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Operating Systems Linux

Linux Mint 14 Is Out 129

Posted by Soulskill from the new-and-shiny dept.
New submitter medge_42 sends words that Linux Mint 14 has been released. Check out their list of features and release notes to see what's new. One version uses MATE 1.4, which includes some long-needed bug fixes as well as functional bluetooth and mate-keyring, its own character map, fast alt-tabbing, and improvements to Caja. The other version uses Cinnamon 1.6, which contains a huge number of fixes and new features including its own file browser, persistent workspaces and a window quicklist to go with them, a notifications applet, an improved sound applet, and alt-tab graphical improvements. MDM now supports legacy GDM 2 themes and userlists, and has improved user switching. Gedit 2.30 has replaced Gedit 3, and MintStick replaces USB-ImageWriter.
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Linux Mint 14 Is Out More

Linux Mint 14 Is Out

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  • Good but... (Score:3)

    by Andy Prough ( 2730467 ) on Wednesday November 21, 2012 @02:23AM (#42051817)
    I still find that for sheer ability to work on nearly any system and those with minimal resources, it's an excellent idea to keep a Mint 10 LXDE live DVD laying around. Darn thing will run on just about anything. It's practically become my new Knoppix.
    • But will it run on your toaster? Geez, it's a DESKTOP for God's sake. What would you expect to boot in command line and have 64MB? Go somewhere else! Actually instead of repacking packages like most other distros, these people took the matter into their own hand and started to build something closer to a real usable desktop more than Ubuntu will, probably, ever be. Or other lame distros. I really appreciate it and glad that Mint exists.

  • Horray ! (Score:3)

    by Celarent Darii ( 1561999 ) on Wednesday November 21, 2012 @02:25AM (#42051835)
    So many volunteers and so many packages - just thanks everyone for another release !

    • seconded.

      Great many thanks to Mint team for this. Had used 3-4 major linux distros before, but after first try with mint, no going back :)

  • So outdated! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Billly Gates ( 198444 ) on Wednesday November 21, 2012 @02:30AM (#42051869) Journal

    It has too many things that help content creation. The gui supports the mouse, gives you the ability to change it, and worse lets you have more than one Windows open at a time!

    Screw that. Where is the crappy cell phone interface? I want to be hip and have my productivity limited so I can save 10 whole pixels on my 27 inch dual screens and tweet to my friends, which is why I purchased my Icore7 extreme edition! Now I can read a document and cut and paste things into another app at the same time which is sooo 2000s.

    This is too technical to get my brain around Mate and this whole concept of multitasking that I need my shiny things back. Going back to WIndows 8.

    • No doubt. You have dual 27 inch monitors you really want that MP3 on the lock screen! You also want to run all your apps in full screen, you have 2 monitors, 1 app per screen. Functionality and user friendly interfaces died at gnome 2, its gnome 3 and unity baby. The future is NOW!. Don't you read the gnome3 blogs?!?

  • Looks tempting .. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by blackpaw ( 240313 ) on Wednesday November 21, 2012 @02:30AM (#42051875)

    Ramblings ...

    I love my KDE 4.9x/Kubuntu 12.10 install except for the flakiness that the poxy virtuoso/nepomuk/akonadi brings to it. Thats what I find attractive about the gnome derivatives - they haven't bet the farm on integrating their environments with the buggy unstable CPU hogging piece of crap that is nepomuk/virtuoso.

    But I find gnome unattractive compared to KDE and I dislike Unity & Gnome Shell. But I do like where Cinnamon is going and this latest rev looks quite good.

    If only I could find a decent gnome based Pim - I love Kontact, when its not being ass reamed by nepomuk/virtuoso. Thunderbird is getting creaky, Evolution is OK but not as slick as Kontact.

    • You're running KDE without deactivating nepomuk and akonadi? Are you trying to turn into the Hulk or something? If you're not, just go to System Settings and nuke them, for christ's sake. If you are, though, might I recommend Bit.Trip Runner? Great game for inducing murderous rage. In the words of Gandhi: "FUCK! I JUMPED, YOU FUCKEEEER!"

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Disabling akonadi disables kontact, unfortunately

    • Unity was my biggest complaint with Ubuntu. Cinnamon is awesome. I've been using version 1.6 of Cinnamon on Ubuntu 12.04 for a few months. This weekend I will make a full transition to Mint 14 Maya (Cinnamon). I used to be a big fan of KDE before 4.0 came out...Maybe some day I'll check it out again.

  • upgrade? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21, 2012 @02:36AM (#42051915)

    can you upgrade a mint 13 system?

  • Coming from a Windows background (Score:3)

    by Shemmie ( 909181 ) on Wednesday November 21, 2012 @03:34AM (#42052219)

    I am loving Mint. I had a look at Mint 13 a while ago, and Ubuntu 12.10. I downloaded the Mint 14 RC a few nights ago.

