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GUI Operating Systems Ubuntu Linux

LinuxMint13 RC Is Available For Testing 114

Posted by samzenpus from the check-it-out dept.
donadony writes "LinuxMint13 RC is available for testing. This release comes with two versions on separate DVDs: Mate and Cinnamon. LinuxMint13 Cinnamon is very light and offers some customization, integration of new applets, extensions and themes that can be found on the official website."
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LinuxMint13 RC Is Available For Testing More

LinuxMint13 RC Is Available For Testing

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  • I hope the KDE version follows soon (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 16, 2012 @03:04PM (#40020217)

    I was looking for a good KDE distribution and recently tried the KDE version of Mint 12. Having come from Mandriva and openSUSE, I expected it to be more polished, but I was disappointed. There were several annoying bugs related to taskbar and window switching and no updates or fixes for them. I hope they include the latest KDE packages in 13 and fix those issues.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      As a long time Mandriva user, and current Mint 12 user, few distributions are anywhere near as polished as Mandriva. In many ways, Mint and all the Unbuntus are a step back from Mandriva. Honestly, most distributions are a step back from Mandriva and I honestly can't think of an exception.

      Just the same, Mandriva is beginning bit rot and many packages are getting rather stale. Third party repositories are becoming harder to find. And library incompatibilities makes it harder and harder to live well in the Li

      • Re:I hope the KDE version follows soon (Score:5, Insightful)

        by jedidiah ( 1196 ) on Wednesday May 16, 2012 @04:59PM (#40021635) Homepage

        > few distributions are anywhere near as polished as Mandriva

        You're funny.

        Mandrake's day passed when it was still called Mandrake.

      • IIRC LM12 shipped with MATE 1.0, and it was explicitly said at the time that it was an early release and there would be issues.

        I've been using LMDE update pack 4 (with the current version MATE 1.2) and apart from some things being named differently (e.g. pluma instead of gedit) I can't notice any significant difference from Gnome2. Well, except that it seems snappier (but some people have a different experience, so make of that what you will).

      • You can always go w/ Mageia

      • Gnome 3 sucks horribly and is clearly for people who casually use their computer or simply don't multitask

        The only multitasking most people (as opposed to computers) do is to listen to a death metal mp3 while masturbating furiously to anime porn.

        So I've been told.

    • Are these the bugs you are referring to?

      https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=288985
      https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=224447

      Those are still in KDE 4.8.3 and I agree, they are quite annoying.
    • Unlike w/ Ubuntu, where Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu and Xubuntu were released on the same day, the KDE edition of Mint lags the rest. I do wish Mint released that at the same time as the others.
  • Anyone know if this version will be a Long Term Support version?

    • What is LinuxMint? Why abandon Ubuntu for this? Is it FREE (as in liberty) software? Or merely open source like Ubuntu.

      • Does the average ubuntu end user care as long as it is free (as in beer)? The first thing most of us do is download the restricted media packages.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          in mint, that's done already at install

      • And what are the system requirements? I can't find them on the website.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1889

      • If you care this much about freedom, use one of the FSF-endorsed distros. [gnu.org]

      • The main reason anyone does that is if one doesn't like Ubuntu's options of Unity or GNOME3 as the DE, but prefers to go w/ either MATE or Cinnamon, that's where they'd prefer Mint to Ubuntu. Aside from that, there are no differnces b/w the 2.

        If you want an FSF-approved liberated Linux, go w/ any of those oddball distros on the GNU page - Blag, Trisquel, GNewSense or any of those Spanish-only distros out there like Musix, Ututo or Venenux, very convenient for those of us who don't speak Spanish. Or wai

  • Yea, but... (Score:3)

    by CanHasDIY ( 1672858 ) on Wednesday May 16, 2012 @03:25PM (#40020503) Homepage Journal
    Will it fix the wifi issues I've had since upgrading to LM12?


