News
Donations
Hello everyone! Before I start with the news, I’d like to share a few words about the donations we received in December. You sent us an unprecedented number of donations for an all-time high total of $16,736! We had to check the stats twice to make sure this wasn’t a mistake. This follows the release of Linux Mint 17.3, so not only does it help our funding, it’s also extremely gratifying and motivating for us. Many many thanks to the 714 people who supported us, and to our partners and sponsors for being here for us.
Look and feel
In the comments section of last month’s news I mentioned a “new look and feel” and I noticed this scared some of you a little bit. Let me clarify this. We know who we are, we know what you like and we can tell from your feedback what you expect and whether or not you enjoy something after we release it or how likely you’ll be to enjoy it before we do. We’re also very conservative and very demanding in the way we do things. We know what we want from the OS and if something doesn’t fit we adapt it, replace it or rewrite it. Our vision doesn’t change easily, it remains more or less the same, we’re just constantly refining it. I’ve been at the heart of the MATE project since its beginning and we’ve invested a huge amount of efforts in the Cinnamon project. That was a commitment not to change the desktop paradigms, when GNOME 2 wasn’t available to us any longer we worked around it so that Linux Mint could go on being Linux Mint. We also embraced an LTS strategy and that’s a sign that we’re focused on the long term, we’re not “experimenting”.
We’ve all witnessed the rise of the iPad and the iPhone. This was attributed to iOS somehow and it started a new trend with various projects trying to replicate Apple’s success, inventing new formulas and radically changing their own goals, focus or identity in the process. We’ve seen a new artistic trend called “flat”, with bright colors, no gradients and minimalistic widgets, taking these projects by storm. You don’t see us at the forefront of all that. We do keep a close eye on it, without any intention to jump into it, but rather to learn from it and to see if it can help us improve what we’re already doing.
People who enjoyed Linux Mint years ago still enjoy it nowadays. If you enjoy it now, chances are you’ll enjoy it still for a long time. You’re here because you enjoy it right now, we know that, we enjoy it too, and we’ve no intention of being anything else. So, in the context of that “new look and feel”, we’re not trying to reinvent ourselves. We’re talking about icons and GTK themes here. We’re also committed to supporting Mint-X, so with a click of a mouse you’ll be able to make Mint 18 look just like the way Mint 17 did. Regarding the new themes, we’re working on something that looks more modern without looking minimalistic, professional and with subtle hints of colors without looking flashy. It’s a bit hard to describe, but ideally we want something that conveys the same feeling Mint-X did when it was introduced (years ago), while looking different (because we will ship both themes) and modern.
X-Apps
Work started on Linux Mint 18. One important aspect is GNOME 3.18 (the project and all its components, not just the desktop environment), which includes GTK and many applications used primarily by Cinnamon, but also Xfce and to a lesser extent MATE. A lot has changed between version 3.10 (used in Linux Mint 17) and version 3.18. GTK itself and many of the GNOME applications now integrate better with GNOME Shell and look more native in that environment. The bad news, is that they now look completely out of place everywhere else. To make matters worse, Unity, the flagship product of Ubuntu, relies heavily on GTK, GNOME applications and the GNOME environment itself, so we’re not dealing with the upstream version of 3.18 here, but with a collection of patches which bring their own issues (one example is that Ubuntu reintroduces menubars and titlebars in applications but without rewriting their headerbar.. so you sometimes see all three of them).
In the past, this issue was present but it wasn’t as important. We solved it by downgrading apps (Linux Mint 17 uses gedit 2.30 for instance), patching GNOME (GTK and various GNOME apps) and using alternatives (mostly in MATE and Xfce). This worked well in the short term.
From a long term point of view, we knew this would become more and more of an issue but it was decided early that Cinnamon would not get its own applications, because it represented too much work and there were too few differences in application needs between Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce. It just made no sense to invest time in making “Cinnamon applications”. For similar reasons we invested very little time in developing MATE applications.
The idea of working on apps which would be generic, perfectly suited to run in both Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce (and possibly other desktop environments) made more sense. It’s an idea we’ve had for a while and with the start of a new Mint 18.x series the timing was right to get this project started.
X-Apps will be a collection of generic GTK3 applications using traditional interfaces which can be used as default desktop components in Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce. In Mint 18, the “X apps” will allow us to maintain a native look and a good level of integration because they will be used in replacement of GNOME applications which now look foreign (using headerbars and a distinctive layout). Long-term, the X-App project will allow us to innovate and to develop new features and improvements in the applications themselves (this is something we couldn’t do via patches, temporary forks or DE-specific forks like the MATE apps because it was too costly).
Here’s an example of an X-App. This is, xedit, the text editor:
And here’s how xedit helps us:
- It’s based on Pluma, so if you’ve been using pluma (or gedit 2.30) you’ll feel right at home. It looks the same and it works the same way.
- It uses GTK3 so it supports HiDPI.
- It’s a generic application called “Text Editor” so it looks native in Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce (this was already the case for GNOME and MATE applications within Linux Mint thanks to adjustments, here it’s part of the application’s purpose to be generic).
- Underneath the hood, it doesn’t depend on GNOME/MATE or tie in with their preferences or lockdown systems like gedit/pluma do.
- We no longer need to freeze gedit, so GNOME users can install gedit 3.18 from the repositories.
- It’s an application we can develop not only for us but for other distributions and not only for one desktop but for many, therefore working on it improves many of our editions and the Linux landscape around us. We expect the same level of help and interest we have with Cinnamon. We also have ideas on how to improve these apps (anyone familiar with sublime-text’s search/replace bar?) and thanks to these advantages we can invest resources into implementing them.
Airtop
After the success of the MintBox Mini, our long time partner CompuLab recently unveiled a new computer called the “Airtop“.
The new design is extremely impressive. This is a top-range unit which takes advantage of CompuLab’s expertise with passively cooled mini-computers and delivers very high performance and specifications. As usual, this is unique and surprising and we’re very excited about it 🙂
Phoronix thinks it’s “one of the coolest Linux-friendly PCs ever”: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=CompuLab-Airtop-Announced
Side by side, the MintBox Mini, the MintBox 2 and the Airtop-G respectively score 605, 1228 and 9155 with GL-Mark2.
Congratulations to our friends at CompuLab 😉
For more info on the Airtop visit http://airtop-pc.com.
Sponsorships:
Linux Mint is proudly sponsored by:
Platinum Sponsors: Gold Sponsors:  Silver Sponsors:  Bronze Sponsors:        |
Community Sponsors:
|
To become a sponsor or to see the full list of Linux Mint sponsors, please visit: http://www.linuxmint.com/sponsors.php
Donations in December:
A total of $16,736 were raised thanks to the generous contributions of 714 donors:
$500 (2nd donation), Michael Sartain aka “mikesart”
$234.42 (5th donation), Greg R.
$224, Etzel V. A.
$200 (2nd donation), Cristian M.
$200, Honda H.
$168, Stephan Z.
$150 (11th donation), Jon Espenschied aka “xeno”
$120, Eric A.
$112 (5th donation), Frederic L. aka “”nofrog””
$112 (3rd donation), Stuart Tilley
$112 (2nd donation), Michael P.
$112, Sebastian A.
$112, Ewald M.
$112, Pieter S.
$112, Petri H.
$112, Ernst G. aka “Gulmi”
$100 (5th donation), Philip W.
$100 (4th donation), Jack W. S. aka “kundalinijack”
$100 (4th donation), Nono W.
$100 (3rd donation), aka “Caturix”
$100 (3rd donation), Ross W. aka “Roscoe_Oz”
$100 (3rd donation), Jiri B.
$100 (2nd donation), Alfred W.
$100 (2nd donation), Michael H.
$100, Jerome S.
$100, John B.
$100, Carl N.
$100, Jonathan H.
$100, Young L.
$100, Nataliia P.
$100, Полянский И.
$89, Jean-françois H.
$75 (2nd donation), Christophe Caillé aka “KKY”
$75, J W. H.
$70, Adam T.
$67 (3rd donation), André L.
$60, Mark O.
$56 (10th donation), Joachim M.
$56 (3rd donation), Volker P.
$56 (3rd donation), More Linux
$56 (3rd donation), Antonio A. T.
$56 (3rd donation), Peter W.
$56 (2nd donation), Pekka P.
$56 (2nd donation), Stefan K.
$56 (2nd donation), Markus Z.
$56, Sarah W.
$56, Jody O.
$56, Viktor S.
$56, Ueli H.
$56, Stefan K. aka “radi1962”
$56, Michael S.
$56, SC Alternative IT
$56, Antoine L.
$56, Rolf S.
$56, Tobias H.
$56, Isik E.
$56, Carsten E.
$56, Christiane F.
$56, Klopfenstein T.
$56, F J. B.
$56, Fabien G.
$53, Jens P.
$53, Mikko F.
$53, Roger S.
$50 (5th donation), Justin Peterson
$50 (4th donation), Warren A.
$50 (4th donation), Bjørn A.
$50 (2nd donation), Lisa R.
$50 (2nd donation), Nick D.
$50 (2nd donation), Don P.
$50 (2nd donation), José W. F. J.
$50 (2nd donation), Neil K.
$50 (2nd donation), Urban R.
$50 (2nd donation), Adam H.
$50 (2nd donation), George H.
$50, Jason Straight
$50, Mark S.
$50, Thomas P.
$50, Cephus J.
$50, Joseph C.
$50, Christopher S.
$50, Cecil H.
$50, Felipe C.
$50, Robert B.
$50, Robert H.
$50, Michael S.
$50, Francois D.
$50, Robert K.
$50, Basic I. I.
$50, Christiano da Silva
$50, Charles G. J.
$50, J D. S.
$50, Walter W.
$50, Stefan S.
$50, James S.
$50, Yoshihiro T.
$50, Craig B.
$50, Chris C.
$50, Marcus D.
$50, Kenneth T.
$50, Remington F.
$47.07 (7th donation), Ky LMDE
$45, Manuel Y. O. S.
$42, Martin K.
$40, Christopher T.
$40, Martin R.
$40, Regan S.
$40, Rupert G.
$39, Bernd S.
$38, Stefan V.
$36, Gary T.
$35, William H.
$35, Timothy S.
$34 (70th donation), Olli K.
$34 (17th donation), Pasi K.
$34 (4th donation), Matthias M.
$34 (2nd donation), Florian K.
$34 (2nd donation), Rolf N.
$34 (2nd donation), Philippe G.
$34, Daniel S.
$34, Luciano C.
$34, Andreas M.