    And I liked what I saw enough to dive into something Linux-ie on my desktop. And I decided I prefer KDE for my desktop. And I prefer regular updates to big version changes, so I opted for LMDE KDE. I actually stuck around long enough to have an opinion on gnome vs KDE. The KDE menu is awesome - like a highly customizable version of the Windows 7 Start - very impressed.

    So I'm dual booting Windows 8 and Mint - and Mint is getting a lot more use at the moment. In fact, if I could just find a way to get the bloody Steam beta to install on Mint, I'd spend even more time there. But I know it will come as they sort things out.

  • Mate on Mint = Awesome (Score:5, Interesting)

    by BrookHarty ( 9119 ) on Wednesday November 21, 2012 @03:47AM (#42052331) Journal

    I switched to Mint when Ubuntu forced Gnome 3/Unity on me. Been extremely happy except one big issue. Mate uses GTK 2 but newer apps use GTK 3, so you get stuck in this world of mixed themes that looks bad. Found a nice gtk 2/3 clearlooks compatible theme, so I end up with Mate DM with GTK 3 apps looking normal again. Best thing, Compiz still works...

    While I'm very grateful of what Canonical has done for the Linux community and have paid for services and software to show my support, I cant take the design choices or direction the company has went seriously. Gnome 3 has chosen a new direction, one that I don't need or want. Ubuntu is embracing that direction.

    Mint right now is the best balance I can find out there. Keeps the popular Ubuntu base, but with Mint or Cinnamon DE which is hands down superior to Gnome 3 for the desktop.

    • Mint right now is the best balance I can find out there. Keeps the popular Ubuntu base, but with Mint or Cinnamon DE which is hands down superior to Gnome 3 for the desktop.

      I agree, in most cases Mint is the best general purpose Linux distro out there at the moment, and it is very slick indeed. The problem is that Windows has produced an OS that looks stupid now, but the strategy is there because it is clear that displays intended for interaction are all going to be multitouch. It is just too easy to do now to not consider it standard in the future.

      I am waiting and waiting for the Linux community to come to this realization that desktop linux has to take into account a mous

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        I am waiting and waiting for the Linux community to come to this realization that desktop linux has to take into account a mouseless touch-screen userbase that is set to grow rapidly, especially once GNU/Linux distros appear on more tablet PC's.

        As long as they don't abandon us mouse+keyboard users entirely like Microsoft is trying to do. Windows 8 is the main reason why I even considered switching to Mint.

        • I am waiting and waiting for the Linux community to come to this realization that desktop linux has to take into account a mouseless touch-screen userbase that is set to grow rapidly, especially once GNU/Linux distros appear on more tablet PC's.

          As long as they don't abandon us mouse+keyboard users entirely like Microsoft is trying to do. Windows 8 is the main reason why I even considered switching to Mint.

          If history is a guide, they won't abandon you!

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        The phrase "Jack of all trades, master of none." comes to mind.

        Just look at Unity and Windows 8... sorry, I just threw up in my mouth a little.
        You need to have one interface for mouse+keyboard and one for touch, you can't have the same for both.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by lennier ( 44736 )

          You need to have one interface for mouse+keyboard and one for touch, you can't have the same for both.

          Agreed. But it's a far bigger problem that, after decades of preaching object-oriented loosely-bound separation of concerns and Gang of Four pattern-language model-view-controller dogma, changing an interface apparently still requires rewriting all our application software from scratch. Instead of, just, you know, changing the interface, which all that MVC stuff was supposed to take care of.

          How did that happen, OOP advocates?

      • I am waiting and waiting for the Linux community to come to this realization that desktop linux has to take into account a mouseless touch-screen userbase that is set to grow rapidly, especially once GNU/Linux distros appear on more tablet PC's.

        Where have you been these past couple of years? Gnome 3? Unity? KDE Plasma Active?

    • Mate uses GTK 2 but newer apps use GTK 3, so you get stuck in this world of mixed themes that looks bad.

      That is not a big issue. It's a feature. A big issue would be old stuff (GTK 2) not working at all, which seems to becoming the norm with other OSes these days.

    • Been extremely happy except one big issue. Mate uses GTK 2 but newer apps use GTK 3, so you get stuck in this world of mixed themes that looks bad.

      According to the site [linuxmint.com]:

      Special attention was given to Mint-X and its support for GTK3.6 to make GTK3 applications look native and integrate well with the rest of the desktop.

      So perhaps Mint 14 will solve this problem for you?

      • I bet you are right, the Mint team does provide a great looking desktop. I just installed the Mate 14, and it looks great.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by lennier ( 44736 )

      direction the company has went

      Went, or has gone. Unless you want to sound like you flunked high school English.

    • I wish they'd wait until all the DE versions are ready, and release them all simultaneously. Also, if they are supporting XFCE and LXDE, wish they'd add Razor-qt support as well

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      What surprises me is that they have so many versions, similar to Ubuntu. Debian has tasksel, you can select pre-defined bundles of packages when installing it. You don't get different OSs or different versions of the OS by choosing different desktop managers, what you get is the same OS with diffent desktop managers, and those are just packages, like all other software in the distribution. Why are they so keen on misinforming people about that?

