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In my experience it’s a lot better to trust the Mint Update Manager than to, for example, trust Windows Update. I can’t remember a time when Update Manager screwed something up, and I’ve been using it in either Mint or Ubuntu for nearly 8 years. That’s in direct contrast to my getting an error from Windows Update just last night when I was trying to install the February CU on a Win 10 machine. The error said something went wrong and we can’t install the update. WU did try again later and failed again. I don’t have time for nonsense like that.

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Mothy, Charlie

It’s been a while since I checked System Reports, but I did just now and it’s telling me I have 87 days of support for LMC 20.3.

I’m seeing this, too. Don’t know what it means. Haven’t installed it yet.

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Charlie

Any AI model that was created by a human or humans can be manipulated by a human or humans. IMHO that’s an excellent reason to withhold trust in any AI model unless one is convinced in the integrity of the model makers, or one has done enough research to be convinced that the model has not been manipulated. But at this stage of AI development, even if you’re convinced of creator integrity and absence of manipulation, you would be well advised to check the results of any AI model output.

In short, I agree with you Alex5723.

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WSbobby-p

In the USA I’ve used Clarkson University, James Madison University, Open Computing Facility at UC Berkely, and Purdue Linux Users Group mirrors mostly because those are names I recognize and because they all have excellent reputations and are not likely to have any compromised files. They have all worked well for me.

I doubt that the Mint creators would allow any orgnization to be a mirror if they thought the organiation was in some way suspect. So I’d be confident that they’re all good. My reasons for choosing are subjective when you get right down to it.

Somewhere I’ve read that one should pick a mirror that’s in the same country where one lives but that strikes me as pretty subjective, too.

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Charlie

You’re right, 4GB is too small. I typically use 8 or 16GB. Haven’t shopped for sticks for a few years.

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Charlie

That should work just fine. FYI, 64GB is probably far bigger than you need. You probably need only 8 or 16GB. So if you have a reliable 8 or 16 stick you can use that and use your new one for other backup purposes.

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Charlie

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, Dell seems to have provided essentially no actionable information, basically saying there’s an issue that someone could exploit – gosh, really? so that’s why there’s a CVE! Wow, who knew??!!

Is it too much to ask for some judgement as to how likely the issue could be exploited, if it’s already out in the wild, etc.? This seems somewhat reminiscent of the Intel issues from a few years ago, where many were panicked about immediately installing microcode (or whatever) that seemed to bog down many systems, only to have it turn out that the issue was extremely hard to exploit.

(Since I’m already ranting, if I was Dell I’d be embarassed that so many systems were affected.)

I think the USB Image Writer will format if needed. I’m hedging a bit because I’ve got 3 usb sticks with images on them but I’ve used them for a few years and don’t remember for sure if I needed to reformat them first. If the stick needs formatting I’m quite sure it will tell you and/or format it for you.

If I was doing this from scratch right now, I’d just take a stick I don’t need and use Image Writer – and I’m 95+% sure it will work. If it doesn’t work you won’t hurt anything.

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Charlie

I’m now being offered FF 135.0 on Linux Mint Cinnamon 20.3 through the Update Manager.

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bassmanzam, Ascaris, Charlie

It (FF135.0) is probably coming soon at least for any Linux distro based on Ubuntu 20.04

https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-7263-1

And for a broader overview if all security patches/updates for Ubuntu go here:

https://ubuntu.com/security/notices

The last is a really handy link to give you a heads up on possible patches coming in the future – and sometimes in the present. I have it bookmarked; you might want to consider doing that as well.

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Charlie

My understanding is that if your computer is eligible for Win 11 that you will be offered Win 11 24H2 even if you are currently running Win 10. Also using Group Policy to control feature updates and keep a current version at, for example, Win10 22H2, or Win11 23H2, should keep Win 11 24H2 from downloading and installing. The Group Policy method should work if you are currently running either Win 10 OR Win 11.

That’s my take, but I too would like a confirmation from one of the experts here.

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rick41, LH, CADesertRat, rc primak, flyingdutchgirl, opti1, chilton

The MBA is the first and so far the only Mac on which I’ve installed Mint. I’ve installed versions of Ubuntu and Mint probably somewhere around 10 to 15 times on PCs. My old HP PC never initially finds the correct wifi drivers the first or second time from either the internet or from the installation usb stick; I always have to use the wifi dongle. On the MBA I was hoping to use the wifi dongle from the get go to get usable wifi drivers. That didn’t work as seamlessly as I hoped, but still not a big deal. And as an editorial comment I’d say every linux installation I’ve ever done has been much less problematic than, for example, a Windows installation.

Anyway, glad things worked out well for you.

The Microsoft support article for KB 5050593 says this:

“There are no new security improvements in this release. This update is cumulative and contains all previously released security improvements.”

So from a security point of view you’re fine since you installed the Janusry .NET patch.

FWIW I inadvertently installed the 5050593 a couple days ago and all is well. I can’t recall ever having any problems with .NET patches or previews; they seem to be far better behaved than, for example, the Windows 10 patch Tuesday security updates.

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SingBlueSilver, Microfix

I have a 2017 macBook Air that is no longer supported by Apple. I installed Linux Mint on it as described here:

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/installing-mint-22-cinnamon-on-2017-macbook-air/

It’s a base model and when it was running macOS it was just another computer – I didn’t really like it and I didn’t really dislike it, although it did have a nice display and touchpad. Now, though, the thing just flies! Too bad it wasn’t very impressive when it was running macOS. If had been I just might have been a Mac convert.