The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 8 “Helena” KDE Community Edition RC1.

Quick steps:

• Download the ISO or the torrent.
• While it’s downloading look at the overview of the new features in Linux Mint 8 KDE CE, read the User Guide and make sure to quickly go through the known issues.
• After the ISO is downloaded verify the MD5 (as described in the user guide).
• Burn the ISO at low speed and enjoy testing Linux Mint 8 KDE RC1.
• Report bugs on the dedicated forum thread.

Introduction to Linux Mint 8 KDE:

The KDE Community Edition aims to provide a version of Linux Mint which uses the KDE desktop.

For a detailed overview of the new features and improvements included in Linux Mint 8 KDE, please read “What’s new in Helena KDE?“.

System requirements:

A minimum of 4GB of free space and 256MB RAM are needed. For a comfortable experience we recommended to have at least 512MB RAM and 10GB of free space.

Important information and known issues:

As an RC (Release Candidate) this release is targeted at developers and beta-testers who want to help Linux Mint find and correct bugs before the stable release. Please do not use this release as your main desktop. For a complete list of known issues read the Release Notes.

Feedback and bug reports:

Please report any bug you may find via the Linux Mint 8 KDE RC1 Bug Thread and give us your feedback on this release by posting a comment right here on the blog.

Download Linux Mint 8 KDE RC1:

You can download Linux Mint 8 KDE RC1 via torrent or via HTTP:

Size: 1.1GB LiveDVD
MD5Sum:  011e30de612adeccaa555da16c4ff0c6

Torrent download: http://www.linuxmint.com/torrent/LinuxMint-8-KDE-RC1.iso.torrent
HTTP download: http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=47

Asia:

• http://ftp.jaist.ac.jp/pub/Linux/LinuxMint-ISO/testing/ (Japan)
• http://ftp.riken.jp/pub/Linux/linuxmint/testing/ (Japan)
• http://ftp.oss.tw/pub/Mint/LinuxMint-ISO/testing/ (Taiwan)

Europe:

• http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/linux/mint/isos/testing/ (Austria)
• http://mint.nano-box.net/iso/testing/ (Bulgaria)
• http://mirrors.cytanet.com.cy/linux/mint/testing/ (Cyprus)
• http://ftp.klid.dk/ftp/linuxmint/testing/ (Denmark)
• ftp://ftp.linuxmint-fr.org/pub/linuxmint.com/testing/ (France)
• http://linuxmint.copahost.com/testing/ (Germany)
• http://linuxmint.cybermirror.org/testing/ (Germany)
• http://ftp5.gwdg.de/pub/linux/debian/mint/testing/ (Germany)
• http://mirror.netcologne.de/mint/testing/ (Germany)
• http://ftp.cc.uoc.gr/mirrors/linux/linuxmint/testing/ (Greece)
• http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/linuxmint.com/testing/ (Ireland)
• http://ftp.akl.lt/Linux/Mint/testing/ (Lithuania)
• ftp://ftp.tpnet.pl/pub/linux/linuxmint/isos/testing/ (Poland)
• http://cesium.di.uminho.pt/pub/linuxmint/testing/ (Portugal)
• http://ftp.df.lth.se/pub/linuxmint/testing/ (Sweden)
• http://mirror.sov.uk.goscomb.net/linuxmint.com/testing/ (UK)

Northern America:

• http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/linuxmint/testing/ (Canada)
• http://mirror.amarillolinux.com/linuxmint/testing/ (USA)
• http://mint.ez.by/linuxmint.com/testing/ (USA)
• http://linuxmint.secsup.org/testing/ (USA)
• ftp://mirrors.secution.com/linuxmint.com/testing/ (USA)
• http://mira.sunsite.utk.edu/linuxmint/testing/ (USA)

Rest of the World:

• http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/linuxmint/testing/ (Australia)

Enjoy!

Have a lot of fun testing this release candidate and let’s all hope it will help us make a great stable release.

A new “Hardware module” was added to the Community website. This module allows you to register your hardware and to search for hardware devices based on multiple criteria.

Here are some typical use cases of this module:

• You want to buy an nVidia 8600GT video card and you’d like to know if the 3D effects work well with it under Helena and what kind of FPS you can expect when playing your favorite games. You use the hardware module to search for Helena users who own a 8600GT and you check their notes.
• You’re shopping for a new printer and you’re wondering which ones are well recognized under Elyssa. You use the hardware module to search for printers which work under Elyssa.

Using the Hardware module you can search for hardware using a combination of the following criteria:

• Model names
• Brands
• Types (printers, monitors..etc)
• Status (i.e. how well it works)
• Release (i.e. under which Linux Mint release)

At the moment you can’t comment on a particular device, and so therefore you can’t have a conversation with the device owner that others would see but we’ll probably add that in very soon.

Note: Other modules are planned and the community website (http://community.linuxmint.com) is still in ALPHA (so expect things to break now and then).