$34, Alonso C.
$34, Heinrich S.
$34, Romano S.
$34, Derk H.
$34, Alois P.
$34, Ian W.
$30 (14th donation), Philippe W.
$30 (4th donation), Tony H. aka “TonyH1212”
$30 (3rd donation), James P.
$30 (2nd donation), Russell G.
$30 (2nd donation), Juha L.
$30, John H.
$30, Larry P.
$30, Serge C.
$30, Larry B.
$30, Herb S.
$30, Alan A.
$30, Howard S.
$30, Dudley T.
$30, Thomas B.
$29.46 (4th donation), Real F.
$28 (5th donation), Anno K.
$28 (2nd donation), Robert D. aka “Wilbobob”
$28 (2nd donation), Michael W.
$28 (2nd donation), Pieter van de Ven
$28 (2nd donation), Victoria Holland aka “TheWebaholic”
$28 (2nd donation), Diego G.
$28 (2nd donation), Andreas E.
$28, Martin H.
$28, Dieter H.
$28, Martin I.
$28, Stephan E.
$28, Florian G.
$28, Harald M.
$28, Till S.
$28, Matthias V.
$28, Jonathan D.
$28, Frank J.
$28, Alain B.
$28, Torsten G.
$28, Johan M.
$27 (2nd donation), Matthias H.
$27, Anatoli K.
$27, Karin B. A.
$25 (52th donation), Ronald W.
$25 (51th donation), Ronald W.
$25 (24th donation), John M.
$25 (11th donation), Peter D.
$25 (6th donation), Kevin S.
$25 (5th donation), Jon G.
$25 (5th donation), Kwan L.
$25 (4th donation), Jeremy B.
$25 (4th donation), Julie H. aka “Kjokkenutstyr”
$25 (3rd donation), Dany V.
$25 (3rd donation), Johannes F.
$25 (3rd donation), Ewa K.
$25 (3rd donation), Andriy K.
$25 (2nd donation), William A.
$25 (2nd donation), Brent S. aka “AFineMan”
$25 (2nd donation), Bob T.
$25 (2nd donation), Honda H.
$25 (2nd donation), Trevor P.
$25, Mark P. aka “Juno”
$25, Edward C.
$25, Stuart B.
$25, Philipp M.
$25, Kerem I.
$25, Wallace P. M. J.
$25, Robert A.
$25, Leland M.
$25, Timothy B.
$25, F H Anthony aka “anther”
$25, Donald S.
$25, Kenneth K.
$25, Bruce H.
$25, Dennis C.
$25, John W.
$25, Srikanth B.
$25, Darin S. Jr.
$25, Rick D.
$25, Dale P.
$25, Jeremy H.
$25, Charles W.
$25, Brian H. Y.
$25, Paul J. C.
$24 (3rd donation), Pavel B.
$22 (5th donation), Gordon T.
$22 (4th donation), Bill Metzenthen
$22 (4th donation), Samuel H.
$22 (4th donation), Hans P.
$22 (3rd donation), Kirsti Drewsen
$22 (3rd donation), Mark A.
$22 (3rd donation), Dr. H. L.
$22 (3rd donation), Andreas S.
$22 (3rd donation), Hosting 96
$22 (2nd donation), Alexander D. aka “Sandy11”
$22 (2nd donation), Ute S.
$22 (2nd donation), John T.
$22 (2nd donation), Daniel K.
$22 (2nd donation), Willem V. D. K.
$22 (2nd donation), T. Ng.
$22, Ludovic M.
$22, Alain G.
$22, Patrick T.
$22, Adrian H.
$22, André S.
$22, Gerald G.
$22, Laurent B.
$22, Rolf S.
$22, Karl P.
$22, Dominique G.
$22, Bernhard H.
$22, Lars S.
$22, Sebastian R.
$22, Soren O.
$22, Martin M.
$22, Mick H.
$22, Ralf S.
$22, Frank F.
$22, Nico L.
$22, Fabian S.
$22, Kurt J.
$22, Thierry M.
$22, Robert M.
$22, Francisco L. D. A.
$22, Boy-gerret T.
$22, Gerard N.
$22, Christoph R.
$22, devana open source browser game
$22, Leonid V.
$22, Alexander D. aka “Sandy11”
$22, Eric D.
$22, Giampiero S.
$22, Enrico G.
$21 (17th donation), Orlando M. M.
$21 (5th donation), Ross M.
$21 (3rd donation), anonymous
$21 (2nd donation), Karl M. H.
$21 (2nd donation), Kinatomic
$21, Alexander K.
$21, C V. S.
$20 (47th donation), Tsuguo S.
$20 (20th donation), Utah B.
$20 (10th donation), Curt Vaughan aka “curtvaughan ”
$20 (5th donation), Ian B.
$20 (5th donation), Better2morroW
$20 (5th donation), Matsufuji H.
$20 (4th donation), Jon M. aka “GoLinuxMint.com”
$20 (4th donation), Hubert Banas
$20 (4th donation), Robert S.
$20 (4th donation), Dave I.
$20 (3rd donation), Patrick D.
$20 (3rd donation), Michael A. aka “one of 2programmers”
$20 (3rd donation), Anthony S.
$20 (2nd donation), Steven C.
$20 (2nd donation), Barry C. D. J.
$20 (2nd donation), Rando VTT
$20 (2nd donation), Harold M.
$20 (2nd donation), Jaime Salinas Fernandez aka “nartan”
$20, Larry B.
$20, Jonathan E.
$20, Andrzej C.
$20, Sumit H.
$20, Edward F.
$20, J. M. G.
$20, Shawn L.
$20, Chris L.
$20, Gary P. S.
$20, Daniel P.
$20, Elgan P.
$20, Marius C.
$20, Robert O.
$20, Jerry R.
$20, Adam T.
$20, Rob Hawkins
$20, Jeff M.
$20, Cristian M.
$20, Jan H. R.
$20, David B.
$20, Matt B.
$20, Bernard K.
$20, Jeffrey W.
$20, Matthew D.
$20, David M.
$20, S S.
$20, Craig M.
$20, Howard T.
$20, Jody B.
$20, Lou K. aka “z31fanatic”
$20, Henrik J.
$20, David M.
$20, Edmund N.
$20, Erwin K.
$19 (11th donation), Dominik K. aka “doke”
$17.3 (4th donation), François P.
$17 (5th donation), Laurent M. aka “lolomeis”
$17 (4th donation), L. Mikkel
$17 (2nd donation), Ignacio C.
$17 (2nd donation), Eric S.
$17 (2nd donation), Gerhard E.
$17 (2nd donation), Roman J.
$17 (2nd donation), Lars M.
$17 (2nd donation), U. Flad aka “Duc Racer”
$17 (2nd donation), Jean-marc B.
$17, Danylo R.
$17, Alfred H.
$17, Torsten B.
$17, Max G.
$17, Michael G.
$17, Peter H.
$17, V A. L. A.
$17, Thierry S.
$17, Martin J.
$17, Achillefs C.
$17, Paul M.
$17, Oliver T.
$17, Hans-dieter S.
$17, Sven W.
$17, Oskar W.
$17, Nigel T.
$15 (4th donation), David W.
$15 (4th donation), Raman V.
$15 (3rd donation), Jobs Hiring aka “Jobs Near Me”
$15 (3rd donation), Steve O aka “stratus_ss”
$15 (3rd donation), Brian H. aka “Brian36”
$15 (3rd donation), Matthew M.
$15 (2nd donation), Khaelenmore Thaal aka “Silverwing”
$15 (2nd donation), A. K.
$15 (2nd donation), Brian C.
$15 (2nd donation), Marek G.
$15, Luca D. M.
$15, Peter T.
$15, Edgar H.
$15, Noah M.
$15, Benjamin J.
$15, BanjoCraft
$15, William S.
$15, Matthew B.
$15, Whitesaber.com
$15, Derrick H.
$15, Kunitsyn A.
$15, Быстров М.
$13, Bjørn M. J.
$12 (57th donation), Tony C. aka “S. LaRocca”
$12 (3rd donation), Artur H.
$12, Thomas K. W.
$12, Визирякин А.
$11 (9th donation), Jens-uwe R.
$11 (7th donation), Tomasz K.
$11 (6th donation), Hector Richart P.
$11 (5th donation), Luca D.
$11 (5th donation), Roy S.
$11 (5th donation), Sampsa P.
$11 (4th donation), Nikita G. aka “Ni El Go”
$11 (4th donation), Henry G.
$11 (3rd donation), Jan J.
$11 (3rd donation), Jean-françois E. aka “Jeff”
$11 (3rd donation), Dave B.
$11 (3rd donation), Meiko M.
$11 (3rd donation), Anonymous aka “MrNiceGaay”
$11 (2nd donation), Joshua R.
$11 (2nd donation), Tomi P.
$11 (2nd donation), Rüdiger K.
$11 (2nd donation), Darren W.
$11 (2nd donation), Thorsten E.
$11 (2nd donation), Klaas T.
$11 (2nd donation), Juergen D.
$11 (2nd donation), Jürgen G.
$11 (2nd donation), Theodore S.
$11 (2nd donation), Michael P. aka “www.perron.de”
$11 (2nd donation), Tomas S.
$11, Francisco J. D. G.
$11, Elias K.
$11, Dirk B.
$11, Pablo M.
$11, Aretinskiy S.
$11, Michael R.
$11, Florian J.
$11, Alexander C.
$11, Cédric B.
$11, Frank V.
$11, Jürgen M.
$11, Jasmin Jessich Ing.
$11, Mark L.
$11, Jiri U.
$11, Mike A. aka “peppermint86”
$11, Wolfgang S.
$11, Peter L.
$11, Alexander B.
$11, Raul motoraul aka “motoraul”
$11, Martin V.
$11, Bo R.
$11, Ivan I.
$11, Ghislaine P. L.
$11, Anthony D. C.
$11, Michal P.
$11, Ingmar E.
$11, Hartmut D.
$11, Mla B.
$11, Matti U.
$11, Claus V.
$11, Andi Hope
$11, Matthias S.
$11, Manfred Schirra
$11, Martian aka “ozweb”
$11, Piotr C.
$11, Ap
$11, Jens-peter S.
$11, Dmitrijs R.
$11, Christian L.
$11, Anton I.
$11, Srdan K.
$11, Marcos P. G.
$11, Daniel M.
$10 (21st donation), Carlos W.
$10 (20th donation), Carlos W.
$10 (14th donation), Kouji K.
