Democrat Routh Running in House 25

By now the sorts of people who read Iowa political blogs are all cued in to the fact that new Democratic House candidate Katie Routh has a famous son, right? Since that's taken care of let's look at the district.

House 25 keeps Madison County intact, and that's just over 50% of the population. The other half is two separate chunks of Warren County. The biggest change is the addition of a northern piece that includes Routh's base in Norwalk. There's also a reconfigured a southern rural piece that skirts south of Indianola. That's where first term GOP incumbent Julian Garrett lives.

Garrett lost a close 2006 Senate race to Democrat Staci Appel, then came back in 2010 to take this House seat over a late-starting Democrat when longtime Republican Rep. Jodi Tymeson retired.

The new turf has a post-caucus GOP registration edge of about 1500, up about 500 from the Map Day numbers. (The GOP registration totals are puffed about as high as they're going to get right now; insert my standard disclaimers that the trend simply indicate which party has had the most interesting recent internal contest.) So, uphill for Democrats, but worth a serious effort.

Other legislative contest news:

Bleeding Heartland looks at the House 56 contest in the northeast corner between GOP freshman Bob Hager and Democrat Patti Ruff.

Now THIS is how re-election announcements should be done:

State Rep. Mark Lofgren said he doesn’t need to call a press conference to announce he’s running for re-election this fall.

“Consider this my formal announcement,” the freshman legislator said by telephone from the state Capitol late Wednesday afternoon.

Lofgren, R-Muscatine, has so far drawn one opponent for the November election — Democrat John Dabeet, a professor of economics and statistics at Muscatine Community College.

None of this announcing that I'm going to announce dog and pony show, no Formal Announcement several months after the first story or, even worse, after the candidate has filed to get on the ballot.

The Bob Dole Scenario

Journalists and political junkies, quit fantasizing. Your dream of a contested Republican convention won't happen. None of the four surviving candidates is going to stand down for a Mighty Mouse Here I Come To Save The Day candidate.

But that leaves the GOP with a serious dilemma. They're stuck with the unlovable Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, and the extremist Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. Well, Newt and Mitt have been sounding pretty extreme lately, too. Every indication is that these four will keep battering each other throughthe nomination process.

But from there things look more familiar. One of these guys, other than Paul, will end up with the devalued prize of the Republican nomination. What does the party do then?

The answer is both remarkably cynical, realpolitik practical, and very familiar. The sports analogies are over-used, but Hunter Thompson used them where applicable so I will too. Fourth down and long? You punt and play for field position. Call it the Bob Dole Scenario.

I was a downballot candidate in 1996 and I felt the wind go out of the Republican sails the minute Bill Clinton signed welfare reform. As a Johnson County lefty I cringed, but in the places I was running they loved it.

This left Republicans with one of their biggest issues off the table. They were already saddled with a candidate who was respected but not loved in Bob Dole.

One upside of the post-1960s polarization of the parties is that there are fewer and fewer independent voters left. The independents who lean one way or the other may still CALL themselves "independent" because journalists teach them that's a good thing to call yourself, but functionally they vote as partisans. In modern terms, 2008 was a landslide. Barack Obama's 53% and John McCain's 46% probably represent the high and low marks for a major party. That is, 92% of the electorate already has their mind made up to vote for Obama or the Republican nominee in a two way race.

(And it IS going to be a two way race. The much-ballyhooed Americans Elect project, in which the raging moderates are supposed to save us from ourselves, is doomed to failure without a prominent, Perot-like candidate. One guess who's leading their online nomination poll? That's right, Ron Paul of course. And he's not going to defect and damage the future prospect of his son. How libertarian can you get -- you name your son Rand?)

Let me tell you the dirty little secret about "independents." By and large they're not the thoughtful and serious type who "study the candidates." They're usually the least likely and least informed voters who are the most susceptible to the weakest arguments. They say they hate negative ads... but they're persuaded by them. They're the Which Candidate Would I Want To Have A Beer With vote.

