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The Release Candidate For Linux Mint 14 "Nadia" Is Out 295

Posted by samzenpus from the new-kid-on-the-block dept.
First time accepted submitter Type44Q writes "Well, the latest edition of Mint is finally here (the release candidate, anyway); according to The Linux Mint Blog, 'For the first time since Linux Mint 11, the development team was able to capitalize on upstream technology which works and fits its goals. After 6 months of incremental development, Linux Mint 14 features an impressive list of improvements, increased stability and a refined desktop experience. We're very proud of MATE, Cinnamon, MDM and all the components used in this release, and we're very excited to show you how they all fit together in Linux Mint 14.'"
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The Release Candidate For Linux Mint 14 "Nadia" Is Out More

The Release Candidate For Linux Mint 14 "Nadia" Is Out

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  • Full-disk encryption? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Chaonici ( 1913646 ) on Sunday November 11, 2012 @06:07PM (#41952127)
    EFF posted an article about full-disk encryption (FDE) in Ubuntu 12.10 [eff.org] and how easy it is to set up through ubiquity, the application used to install Ubuntu. The article also mentions that the next version of Mint, which is based on Ubuntu and therefore uses ubiquity for installation, should have the same easy FDE option.

    FDE is good for privacy and security; as EFF's article notes, having it be as simple as possible to set up can only be a good thing. If this new version of Linux Mint features this FDE option, I will strongly consider switching to it, and will certainly try it out at the very least.

    • Re:Full-disk encryption? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by greg1104 ( 461138 ) <gsmith@gregsmith.com> on Sunday November 11, 2012 @11:02PM (#41953669) Homepage

      There is still no FDE in Mint 14. Even worse, the reports I've read suggest that Mint 14 broke the popular howoto hack [linuxmint.com]. The feature voting board [linuxmint.com] was recently updated to say this feature was "selected" though. Hopefully that means it will be coming in Mint 15. Linux distributions are useless to me without encryption; you're basically saying "this is not meant for real work" to every business user who might consider it. It's a shame that Mint isn't ready to fill in yet for companies who are pushed away from Microsoft OSes by the mess around Windows 8.

  • Minty Goodness (Score:4)

    by rueger ( 210566 ) * on Sunday November 11, 2012 @06:09PM (#41952139) Homepage
    I've quite happily settled into Mint Cinnamon for the last year. That followed a year or two of Ubuntu - pre-Unity, Windows of various vintages, and a MAc G4.

    Mint "Just Works". Installs easy, does everything that I want without headaches.

    And with Vista in a Virtual machine I can even run Quickbooks, the single program that forced to boot into Windows once a month for bookkeeping and invoicing.

    I've got enough years of computers behind me that I really want easy, reliable, and stable. Mint does all of those things.

  • Been using mint debian edition as my daily desktop for awhile. I'm really loving the polish and look of Mate on Mint. Went with the debian edition as I'm tired of Ubuntu and its anti competitive behavior. But the biggest issue I'm running is neither are rolling releases. I have a mixed LMDE and Debian testing running which has been mostly ok.

    Also, running mate which is based grtk2 you have to use a theme that looks good on gtk2 & gtrk3.

    I see the mate team talking about moving to gtk3, but no idea if its

  • It looks dated, is there a Unity option? (Score:5, Funny)

    by horza ( 87255 ) on Sunday November 11, 2012 @06:27PM (#41952241) Homepage

    I like the idea that Mint includes a lot of stuff out of the box (mp3 etc). However most people now have moved onto the Unity interface. I don't see that as an option, which makes it seem a bit ancient.

    Phillip.

    • Re:It looks dated, is there a Unity option? (Score:5, Informative)

      by OverlordQ ( 264228 ) on Sunday November 11, 2012 @06:32PM (#41952265) Journal

      Not sure if troll. The whole point of Linux Mint, and being based on Ubuntu, is that it *doesnt* use Unity. If you want Unity, use Ubuntu.

    • Why would you want that? I thought the point of Mint was having a Linux desktop with an interface that is not a piece of shit!

    • That's the whole point of Mint. If you want Unity, just install Ubuntu.

    • Thank you for starting the obligatory unity flame thread.

    • However most people now have moved onto the Unity interface. I don't see that as an option, which makes it seem a bit ancient

      Let's be honest, if you think Unity is the next 'big thing' then you've got your head up Mark Shuttleworth's arse. Just because it comes from Canonical, it doesn't mean it's good.

      If you put some thought into it, it's rather clear how Unity is (at best) an average desktop interface and a terrible tablet interface. It's incredibly unstable, poorly thought out and simply not configurable. It would serve quite averagely as a touch screen desktop productivity GUI. To top it off, Gnome 3 is actually a better

    • Wait, you WANT Unity, and are hesitant to try Mint because it DOESN'T have it? If you actually like Unity and can get by with it, good for you, and stick to Ubuntu. One of Mint's main selling points is that it does NOT rely on Unity, which many of us find absolutely abhorrent. MATE is included or available, and is essentially GNOME 2, which was fine. Cinnamon is something new, and is very agreeable to folks who liked GNOME 2, while being a newer project that is showing a lot of potential. KDE just doesn't j

  • Maybe everybody but me keeps up with all the strange little Linux distros. But I don't. So just for stupid people like me, could all these breathless distro update announcements take just a little time to explain why I should give a shit about their distro? What does it have to offer that better-known distros do not?