$10 (13th donation), Dan J
$10 (11th donation), Libertad Tecnologica
$10 (8th donation), Jt Spratley aka “Go Live Lively”
$10 (6th donation), Hormis K.
$10 (6th donation), Wilson G.
$10 (4th donation), Paul C.
$10 (4th donation), Michel C.
$10 (4th donation), Petri C. aka “Yalidev”
$10 (4th donation), Peter B.
$10 (4th donation), Michael D.
$10 (4th donation), Glen C.
$10 (4th donation), Aleksey Eletsky aka “promise”
$10 (3rd donation), Ryan S.
$10 (3rd donation), Jan P.
$10 (3rd donation), qwaqwa68
$10 (3rd donation), Masaomi Yoshida
$10 (2nd donation), Daniel L. aka “spicer”
$10 (2nd donation), Ernst-otto M.
$10 (2nd donation), Daniel S.
$10 (2nd donation), Mihir D.
$10 (2nd donation), Dinresh K.
$10 (2nd donation), Oswaldo H.
$10 (2nd donation), Tyler B.
$10 (2nd donation), David H. aka “DRHan”
$10 (2nd donation), Vaibhav G.
$10 (2nd donation), Adrian S.
$10 (2nd donation), Raymond M.
$10 (2nd donation), D Oxnard
$10 (2nd donation), Alik M.
$10 (2nd donation), Daniel V. M.
$10 (2nd donation), Geoff P.
$10 (2nd donation), Alex P.
$10, Brady C.
$10, Tomasz G.
$10, Michele Bosi
$10, Hayk E.
$10, James M.
$10, Fragile Gods
$10, Alexander G.
$10, Horacio R.
$10, Michael M.
$10, Ronald H.
$10, Guy S.
$10, Adam T.
$10, Carl W.
$10, William D.
$10, James W.
$10, Washington G.
$10, Denis T.
$10, David D. aka “Davidsson”
$10, Michael L.
$10, Goto M.
$10, Samar A.
$10, Gregor W.
$10, Chris C.
$10, Harold M.
$10, Ian W.
$10, Andrew C.
$10, Greg P.
$10, Kent F.
$10, Thomas J. P. M.
$10, King L.
$10, Cenk K.
$10, Reinaldo R.
$10, John C.
$10, Robert F.
$10, Martín P. D. L. G.
$10, Yun-Jhong W.
$10, Walter T.
$10, Michael S.
$10, Hoe-phuan N.
$10, Larry N.
$10, Rodolfo C. A. aka “Rhodwulf”
$10, Manuel T.
$10, Iwan P.
$10, Grzegorz C.
$10, mkyong
$10, Glen R.
$10, Levi G.
$10, Douglas A.
$10, Jesse G.
$10, Lucas H.
$10, Richard S.
$10, Jeremy V.
$10, Valentin B.
$10, RexAlan
$10, Robert M.
$10, Bryce T.
$10, Jean C. P.
$10, George M.
$10, Gabriel M.
$10, Karen A.
$10, Marco K.
$10, Claude W. W.
$10, Irene I.
$10, Eric B.
$10, Brynley F.
$10, Henk T. O.
$10, Sunflower IT
$10, Andreas S.
$9, Miguel P. F.
$8.99, Ravilla I.
$8, Ken M.
$8, Linus W.
$8, Shretl
$8, blueredgreen
$7.5, Jon S.
$7 (2nd donation), Francois R.
$7, Jesús J. D. M. G.
$7, Michael P.
$7, Paul S.
$7, Agostino G.
$6.8, Maurice R.
$6.13, Chris G.
$6 (9th donation), Nicholas S.
$6 (8th donation), Kevin O. aka “Kev”
$6 (5th donation), Francesco Galgani
$6 (5th donation), Tung-Yi Chen aka “Tic”
$6 (4th donation), Christian L.
$6 (4th donation), Jeldert P.
$6 (3rd donation), Paul S.
$6 (3rd donation), Michele B.
$6 (3rd donation), Martin J.
$6 (3rd donation), Jörg U.
$6 (3rd donation), Joachim S.
$6 (3rd donation), Antonios B.
$6 (2nd donation), Alen V.
$6 (2nd donation), Bernhard M.
$6 (2nd donation), Michele C.
$6 (2nd donation), Dirk M.
$6, Maximilian W.
$6, Benjamin T.
$6, Matteo P.
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personally im using cinnamon 2.8.6 on top of ubuntu gnome and if this is what you mean by headerbars i think it looks great, took some time getting used to but i have no problems with them, in fact i think it looks stunning http://i.imgur.com/wiY2sKj.jpg
Edit by Clem: It can look nice, especially in GNOME and especially if all apps look consistent. That’s another advantage we get if we stop using GNOME apps, we no longer need to patch them, so GNOME can look more like GNOME, and other desktops can look more consistent too.
I’m eager to see this new look and fell. I’m using mint since Ver. 13 (i think), and i have this feeling that it’s a little outdated in terms of look and feel.
What’s the advantage over just using the MATE apps as they are? They already have gtk3 support. Is it just a name change to make it more generic? Will you be pushing improvements back to the MATE apps?
Edit by Clem: There’s a few important differences. First, the MATE apps are MATE apps, so they’re tied to one particular DE. Even if we agreed to make them generic we’d need to agree on them losing specific MATE features (for instance lockdown support in pluma, caja prefs in one of its plugins..etc), and on them losing GTK2 support (which isn’t something we want to carry over on such a scale). They would also be tied to MATE from a release point of view, that’s quite a heavy process and there’s no real reason for cross DE apps to depend on that. One last important thing is that these won’t all be the same as MATE apps. Xedit is based on pluma 1.12 for instance, but Xplayer is based on totem 3.10. There also are packaging constraints to consider… mate|gnome-utils for instance provide “bundles” of applications. Finally, the main reason we’re moving away from GNOME apps is precisely because of their relationship with a specific desktop environment… so it makes sense to maintain alternatives generically and outside of the scope of any particular DE. Regarding upstream, our relationship with the MATE team isn’t just very good, we ARE part of that team. There’s more to MATE than just Mint and there are other interests to consider but it goes without saying that we have everybody in mind. To give you an example, when working on xedit we reviewed the plugin mechanism and the python compatibility, this lead to design discussions. These discussions naturally happened on #mate-dev and they’re obviously also relevant to pluma. There’s an important difference here though… in xedit we’re full GTK3 so we can consider libs like libpeas and ditch the previous python extension support. In pluma, we need to support distributions shipping the app in GTK2, where the python extensions are fully functional. As you can see, there are different interests and the two apps are going in slightly different directions.
X-Apps sounds like a very good idea! 🙂
Looking forward to Mint 8.0 However I would hope that programs that can be installed via Software Manager are updated to latest versions.
In particular K3B Burner. The current version available via Software Manager is v2.0.2. However, at the K3B website the latest stable version is billed as being v2.0.3 and that was made available on November 4th 2014. How is it that it takes so long for newer versions to make it into the Software Manager?
Also I’d like to make a request that Boomaga is made available via the Software Manager. It is an excellent virtual printer with several useful functions that would be a plus for Linux Mint systems.
https://github.com/Boomaga/boomaga/wiki
In any case, am looking forward to Mint 8.0. Donation on the way soon.
Opps! Meant to say Mint 18.0 Of course.
@Clem (3)
Thanks for the extra info. Looks like you have considered everything in detail. Personally I use MATE across a few different distros, so I am hoping that where it makes sense improvements to Xedit get pushed back to pluma.
Edit by Clem: These are already excellent apps and we’ve been using them for years. In the case of xedit there are three things I have in mind. The first one is to port the Gedit 3.x libpeas python extension support. The second one is to bring the functionality of some of the plugins straight into Xedit itself (there’s a plugin for instance which just makes it possible to view/hide the tab-bar, that could obviously be added into the core application). The third one is to implement search/replace in a way similar to sublime (if you don’t know sublime, you can see something similar when you search in Firefox, although that has far less features). We started discussing this already. Obviously nothing is urgent, the main thing here is to get the apps ready and set things in motion so we can later develop them further. The first idea is not possible for pluma (as far as we know it’s GTK3-specific and we also can’t replace the existing and functional python loader). The second idea could be done for pluma but it’s not as important… it’s nice for plugins in gedit-plugins 2.30 though as pluma doesn’t have an equivalent of that. The third idea seems popular, we were missing one member when discussing it in the MATE team but it’s typically something that could be ported to pluma. Everybody agrees that the search in gedit 2.30 was “better” than in gedit 3.x but once we talk about features and guarantee that none are lost, people are open to the idea of embedding the search/replace widgets within the main window. I think it’s the loss of features (if we were to look at Firefox) or changes in the way you navigate search and results (if we were to look at gedit 3.x) which really put people off.
Thank you for not joining the “flat” trend. A very good decision.
Will X-Apps work the same in LMDE as well ?
Edit by Clem: Yes, absolutely.
Hello Sir,
Is LMDE 2 getting any upgrade in future or not ?
I am a big fan of LMDE series.
Thanks
Edit by Clem: Yes, all the features developed for Mint 18 are also targeted for Betsy. Some of them will get in Betsy before you see them in Mint and some of them even come from Betsy (for instance the Bluetooth client tool in Mint 18 is Blueberry… which funnily enough could be considered a bit like an early X-App).
Thanks for the update. Looking forward to 18.0! 🙂
So, just to make sure, if I want to install the gnome apps I still can, right? I myself really like how they are designed. Also, will Cinnamon/Mint ever get something similar to Gnome Online Accounts? The Google Drive integration in Gnome is something I would really like in Cinnamon.
Edit by Clem: There are no plans for online accounts in Cinnamon just yet. About GNOME apps, to take an example, there will be no gedit 2.30 pinning the ubuntu gedit 3.18 version. You’ll see xedit installed by default, and if you decide to install gedit you’ll get version 3.18.
My body is ready.
I hope the team succeed with X-Apps, it is a pity that all those simple applications are tied to specific DE.
Mint 17.3 is amazing. I am curious – when 18 is out, will an upgrade from 17 be possible, or will I have to blow everything away and start over?
Edit by Clem: That’s one of the challenges we’ll need to solve. If we succeed you won’t have to reinstall.
Thanks for keeping “Linux Mint” – “Linux Mint”.
The X-Apps idea is brave and simply great.
I don’t think that Linux Mint look & feel is outdated – I think that it is: practical, easy to use, not confusing and free from the ‘madness’ around.
Thank you. Really looking forward for using X-Apps and Mint 18…
Great work as always Clem and team, please keep it up!
