Comments on: Refreshing Minty goodness

By: Elliot Anderson

Elliot Anderson — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 16:08:11 +0000

A number of people have setup demo versions of mint ont heir sites.

If you want to check it out try this one:

http://www.wackomenace.co.uk/mint-demo-live/

By: EFL Geek

EFL Geek — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 08:55:39 +0000

I’m very interested in this application but am also waiting for the demo to be re-opened. Also, how does exactly does the license work? I have 3 sites, but they are on the same server, do I pay one time or 3 times. What if the sites are all under the same domain?

By: Oliver Wagner

Oliver Wagner — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 22:51:21 +0000

I have Mint running on my site, too and I am really happy with it. Especially the MacOS Widget is a really nice thing.

Looking forward to more usefull plugins in the future…

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 18:55:24 +0000

I don’t think Paul means embedding it into Expression Engine. I think he means to enable it to be accessed via the control panel, whilst still requiring the user to have a valid license for Mint.I presume this would be possible with the API (although I haven’t looked at the details of the API or the license.)

By: Mark Boulton

Mark Boulton — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 18:10:11 +0000

I had a look at that thread Tim, not sure about infringment of copyright there with regards to Shaun’s app being ‘put’ somewhere else. It would be great to have similiar functionality shipped as a module for EE though.

Totally agree with you about GUI too.

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 07:30:53 +0000

The effectiveness of a well-designed GUI can’t be understated. Feed the same raw info to two different stats packages, and the one with the superior interface will get my business, whether it costs money or not. I’ll be trying the demo as soon as I’m able, but I have the feeling I’ll be putting down my $30/?15 pretty soon. One of the Expression Engine developers hinted he might like to see how it can be integrated into Expression Engine (maybe via a module?)

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 04:24:04 +0000

I’m surprised about that, I use Rewriterules fairly extensively on several of my sites and Webalizer has no problems generating stats for them.

However, if Mint is only ?15 then I guess it’s probably worth a spin for you. Personally I can’t afford it because $30 * 8 sites (and 20 domains, each of which will eventually host at least one site) is rather expensive. :)

By: Mark Boulton

Mark Boulton — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 03:51:47 +0000

That’s the thing though Paul, I couldn’t use Webalizer because of all the htaccess problems I was having. Also I think Mint has a offers something different in that it’s purposefully trimmed down and more user friendly.

I think investing in it at this stage, with a view to Shaun having the money to develop Pepper, is a good move. I’m so sick of really good open-source applications being shelved because of lack of time or money. I don’t mind investing fifteen quid in a platform I know will grow into somethign more over the coming months.

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 03:35:13 +0000

It certainly looks nice, but other than the API (which I’d never use) and the bookmarking of specific pages, I don’t see what it offers that Webalizer doesn’t (referrer spam is easily dealt with – just use grep :).

By: Benedict Eastaugh

Benedict Eastaugh — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 21:40:35 +0000

I tried awstats, once upon a time, and didn’t have much luck getting it to work with my server. It might be worth trying it again, but honestly, it’s not that I’m not prepared to pay—I am. I’d just like the opportunity to evaluate first. This is why things like free Backpack accounts are great: they let you try out the service.

Obviously there’s a very different business model at work here, given that it’s a locally hosted application and I imagine that Shaun (rightly, I would judge) probably thinks that people would, in the main, simply install and use Mint without paying for it. Given that, it’s an entirely reasonable position. I just wish that the demo were working, because with the near-uniform positive reaction from those who have actually tried it, it seems that it might well be worth the money. :)

By: Andy Hume

Andy Hume — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 21:35:51 +0000

Well Benedict - try Shaun’s Shortstat. It’s free and has pretty much the same functionality I believe (although it won’t block refferrer spam).

Alternatively, if you want an all round, feature rich stats programme - try awstats.

That’s also free.