    For those wondering, it's an older Dell 1545 with a Broadcom wireless card - worked fine until I upgraded to LM12, suddenly it won't connect to a network (sees them, but won't connect) unless I use the hardware (F2) button to disable it for 5-10 minutes... not a huge deal, I have a few USB dongles, but it has forced me to spend far more time in my Win7 box than I would prefer.

  • Mint is nice, but... (Score:5, Informative)

    by cronot ( 530669 ) on Wednesday May 16, 2012 @03:27PM (#40020513)

    Mint is nice, and it's the Linux flavor I'm using currently (although I use LMDE, not the standard Mint) after having left Ubuntu when they transitioned to Unity. The best thing about it is that the maintainer(s) actually listen to users regarding development directions, which was what drove them to develop Cinnamon and adopt MATE as an option - as opposed to Ubuntu / Canonical, that just forced down the users' throats their ideas and UI decisions, alienating a large part of their user base in the process.

    Having said that, there's still one thing that keeps me from recommending it to new users or users migrating out of Ubuntu: lack of automated upgrade procedure to newer major versions - one thing that Ubuntu has and generally works nice there. On Mint, the official procedure is to backup you files/settings using the backup tool, install the newer version from scratch on top of the existing install, and then restore the backup after. That's just too cumbersome. Yes, it's possible to upgrade without reinstalling by manually editing the sources.list file and upgrading manually with apt-get, but it's considered unsafe and error prone by the maintainers and hence not recommended. I did it anyway on a past install, and sure enough I had hiccups - I still had a working install, but there were a lot of rough edges and inconsistencies on the upgraded install. Because of that I ended up installing LMDE so I didn't have to worry about major version upgrades anymore. It's not a fully smooth ride either, but it's far more manageable, and having previous experience with Debian, I'm totally at home with it. But it's obviously not something I'd recommend to casual / new users either.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by doti ( 966971 )

      You don't need to backup.

      After booting from the installation CD, open a shell, mount your disk, rename /home to something else, then remove all other directories. (You may want to save /etc too if you changed something. Nowadays the average user don't need to edit /etc, as the defaults work fine, so it's fine to wipe it.)

      Then you choose to manually choose the partitions, specify the partition layout (just assign which is /, etc), and tell it to NOT format.

      After the installation, move back the contents of yo

      • Re:Mint is nice, but... (Score:5, Informative)

        by spasm ( 79260 ) on Wednesday May 16, 2012 @05:14PM (#40021809) Homepage

        .. and kiss goodbye to your mysql & postgresql databases as well as any web sites you were developing in /var/www and for that matter anything at all that stores its data in /var..

        Your method is a decent one, but it requires that you know for sure you don't have any important data anywhere other than /home and /etc. The parent poster is complaining that on generic ubuntu you can do a full upgrade and not have to worry about this.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by doti ( 966971 )

          Of course it is implied that if you do any work outside of /home, you should save that too.

          Anyway, the proper way is to symlink your work from /home to /var/www.

      • I do that differently.
        I have one large partition for the /home directory and two primary partitions for my Mint Linux installs. On one of those I keep working Mint Linux installation that I use for everyday activity and the next is for trying the new stuff. When I am finally satisfied with a new install, I switch to using that as my main workhorse and use the old partition for experimental stuff.
        Just do not use the same login name when you install the new version, so you keep your entries in /home/WhateverL

    • Thanks for letting us know... I bet you that most people on here like myself thought that updates were seamless just like on Ubuntu.

      We've all been spoiled by how smooth Ubuntu is, and tend to forget how difficult and fiddly it was to get everything to work prior its existence.

      As long as you leave the non-LTS releases alone, Ubuntu offers a very polished experience. I'm even willing to tolerate Unity to reap the benefits of 5 years of LTS.

      - Written from a Hardy to Lucid to soon-to-be Precise Mac Pro running

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Tarlus ( 1000874 )

        As long as you leave the non-LTS releases alone, Ubuntu offers a very polished experience. I'm even willing to tolerate Unity to reap the benefits of 5 years of LTS.