So, this will be easier than (re)building apps on, say, OpenBox or FLTK (or just X)?
X-Apps sounds like a lot of work, but a great idea all the same! Thanks Clem!
Edit by Clem: It is a lot of work. At the start especially, but it also saves a lot of repetitive work and a lot of uncertainty going forward. We’ve seen that with Cinnamon, and then with the Cinnamon backend components. It also means we can develop for 3 editions at the same time. Just like the Mint tools, developing a new feature for an X-App will benefit users of multiple editions, and that’s pretty cool.
Double congratulations!
First, for the marked increase in donations to Linux Mint. I hope this marks the start of a new level of support from the many, many users of LM.
Second, for the move to X-Apps, which sounds to me like a very sensible way for Clem and the Team to proceed. As usual, Clem, your leadership is extremely impressive.
To Clem and the team – I am using Linux Mint since Barbara, I think it was version 2.0… I have since installed it to many friends and family computers and wrote in my blog a few times. It took my heart from the start. I can proudly say that I switched from that “other” OS in 2005 and have never looked back. I can only say the best things about Mint in many aspects. Over the course of a year (2015) I did try several (11) distros just to come to the conclusion that Mint always wins me over. I can hardly wait for Mint 18 and from what I read it is a start of yet another phenomenal version. My best regards and wishes to Clem and the Team!
I am looking forward to the idea of X-Apps…it’ll be different, but if Xedit is as you claim (and I’m sure it will be), then it’ll be pretty much no adjustment.
Personally, I kinda hope that gufw becomes a pre-installed package in future versions, as it hasn’t been so far, and it would appear that ufw is inactive by default.
Another thing I’d like to point out is that in the event that you need to reinstall Linux Mint, or upgrade to a next release, the easiest way to do this is by choosing “Somthing Else” during installation and installing Linux Mint and the user’s home folders to seperate partitions
Example, my setup:
Root Partion / 28 GB | Home Partion /home 261.4GB | Swap Partition 4 GB
In the end, you can format the “OS Partition” and reinstall to just that partition, making sure to keep the home partition unformatted and mounted at /home. Doing this will preserve user files and settings while still being a complete reinstall. In the event you don’t succeed with your upgrade goal, I’ll still be able to do that and reinstall most of my installed applications via Aptik…which, in a way is sort of like upgrading. I went out of my way to set the OS up in a way that it become a replaceable part of my set up because of something silly I did back when I was on Linux Mint 16 that broke everything, this way if I mess anything up again, it’s at little to no cost to me.
Meant to add, I also keep a Linux Mint install USB on my keychain x3
I would love to make a donation but have neither a PayPal account nor a mobile phone which I believe is needed to use BitCoin and MintCoin. Will there be other ways to donate in future? A more traditional way such as bank transfer would be much appreciated.
Edit by Clem: Hi Claudia, I’m sorry we only use Paypal (mostly for processing and accountancy reasons) and BTC (you don’t need a phone to use BTC by the way). Thanks for supporting us. If you can’t donate because of this, you can use the money to spread Linux around you. We usually suggest people buy Linux DVDs and donate them to schools or public libraries around them.
Clem and Team,
Thank you for doing an outstanding job on Mint 17.3! I hav eit installed on all of my computers (donation coming on payday).
My soul died a little when KDE was not mentioned. I prefer KDE over all other DMs. Cinnamon looks very nice but KDE calls to my heart.
I was a dedicated Majaro user but I needed a more stable OS. Mint won hands down when it worked on all 3 of my computers out of the box.
Edit by Clem: I’m sorry about KDE. I like it as well and I know it has its following. There are a couple of reasons we don’t actively develop for it though. First, it’s a different world, with different apps, a different toolkit, different UI guidelines even and a slightly different philosophy. We can “factorize” development easily for what we consider “traditional GTK” desktops but it’s much harder to include KDE. When we developed mintlocale for instance, we couldn’t easily remove the language settings from KDE and replace that part of the DE. Another reason is that we’re not really in touch with KDE developers. And then there’s the fact that KDE 4 is being abandoned and Plasma 5 is brand new. Last but not least KDE never really relied on anything from GNOME, it always supported its own set of apps. If we were to place X-Apps in there we’d probably defeat the purpose of X-Apps, with them looking and feeling less native in KDE than KDE apps.
@claudia
You don’t have to have Paypal account. Paypal will just use your credit card info to deposit into Mint’s Paypal account the amount you specify.
It’s like any other online one time purchase with credit card.
Will this be a good excuse to make optional some of the default gnome app dependencies too?
On a default install without evolution, there are 10 or so evolution libraries that come along as dependents of gnome-panel, presumably to get evolution calendar items into the datetime widget.
For those of us with Thunderbird instead, those libraries don’t do too much.
Apologies if this is all ready being worked on 🙂
Edit by Clem: We’ll remove DE dependencies as much as possible, but I can’t answer that just yet, it’s a case by case analysis. Also note that some libs provided by evolution aren’t directly tied with the Evolution mail client and are used by other applications to get calendar functionality.
update the menu ui in cinnamon too, please
Thank you Mint for not going FLAT!
Unbelievable how people easily accept garbage and don’t see the mockery intended by such a garbage.
Excuse my strong language.
I wish it would be as easy for you to make the same decision about systemd, but we know it’s not as easy…
Thanks.
Well done everyone. Now I feel like a cheap b’stard for not donating but that’s gonna change soon.
I’m using Mint 17 as my primary workhorse on a used Dell i3 and it’s running like a train. There are things I prefer to do on the Mac -but- it hasn’t been turned on in weeks and I expect it lay (largely) dormant for quite some time. That’s a massive thing for me. I detest Windows because I was forced to learn it and Apple is better for creatives (psychological fact before everyone rounds on me).
It’s just a shame some great commercial apps are missing from the Linux platform but not that games are coming our way (SteamOS) I think our fortunes might well change.
“But open source…”
Yeah, I hear ya – to which I say, each to his own. Commercial apps are developed full-time so they have more resources and generally perform better. Using GIMP after Photoshop, Affinity or several others on the Mac is ****ing painful. Inkscape was a very pleasant surprise though so you never know. I’ve also got a friend onto LibreCAD rather than “obtaining” the commercial alternative.
Thank you Clem and team for making my dream of a usable alternative come true!
Hi, Clem. You and your team have made a good choice in forking totem and gedit. And if your claims are correct, more will follow.
I see you have been working on an XPlayer as well. Yes, I’m that enthusiastic, I do check your GitHub. I would like to see some screenshots of that and some other XApps, maybe even some testing packages, since I cannot compile it (on your Linux-based operating system).
I like these big updates, especially to Mint, since I can now run the latest apps(supertuxkart, freedoom, k3b) and can get some of the latest-generation software, and I hope you can successfully provide an upgrade path.
The Compulab Airtop sounds great; would love to see a MintBox Aero/MintBox 3 based on it.
Thanks for making my Linux switching smooth. I would love to see where you could go with Mint 18
Edit by Clem: CompuLab is sending us a unit so we can check the compatibility with Mint 18 and play with the new hardware. They also showed us what a Mint Airtop would look like. We’ve an amazing relationship with them and they’d like to partner on this unit as well. This is a luxury product though, high-range and so not for all budgets, so we’re a bit hesitant. Maybe things will change once it’s here and we fall in love with it. We’ll see. In any case I’ll share my impressions of it on segfault. Regarding the apps, xplayer is based on totem 3.10. You can git clone these apps and run dpkg-buildpackage on them to make the packages. Compile xplayer-plparser before xplayer. Be aware that this app isn’t fully ready yet and it’s missing webm support. xedit is fully ready.
Please, please, please stop giving apps generic names like “text editor” (or “disc burner” or “Internet” or whatever). It’s a real pain in the ass for non-idiot users.
I have three desktop environments and switch between them depending on what I’m doing. Each of them installs its own generic text editor with slightly different features. Whichever DE I’m logged into, I may want to open a specific text editor because of differences in functionality or UI or other things that affect my workflow. When I right-click on a text file, though, I see three different applications that all identify themselves to the OS simply as “text editor.” They also all have very similar icons. Same deal in the “open document with …” dialog: I just see multiple programs that all call themselves “text editor.”
The app has a name. Please use it instead of (or, at least: in addition to) providing a purely functional description. Purely functional descriptions penalize non-idiots in order save those who proudly carry the “I’m not a computer person” banner like an identity badge from the unbearable burden of HAVING TO REMEMBER WHAT AN APPLICATION IS CALLED.
There’s a special place in hell for developers who identify their apps to the operating system and to users by only providing a purely functional description.
Edit by Clem: I see two problems here. First, you’ve got 3 editors which do the same thing.. that’s precisely something X-Apps will solve. You no longer will use three editors in MATE, Cinnamon, Xfce, you’ll have one for all three of them. Second, your menu should distinguish between apps using the same name. We’ve been discussing that recently and we’re planning to do it in Cinnamon and mintMenu.
Oh man, you’re going to take Gnome apps and make them behave like desktop programs again? I actually could not be more excited. I’m sorry new age crap, but window decorators are a utility and there no room to put buttons over the frikken womdow’s handle. thank you very much. Linux mint’s whole stack is the most motivational project in a long time. Single handedly keeping computers and humans on operating terms
Congratulations to Linux Mint Team on the new achievement!
The recent 17.3 MATE release is excellent as can be expected.
I have been using Linux Mint since Ver 7.0 Gloria days.
Wherever possible, I give free DVDs with Linuxmint ISO to my friends / acquaintances to get them to use it.
Taught my dad, a complete newbie to PC, to use Linux over the last 2-3 years.
He has now learned to use the PC by himself in Linux Mint. Presently using Ver 16, though.
Have set up his office PC, a Dell XPS 420, to use a Brother MFD, a TVS dot matrix printer etc in Linux Mint 16 MATE. His favourite app is Picasa (running on WINE).
I’d like to make one suggestion here. Some of the above members were discussing about alternate CAD software.
I have personally been using Qcad for over 3 years now. IMO, it is much better than LibreCAD, which I tried too.
I’m looking forward to the new developments in the upcoming release.
Wish you all the best!
Thanks for all your great work so far, and best of luck in this new endeavor.
Although a minor issue, I’d like to object to the wording of this statement:
“…we’re working on something that looks more modern without looking minimalistic…”
Minimalism is about cutting out things that are extraneous. The “flat” fad goes far beyond this, and you can perfectly well pursue minimalism without adopting an ugly design trend.
#12 Dropbox is currently available for Cinnamon in software Manager.
