Linux Mint 15 'Olivia' Release Candidate Is Out

New submitter Anand Radhakrishnan writes "The release candidate for the much-anticipated Linux Mint 15 'Olivia' is available for user testing. Its many new features include Cinnamon Control center, an improved login manager with HTML 5 support, a driver manager, and a lot of under-the-hood improvements. 'A new tool called MintSources, aka "Software Sources," was developed from scratch with derivative distributions in mind (primarily Linux Mint, but also LMDE, Netrunner and Snow Linux). It replaces software-properties-gtk and is perfectly adapted to managing software sources in Linux Mint. From the main screen you can easily enable or disable optional components and gain access to backports, unstable packages and source code.' This release with Cinnamon looks really tempting."

Re:Obligatory comment

[Anonymous Coward]

...on which it is completely unusable as it runs so slow.

The exodus from Ubuntu...

[Anonymous Coward]

I was late to the party, but I was so disgusted with several of the recent decisions from Canonical (Unity, spyware, ads, removal of Synaptic, steering toward commercial apps when better free alternatives exist, and on and on) that had rendered it marginally useful on the very machines it had once redeemed from the Windows quagmire that I not only switched them all to Mint, but switched them to LMDE- Linux Mint Debian (Cinnamon).

Yes, there are a couple of rough edges, but the general increase in speed and usability has been a relief like a thorn removed from my flesh. It is MUCH better. Whatever advantage the mainstream Linux Mint has over the Debian Edition, I'm more than willing to forgo them to be removed from dependency on Canonical entirely.

A couple of years ago I felt completely differently. Ubuntu did great things for the desktop user and it pains me to have to reject their direction now... but human institutions tend to become evil the moment they think they are indispensable. The nature of open source and the hard work of the folks at Mint have rendered this change of Ubuntu's character ineffective and irrelevant, and I am very grateful for both.

Crashing under VirtualBox

[Stormwatch]

I installed it under VirtualBox, but when I run it, after I log in, the virtual machine closes by itself and it appears as "aborted" in the list.

Re:In place upgrades still unsupported?

[Sesostris III]

I'm using LMDE XFCE on my main desktop PC, and it is the infrequent updates (and no security updates) that is the most infuriating thing about it. At one time it was a "rolling" release but now it is "semi-rolling". Really an LMDE "Update Pack" release is like a new in-place upgrade of Ubuntu, in that a big-bang approach is taken (and things may break). They also seem to happen around every six months!

On my laptop I'm using the last Xubuntu LTS, and this does get updated regularly with security patches etc. Next time I switch distributions on the desktop it will be either to a proper rolling release distribution (Arch perhaps) or back to Xubuntu (latest rather than LTS) with regular updates and in-place upgrades.

The reinstallation recommended every time there is a new version is the reason I'll avoid Mint Main. If I'm going to reinstall, I might as well install a different distribution.

Re:Obligatory comment

[rivercityrandom]

In my experience, if you were to put the Windows 7 task bar on the left side of the screen, color everything purple and orange, and replace the Start Menu with a script that sends all of your search results to Amazon.com, it would look an awful lot like Ubuntu Unity.