        100% agree. I used to upgrade my laptop to the newest release every six months because I loved having the latest greatest thing. I had upgraded every version from 6.04 all the way to 10.04 (and even hopped from kubuntu-desktop to ubuntu-desktop) without ever needing to do a fresh reinstallation.

        Of course, it was also a lot more work, I would have to give the computer half a day to upgrade itself, and the occasional bug would arise after an upgrade (though never anything that couldn't be fixed by hand). I ev

        • Yeah, but a lot of 3rd-party software only updates the latest and doesn't backport (at least not right away). I've noticed this for Flash, MythTV, even browsers won't update current LTS that are not the latest version.

    • I've got a worn-out *buntu install that's seen far too many apt-get [install|remove] commands (video and sound no longer work reliably) and I've been seriously considering switching to Mint. I'd assumed that Mint's dist-upgrade process was as smooth as Ubuntu's, but now I'm really leaning towards LMDE and its rolling releases.

      I'd noticed that doing a s/lisa/maya/g and s/oneiric/precise/g in /etc/apt.conf and then dist-upgrading on my Mint 12 VM resulted in a fairly broken upgrade, but assumed it was becaus

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by wrook ( 134116 )

        I really don't recommend LMDE. Even though it is a rolling release based on Debian Testing, the packages are still vetted by the LMDE team. I tried using it at the end of last year and I didn't get *any* updates for the 3 or 4 months I was using it. Not even security updates.

        I've since moved to Sabayon, which is Gentoo based with binary packages. Overall a very nice experience. It is not as complete as Ubuntu or Mint, meaning that I've had to do a fair amount of hand configuration. For instance, I had

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Nimey ( 114278 )

          Hmm. I'd also considered installing a minimal version of Ubuntu Server and then installing MATE from the PPA then any other packages I'd want.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by cronot ( 530669 )

          I tried using it at the end of last year and I didn't get *any* updates for the 3 or 4 months I was using it. Not even security updates.

          That's because since the penultimate snapshot release of LMDE (which was at some time on the last quarter of last year) they've switched the repositories to use their own copy of a snapshot of Debian Testing, and every 5 months or so they release what they call "update packs", which is basically a more recent snapshot of Debian Testing with the packages therein more throughly tested for bugs and such. Before they started doing that, LMDE used the standard Debian Testing repositories.

          The intention on having

    • Re:Mint is nice, but... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Hatta ( 162192 ) on Wednesday May 16, 2012 @05:21PM (#40021873) Journal

      On Mint, the official procedure is to backup you files/settings using the backup tool, install the newer version from scratch on top of the existing install, and then restore the backup after. That's just too cumbersome.

      How did they screw up 'apt-get dist-upgrade' so badly? Why are all these Debian derivatives so much crappier than Debian? What's the point then?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by jobdrb ( 920458 )
      Why someone will install ANY OS actually in only one partition? Just put put / in one partition and /home in another. Updates and Install will easy.

      • Why would someone install Linux on a partition? Just use LVM, and you can change your filesystem layout anytime later, if you decide you need a separate /srv/ftp/pr0n or something.

    • Really? That's interesting to read, considering I was able to try out Cinnamon by adding the LMDE repo to my Debian machine and install it just fine.

      So... it can't upgrade itself, but it is binary compatible with an upstream project. o_O

    • This doesn't really sound to me like a disadvantage of Mint relative to Ubuntu. I've been running ubuntu on my home desktop (a series of machines) since edgy. From edgy to precise makes 11 OS upgrades. (I'm not counting the multiple times when I replaced the machine and therefore naturally had a fresh install of ubuntu.) Of those 11 upgrades, 8 were at least minimally successful. Of the other three, one left me with a system that wouldn't boot reliably, and two left me with a system that wouldn't boot at al

  • IN early 2011 I left Linux and went back to Windows because of issues with Gnome 3/Unity, Firefox 4, and other issues as it appeared Linux was going off the deep end.