I’m looking forward to the new look and feel. I’m sure your team will do a fantastic job, as always.
X-Apps gives me cause for concern, though. I understand that it is less of a pain to just fork all core applications, but do you guys have the manpower for it? Will it eat into the development that goes into Cinnamon that makes every successive iteration a little better? Will the X-Apps be stable enough to replace existing apps in 6 months?
Also, could you elaborate on the list of applications you plan on forking?
Edit by Clem: I can’t talk about the list just yet. Will it eat into Cinnamon’s development? Yes, but we couldn’t justify working on Cinnamon when problems exist on the apps at the same time. We can’t ship with the GNOME apps as they are in version 3.18. Also, you need to consider these apps as part of the DE. Even if they’re not specific to Cinnamon, they’re part of what makes Cinnamon and what we deliver to the user. Will they be stable in time for Mint 18? Of course. If they weren’t you wouldn’t see Mint 18. We don’t stick to fixed release dates, things will be ready. We might reduce the scope but we won’t ship with broken apps. Do we have the manpower? Yes, it doesn’t cost that much, we’re not starting from scratch and it also saves us a lot of work long term. The same question was asked when Cinnamon was announced, and we’ve developed it a lot since. If you’re worried about it stalling a bit, it was planned for 3.0 to be a smaller release anyway, due to focus shifting on making sure 18 would be stable.. that said look at its activity on github, I’m far from being alone on Cinnamon.. while I focus on apps, I see Joseph working on multiple backgrounds, I hear talks of vertical panels..etc..etc..
as Krissy Says:
…”Another thing I’d like to point out is that in the event that you need to reinstall Linux Mint, or upgrade to a next release, the easiest way to do this is by choosing “Somthing Else” during installation and installing Linux Mint and the user’s home folders to seperate partitions
Example, my setup:
Root Partion / 28 GB | Home Partion /home 261.4GB | Swap Partition 4 GB”…
—
Since I’ve started to use DOS OS, then Windows OS, then Linux Mint, I’ve never placed my personal data in the same partition as the OS. I’ve also installed hundreds of times for other people in this way.
There is no way around it. There is no way to quickly maintain the system, for a home user, without reinstalling the OS on a separate partition – which in the case of Linux Mint, it is so fast and easy and fun (also in the case of DOS).
Using many utilities to maintain the system proved to be time consuming, costly, less efficient, not error-free, and in many cases leads to loss of personal data. This is a well know fact.
While creating separate partitions for the OS and the personal data (/ and /home OR C: and D:) is recommended in the most professional books, it is never an option in any OS setup – and it must be done manually again and again forever.
For example: in 500GB disk the setup program could just offer to divide it to let’s say 1GB for swap, 50GB for / and about 450GB for /home.
I know that it’s a programming headache, but this headache must be done manually on any installation of any operating system, forever.
Thank you.
The idea of X-Apps is fantastic. Now that Linux Mint has become the leading linux distro, it has a responsability in the development of linux. X-Apps will be the result of this and will be used by whoever or whatever linux distro. Gnome devs do a great job for their DE, but they have that bad habit to ‘clean’ apps for their own needs. Look what they have done to poor nautilus! First thing I do when using Gnome 3 is to install Nemo. And what about gthumb, totem…. they all have lost some features in the ‘cleaning’ process. X-Apps will be great, I’m sure that even Ubuntu may be borrowing them in a short time, busy as they are in the mobile market. Congrats Linux Mint!
I love the idea of X-Apps. 🙂 Text editor is a good start, way to go!
I think I pointed this out earlier – we need a simple light weight paint application (like Pinta basic drawing, annotate, etc) in addition to default GIMP which is quite overwhelming for new users. It took me sometime to figure how to highlight in a screenshot. Also, we need a good PDF reader as well. KDE has Okular but IIRC would need a hundred dependencies to install on Cinnamon.
Really pleased to see LMDE mentioned above by other commenters and your response – great news. I just wanted to add another voice to the “LMDE” fanbase – it really is a superb distro so I become nervous when I see the last few communications haven’t explicitly mentioned it.
Exciting news all around. +1 to the idea of having GUFW installed by default.
The GNOME project is causing major fragmentation for their own benefit, but to other’s expense.
The Airtop: without a HDD and without RAM $2999? Sorry, but that’s hilarious!
And what is the connection of a computer with no HDD to Linux Mint?
No HDD, no OS.
Edit by Clem: There are different SKUs for the Airtop. Units coming with an HDD run Linux Mint. CompuLab is also one of our closest partners, it’s natural for us to cover the news when they do something cool, whether we’re partnering with them on the new unit or not.
I find it interesting that people are having issues with Clem’s concept of ‘x-apps’. It is not a stretch of the imagination to consider this type of paradigm shift when one considers the fact that the Mint team is also on the development teams for MATE and Cinnamon. Due to this fact, the Mint team has pull with those dev teams in regard to such things, and as was mentioned in the MATE forums over the past year or two, there have been concerns over the costs, both in time and money, in maintaining MATE-specific applications. If one considers the simple fact that all major desktop environments actually REPLICATE thousands of hours of work to create their own apps to match their projects, the concept of universal applications begins to make considerably more sense. Why would the development team for a desktop environment expend tens of thousands of dollars or more and hundreds of hours to maintain a mere text editor if they knew there was a universal one available that was a slide-in replacement? I for one look forward to a generic X-Apps future, because it would mean as much as double the time and budget available to advance the desktops themselves–and if MATE and Cinnamon’s rapid advancement over the past few years are any indicator, we haven’t seen anything yet!
As an update to my previous post, I would love to see a universal terminal app, caled ‘X-Console’, which replicates the functionality of Guake/XFCE-Terminal, giving one the ability to choose between having a standard terminal window, and a drop-down terminal, but with interesting options, such as displaying multiple terminals in a grid instead of merely tabs. It wouldn’t have to be a hugely complex, but it would make it fit more desktops–inclusing XFCE, and it might convince THEIR dev team to jump on board with the ‘X-Apps’ concept.
With every release, you guys impress me more. The X-Apps idea is awesome. It’s been bugging me that Gnome has changed everything, and nothing looks like “my” windows with the look and feel that I’ve picked.
I love you guys.
Hi Linux Mint folks
Been using Linux Mint for a couple of years, and very impressed with it, although I’m not that well versed in Linux, and stick to Cinnamon, since trying it. Well past time I made a donation, so some $$ on the way 🙂
Dear Clem & Team.
Many thanks for all your great eforts & very good work. Congratulations from an olddie: first comp. Amstrad CPC 6128. First Linux Caldera 3 (1998).
Namaste.
Edit by Clem: We grew up on opposite sides but we’re from the same generation it seems. I started on an Atari ST, first Linux: Slackware (around 1996 if I remember well… tons of Wallnut Creek floppies going around the university) 🙂
Are there any thoughts on making linuxmint.com available over HTTPS? Unencrypted sites are becoming the exception these days. Thanks for all your work!
Edit by Clem: Yes, sorry it’s taking long. We’re also interested in redesigning the website.
First of all I’d like to thank the Linux Mint developers for their amazing work.
I really love Linux mint, especially the cinnamon edition and I have a little suggestion that would attract some people to the OS
Would it be possible to add a menu to completely disable the mouse acceleration feature? (I know It’s possible to do so by using the terminal, but I myself am new to these things so are my friends)
I say this because we are a group of people who enjoy playing games at a competitive level, and the mouse acceleration feature is what’s holding us back from switching completely from windows.
Thank you.
Edit by Clem: Interesting.. please join us on IRC (#linuxmint-dev, irc.spotchat.org) so we can discuss and understand this a bit more. I’m there myself most days.
This post is exactly what I wanted to see and I expected it because this is Linux Mint – traditional, professional, nice looking and always working. 🙂
Awesome decisions as always, Clem!
Very excited to see this news! Can’t wait!
@jake: It’s still PayPal. I don’t want to support PayPal by giving them my business. Still less I want to give them my credit card number.
@Claudia
hmmm, I feel the same about Paypal… and Google… and eBay…. others… in the same club 😉
I agree with (or, if you prefer, “third”) the suggestion made by Krissy and Shian. It makes eminent sense to keeps the OS (and apps) on one partition, separated from the each user’s data on a different partition (or many different partitions). I dual-boot between Linux Mint & a recent version of Windows; but I seldom use Windows these days.
Make it an option during installation to keep the user information/data separate from the OS; it’s much less likely to cause loss of data if the OS is replaced or that drive dies.
I had a flashback when I saw “xedit.” That’s what the system text editor was called in IBM’s VM/CMS. Excellent editor, easily customized (which I did a bunch of back in the day, to make it a pseudo-word processor). But you might want to be careful; IBM might still own the name.
Sure like the sound of this and can’t wait to see the results. I’m definitely not a fan of this “flat” design stuff and hope you continue to avoid it as much as possible and pretty much echo the comments of Shian. Keep up the good work. My donation will be coming soon, too.
This could be a good move if the rest of the Linux community helps them maintain these generic apps.
I hope they make an x app for the ndiswrapper and enable gufw by default.
when we see a picture of the new princess dress?
Edit by Clem: Sorry, it’s not ready at all yet.
Happy LMDE Mate user here. Will I still be able to de-systemd my systems? I’ve seen a few systemd features pop in, but I’m quick to remove them via synaptic and then fix whatever I’ve broken.
Thanks for the great work Clem and team! It’s AMAZING how far Linux Mint has pushed Linux past commercial OSes in terms of stability, efficiency, ease of use, design…. It’s really a win/win/win for almost every user who doesn’t rely on a specific corporate app.
Edit by Clem: About systemd, I’m not sure that will be possible. We sometimes fight upstream, and we did see a few regressions (mostly with libpam and upower), but I don’t think this is our fight. Systemd itself, from a technological point of view, is pretty cool and it will work great for us. It’s important also for us to be compatible upstream on the base level. The reasons we stuck with sysv weren’t so much not to use systemd, but rather not to move to it too early.
Hi Clem.
On the Donations Page (http://www.linuxmint.com/donors.php), under the section, ‘Top 100 Donors’ — the Amount Donated is still not rounded.
Looking forward to LM 18. 🙂
Hi Clem,
Great news. I’m really glad about X-Apps.
Is there a chance that as part of the development of X-Apps you’ll solve the long-standing brokenness of Document Viewer (or Evince) regarding search and copy in Right-to-Left languages?
(This is a bug going back at least to 2005 and no one seems inclined to solve it…)
Thanks, and keep up the good work!