And they're the most likely to buy into the American fallacy of split ticket voting, then complain afterwards when the two parties -- who fundamentally disagree on almost all important issues -- can't "work together" and "compromise."

This, the likely Republican strategy for the fall.

Along about August 1996, the GOP realized that Bob Dole wasn't going to happen. So they pretty much openly scuttled him. This was just two years after the 1994 congressional takeover, and Republican control of Congress was still in doubt. Sound familiar?

The Republicans of 1996, saddled with a weak nominee, tacitly acknowledged Dole's likely defeat. They scuttled their own candidate and instead made the case that continued control of Congress was needed as a check and balance on Bill Clinton.

The independents, whose understanding of the presidential race was roughly "Bob Dole too old," bought it. We got continued divided government, and impeachment along with it.

The Bob Dole scenario is the next the Republicans can do this year. But the raging moderates and the low-information independents should learn from the lessons of the last year that Working Together and Compromise are no longer possible. Make a real choice, give one party or the other a mandate, and live with the consequences.

Democrat Dabeet Announces in House 91

See, when your candidate is not Some Dude, this is how you do it. Step 1: Big press release from party.

MCC Business Department Chair Dabeet to Run for State Representative in Muscatine

Muscatine, Iowa – The Chair of the Business Department at Muscatine Community College John Dabeet today announced that he will run for state representative in District 91, which includes the city of Muscatine and eastern Muscatine County.

Step 2: It gets picked up by the Register right away, not just by a goofy blogger with a goofy hat and a case of OCD (Obsessively Compulsive about Districts).

The press release gets demographically interesting further down:

Dabeet, a Christian, is currently serving as President of the national Americans & Palestinians for Peace organization and has been involved in a host of other activities and organizations in Muscatine. He is Past President of Muscatine Sister City Association and former Chair of the Diversity Service Center of Iowa, which is based in Muscatine. For eight years, he served on the Board of Directors for the Greater Muscatine Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Apparantly, even in the post long form birth certificate era, and even with all sorts of Chamber of Commercy credentials, there's still a need for that "a Christian" emphasis.

“As state representative, I will put aside the partisanship and listen to the people of our community. I look forward to engaging the citizens of Muscatine just like I engage my students in the classroom and seek their input on the critical issues our state faces. It’s a humbling experience to run for state representative and I’m excited to meet Muscatine residents at their doorstep,” said Dabeet, who received the Excellency in Volunteerism Award from the Greater Muscatine
Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 2002-2003.

This seat had been ancestrally Republican for about forever until Democrat Nathan Reichert foiled the comeback attempt of my former opponent, Barry Brauns, in 2004 when Jim Hahn moved over to the Senate. Reichert had a target on his back every cycle, but held on till Mark Lofgren knocked him off in 2010.

This is a District Draws Itself seat, as the city of Muscatine is 75% of ideal district size. It also keeps suburban Bloomington Township (a GOP stronghold) and the same three townships in eastern Muscatine County including Stockton. It adds the Fruitland area, which adds a little population and makes a swing seat even closer, with just a slight GOP edge. Definitely winnable for a Democrat in a good year, but it'll take some work as Muscatine is historically low turnout.

Sherman running in House 77

Some Dude: Some candidates start out with certain built-in advantages: They already hold office, they have personal wealth, or they have a prominent public profile. Some Dude has none of these. If you Google Some Dude's name, you'll find very little information-probably just the news article or blog post where they were first mentioned as a possible candidate. A good hint you're dealing with a Some Dude is that they're described as an "activist" or "Tea Party member" in press accounts. Note: Some Dudes sometimes win! -- Glossary, Swing State Project (now Daily Kos Elections)

Steve Sherman of North Liberty looks pretty close to the profile. A tweet from a fellow Johnson County GOP activist pointed to a Facebook page about his candidacy in House District 77.