    Mate, much improved Firefox and Chrome on GNU/Linux, and Mint taking over looks like it may be redeeming the platform.

    Is there a Linux Mint package for setting up LAMP or a LAPP (postgresql) stack? How easy is it to add codecs, background pictures, and other desktop oriented features similiar to FedoraPlus or medibuntu?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by armanox ( 826486 )

      If you're already familiar with Fedora, might I recommend installing MATE on Fedora (I used the instructions from here [fedoraforum.org])? I've found it to work quite nicely (Like you, I was stuck in the "modern desktops in Linux suck" boat until MATE and Trinity Desktop Environment (KDE 3.5)).

      • It does not look like its ready nor officially supported by Fedora. The comments showed it has some issues. However, it is cool you can do a yum install dropbox* now. :-)

        Linux Mint uses it from what I read as the main gui so I except it will work better in that platform.

        I think for now I will stick with Windows 7 as it just works and keep CentOS with old gnome 2.8 in my VM for now. I would like some official stacks that are present and require little extra work like what Ubuntu has besides a consistent GUI.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jedidiah ( 1196 )

      > IN early 2011 I left Linux and went back to Windows because of issues with Gnome 3/Unity

      That's really hilarious considering what's going on with Metro.

      • > IN early 2011 I left Linux and went back to Windows because of issues with Gnome 3/Unity

        That's really hilarious considering what's going on with Metro.

        I know and I am not pleased.

        It is a shame since it boots quicker and has some awesome kernel level changes and features. It just has a crappy GUI and a crippled desktop. When I decided to give up with advice from the EX, there was no Metro.

        I do not like MacOSX that much but may consider it when this one dies. Windows 7 sadly will be the new XP and will be supported for many years. I hate running obsolete software and being the PHBs who love XP and IE 6 until 2014 meanwhile helpdesk if fighting malware and S

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Tarlus ( 1000874 )

        Windows Metro wasn't even a thing in early 2011. Even now, it's still nascent and will likely never become a part of Windows 7, which is good for another eight years anyway.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Tarlus ( 1000874 )

      Is there a Linux Mint package for setting up LAMP

      apt-get install apache2 mysql-server php5 libapache2-mod-php5.1 php5-mysql

      Or at least those are the package names employed by Debian...

      • Those will not configure it and set it up. Just puts the files on the hard drive and that is it. Ubuntu had something like (been a few years) like apt-get lamp which would install the packages andconfigure them. I thought it was sweet. Obviously not good for a server but fine for a developer who wants something configured but doesn't need it finely tuned and secured. I was wondering if Mint had that meta package too?

        I am aware there is XAMP for Linux as well. But if I am doing a reinstallation I do not want

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Tarlus ( 1000874 )

          It obtains the packages, installs them with default configuration and starts the services. Just edit or import config files, and you're good to go. What more do you need?

      • sudo apt-get install tasksel
        sudo tasksel
        Choose your server and it's installed and setup for you.
        Just too easy.
    • Linux is going off the deep end? The win7 enterprise I must run at work can't run some of the needed apps that normal win 7 pro can run, even trying various compatibility modes. And when I click "computer management", I get a nice note at the top of the MMC that says "the 32 bit version of MMC can view 12 of the 19 snap-ins...." and other count for 64 bit....wtf?

      This is your idea of not off the deep end?

      windows jumped and humped the shark.....

      • Sounds like something is corrupt on your desktop. I would re-image it as there should be no logical reason that would happen unless the pro version is 64-bit and the MMC apps are 3rd party which are only 64 bit as well.

        I have seen FAR more bugs in Linux than any MS desktop. RHES, SuSE Enterprise, and Debian stable are the exceptions but desktop distros are not known for their bugfree reliability compared to their server counterparts.

        • Those are Microsoft MMC plugins! and others have the same issues with the Enterprise Edition of Win 7, it's known to be whacked in ways the Pro or Home isn't. We're not having any problems at home with either with the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS the kids are using, nor the Mint 11 that I use on desktop and laptop....they're old and mature enough the bugs are squashed, for us.