Hi Clem, thanks for your answer to my post #24 and for the info that BitCoin transactions are possible without a mobile phone. When I signed up on bitcoin.de I was required to give my cell phone number. I contacted them to ask what I was supposed to do since I don’t have one, and they answered back saying that a mobile phone was indeed needed in order to use BitCoin and do transactions. That’s why I never even started looking into BitCoin in earnest. I logged in just now to see if anything had changed, but I am still required to give my mobile phone (in addition to full name and address). If I don’t fill in those specifications I can’t go further. So I am at a loss what to do.
Regarding post 31 – thanks Clem, I am testing and using X-Apps now, will report bugs if found. As you said, they were pretty much no adjustment.
I will continue to watch your github and see what developments you make.
I’m a Linux enthusiast and I like to try (within reason) what’s new.
What about linux mint kde? Will there be linux mint 18 kde and get the upgrade from 17.3 kde or I’ll have to wipe the kde version then reinstall the other versions including mate, cinnamon or xfce?
I like the idea of x-app, especially for KDE applications (okular, kile, …). In other words, making these applications well suited with cinnamon for example (especially the icons).
As usual thanks to the LM team for all your great work. I am looking forward to LM18, especially when I am planning to upgrade to a new laptop around the time of its release.
One thing I would like to highlight though. It had been almost two months since the release of LM17.3 Rosa. But in the Community Website, I still cannot change my personal profile to reflect that I am using Rosa. You can only select up to Rebecca. I think it is quite important to rectify this as it affects the statistics of the Community Website. Thank you very much.
Edit by Clem: Fixed, sorry about that.
Clem,
Going the apps route makes greater sense when taking into account the freezing of the base. It allows Linux Mint concentrate even more on the user interface which for most people is most important – well to those of us that prefer a GUI to a terminal.
It would look strange having one theme for the OS and another for the programs running on that OS (a bit like ported iOS apps to Android). It would be crazy to duplicate the work of Gnome and try to redevelop those programs so they fit in with your theme. There are greater synergies from creating apps that can act as the frontend of those Gnome programs.
Also how does this work if I’m installing additional respositories. Assume I need to install a new repository so i can install VLC 2.2 (because this app //play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=adarshurs.android.vlcmobileremote only works with VLC v2.2.0 or higher). Would your app still work with a new program being installed from this new repository or do the apps only work with pre-installed programs.
Finally, and this point is as tangential as you can get, but VAGUELY related to the work on the website 🙂 I want to be able to launch linuxmint.com from my home screen – don’t want to have to open Chromium and to type it in the URL bar or go to my bookmarks. Chromium allows me to browse to linuxmint.com, then click the hotdog menu in top right, then select “More Tools”, followed by “Add to Desktop”. This sets up an icon on my screen that upon clicking it, brings me straight to linuxmint.com. This is great when you have a number of favourite websites. In addition, when i click Linux Menu, under All Applications, choose Chromium apps, there is Linuxmint.com shortcut. But the favcon from browser tab is not appearing, I just get a capital letter “L” – yet the favcons work for Google Play and BBC Sport. Could this be looked at when updating the website?
@ttjimera
true that, thanks for the reminder to view and update my profile in
http://community.linuxmint.com/
LMDE/Mate user “I get no respect” 😉
Clem, thank you to you, and your team for all of your hard work. It has been several years since I’ve donated, but reading this blog post has inspired to do so again, which I just did. Keep up the good work!
You’ve been a beacon of stability and common sense until now, a bit on the conservative side. That has been ok, with all the turmoil in Gnome land. In all the above replies libreoffice, firefox and chrome (ium) are not mentioned. Yet it seems to me that these ARE moving towards the gnome look-and-feel. It’s ok to have these xapps, but if Libreoffice and Firefox start looking out of place in Mint, there is cause to reconsider the conservative approach (imho of course).
Cool, I like the idea of x-apps, I hope they make it into the cinnamon suite of apps over in the Arch repos too. I’m using cinnamon with gnome 3.18 and it annoys me as well how there’s no consistency, it’s like that on gnome too though, only the core gnome apps have the new look and every other app has the traditional look. I really like the new look but when it’s only certain apps it doesn’t make sense.
Hey Clem could I put in a request for you guys to work on a dark/black gtk theme and matching dark version of the icon theme to go with it? A lot of us really prefer the black themes and it’d be great if you guys could make a nice one and ship it with both as an option.
Next Mint will renounce at python2 as Ubuntu want to do in their next release?
It will be very good.
Edit by Clem: No, python2 will still be there.
^something like this, and with options for different colored folders and matching color options for the gtk themes
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2180212/Screenshot%20from%202016-01-31%2012-45-53.png
Here’s what Clem is talking about with the inconsistent look with certain 3.18 apps if anyone was curious
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2180212/Screenshot%20from%202016-01-31%2012-54-15.png
Just a suggestion for x-apps: a nice App for mail and calendar using proper owncloud-sync or other caldav/carddav-sync with a clear cinnamon look-and-feel would be nice 🙂
Volker
Congrats!! on all counts to Clem and Team.
I’m just glad I found Mint when I did otherwise I might still be at the mercy of a ‘hol’ dung tek wey’ OS.
As a newcomer to Linux, I must say I agree with the points #s 22, Krissy and #38 Shian made: to have gufw becomes a pre-installed package in future versions and that ufw is active by default.
As well as have “Something Else” during installation, upgrading or re-installing of Linux Mint give the option to have user’s home folders in separate partitions.
On my first installation I tried it, goofed up big time, then just went with Mint’s default. I was terribly unhappy with that setup and a couple of months later asked for help from the forum to do it ‘my way’.
Took five days and lots and lots of kind and patient people’s assistance. Got it done, learned a lot but still it would be wonderful to have this option at first installation.
Hello sir all the best for linuxmint 18 . I noticed screen flickering on linuxmint rosa on many laptops. I was unable to find any solution .I tried upgrading my kernel to the latest as suggested in mintblog but flickering continues.Someone pls help me. I love linuxmint but this constant screen flickering is very annoying .
Great to see that the LM team isn’t hopping onto the ‘Flat’ sheeple design train. Add another infuriating trend to avoid – MONOCHROME icons!
Also add my vote for x-apps, what a great idea! I can see most simple apps working fine, but I’m wondering about how such a file manager could replace the tightly integrated thunar in xfce. At the same time, I’d like to see a newer version of xfburn to replace the horribly neglected brasero.
@5, it looks like k3b 2.0.3 is in the ubuntu 16.04 alpha. If you want to track the new package versions, one way is to install the 16.04 ‘mini’ iso in a VM and refresh periodically.
What the hell? I was using 17.2 Rebecca Matte when suddenly everything went to hell. I cannot dowload any video. I cannot get 17.3 Rosa to install. I need someone who is competent to make a house call and fix this damn software or r join me in Team Viewer to restore download function of video, and fix the external hard drives which are not allowing for any storage of data. A Western Digital 4T drive is utter useless because of partitions that refuse to allow storage of data. I need technical help. And, I have no computer savvy of how Linux works.
Nothing at all about LMDE. Curious.
Hi,
Great work and keep up the good work.
I started with Linux and exactly classical Ubuntu like 6 or 7 years ago or so, I really liked the default Gnome 2 looks, when the wreckage in forms of Unity and Gnome 3 came along I abandoned it.
I then fell in love with Linux Mint since. Also after Ubuntu I tried Kubuntu, but it wasn’t my piece of pie.
I then tried also Linux Mint KDE and that one I really liked, the experience was quite different from original Kubuntu.
Now I am playing with many more distributions in VirtualBox like Kubuntu with Plasma 5 – I like the dark Breeze theme, although some icons seems to be too much detailed for my eyes. Fedora, ArchLinux with Plasma 5.
I think Linux Mint makes simply the best user experience for any computer user. I’ve already recommended for my friends, family, even my grandpa is using Linux Mint and I’ve never had to reinstall it unlike Windows.
One of few things I would love for Linux Mint 18 KDE is to replace Muon with Synaptic Package Manager, Linux Mint Software Center, Linux Mint Update Manager, and Mirror Selection Tool like it was is now for Linux Mint 17.x
Thank you!
Wow, the Airtop looks nice… at first. And then I realize it’s 2016 and all 4 Front-USB are USB 2.0.
Seriously? As good and silent it may be, that’s a no go.
Thank you for your hard work. Its great to see Mint developing with time.
I really like the idea of the X-apps but I do have a couple of worries.
Even though I understand that constantly patching other applications from each supported DE to keep up-to-date, is it really more difficult than supporting your own app ecosystem? Supporting such an ecosystem is not trivial as well I presume.
Will the X-apps be supported strongly enough to keep them competitive (feature-wise) compared to the respective ecosystem on the other DE?
It would be really unfortunate if we ended up on a situation that half of the Mint user-base just immediately replaced those X-apps when they make a new install.
I wish you were focusing on better multi-monitor support.
I think x-apps sound like a very useful and functional idea – it’s always been a bit ridiculous, imo, that each desktop has its own slightly different basic text editor or picture viewer.
Can I echo LowTekk @46’s suggestion for an x-terminal that includes the drop-down function – currently the Xfce terminal is one of the first things I install on any new system for that very reason.
Clem, please, include global menu applet in cinnamon default applets list. Also, would be great to see Muffin tweak tool 😉 For example – option to remove window titlebar when it maximized (like in XFCE).
And “recent apps” in cinnamon menu.
Personally, I don’t really care that much whether apps look consistent or not, or what they’re called. What matters to me is that they work so I can get the job done. Yes, given the choice, I would PREFER a consistent look, but it’s not an absolute essential requirement for me. As for the names, whether one calls it Gedit, Pluma, Xedit, Yedit or Zedit …or just plain old “Note Maker & Editor” doesn’t matter one iota to me either. Again, just so long as whatever it’s called and however it looks, I can get the job done …and it’s stable.
Having said that, great work Clem and team, and a thumbs up from me in regards your planning for the future, and keeping us Mint users informed along the way.
I didn’t comment when Mint 17.3 was released, for beta or final release. I’ll do so now, and say, once again, Mint meets and surpasses its usual standard. It’s very quick and easy to install (6 minutes), and is rock solid stable in use, and lightning fast. I service & repair computers for a living, and often install Mint on my customers’ computers. They come in sporting some some variant of Windows, and by comparison to Linux Mint, Windows ALWAYS seems to be moving in slow motion …and that includes after it [Windows] has been freshly installed with the latest drivers installed too. That’s when Windows will ever be at its fastest, yet compared to Linux Mint, it just crawls along in slow-motion.
