Every six months in the linux world , we erase our linux systems to install the next linux system.
This habit came with mr Shuttleworth and ubuntu linux .
Here, I am telling my experiences as I erase and install the next breed.
Previous breed was linux mint daryna on a fujitsu siemens amilo 1655g laptop.
Current breed is mint elyssa 5.0 based of course on ubuntu hardy .

1. There is one serious bug I experienced during install.
Seems that somehow the devices that ubuntu hardy creates for  my ide hard disk are in the form  /dev/sda1 , /dev/sda5 and so on (instead of the expected /dev/hda1 ..) .
On the config  file of grub , root is /dev/hda7 (in my case) instead of root=/dev/sda7. I have read about this or the opposite situation in some posts.
Result is that the system although the live cd boots , runs and installs, becomes unbootable after the installation , and while in recovery mode you see a line that says /dev/hda7 does not exists.
So, how to solve this :
While in the grub menu , where you choose operating system to boot , press the left arrow key,  to go back in the text box of the grub options , and correct
root = /dev/hda7
 to
root=/dev/sda7. (or what else number is your linux installation at).
Then your new mint should boot correctly.
Then as long as you login
edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and replace as mentioned above
(/dev/hd.. to  /dev/sd...)  ,in  the grub options of your linux entries.
This solved my problem .
Let's see now if mint is worth the buzz for one more time..


2. We are firefox! And ff3 seems so far amazing, runs fast and is definitely lighter.
But furthermore we are our firefox plugins !
And the plugins that I use mostly are firebug (found a beta version through the addons form) , web developer , foxmarks , and last but not least tab mix plus. For this I had to search a little bit and at this time of writing found it here http://tmp.garyr.net/tab_mix_plus-dev-build.xpi .
 
3. This site runs on a madpy which runs on top of a bunch other software including postgresql. At last , there is available pgadmin3 version 1.8.2 (previous ubuntu, mint versions had stuck with a 1.6... version ).
so
sudo apt-get install pgadmin3


4. problems again with samba.. If you have set security to share in your samba server (and you have set this way, because otherwise in windows xp , you will get a login prompt even for shares that are guest ok = yes in the samba server), then you cannot login in shares that have a list of valid users..
Temporary solution is to set security parameter of samba server to 'user'. This way password authentication works. But then again you will be prompted to login in windows even for shares that are 'guest ok = yes'.
Bug is discussed here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gvfs/+bu​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​g/​209​520
Update: Finally solved..
The solution is described here http://pbour.blogspot.com/2008/06/from-gutsy-gibbo​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​n-to-har​dy-​her​on-​sam​ba.​htm​l .

The solution is to set your samba client to support plaintext authentication. Therefore, insert the following two lines in smb.conf file:
client plaintext auth = yes
client lanman auth = yes
and restart samba.

Remember that you should change the smb.conf of the client samba machine , in our case hardy heron or mint elyssa.
Update: oh god.. now when you double click in nautilus at a samba  share
that has guest ok yes and no valid users you get
Couldn't display smb://192.168...../sharename  There is no application installed for this file type .
But if you type in the location bar of nautilus the path (no double clicking on the folder) it works.!!! samba is important folks and leave the stuff about nfs! we still live in a windows world and we are talking about networking here , and file exchange between different machines.


5. Spent nearly a day installing eclipse and it's plugins,  as usual. I have installed eclipse many times but always in the installation something goes wrong and then I begin magic tricks which make things worse. The plugins that I use are subclipse , pydev , web standard tools, and ftp , webdav , sftp. Good thing is that I install eclipse manually, and all the plugins in the program's folder , (not my home) and so once I have installed everything I can take the program's folder copy / paste it and then have eclipse with all the plugins in my other machines.


6. Next is ies4linux . Because we live in a microsoft world and unlike the public sector we develop cross browser sites. Had some pygtk problems I think and tried the beta which worked. Here is the output of the error of the main  ies4linux-2.99

7. Next wireless.
Wireless cards have always been the headache in linux. Mainly mine a broadcom BCM4318. Unforunatelly in every linux install I am t ]rying to reinstall this card , and every time it is becoming harder. Find more details here .

Update 2008-07-02
Installed mint 5 on my main desktop machine.
AMD sempron 3000 (1.8 ghz)
ram 1024 mb
nvidia geforce 7600..

Here it shines!
Firefox 3 is nice  and as I have used it in win XP also,  a get the feeling that the linux version is much better and bug free.


Bottom line:
Mint 5 and hardy  goes in the right direction . Faster firefox and  desktop as a whole.
Mint 5 has bugs but the general impression is positive.
That's the point when judging software. All programs have bugs in a degree but users can decide whether these bugs are worth the time and effort .
 And in new Linux mint case it's worth it!