribbling now and then. Unless I am motivated to write something specific to those concepts, I don't really tend to use this blog.
Well, today I have been motivated to write about something touching upon one of those concepts. So, dear reader, if you are out there - you are in luck!
Of all the Linux distros, I would have to say that Linux Mint is the best for general computer users. It is the easiest to set up (as far as I know), and the most complete distro I have found, with most everything one needs already to go right out of the box. Most of the distros (and my experience, I must confess, has been mainly with Debian based distros), tend to require anywhere from a little to a great deal of work to set up after installation. I would say, and this is a a very rough and unscientific measure, that on one end we have Debian itself, which from my experience takes a great deal of work to get various pieces and parts that do not come standard with the installation. Everything else based on Debian seems to fall in the middle. Lastly, there is Mint, which is a very polished and finished product based on Debian.
However, recently Mint had the misfortune of being hacked and compromised for about a day's time. Only one version of the distro was affected, and the whole thing was handled well by the Mint people. Their download site was made safe again fairly quickly.
This is something to be weary of going forward, but I don't think it changes my overall perception of Mint. One has to wonder about, or at least be reminded of, the security issues around downloading open software from the internet There is always a chance that anything downloaded from the internet could be compromised.
On the other hand, I wonder if Mint was targeted for other reasons. I will leave that last statement rather vague for now, as more of the story needs to come out before I decide if that last statement has any merit or not. Maybe, I am a hopeless conspiracy theorist. Or, maybe there was a particular reason Mint was chosen as the target, beyond simply the attacker finding a way of doing it. At this stage, who knows?
Also, within the past week or so, it has come to my attention that Google Chrome will no longer provide updates for 32 bit machines. This is disappointing to say the least, and anybody who uses a 32 bit computer should probably not use Chrome as a browser. There is Chromium, and as far as I can tell, it will be updated.
If you use a 64 bit machine, and are having an error message when the machine tries to update, it likely could be a result of this. It will be a message saying something along the lines of files in Chrome not being fetched, and if close attention is given, you will notice it means specifically files for a 32 bit system.
This might be an annoyance, but really affects nothing as far as updates go, and everything should work fine. If it is too troublesome, there is something that can be done about it, but any alteration made does involve risk. Probably, best to just ignore the message, and continue using your computer as before.
To further emphasize, only attempt to fix the warning message if you feel comfortable with the code, and working through the terminal!
All in all, I would still have to say Linux Mint is one of the best distros. It is a shame that we now have to worry (more) about security in order to use Mint. I hope the Mint team is able to put our minds at ease, and make Mint have a reputation as a distro that overcame security concerns.
Well, today I have been motivated to write about something touching upon one of those concepts. So, dear reader, if you are out there - you are in luck!
Of all the Linux distros, I would have to say that Linux Mint is the best for general computer users. It is the easiest to set up (as far as I know), and the most complete distro I have found, with most everything one needs already to go right out of the box. Most of the distros (and my experience, I must confess, has been mainly with Debian based distros), tend to require anywhere from a little to a great deal of work to set up after installation. I would say, and this is a a very rough and unscientific measure, that on one end we have Debian itself, which from my experience takes a great deal of work to get various pieces and parts that do not come standard with the installation. Everything else based on Debian seems to fall in the middle. Lastly, there is Mint, which is a very polished and finished product based on Debian.
However, recently Mint had the misfortune of being hacked and compromised for about a day's time. Only one version of the distro was affected, and the whole thing was handled well by the Mint people. Their download site was made safe again fairly quickly.
This is something to be weary of going forward, but I don't think it changes my overall perception of Mint. One has to wonder about, or at least be reminded of, the security issues around downloading open software from the internet There is always a chance that anything downloaded from the internet could be compromised.
On the other hand, I wonder if Mint was targeted for other reasons. I will leave that last statement rather vague for now, as more of the story needs to come out before I decide if that last statement has any merit or not. Maybe, I am a hopeless conspiracy theorist. Or, maybe there was a particular reason Mint was chosen as the target, beyond simply the attacker finding a way of doing it. At this stage, who knows?
Also, within the past week or so, it has come to my attention that Google Chrome will no longer provide updates for 32 bit machines. This is disappointing to say the least, and anybody who uses a 32 bit computer should probably not use Chrome as a browser. There is Chromium, and as far as I can tell, it will be updated.
If you use a 64 bit machine, and are having an error message when the machine tries to update, it likely could be a result of this. It will be a message saying something along the lines of files in Chrome not being fetched, and if close attention is given, you will notice it means specifically files for a 32 bit system.
This might be an annoyance, but really affects nothing as far as updates go, and everything should work fine. If it is too troublesome, there is something that can be done about it, but any alteration made does involve risk. Probably, best to just ignore the message, and continue using your computer as before.
To further emphasize, only attempt to fix the warning message if you feel comfortable with the code, and working through the terminal!
All in all, I would still have to say Linux Mint is one of the best distros. It is a shame that we now have to worry (more) about security in order to use Mint. I hope the Mint team is able to put our minds at ease, and make Mint have a reputation as a distro that overcame security concerns.