The Googling shows that he's a Christian author who's also done a few guest editorials that reveal an... interesting rhetorical style. He also hosted a house party for Rick Santorum back before the caucuses. The next Google search will probably include this post, so hey. The Deeth Blog, your free advertising source for Republican candidates.

Contrast that profile with the Democrat: five term county supervisor Sally Stutsman. Or even with former Tiffin mayor Royce Phillips, who said in August that House Republicans were trying to recruit him. (That effort seemed to fizzle, then Phillips lost his re-election bid in November.)

Still, it's the first time the GOP has run a candidate -- or rather, the first time a GOP candidate has run, since I'm sensing self-starter here -- in an all-Johnson seat since the 2003 Dave Jacoby special election. This is a new all-Johnson seat with a Democratic advantage of a couple thousand voters. The various pieces used to belong mostly to Jacoby, Nate Willems, and Jarad Klein. On the Senate side, it's half of Sandy Greiner's new seat, which oughta be way fun for her in 2014.

North Liberty anchors 77, which covers the whole west and south border of Johnson. It starts with Swisher and Shueyville, picks up Tiffin and Oxford, and ends up in Lone Tree, wrapping around and not including the city of Hills.

Take no offense; I was a Some Dude when I ran. And every race should be taken seriously; Brian Moore sitting in the legislature is proof enough of that.

Reisetter to Challenge Danielson in Senate 30

Urbandale Council Member John Forbes in Open House 40

Senate Republicans have snagged a big name for one of their top targeted seats, as GOP rising star Matt Reisetter has announced against Democrat Jeff Danielson in Senate District 30.

Reisetter, who's been working for BVP over at the famIly leader, fell just 98 votes short of knocking off House Democrat Bob Kressig in the bad GOP cycle of 2006.

Danielson survived 2008 by a recount-close 22 votes over Walt Rogers, who went on to knock off Doris Kelley in a 2010 House race. The turf, which tilts just slightly Republican, doesn't change much. Two-thirds of the district is the complete city of Cedar Falls. Danielson's kept a high profile and plays up his firefighter day job, but the GOP's high-profile roll-out, and the 2008 margin, makes it look like this seat is high on the target list.

House Democrats had an announcement of their own this morning: Urbandale City Council member John Forbes, in open House District 40.

This seat, which shrinks entirely into the Polk County part of Urbandale, is where Scott Raecker is retiring. On paper it should favor the GOP, but of curse Forbes has proven himself able to win a city council race. The only announced Republican thus far is fitness club owner Mike Brown.

Second GOP Student Candidate in Ames

Starting to look like a trend: 20-something Iowa House GOP candidates.

Iowa State's College Republican chair Stephen Quist announced last night in House District 45, now held by Ames Democrat Lisa Heddens. The announcement came at a party co-hosted with Dane Nealson, whose name surfaced yesterday in the other Ames seat, Beth Wessel-Kroeschell's House 45.

House 46 is the northern part of Ames and includes most of the campus area. It's also the slightly less Democratic of the two seats. Heddens had a fairly easy 2000 vote win over Republican Chad Steenhoek last cycle; a Libertarian was in the race too. The district shrinks into the city proper (which meant a move for Heddens in a My District Just Not My House situation).

Quist and Nealson join at least three other young Republican candidates. Two are primary challengers: Maison Bleam against Tom Shaw in House 10 and Jake Highfill against Erik Helland in House 39. There's also Megan Hess in open House District 2, where she's likely to face Democrat Steve Bomgaars. As I've said before, Republicans are much much more likely to track their young talent to candidate status than Democrats.

Spillville Mayor Announces in House 55

Democrat Ruff in House 56

Two announcements, one on each team, from the state's northeast corner:

Spillville Mayor Michael Klimesh is making a second run for the Iowa House. The Republican has announced in House District 55 against Democratic incumbent Roger Thomas.

