Install Eclipse from the repos.  I’m just using Synaptic (installing on Mint), search for Eclipse and tick it (and agree to install the bunch of dependencies)

Once installed, open Eclipse.  Following the instructions here,

Click Help > Install New Software

Click Add

In the name field, enter Pydev and Pydev Extensions. 
In location, enter http://pydev.org/updates 

It should locate the software - Install Pydev for Eclipse (Pydev Django Templates Editor wouldn’t install because of a dependency - I’ve forgotten about it and moved on)

A restart, and you’re done.

My ISP (iiNet) mirrors Ubuntu, but not Mint.  Aside from being free content, it’s also the fastest download coming from the iiNet mirror.

Since Mint is so closely based on Ubuntu, it seems to use the same repos.  So what I’ve done, is opened /etc/apt/sources.list (take a copy first) and done a find and replace to replace:

archive.ubuntu.com

with

ftp.iinet.net.au/pub

A little apt-get update once you’re done, and it seems to work fine.  The Mint-specific stuff comes off the normal mirrors, and the Ubuntu stuff (which I think is the bulk of it) comes off my ISP.

Well, madness may be overstating it.  Maybe “Slight inconvenience”?  Doesn’t start with M though…

I’ve got around to rolling my main desktop onto Linux Mint (from Ubuntu) after running it on my laptop for a few weeks - definitely a nice little distro, works a lot more “out of box” than Ubuntu (which is what it says on the tin).

Anyway, the madness of which I speak is that I’m running a dual monitor setup - a nice-ish 22in Samsung LCD, and an old 17in CRT that I picked out of a dumpster.  Hence, most of my work is done on the LCD.  Mint seems intent on wanting the 17in to be the “main” monitor - firstly when I changed it to a dual monitor setup from clone (in the monitor settings), it still had the taskbar on the 17in. 

Did a search online, couldn’t find much about how to move the taskbar, or whatever it’s called, is this a Windows term?  (Microsoft TaskBar™?)  Saw something mentioned about dragging it around while holding down Ctrl, however it did work with Alt - Just hold Alt, hold left-click on the mouse and drag it to where-ever your heart desires.

Now that I’ve been using Ubuntu for a while, I’ve had a bit of a look around at what else is out there, and I like the sound of Linux Mint.  I like the way they roll:

Linux Mint is one of the surprise packages of the past year. Originally launched as a variant of Ubuntu with integrated media codecs, it has now developed into one of the most user-friendly distributions on the market - complete with a custom desktop and menus, several unique configuration tools, a web-based package installation interface, and a number of different editions. Perhaps most importantly, this is one project where the developers and users are in constant interaction, resulting in dramatic, user-driven improvements with every new release. 

I’ve run it up on my lappy, and it seems to be pretty good out of box (has all the media codecs), and the menu setup is a lot closer to Windows 7, so it’s probably a lot less likely for a windows user to freak out when they give it a go (I might have to try it out on the Significant Other!).

Now, all I need to do is setup my Windows share (SMB) so that it auto-mounts, from here.