    • As others mentioned before, Mint is not some "little" distro, it is possibly the most popular Linux distro now.

      • and netcraft...

        ... is silent on the issue.

    • If you think Mate is a strange little Linux distro you are clearly not up to date.

      What it has to offer that other well-known distros have not? Well, a more traditional Gnome interface that Gnome Shell or Unity.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by fm6 ( 162816 )

        Hey, I said I was stupid, didn't I? And we stupid people have trouble keeping up with stuff.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by fm6 ( 162816 )

        If this is just about the user interface, why is this a distro and not a shell? A decent distro makes it easy to change the shell.

        • If this is just about the user interface, why is this a distro and not a shell? A decent distro makes it easy to change the shell.

          Yes its easy on Linux, unfortunately not so easy on Windows where you are forced to use an Screen full of advertisements.

        • It's both, you can get the shell on Ubuntu through a PPA. Which does come back to your original question, why is this a distribution, and not just a PPA?

    • Re:And This is About... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by tuppe666 ( 904118 ) on Sunday November 11, 2012 @07:40PM (#41952685)

      Maybe everybody but me keeps up with all the strange little Linux distros.

      Short Answer : There is only Ubuntu

      Longer Answer: If your not interested in Linux your shouldn't. That is the short answer, and even if you are interested in linux you shouldn't. The reality is. Distributions [Distro for short] are just that collections packages [Applications/Modules Building Blocks that make up a modern OS with sensible selection of programs] together in essence a kernel[BSD/Linux] Userland[GNU] + Display Server[X and Wayland] + Windows Manager[KDE/Gnome/XFCE] + Office Package[LibreOffice Calligra Suite] + Internet Browser....you get the idea.

      Now because Linux can be tailored for different processors processors [ARM;Mips...] different community is [Religious Christianity and Location Brazilian] Specialist [Boot Disks; Extra Secure]...but if your using any of these then you know why! there is even a Ubuntu Satanic Edition http://ubuntusatanic.org/news/ [ubuntusatanic.org] Satanists.

      But mainstream there really is only Debian, Ubuntu(Popular Debian variant), and Fedora(You have heard of Red Hat) [Yes I could easily add a couple more :)]. In context of this article Mint should be considered Ubuntu without Unity[Its own Metro nighmare]

      Seriously install a distribution its not hard.

    • Maybe everybody but me keeps up with all the strange little Linux distros. But I don't. So just for stupid people like me, could all these breathless distro update announcements take just a little time to explain why I should give a shit about their distro? What does it have to offer that better-known distros do not?

      Should I give a shit about Windows 8, which is getting tons of mentions everywhere but is a huge step backwards? I don't care about it, but guess what, lots of people do. Same deal with you and Mint, which is the top desktop Linux distro today. It is not strange or little in any way. Linux Mint has become what Ubuntu intended to be - an easy to use distro that is complete, has plenty of community support, and makes for a great desktop OS, though it is now even better than Ubuntu and is gaining market share

  • ...whereby it dies on closing the lid on a toshiba NB550d, I shall sacrifice many fatted oxen on the appropriate altar.

    • Well, have you filed a bug report? You can get an email, you know, when something happens with a bug (fixed, preferrably).

  • Which while being a little late is still nice.

  • the last 3 versions of mint have been nothing but a headache to me, good luck to you mint, but I am done riding this bus of half broken, poorly executed, mess

    • What archaic hardware are you trying to run it on? I am so old that I remember the hours(!) it took to get my sound card working on FreeBSD in the 90's.

      I recently installed Mint on this old Dell desktop with no problems at all; including a newish ATI graphics card. No headaches, no compiling of utilities or messing with X.

      I don't give any credence to your argument. I have been in the trenches with *nix for almost two decades. Mint won me over from Suse, who I thought was the most user friendly.

  • Thinking of switching to PCLinuxOS (Score:3)

    by Dwedit ( 232252 ) on Sunday November 11, 2012 @08:04PM (#41952825) Homepage

    I was thinking of switching from Ubuntu to PCLinuxOS, because I want to use a computer without ever needing to reinstall, in other words, rolling releases.
    Mint looks really nice, but I don't think it has rolling releases.
    Has anyone else used that PCLinuxOS, and how is it? Any better rolling releases distros out there that aren't too hard to install and set up?

    • The debian edition of mint is usable (though less friendly than ubuntu version) and is a rolling release. It updates slow though and I'm used to distro versions where I can easily know what version I'm running.

