Linux Mint 18 codenamed “Sarah”

The first release in the upcoming Linux Mint 18.x series will be named “Sarah”.

Sarah is a Jewish feminine given name found in many different areas of the world. Sarah is a consistently popular given name across Europe and North America, as well as in the Middle East—being commonly used as a female first name by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, and remaining popular also among non-religious members of cultures influenced by these religions.

Frequently, the name refers to Sarah, the wife of Abraham in the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Old Testament, and the Islamic Quran. In Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian, it means woman of high rank, often simply translated as “Princess”. In Modern Hebrew, “sarah” (שרה) is the word for “woman minister”.

It’s still very early to talk about Linux Mint 18, but here are a few pieces of information about it:

  • Linux Mint 18 is estimated to be released around May/June 2016.
  • Linux Mint 18.x releases will be based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and supported until 2021.
  • One of the goals set for Linux Mint going forward is to feature a new look and feel (so it’s likely “Princess Sarah” will be the one getting that new dress) 🙂

Sarah is just a name at the moment and we’re still quite far from Linux Mint 18, but we’ll start working on this new series early. If you want to follow our development, please keep an eye on the Segfault blog, where we’ll cover the news and details and we’ll talk about changes and new features as they materialize.

247 comments

  1. Two questions, maybe you can give an answer 🙂
    1. Will Intel’s Z170 Chipset be fully supported (no more issues with IGP, Audio, Ethernet …)
    2. KDE: Update to Plasma 5?

    PS: Sarah is a good choice 🙂

    Edit by Clem: I can’t say for sure for Z170, it looks like support is improving in 4.3/4.4, so there’s hope (there’s also talks about binary blobs and potential licensing issues from Intel though). Plasma 5 yes, but it’s not really an update, it’s more like a new DE.

  2. Will there be an upgrade path from LM 13?

    Edit by Clem: I can’t guarantee it, at least not yet. We’re planning on working on one for 17.3 -> 18. We might also manage to facilitate and document a path from 13, but I can’t guarantee it at this stage.

  3. Brilliant probably what mas Mint needs is it, a change of aesthetics, more renewed current more. On a market where Windows has renewed his aspect and Ubuntu is going to do the same thing with 16.04 I think that it is time of that the Princess Sarah has new garment 🙂

  4. But what about the letter ¨a¨ at the end of the release codename?

    Edit by Clem: There’s a French saying for this, “it’s the exception which confirms the rule” 🙂

  5. Please don’t dress Sarah up like windoze 10 with all those ugly huge icons, or like my wife’s smart phone with the same ugly icons. Thank you.

  6. Looking forward to it, but a little surprised you didn’t keep with the ends in “a” tradition and use “Sara”.

  7. I am new to Linux but I am curious about one thing. Since there are 100+ distributions, imagine if majority of the developers got united and started working on applications. Im sure it would easily achieve the popularity of a Mac system.

    Edit by Clem: No, it’s a common misconception. You’re not the only one to think like that though, many big companies think of Computer Sciences and Information Technologies as something they can industrialize. They stack developers as if they were resources and pile them into teams with a quantitative strategy. It’s great though, thanks to that, start ups can compete with big multinationals and it only takes a couple of passionate geeks to outperform IT departments strong (or weak) of hundreds of so-called developers. This isn’t just “work”, it’s an art, it’s a hobby, there’s a drive behind it and the one important thing is passion. A geek needs to think freely, he needs empowerment and he’ll create wonders. If you put them all into one big project, and reduce their role to just implementing someone else’s design, you won’t get 100 times the initial result.. in fact you’ll probably get much less than before.

  8. If Mint 18 is going to have a new look and feel, I’ll just chime in by saying that I’m really hoping for a good quality dark theme included by default (Mate user… I know Cinnamon has a much darker theme). A new default wallpaper would also set a better initial impression 😉

    But anyway, as long as you keep on making all the various components of the OS better, as you have been doing since you started, I’ll be happy, dark theme or not 😀

  9. so mint is finally breaking the norm here with an “h” at the end? beautiful name and I hope this release becomes most beautiful aesthetically. Good luck Clem.

  10. I would also like to see a dark theme (eg along the lines of “blackmate”) included by default in Mint 18. I use my laptop regularly every day and find that a white background becomes a strain on the eyes after a while, particularly when reviewing my Linux feed blogs. Anyway, can I just add that you have done a terrific job with the overall development of Mint. Over the years, I have tried many different distros but, for me, Mint Cinnamon is the very best!!

  11. Please please please don’t go overboard with the new “look and feel”.

    We love Mint as it is and while some graphical polish is fine please don’t do anything weird.

    The focus for 18.0 should be everything working with the new base, everything else seems secondary to me.

    No new paradigms and resulting broken OS’s please.

    Edit by Clem: That’s the number 1 priority indeed.