    • Was using Gnome after the KDE 4.0 debacle. Repulsed by Unity. Tried Enlightment, found it lacked polish. Tried LXDE and gave up after the utility to configure my non-US keyboard was broken (patched upstream). XFCE works pretty well. Mate isn't too bad.

      Try KDE again. No, seriously. It's looking more polished and although it lost a lot of fans post 3.x, it has matured. The 'Activities' provide a nice separation between traditional desktop and touchscreen environments and plasmoids look cool. This seems like a

  • What is it? (for the rest of us) (Score:5, Informative)

    by Kozz ( 7764 ) on Wednesday May 16, 2012 @03:52PM (#40020831)

    Yes, we can use the Goggle (an amusing misspelling of an acqaintance of mine), but it wouldn't hurt if the article would mention what these things actually are (or link to a page that directly explains what they are) instead of leaving me to guess. My research now shows that:

    1. Linux Mint is a linux distribution based on Ubuntu targeting users with little or no Linux experience.
    2. Cinnamon is a fork of the GNOME Shell.

    I don't live and breathe Linux, though I'm reading Slashdot pretty much every day. If someone wandered onto Slashdot by mistake, would they know what the heck this article is about?

    p.s. Shame on you for linking one particular mirror. Find your best download options here [linuxmint.com].

    • Thanks for explaining what Linux Mint and Cinnamon are, but what do you mean by "fork"? And what's "GNOME Shell"? Also, why is part of your text underlined and and not black? ;)
      • You have to type you password into a reply, and slashdot will auto-enable "Smart Links (TM)", where explanations of such things will be available via mouseover
        • and if he puts in his credit card number into that reply, a random selected charity will receive a $2 donation

  • I'm on Ubuntu 12.04, using Gnome3 from the PPA. I tried Unity but was getting weirdness with Chrome's tabs not tearing and reattaching correctly and I didn't really like the Unity interface. I'd played with Gnome3 awhile back and have been using it since. I like the style but find it clumsy to manage multiple windows. I dunno, maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I've got my editor, browser, and terminal open and it seems clumsy switching from one to another. But I'm on a laptop and working with everyt

  • I'm not sure that putting "mint" and "cinnamon" together like that is good marketing.

  • really I wish they would drop LXDE in favor of XFCE as a light live CD, LXDE is ok, but it always disjointed and unfinished

  • Can some one provide info on how to disable Anitaliasing fonts on Mint ( or any other Gnome UI )
    Forget the invitable comments that liased font look better and provide a better user experience. For mae and many others, they just look Fuzzy and give me a headace after about 30 minutes of use

    I support windows 7 for work and to turn off all antialiasing, it is one check box. If I do not do this at the first boot on Win7 / 2008 install, byt the time the install has completed I have a headache for the rest of the

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by grege1 ( 1065244 )
      Install Gnome Tweak Tool. It shows as Advanced Settings Manager in the menus. One click antiailiasing off.

      • Sweet Thanks
        will have a look see

      • Will it diasable Antialiasing for application fonts too ie Firefox and Thunderbird are the 2 I have real trouble with?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by grege1 ( 1065244 )
          No. I just tried to see what would happen and Firefox insists on ignoring system settings. I know it can be done permanently, because I have had to go the other way. To remove all antiailiasing from the system requires playing around with font config. You would start by removing .fontconfig.conf from your home folder and restarting. Also setting the monitor as not an LCD would help. This is not the place for this type of discussion. A post in the Linuxmint forums would get expert help in a hurry.
    • Try just setting the hinting to the highest level. The fonts will look extremely sharp. I have done just that in Mint 11 and 12 and I am very pleased.

      • thanks, I have just tried that and found that if I set the Default font to DejaVu Sans, with Hinting to full and Antialiasing to none that it is quite OK.
        Only problem now is that Firefox and Thunderbird ignore these font settings :-(

        Wonder why that is the case on Linux, but they honor the font settings under windows?

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