The second run is on very different turf. Klimesh fell more than 900 votes short of Brian Quirk, the only Six Pack conservaDem to survive 2010. That seat covered all of Chickasaw and Howard counties, where Quirk won his margin, plus southern and western Winneshiek, which Klimesh carried.

The new seat has little overlap outside of Spillville. It covers more of Winneshiek, including Decorah, the northern half of Fayette, and a small part of western Clayton that includes Elkader, where Thomas lives. It leans a bit Republican. Thomas survived in 2010 by just 122 votes over Michael Brietbach, who's running this cycle in the overlapping, open seat Senate 28 race.

This seat was a Democratic pair-up on Map Day; in December Fayette-based Andrew Wenthe announced his retirement. It would have been a Democratic triple-up if John Beard of Decorah hadn't lost in 2010. Beard is making a comeback attempt in the Senate 28 race.

The other half of Senate 28 is House 56, where MFL Mar-Mac School Board President Patti Ruff of McGregor has just announced on the Democratic side. She'll face Bob Hager, the Republican who knocked off Beard.

Hager's old district had all of Allamakee County and the larger part of Winneshiek. This map the Allamakee seat goes south to take in almost all of Clayton except Elkader. This seat also leans a bit Republican. But Hager won, in part, on a friends and neighbors dynamic, winning Allamakee by just a bit more than Beard's margi in Winneshiek. This time, Hager has to share his base with Ruff.

Operation Hilarity not funny

Have to call foul on my own team here: Überblogger Markos "Kos" Moulitsas is pulling an Ed Fallon and urging Democrats to mess with the other party's nomination process:

It's time for those of us who live in open primary and caucus states—Michigan, North Dakota, Vermont and Tennessee in the next three weeks—to head out and cast a vote for Rick Santorum.

The longer this thing drags out, the more unpopular the Republican presidential pretenders become. Just look at Mitt Romney's trajectory, which followed Herman Cain's trajectory, and Newt Gingrich's trajectory, and Michelle Bachmann's trajectory, and so on.

Rick Santorum will inevitably follow the same path once he gets properly vetted.

He calls it "Operation Hilarity" and rationalizes: "Rush Limbaugh and his ilk have had no problem meddling in our own contests. And if there's one thing Daily Kos is about, it's about fighting fire with fire."

But I'm not finding his two wrongs make a right excuse funny. There's a time for fighting fire with fire, as President Obama acknowledged when he reluctantly agreed to accept SuperPAC help to battle the post-Citizen United corporate millions.

There's also a time to be better than that. It's not the place of Democrats to define the Republican Party by choosing its nominee. Such efforts escalate the monkeywrenching to the point where parties are emaningless, and I believe that one of the few positives of the polarization of recent years is that it's made parties more cohesive and meaningful. The species canis cyaneus and Lymantria dispar are nearly extinct.

Kos has done great things for the left end of the spectrum, as one of the key founders of the blogosphere as we know it. But he gets it wrong sometimes; his bitterness over Howard Dean's disappointing showing has made him the left's leading Iowa basher.

And he's wrong here. Besides, as the Republicans have shown us thus far. they don't need our help. They are capable of screwing up this race all by themselves.

Nealson Announces in House 45

A brief announcement via Twitter from former College Republicans chair Dane Nealson in House District 45 in Ames.

The race against Democrat Beth Wessel-Kroeschell looks to be an uphill one. 45, the southern half of town, is the more Democratic of the two Ames districts. And, significant for a young candidate, redistricting moves the bulk of the Iowa State campus from 45 into the other Ames district, Lisa Heddens' House 46.

BW-K won by 1000 votes over a relatively high profile Republican, Karin Sevde, in the awful 2010 cycle, and by 2400 over the then-youthful Ryan Rhodes in 2008.

Bob The Big Bully

All you need is love? Bob Vander Plaats of the famIly leader -- note the punctuation with the I in upper case, to show that it's not about the self, it's all about Bob -- chose Valentine's Day to send Terry Branstad a bouquet of hate.

