My first flirtation with Linux was Ubuntu which i installed on my PC out of curiosity and because I was bored, I loved it it was new and shiney and everything worked, then shortly afterwards i updated to the latest version ( I think it was 12.04, the first release with the Unity desktop) and hated it, so i looked for something else and came across Mint (v10 or 11) and fell in love with it.
Mint was the one for me it was slick, pretty and everything worked out of the box I installed every version as it was released with the excitment and wonder of a child at Christmas I was indeed a Minty guy,
then came Mint 14 and something strange happened bugs and glitches appeared streaming from the network was haphazard at best and image tearing in a certain program virtually made it unusable and other little annoyances, but the strangest thing was the .gvfs folder was missing, how can this be I thought, how can such an important folder suddenly disappear, searching through the release notes revealed nothing of it’s absence then finally a fellow Mint user on the official Mint forum informed me that it’s been moved from /.gvfs to ~/run/usr//gvfs (presumably I should have known that), so now to navigate to that folder one click of the mouse becomes 4, well I thought I’m sure there’s a logical reason for this shift, i can live with that and as far as the other problems are concerned, they’ll sort that in the next release
Well i just downloaded and installed the next release (Mint 15) and they haven’t, opening a folder in gvfs is a lottery at best and i can’t even download my music library in Clementine and that’s just what I’ve discovered in the first hour of using it.
I can’t help but believe this network/gvfs problem has something to do with the shift in it’s location, but I’m not hanging around to find out
So it’s aurevoir Mint 15 the love affair is over it was good while it lasted
any suggestions for a distro looking for a new romance ?
Graeme
Dunno why you had problems with .gvfs on Mint (or why you needed to use that folder, but I have been using LMDE (XFCE) for a long time without any problems.
Just moved over to SolydX (XFCE) a couple of weeks ago and still a happy camper.
It is based on Debian testing with semi rolling updates (once a month). And just to make you happy the .gvfs folder is there by default.
I have been steering clear of all Ubuntu based distros for some time. 
Hi SeZo
thanks for your reply
Dunno why you had problems with .gvfs on Mint (or why you needed to use that folder
Unless there’s something I’m missing that would be easier the reason I need to use that folder is because I store my data on a NAS connected to my network, so if I want to access any file on the NAS via an application I need to use the .gvfs folder
ie I use keepassx to store passwords and I keep the data file on the NAS so I can access the same data file on my laptop or any other PC on the network and if my PC was to go into meltdown the passwords are safe, so in order to navigate to that data file from within Keepassx I need to use .gvfs, I don’t know of any other way, the same applies to any application where I need to access a file on the NAS such as my music library.
I have been steering clear of all Ubuntu based distros for some time.
Can I ask why ?
Graeme
You can mount the NAS shares anywhere you like … no need to use fuse at all … I mount mine directly at bootup from fstab.
I have been steering clear of all Ubuntu based distros for some time.
Can I ask why ?
I had my share of problems with Ubuntu and Mint and some of other Ubuntu based distros.
Have been using LMDE since it came out (based on Debian testing) and my problems vanished.
In fact it was quite a bit boring since. Nothing got broken. That is why I also went with Arch for something to do to pass the time. 
You can mount the NAS shares anywhere you like .. no need to use fuse at all .. I mount mine directly at bootup from fstab.
But you know what you’re doing
In my view this is one area where Linux is behind Windows, when browsing in Windows all network shares are listed under “Network” click the + symbol and all the shares are there, no navigating to obscure or hidden folders or editing config files just one click and they’re there, simples
In my view this is one area where Linux is behind Windows, when browsing in Windows all network shares are listed under "Network" click the + symbol and all the shares are there, no navigating to obscure or hidden folders or editing config files just one click and they're there, simples
Yep same on here. Just click (Thunar) Browse Network and all Network shares appear. Is that not what you are seeing?
Same in Nautilus and in Peppermint (PCManFM) go to Go>Network
Yup … that should work … doesn’t it on your system ?
Oddly, that (network browsing) is broken in the latest version of PCManFM (libfm) 1.1.0 … apparently it’s fixed in 1.1.1, but everyone’s waiting for it to be released.
(you’d think they’d have spotted that before releasing 1.1.0 wouldn’t you : )
Lubuntu 13.04 is affected … draw your own conclusions how that applies to my current favourite distro’s next release.
But it should be fine in Peppermint 3/Mint/Ubuntu
Not an insurmountable problem … the backend networking is fine … bung -
smb://<ip_of_nas>/sharename
in PCManFM’s address bar and it takes you straight there … then just bookmark it.
–
Had my issues with Mint 14 and Ubuntu distros too. Fair enough both my netbook and laptop are long in the tooth. I am now running Peppermint 3 and it works straight out of the box. I have had no issues at all (crossed fingers) I just replaced some of the cloud programs with installed versions. I removed pixlr and installed The Gimp, I also installed Dolphin file manager but that is a hefty piece of software.