Well done to all concerned and thanks for a great Linux distro. 🙂
@ Lord Mozart I am with you 100%.
we use LMDE Mate over here, our primary concern is stability and consistency. none of us want more Bling, and we sure don’t want things rearranged causing yet another learning curve.
Something we have experienced in the past was when an OS/desktop environment is no longer supported (or radically changed), for whatever reason, there is a massive regroup and retraining impact.
I have great faith in Mint and the leadership of the group by Clem. I trust that they understand our concerns.
David (#82)
You need a basic diagnostic tool.
You don’t know at this point whether the issue is hardware or software.
One thing you could do is try an run a Live DVD or USB version of Linux Mint.
Even better would be to get a Knoppix Live DVD. Knoppix is used by many computer techs (even Windows ones) for hardware detection.
During boot, it tells you what hardware item is being tested and recognized. If the boot fails during the testing of that piece of hardware, you know what the problem is. If Knoppix boots successfully, like with the Mint Live DVD, you know your hardware is okay.
Likely hardware problems could be a hard drive, or something damaged during a power surge, or by static electricity.
wooow, this x-apps sounds like the “ubuntu unity announcement” but exactly backwards… 😀 (its like… this really would be grate)
— a lot of new users like me, ask why there are not just a simple “standard set of apps that just work on any linux… — this may be the beggining of something like that… maybe in the future we would not chose “download a .dev version” instead we will download a x-app version. :D:D:D:D
First LM17.3 Cinnamon is just about perfect, as far as I’m concerned. I’m not a great fan of the Gnome 3 style of multiple work spaces though, but I do like how you’ve made them sort of permanent, it would be nice if they could be larger in the grid view, but I guess one can’t have everything.
I was reading through the list of sponsors, and I noticed 1 Silver sponsor – Apps Free for PC – after checking out their website I realised that by PC they mean Windows, which got me to wondering, what’s in it for them sponsoring Linux Mint? It’s great that they do, but I don’t see what they expect to get out of it.
WTH happened to the Cinnamon DE main page cinnamon.linuxmint.com ?? It is now just a blank page.
Looking forward to Linux Mint 18.
Hope the upcoming version will let the user to change the white background in the file browser to whatever color the user likes. It will save the user’s eyesight and attract more Mint followers!
I am having extreme difficulties getting my user name and password back can anyone tell me how I can do this as there is one in a data base and even if I uninstall I shall not be able to access the forum.
Any advice would be helpful/
Hi,
On the topic of X-Apps, I fully agree with the principle and I think it goes in the right direction. The arguments are actually similar to those that guided the choice of my preferred DE, being the modular Xfce. I have a question though: why starting off new apps (even if these are actually forks) instead of using apps that are already not tied to a DE, that are designed with a modular approach, like (in the case of the text editor) mousepad or leafpad? Or am I mistaken about the actual modularity of those apps :)?
Cheers,
Edit by Clem: For some, why not. And another possibility is to use that already generic application (i.e. in that case we don’t necessarily need to fork it). There’s something at play though. Take totem for instance, we’ve been using it for years… why suddenly switch to an alternative we previously never considered? That sounds like a plan B. For many users (I know it’s a bit different in other distributions) these apps are the continuity of what they’re already using. Under Mint 17 you’re using Totem 3.10, when you switch to xplayer you’ll basically run the same app + incremental improvements (as opposed to a largely redesigned totem 3.18 or a different application altogether… both giving a very different experience than the one you were already familiar and happy with). Why change something that already works? It can be considered of course, but we’d need very good reasons to do so.
Could it be possible to make the harddrive setup dialog resizeable?
Please!
Three lines of “real” information about the drives partitions are a pain if you use extended partitions or more than one drive.
Thank you!
There is already a program named xedit, although it is a useless relic from the 80s. It is on everyone’s system as part of the X Windowing System, along with xclock and xcalc (xcalc is very useful!)
xedit, xplayer etc. are not very good names I suppose they are provisional? Of course naming those apps isn’t easy.
The xedit pluma clone is interesting but wouldn’t it make sense to merge these changes into pluma eventually?
Thanks a lot still these applications should be good to use also in LXDE, fluxbox and all sorts of weird environments.
Edit by Clem: The name clash was reported on github and the tool was renamed xed. It doesn’t really matter since it’s a generic app anyway (you only need to know it’s xed if you’re looking to open it from the command line or to look at the man page) but yeah, it’s not xedit anymore.
Alright I hadn’t yet read your detailed explanation on xedit and pluma in the third comment.
My laptop came with Windows; but I only use Linux. My version is “Mint 17.3 ‘Rosa’ Mate 64-bit”. I like this version of Linux very much. It’s not flashy and it is very responsive. I like the ‘shadow edge’ around the opened programs. Nice touch. Even though my laptop has ‘lost’ 1GB of RAM (of 4GB), it is working fine. Among the programs I use, my favorites are: Gimp, Darktable and Blender (all of which I’m still learning).
However, I have two main issues with Mint:
(1) I have tried to adjust the mouse’s scroll; but it continues to scroll a whole page at a time. I have to use the ‘Up’ and ‘Down’ arrows to control the scrolling. It is a new Microsoft mouse with its own USB connection. This is very annoying.
(2) The second issue is with printing. I have tried to adjust the printer settings, but, so far, the only way I get it to work is to connect the printer with the USB cable. The Wi-Fi connection will not work with the printer. [I installed the Broadcom driver and it obviously works because I am right now connected to the Internet to send you this message.] Yes, I know that the printer’s manufacturer has not release a driver for my printer; but, why should the printer work with the USB connection and not with the Wi-Fi connection [using the driver provided by Linux]?
My laptop is an Acer Aspire E15 (E5-521-24PQ and my printer is a Canon Pixma MP-560.
If somebody has an answer for either or both of these issues I would love to know them.
Thanks.
Luis
Re: 98
Why not? My first call was “why develop something new when something else that could do the trick already exists?”. It seems a lot of work to fork an app instead of switching weapon when the previous one does not fit any longer, but that’s only my position and I see your point. If you indeed have the manpower to do that and you want to do that, that can only be good. I will be looking forward to it.
Cheers,
@ Luis Garcia
unfortunately Cannon does not provide Linux support. next time you purchase a printer consider that. (I did not but got Lucky when I bought my Brother)
the laptop, do you use the touchpad or a mouse? I much prefer a Mouse, and my laptops can disable the touchpad (F8 on Thinkpads, but something else on my Sager)
I suggest you look for help in the Mint Forums on both issues… there are lots of bright people over there.
Hi, Clem.
I really do like the idea of xapps. However, I can see an issue with everyone who is used to launching a lot of the gapps by typing their names. Instead of typing gedit or sudo gedit, we’ll have to get used to sudo xedit. Also, will there be an xapp counterpart to gparted? xparted? That would be cool. Thanks for all your hard work!
Edit by Clem: Not necessarily. There’s a different between core DE apps and apps.. take gparted for instance, imagine it looking out of place, that’s not nearly as bad as your text editor, or you media player. Even though they’re all “apps”, from the user’s perspective some are “apps” and some are “DE accessories/components”, and that’s an important difference. In other words we’re far more lenient when it comes to “apps” than DE components, if that makes sense.
@Clem:
Re 100 “Edit by Clem: The name clash was reported on github and the tool was renamed xed. It doesn’t really matter since it’s a generic app anyway (you only need to know it’s xed if you’re looking to open it from the command line or to look at the man page) but yeah, it’s not xedit anymore.”
“xed”? Whoa… that’s magnitudes worse than “xedit”.
May I offer a free-of-charge proposal? “minted” as in “Mint Text Editor” … goes very well “Linux Mint” and since it’s supposed a fresh take on gedit/pluma… well… it’s a mint project. 😉
Edit by Clem: I we wanted to close it and just do it for ourselves we’d probably continue patching the GNOME apps, it’s not interesting long-term. What’s more interesting is to do it with others, to see it succeed and grow both inside and outside of Linux Mint, to work with developers beyond just the Mint team (if you look at Cinnamon devs for instance, they overlap, it’s not just exactly the same as the Mint team). We’ve also a responsibility to produce for the Linux landscape as a whole, what we need this for, a lot of people in other distributions need as well.
Hi Clem,
I tried reinstalling LM17.3 over my previous LM install and never could resolve all issues I had (screen flickers on ATI chipset, IO space overlapping for ACPI and wifi pcmcia card). Then I read there are differences between installing a LM versions then upgrading OR directly installing the latest version of LM. So I went back to a Qiana fresh install then upgraded. And lo and behold, EVERYTHING is sorted now (especially suspend, which I use a lot) and lighting fast ! Super super happy with my setup, won’t change anything in a while now 😉
Clem, consider using proper individual names for applications, like Pluma and Caja in MATE (but preferably more English-sounding, as English is the de-facto international language). Names with the same prefix like KFoo, GBar, or XBaz make it harder to find the app you want in the menu and generally don’t look very professional.
In addition, the name X-Apps is a bit too generic and may confuse some people.
Edit by Clem: These are generic apps, they use generic names (i.e. you won’t see Xed in the menu or anywhere in the UI, you’ll see “Text Editor”).
@ Luis Garcia
My version is “Mint 17.3 ‘Rosa’ Mate 64-bit”
…
my laptop has ‘lost’ 1GB of RAM (of 4GB)
If you are missing 1G of the 4G RAM, I suspect you installed the i686 version.
See if your system is x86_64 or i686.
In terminal type:
uname -i
and see if it is truly x86_64
as a fan of linux mint i look forward to the changes will there be an upgrade path from 17.3 or is this gonna end up being a reinstall due to the new stuff?
Will 18 support SD Card readers? I have had Mint as the sole OS on my MacBook Pro 13 Retina and have never been able to resolve this issue. It seems to be hit or miss with lots of people. Please advise and any help would be great too.
Al
@ Clem : guess this is what you do it for : http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/linux-mint-rosa-xfce.html
spoiler : 10 out of 10, haven’t seen any distro make this score :), guy is rather picky
Congrats etc
@Luis Garcia (102),
Try this:
http://longair.net/blog/2010/06/06/the-canon-pixma-mp560-on-ubuntu/
I’ve tried this some years ago and it worked on Mint 13 or so. I guess it might still work.
The link for downloading the wireless drivers seems to be broken, but I’m sure you’ll find them if you google around. Anyway, if you can’t find them, just send me a PM.
Good luck!
BrunoMiranda
Hi!
If you are prepared to pay a little for really good drivers running Linux OS then try the ones from Turboprint in Germany (http://turboprint.de/, website in German or in English).