Branstad, whose crime is holding the job that Bob lusts after and is incapable of winning, lent his name to Governor’s Conference on LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning) Youth. He's not attending, but just the use of his name is a hint that maybe, just maybe, Terry doesn't hate Teh Gay as much as Bob thinks he should.

Oh, it's couched in BVP's usual passive aggressive religious language, sure. “Our goal at The famIly leader is to speak the truth in love.” A dozen roses, with thorns. BVP says the conference "is exchanging truth for acceptance and tolerance of harmful behavior.”

Interesting words. Acceptance and tolerance. You say that like it's a bad thing, Bob.

Decades ago, cultural pressure kept almost everyone in the closet, and it's still a powerful force. You don't even have to be gay to suffer from homophobic bullying. I got it in my youth despite my over-obvious and awkward efforts to attract female affection, and little has changed in the last 30 years. "Gay" is still used as a negative synonym and "fag" is still the strongest hate word you can throw at an adolescent male.

What BVP is explicitly saying here is that he wants to strengthen the force of bullying, to use social pressure to make people feel shame about who and what they are. A bully pulpit, indeed.

All these cultural questions -- marriage, military, the name on a stillborn death certificate -- really come down to one. Is being gay a way people are, or is it a sin? This is about your "right" to be a bigot.

Give him credit, though: Bob just comes right out and says it.

Bob Vander Plaats and his ilk have been bullying the Republican Party on this issue, to the party's own detriment. Poll after poll shows that anti-gay sentiment is linked to age. As the pre-boomer generation dies off and is replaced by Generation Gaga, homophobia increasingly becomes a losing political stance.

Terry Branstad, to some small degree, recognizes this, and his timid steps in the right direction are to be welcomed. I'd like more, sure. But I won't pester Branstad about it until I hear Barack Obama say out loud he supports marriage equality. Preferably before the election, Mr. President.

Update: BVP doubles down today.

Democrat Brenneman in Open House 44

The first Democrat has announced in one of those This Is Where Your District Went seats, open House 44 in Dallas County.

West Des Moines Fire Fighter Eric Brenneman announced today that he is running for State Representative in the newly created House District 44; a district that includes the Dallas County portions of the Cities of West Des Moines, Clive and Waukee.

Brenneman, who is running as a Democrat, states “I believe the next generation of leaders must put the future well being of the State of Iowa above partisan politics, I feel this can be accomplished through actively listening to the public and working with conviction to find solutions for our difficult problems. I believe these results will create a solid foundation for continued growth and success for the State of Iowa.”

Waukee grew from just over 5,000 people in the 2000 census to nearly 14,000 in 2010, and becomes the anchor of this seat, which also includes the Dallas County parts of Clive and West Des Moines. That was all in the old Ralph Watts district 47, which doubled in population. Watts sheds all this and stays with western Dallas in House District 19.

This turf is fairly solid for the GOP, but Democrats are making a serious effort in the corresponding Senate 22 race with Desmund Adams. The GOP primary in that race, between mobile incumbent Pat Ward and minister Jeff Mullen, should be nasty, but the GOP seems to have settled on Dallas County GOP chair Rob Taylor right away in the House race.

In other announcement news, Democratic Sen. Brian Schoenjahn announces for a third term in Senate 32. Bleeding Heartland wrote this one up so I'll spare the redundancy. No GOP names yet.

Pacino award part of debt plan?

I knew it was you Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart!"

Al Pacino got a hug and a medal from President Obama on Monday.

The actor was honored at the White House, where the president presented him with a National Medal of Arts for his contributions to American culture.

“Recognized around the world for his signature intensity on the silver screen, Mr. Pacino stands among America’s most accomplished artists,” an announcer said as Obama, smiling broadly, gave "The Godfather" star his prize.

The Pope - the Holy Father himself - has this very day blessed Michael Corleone; and you think you know better than the Pope?