  • Anyone know if this... or any other debian distro... can support 4 monitors? I run Ubuntu on most of my machines, but my main desktop has a motherboard with dual graphics cards and four (large) monitors. I'm running windows 7 which allows me a nice continuous desktop with all the eye candy, but I'd like to move to a debian based distro (I'm agnostic over what UI I use) but when I tried this 6 months ago with Ubuntu 12.04 and the corresponding Kubuntu/MiNT variants none would support 4 monitors without sev

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by evilad ( 87480 )

      I've had good success with 3 dissimilar monitors (small-wide-small) on Ubuntu 12.04 / fglrx. The irritations are pretty minor, and mostly involve the occasional dropdown dialog or maximize operation not going to the expected screen.

    • You probably need two graphics card from the same vendor and able to run the same driver - and have it supported. When I tried two graphics card I had two X11 graphical sessions runnings, with different panel settings, I could move the cursor from one screen to another but couldn't move windows around.

      • Yes, that's exactly my setup, a pair of identical graphics cards... on a twin PCIe motherboard. It's just really frustrating, I'd love to dump windows but linux seems so far behind on this (and you wouldn't have thought 3+ monitors was that unusual among geeks)

  • Looks interesting (Score:3)

    by Gordonjcp ( 186804 ) on Wednesday November 21, 2012 @06:57AM (#42053237) Homepage

    But when is it going to ship with Unity? The desktop is so old-fashioned and clunky looking.

  • I installed Cinnamon on Ubuntu 12.10 through a PPA and I'm liking it a lot. Is there any reason why I would want to switch from this setup over to the actual Mint?

    • Re:Cinnamon on Ubuntu (Score:4, Interesting)

      by jones_supa ( 887896 ) on Wednesday November 21, 2012 @09:23AM (#42054061)
      Good question and it brings up a point which I have been wondering. Why was Mint released as a complete distribution and not just a collection of packages for Ubuntu? They could have released the tasty bits (Cinnamon, MATE) only as PPAs, no need to duplicate the whole Ubuntu base.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by 0123456 ( 636235 )

        Because I totally want to give random PPAs root access to my machines.

        I trust an actual distro used by large numbers of people far more than a PPA few have ever heard of.

      • Re:Cinnamon on Ubuntu (Score:4, Insightful)

        by CosaNostra Pizza Inc ( 1299163 ) on Wednesday November 21, 2012 @11:01AM (#42055125)
        I am currently using Ubuntu 12.04 with Cinnamon (through PPA). I plan to replace all this with Mint 14 Maya (Cinnamon) this weekend. I've heard it's not just the choice in DEs that sets Mint apart from Ubuntu. Ubuntu only provides free open-source packages in its software library (along with some optional non-free proprietary stuff). Mint supposedly provides most of the Ubuntu open-source packages, plus the option to install free proprietary software. This sounds appealing to me because I have to use Oracle Java for a lot of software dev. I usually end up installing Java straight from Oracle's web site because I don't trust 3rd party ppa. So, on Mint, I'm assuming, I can install packages for Oracle Java and other stuff directly from Mint's repository.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by dnixx ( 2753817 )

      By installing Mint you'd get:

      * mintUpdate: Mint's update manager which lets you categorize packages into different levels depending on how "dangerous"/unstable they are. Eg. level 5 packages ("dangerous packages") can be excluded from the update. Screenshot: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Mintupdate.png [wikimedia.org]
      * mintInstall: Mint's software manager which features a lot of crappy reviews written by users.
      * MDM Display Manager: Themable and based on GDM 2.20
      * Nemo: Mint's file manager, forked from

  • So can you boot this version with a newish nvidia card? Cause last time I checked, it used nouveau as default, which fails massively for any newer nvidia cards. All I get it a screen with white blocks. Why linux distros insist on using an alpha video card driver to boot the system for the first time is beyond me.

    Doesn't it make sense to use a generic one that will work with everything and then let the person choose to install the alpha one (or propitiatory one)?

    • You might just need to choose "Start in compatibility mode" when you boot of the disc to use the generic drivers. Alternatively, I've seen several suggestions to add 'nomodeset' to the end of the grub boot line - though I haven't had to do this.
  • I am really liking Mint 14/Cinnamon so far, which surprised me since I never particularly liked mint or cinnamon when I tried them in the past. Mint 13 with cinnamon just seemed kind of buggy and unpolished to me. Linux mint 14 just works perfectly for me, one of the best out of the box linux experiences I've ever had. They fixed a ton of issues in cinnamon 1.6 and added some useful features. Cinnamon has now become my preferred DE. I really like that cinnamon maintains a sane interface, while being built
  • are they going to implement rolling updates?????!!!!!!

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