    • Re:Thinking of switching to PCLinuxOS (Score:4, Funny)

      by couchslug ( 175151 ) on Sunday November 11, 2012 @09:19PM (#41953175)

      "I was thinking of switching from Ubuntu to PCLinuxOS, because I want to use a computer without ever needing to reinstall, in other words, rolling releases."

      You could try that "Debian" thing, I think it's a fork of Ubuntu or somethin'....

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rlumpy ( 906114 )
      I've been using PCLinuxOS (KDE) for three years on 4 machines, and have been happy with it. The rolling releases are great and usually work. There have been a couple of problems, but they're usually fixed in a week. The maintenance crew maintain an active and friendly prescence on their forum. The distro is independent, not based on Debian or Ubuntu, so the occasional independent software may not have a plug-and-play distribution.
  • I know they have a XCFE port of mint. But if Mint is basically Ubuntu why would I want to switch from Xubuntu to xcfe mint? I'd like th try mint but as long as I'm on xcfe then I see no reason to move.

    • It goes both ways, there's no reason to use Xubuntu over XFCE mint. Both are the same OS, the difference is default selection of software, wallpapers, theme and set up of panels and start menu. Arguably Mint is less gimmicky and looks less dated, from screenshots Xubuntu looks like a dark, poor man's OSX rip off whereas Mint Xfce gives you a taskbar on the bottom, a better start menu, is themed white / light gray. It also has LibreOffice instead of Abiword.

  • This is weird (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Windwraith ( 932426 ) on Sunday November 11, 2012 @11:09PM (#41953705)

    I have trouble taking Mint seriously. I only hear about it when people complains about Unity.

    No, seriously, every single time I hear about Mint is because there's some controversial thing about Ubuntu and a lot of guys come in saying "I moved to Mint years ago because I am tired of $NEWS_TOPIC". At times there are also Mint comments even if the news about Ubuntu are good (I am sure I saw a "I moved to Mint..." routine on a few of the Steam for Linux news reports in Ubuntu-related news sites).

    I am skeptic about how valid Distrowatch's score is. Until I find a real happy user as opposed to someone complaining about Canonical in every Ubuntu-related news, it just sounds like haters got busy inflating scores (wouldn't be the first time something of the sort happens). Everyone I know uses the same usual subjects, and while anecdote is not proof, I've met a sizable amount of Linux users from being a developer. Not even a single issue reported by Mint users.

    So, is there someone using Mint for any reason that is not spiting Canonical? I'd like to know, just to make sure I receive information not coming from people giving the impression of being zealots. They seriously need some PR as opposed to just say bad things about the competition.

    It's like that commenter above that asked about what made Mint good and didn't get a single answer other than "it's not Ubuntu".

    • Nothing weird (Score:4, Informative)

      by tuppe666 ( 904118 ) on Sunday November 11, 2012 @11:28PM (#41953805)

      I am skeptic about how valid Distrowatch's score is.....It's like that commenter above that asked about what made Mint good and didn't get a single answer other than "it's not Ubuntu".

      You should read through the comments. People on the whole love Debian, and love Ubuntu's spin on Debian. Most mint users also *love* Ubuntu. What they don't love is "Unity" They love "Cinnomon". In fact thats what they talk about in the summary.

      Unity
      ====
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unity_(user_interface) [wikipedia.org]

      Cinnamon
      =======
      http://cinnamon.linuxmint.com/ [linuxmint.com]

      Look at the pictures. One comes with a menu panel...the other a full screen of applications icons similar to a smartphone.

      People are not zealots, they are exercising choice on a platform that allows it. In fact Mint is basically Ubuntu with Unity replace with Cinnamon. In fact so many people prefer cinnamon over unity mint has become the most popular download on distrowatch.

      • I immediately install KDE4 (at least the core) as soon as I finish installing Ubuntu. I am also exercising my choice to not use Unity, just without needing to change the whole distro.

        And I am not exactly saying they are zealots, but that they sound like that because of the negative context surrounding most comments promoting Mint.

        Also, isn't Cinnamon always composited (AKA 3D-accelerated)?

        • I immediately install KDE4....And I am not exactly saying they are zealots

          I see your promoting something by calling the other side zealots...its kind of sad that we live in that world. KDE is an excellent windows manager [and XFCE is too]. Many people including myself love Gnome and gnome applications...we are just not particularly enamoured by either Unity of Gnome Shell [even though they have got an awful lot better]. There is friendly competition between Gnome and KDE, but its just that friendly.

          Personally having noticed E17 is at alpha, it the first time I have been excited f

  • Perhaps Ubuntu Should Die Now (Score:3)

    by BrendaEM ( 871664 ) on Monday November 12, 2012 @11:23AM (#41956417) Homepage

    Ubuntu screwed up with Unity, which did more to divide the Linux landscape than any other event in recent history. Mint has been working harder than anyone to make sure people can work hard with a useful desktop. Thank you all.

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