What wasn't announced: Pacino later met with Timothy Geithner to discuss plans to bail us out of the national debt.

Unfortunately the event was marred by a breach in White House security. Rather than letting the Secret Service handle it, Pacino took matters into his own hands:



Congrats to one of America's greatest actors and it's a damn shame they didn't do this before Rahm Emanuel left.

Linux Monday: Starting Over

I switched Linux distributions over the weekend. Most of you have no idea what that means.

Long-term readers may remember my "Linux Monday" series, back in early 2009, when I proselytized for my operating system preference like a Ron Paul supporter on Ibogaine. After a while I said what I had to say, political events picked up again, and I put it n the back burner. But I'm feeling the need to share again. Sorry.

First off, what's an "operating system"? It's the basic bundle of programs that make your computer work. Not your browser or your office apps: the stuff that tell it "you're a computer" and boots it up to an interface where you, the human, can actually do stuff.

Most folks know two operating systems: Windows and Mac. The third party alternative is Linus (purists will call it "GNU/Linux" but that's a holy war best ignored.) It's a bigger deal than you think. Your Android phone? That's Linux, they just don't call it that. It's hiding lots of other places, too.

Linux is free software, in two senses of the word. The underlying source code is readily available for anyone with the skills to modify (we call this "free s in freedom") and the cost is zero dollars. Some of us, like me, will argue for its technical superiority as well. In my experience it's less inclined to get nastyware.

Because anyone can modify and redistribute the software, there are many different versions of Linux out there,called "distributions." Different versions have different purposes: some are designed for ease of use and installations, others are meant for maximum flexibilty and system control if you put the work in. Some are meant for multimedia, others are tweaked to use on old, low resource machines.

Distributions are loosely associated into families which resemble either different branches of the evolutionary tree or, if you're a creationist, different branches of the church. Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant roughly equals Slackware, Red Hat, Debian. All mammals are more similar to each other than birds, all apes are more similar to each other than they are to cats, and all of them are more like each other than they are like plants. Every so often a branch will "fork" into a new distribution.

For several years, the Ubuntu distribution, part of the Debian family, has been number one in the world. They launched in 2004 with the slogan "Linux for human beings" and I was curious enough to try it on an old machine in 2005. The experience was good and eventually I got serious about it. In mid-2008 I began using it as my main system, and when I got my next new laptop in late 2010 I ordered it without Windows.

Ubuntu issues a new release every six months, with a year.month designation and an alliterative animal nickname (11.04 "Natty Narwhal" etc.) Your system kindly notifies you when the upgrade is available, and an Upgrade option lets you get the latest without wiping out your system and settings. But some folks argue -- we Linux geeks like to argue -- that a complete new installation is the better way to go.

I'd been continually upgrading, rather than re-installing, since version 8.04 ("Hardy Heron"). This included a computer transition (I backed up my /home directory, which stores your settings and your stuff).

There have been a lot of changes in Ubuntu in the past four years. The biggest came in version 11.04 when they changed "desktops." Necessary tangent: the "desktop" in this context is the program that manages the graphic user interface or "GUI." If you look in Windows Task Manager and see Explorer, that's the desktop program, Explorer (not to be confused with the Windows Explorer that you can run from the start menu, which is a file manager, or with the browser Internet Explorer). In Windows World and MacWorld, you only have one option. In Linux Land, there are bunches. Some are deigned for ease, others for efficiency.

Ubuntu had started with the GNOME desktop. It's one of the more user-friendly interfaces: uses a fair amount of resources but it's an easy migration for a Windows XP refugee. In 2011, I forget which, the GNOME folks "upgraded" their program from version 2 point something to version 3, and lots of folks were unhappy with the "improvements."

Over at Ubuntu, with the launch of 11.04 they changed the default desktop to a new interface called Unity, which seemed more... netbook-y? Mac-y? Anyway,it's kind of like a Mac dock only on the left side, rather than a start-button type interface. You could stick with Gnome 2 if you wanted, but with version 11.10, the current release, Ubuntu "upgraded" to Gnome 3.