They are very reliable and have worked for me with a range of different Canon printers, plus you have thousands of setting options you normally don’t have with the Linux-own drivers.
@Clem
Please fix the rounding on the donations page. Some amounts have superfluous decimal points. Thanks.
http://www.linuxmint.com/donors.php
@Clem
The site torrents.linuxmint.com (as directed from the downloads page) is down and I believe has been like that for at least a week. Is this still the right link? If so, can you give an ETA for this to be brought back online? Thanks.
Hi Darren,
We’re relying on the host to bring it back up. We’re quite surprised it’s taking so long and we’ve no ETA yet unfortunately.
Hi;
Clem, I’d Like to know more about why xapp needs to be done and how will newer updates change the look of our beloved mint.
Could we not use a hard coded theme to over write and keep them like our loved mint?
Could you provide us with screen shots?
If anyone could do the maintaining of this it is you but your stretched already are you not???
I’d rather you work on meat and bones then work hard for something that is just part of Linux growing up.
lots of us change icons etc anyway.
thank you for your hard work.
@118 David nickel
There are two screenshots of xapps to view here: http://segfault.linuxmint.com/2016/02/the-first-two-x-apps-are-ready/
David nickel@118
I’m sure the Mint team will leave theme options available, as you suggested. Clem wouldn’t take away our choices and simply hard code them out. That aside, it’s important to remember this simple, but often forgotten truth — what you like isn’t what someone else likes. We can only speak for ourselves. That’s a big reason why Mint is the way it is. We have options if we don’t like what we see out of the box.
But one thing that has been ongoing, and that I feel like every user would appreciate to some degree is a more unified look to a given theme, in this case the X theme. It simply makes sense that Clem start there. I will admit that it has bugged me to no end the different look throughout the system. Certain dialogues pop up that are clearly a component of some other system, it’s just not as clean as we’d like.
But more to your point, I know there are more important things depending on the level of progress. I think Clem is finally beginning to see his way clear to begin polishing things up as it were. Not so much function, but form. Granted, there are still some functional things that need improvement of course, and Mint will work on that too. But Mint is far enough along with creating a reliable base to address some of the cosmetics. I don’t think you have a thing to worry about, but that has already been said, and explained far too many times on this site.
@Clem
With the Mint torrent tracker being down for now it has me wondering why Mint doesn’t include an open public tracker or two for Mint torrent downloads. Is there any particular reason why that isn’t done? It would seem to me to be a win/win for all if this was done. Why rely solely on an ‘in-house’ tracker?
Edit by Clem: Which one would you recommend?
@119:
There is more by Clem about X-Apps here:
http://segfault.linuxmint.com/2016/02/the-first-two-x-apps-are-ready/
“Edit by Clem: Which one would you recommend?”
I don’t know Clem because I don’t have any expertise in these matters. I just assume that you are surround by people that do have significant expertise in many areas of computing.
That said, someone at Mint Forums posted a mention to this site:
http://linuxtracker.org/index.php?page=torrents&active=1&category=347&order=3&by=2&pages=1
As you can see they are hosting Mint 17.3 torrents (and a few for 17.2). Out of curiosity I downloaded the most common Mint 17.3 torrents available via the site (Cinnamon, Mate, Xfce and KDE – 32 and 64 bit) and they all checked out fine against the ISO MD5 sums posted at Mint’s own download pages.
However, in doing this they had the torrents running against two trackers:
http://linuxtracker.org:2710/00000000000000000000000000000000/announce
http://torrents.linuxmint.com/announce.php
The trackers were in separate ‘groups’ so announce would automatically go to both trackers (though torrent.linuxmint.com is down just now).
As the site has a clear commitment to dealing with Linux distros maybe someone at Mint could contact them and ask if it was okay to include their tracker for all Mint torrents. Maybe some arrangement could be agreed. In the long run it could benefit everyone as if one tracker goes down then the other would likely still be running. And, crucially, if the Mint tracker goes down then there is still place for users to get an actual torrent file from “linuxtracker.org” so they can then do an actual download.
In any case, I’m back to seeding Mint again, I do it all the time so that I contribute what little I can to keep Mint going strong.
Glad to see Rosa and the return of the tablet Clem, it drew back home again when I seen it, I only left because of I needed my tablet for work (wacom) everything works good, I actually went for the main cinnamon version this time instead of lmde and already working on a new mdm 🙂
Please keep the tablet support in future editions, I missed mint.
Nice to see the libs to get androids emulator installed by default also.
Can’t wait to start creating more again.
Sam
ver 15. it seems that you’ve been going older kernel versions from 3.8 to 3.19? why is that?
I like the general direction you seem to be going with X-apps, though I feel that this should be implemented in tandem with an overhaul of Mint themes across the various DE’s, particularly with regards to dark themes. Too much white is really glary and hard on the eyes, especially if you work in a low light environment.
The Cinnamon dark theme looks OK, but I can’t say the same for the options included in XFCE. I’ve tried probably 50 dark themes to try and find something decent. For now I’m using NOX with Shiki-Brave for the WM, but it’s not ideal, and being a GTK2 theme, the GTK3 audio & wifi notification icons don’t match. I feel that Mint needs a really good dark theme available across all DE’s.
Also, I’m constantly baffled by Mint’s choices of music player. I find Clementine to be FAR superior. The key thing here is the ability to explore music directories AND edit playlists/ encue tracks (without effecting the currently playing track) within the same window. The multiple playlist tabs and per track spectagraphs are also a nice Clementine touch.
On the whole though, Mint seems to be going in the right direction. Can’t say that for windoze & shMac!
126: Clementine would not work because it does not support gtk integration so it will not look native. Firefox and VLC don’t but look native anyway, matching the Mint-X-theme(although less than GTK-based alternatives which Mint really should use, like Midori and gnome-mplayer)
127: I’m not bothered in the slightest that Clementine doesn’t support GTK integration. To me, it’s a dedicated app, rather than part of an x-apps bundle, and doesn’t need to do so.
I’m all for the inclusion of a simple & straightforward video/audio player (Totem, VLC etc) and I use Totem for that purpose.
But as a music/audio guy, I’m underwhelmed by apps like Banshee. I find Clementine to be SO much easier to navigate my music folders, and create and edit playlists (while playing music uninterrupted).
Thanks for keeping such a great Linux distribution alive. I would like to write about for my blog readers.
Warm regards to Linux lovers,
Will this mean that it is expected to be possible running Gnome 3.18 applications on Linux Mint 18?
Edit by Clem: Yes. Well, it’s too soon to give a complete list, but you’ll be able to install gedit/totem/evince/eog 3.18 alright. Now, be aware that even though we no longer patch these, Ubuntu still does.
lm 17.3 xfce! just set the guest session on lm 18.
thanks
I’m looking forward to Sarah. Clem, could you include a way to see passwords for login and updates? I know this is a security thing but … I will continue to bug you until it happens.
I love the idea of XApps.
Perhaps another name as Xapp is already a term used by at least one software company:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XApps
Can you please bundle palemoon in Linux Mint 18 and LMDE 3? Firefox is chromifiying itself. Posted from palemoon 26.3.
We love mint,
Linux Mint is easy to use and same time having powerful feature(Thank to Linux Mint Team)
but, there is no inbuilt on screen keyboard.
and one more error when I just open settings and just type one time space some menus disappear and when I type two time space then all menu disappear.
After my computer crashed after a Windows Update and wipe out everything I had on the hard drive (no I didn’t have a back up) I said what I say every time it has happened: “I’m moving to Linux.” I am running Windows 8.1 and refuse to have Windows 10.0 RAMMED down my throat.
My question is can programs meant to run on Windows run on Linux Mint? I am talking about is stuff like Adobe, VLC Media Player and foobar2000? And what about programs for an Office environment, is there anything for that?
I mostly use this machine for Hone Theater computing and listing to Music.
Thank you for entertaining my “Nubie Questions”
Jose
I never tried Mint xfce edition and just realized that I missed the boat big time. xfce is absolute pleasure to use.
Having tried xfce with other distros I discovered xfce4-mixer app, without which it’s impossible to get all the functions of my 2 sound cards to work.
And to my surprise this mixer is NOT installed by default Mint installation.
This utility or similar should be in every distro if you want Windows users to accept Linux. It is very discouraging to start your new Linux installation and find that you have no sound. And this was the case with all but one distro I tried.
Mixer app is a must.
KDE mixer didn’t do it however.
The only two apps that do complete job are xfce4-mixer and QAS mixer.
I hope Mint includes a working mixer with all editions in the future.
Thanks for great work.
Jose@136
Office Applications — Libreoffice (spreadsheets, writer, Dbase, etc.)
Document Viewer — views .pdf files, maybe not as full featured as Adobe
but much faster, and simpler. There is an Adobe
reader however.
VLC — Yes, Mint comes out of the box with it.
Good news, is there are many, many other alternatives that work great, and often times better than Winbloze solutions. The list is growing too.
Bad news, programs designed to run natively in Winbloze will not work in Linux unless the software developers have made a specific version
for Linux, like VLC, or Libreoffice. You just have to make sure you get the correct version.
More good news, WINE is a virtual Winbloze environment that aims to allow any Windows program to run within a Linux desktop.
More bad news, WINE is very hit or miss. I have a program that runs better in WINE than in Windows. I also have others that don’t work at
all.
Best advice, give Mint an objective try. Look at forums for software solutions. Mint is based on Ubuntu, and Ubuntu has a huge community and a ton of apps that work perfect. Chances all, you will be able to create a Linux environment that does all you need it to do. If it doesn’t, don’t give up. Besides, you’ll still have more fun running what works in Linux than in Winbloze.
There is SO much more that could be said. But sounds like you have a long way to go. Have fun!
Jose,
Forgot to add, Mint, is the simplest way to get started with Linux. But I bet you already knew that, doesn’t seem that it was an accident that you posted here.
It’s not the perfect solution, but the perfect solution does not exist anywhere, not with Apple, not with Windows, not with Unix, not with Linux, etc. But Mint is about as close as you’re going to get.
Jose@136
If you’re looking to use your computer as a Home Theater system the biggest problem of Linux is Blu-ray playback. There are ways to get many discs to run but it takes effort.
Just about everything else should be no problem. Linux Mint supports most standard file formats (documents, pictures, audio/video) out of the box.
@136 Jose
The best place to ask your questions is at the Linux Mint Forums. They are very helpful there and people with real expertise: http://forums.linuxmint.com/index.php
Has there been a change to the latest design version made?