I dodged the issue by switching to Fluxbox, a desktop designed for simplicity and low resource use. (You start with a blank screen, then right click and see a menu.) Fluxbox was OK, but lacked some functionality that I liked. For example, I couldn't set my SETI@Home software to automatically pause when I was active on the computer, and had to manually pause it. There were little things, too, like the occasional missing icon in a program.

With the 11.10 release of Ubuntu, I started noticing some issues, both in Fluxbox and in GNOME 3 (I'd continued to avoid Unity) and I suspected I had an issue with cruft.

"Cruft" describes the gradual decline of a computer's efficiency the longer you use it. Verity Stob has the best description of cruft; the Windows 2000 references are dated but the concepts are eternal.

And cross-platform, as it turns out. Linux users like to brag that your install will be running as smoothly after a couple years as it did the day you installed it.

Ubuntu update cycles, I was having some doubts. Sure, I was still doing better way than I would be on a four year old Windows install. But it wasn't perfect.

My two biggest frustrations were multimedia. My DVD drive wasn't recognizing disks. I couldn't burn, rip, or watch until I got an external DVD drive. The other problem was with Rhythmbox, the audio player that was long the default in Ubuntu. The program would lock up after about six tracks.

I thought both of these problems were Just Me. I suspected a hardware issue on the disk drive. As for music, I tried three other player programs which all had the same problem, and believed that the sheer size of my music library made it unworkable. But I had enough doubt, and enough curiosity, to test the hypothesis that my Ubuntu install was the problem.

This is where Linux Mint comes in. Mint is a fork of the Ubuntu project, which itself is a Debian fork. Mint is designed to be more multimedia friendly out of the box. (There's no actual "box," just a download.) The Mint folks also decided to stick with Gnome as the default desktop. They added added some "Mint Gnome Shell Extensions" to make Gnome 3 act more like Gnome 2, and an interface called MATE, a fork of Gnome 2 which is compatible with Gnome 3.

This was a breakthrough, and in the last few months Mint has quickly risen to become the number two distribution, behind Ubuntu, and it may well be ahead of Ubuntu among new users.

I installed Mint on a backup machine out of curiosity a while back and when my main laptop was in the shop for a hardware problem, I used that backup as my main machine for a couple weeks, which served the purpose of a Linux Mint test drive. It was a nice drive and when the main machine came back I started thinking about switching. And Friday night, when the music locked up yet again, I made the decision.

While I was at it, I decided to upgrade from a 32 bit OS to a 64 bit. There's simply not a way in the Ubuntu upgrade process to do that without a full reformat, so I'd been using less than the full capability of my machine.

Step one, of course, was a full backup of the /home folder.

And my first suspicion was confirmed when I was able to boot my system from the supposedly broken internal CD drive with my Linux Mint install disk. That was the clincher, so I went ahead and installed.

I've installed Ubuntu literally dozens of times on assorted machines, and the Mint install was almost identical. Don't know exactly how long it took, because I took a break and when I got back a half hour later it was ready to reboot.

I logged in, choosing the MATE option instead of the GNOME option, and I had usable panels on both the top and bottom of my screen. (The bottom panel is one of the features GMOME 3 killed off.) My Libre Office suite (the most popular Linux alternative to Microsoft Office, and also available for Windows) was ready to go. I needed to re-install a couple of my quirkier non-standard programs (SETI@home, of course) and restore my /home files. That was actually the slowest part -- 300 gig of music doesn't move fast -- but after a little visit with my congressman I was ready. (Congressional intervention isn't needed for a Linux install.)

Sunday I test-drove a DVD, then played three hours of music while I re-arranged the basement. I had some time budgeted for settling in, but haven't needed it.

At this point, if you're a new user I'd recommend Mint over Ubuntu, and so far it's been a good experience for my intermediate skills.