  12. We don’t like the name Sarah.

    It would be better to code name Linux Mint 18 Sirena or Sirina

    A question why it has to be a female name?

    Edit by Clem: I removed parts of your comment (some religious people might find have found them offending/insulting). Why female names? We talked about it before. Just like we name ships for instance. You name something you care about. You give it a human name to somewhat personify it and portray some of the emotions you can have with something you welcome, enjoy and eventually replace… there’s anticipation, hope, excitement, memories and nostalgia involved too.

  13. Just remember, when you introduce a “new look and feel,” there are a lot of people who use Mint for its current look and feel.

  14. Dues Mint 18 include the new version FlightGear ?! (13.4 i mean)
    Thank you for great work in Ubuntu Mint !!
    Sorry for my small english.

    Edit by Clem: Yes (it’s version 3.4 though, not 13.4).

  15. Oh please don’t destroy Cinnamon! It doesn’t need any major changes.

    Edit by Clem: In case there were ever any doubt… I’m happy to confirm that “destroying” Cinnamon isn’t planned for Linux Mint 18 🙂

  16. Princesse Sarah … toute ma jeunesse. Très bon choix !

    Continuez le magnifique travail Clem ainsi qu’à votre équipe.

    Petite question : pourquoi la ligne “Show individual files” n’est pas traduite quand je fais une mise à jour ?

    A part ceci il y’a un soucis dans gThumb pour mettre en photo en fond d’écran : L’exécution du processus fils « gnome-control-center » a échoué

  17. I don’t think MATE needs much updating for the desktop. I stick with MATE because it looks very much like GNOME 2. Clean and simple. It doesn’t need a new look and feel. It’s a comfortable place to work from.

    Edit by Clem: I should have explained what I meant by “look and feel”. We’re not planning to change the desktop paradigms. We’re talking about icons, themes, backgrounds here, that’s all.

  18. Keep the ‘classic’ theme as an option in the settings and everyone’s happy. Surely those long terms users wouldn’t walk over having a couple of extra clicks after installation?

    Edit by Clem: Of course.

  19. agreed Deserthowler
    Mate is not Broke, Please Don’t Fix It
    we already know how to “fix it” (the Mint spin) so it looks/works like Traditional and get rid of that silly Mint Menu and replace it with the Menu Bar… 🙂

  20. Does it make sense to base Linux Mint 18 MATE Edition on Ubuntu MATE 14.04 specifically? Would it make things simpler, since the official Ubuntu repositories now host a MATE flavour, or is the Linux Mint 18 MATE Edition going to be based on a newer MATE version later on?

    Edit by Clem: Within the MATE team we agreed on a shorter release cycle, so ideally you should see a new version of MATE with every new Mint release. The base underneath isn’t relevant, it’s a different aspect. In terms of maintenance we can’t rely on Ubuntu for the MATE packages because over the course of the 2 years we would want to increment MATE on top of the same base (16.04 for instance), these would be frozen upstream. In other words 16.04 has MATE 1.12 (and might get 1.14), but over the course of Mint 18, 18.1, 18.2, 18.3 we might decide to ship 1.14, 1.16, 1.18, 1.20 even..

  21. Sounds good! I was hoping you’d use “Sarah”!

    I second the motion for a good dark theme. Please keep the current one as an option too. 🙂

  22. Hi Clem

    Can you confirm there will be a MATE release in Linux Mint 18.x please?

    Of course you have set yourselves a high bar what with the quality of Linux Mint 17.x

    Looking forward to meeting her.

    Edit by Clem: Of course.

  23. Good choice, but I second the opinion to skip the “h”. Although I like that particular way to spell the name.

  24. Mint 17.3 has finally (after a couple of years or so of trying Linux on & off) enabled me to more or less ditch windows. I now do all that I need to do on Linux apart from use a scanner. As somebody new to Linux Mint is a much appreciated opportunity to try something new so keep up the good work with ‘Sarah’. Just one thing would help though, if it can be included, is better scanner support (I use it a lot for scanning negatives and slides in) then I can ditch windows completely!

  25. Please, add “recent apps” item to start menu in cinnamon. Also global menu applet, and something like maximus – to remove maximized windows titlebar.

    It would be great for user to be able to customize cinnamon desktop like Unity. Top pannel, global menu, window buttons on pannel and decorations removed when window is maximized… It is important for users with small screens like netbooks 10″!

  26. NEW LOOK??? How many users use Linux MINT (mate or Cinnamon) because of the look?? It needs to be snappy and stable so it is productive. Stop releasing new looks, make it stable. People don’t like to HAVE to learn where to click to do the job. I would choose SARA and not SARAH. Please DON’T MAKE IT LOOK LIKE WINDOWS 10. It would be terrible. Why not create a POOL here how many people like the current look of MATE or plasma 5 etc.??

  27. Looking forward to Mint 18…I have 17.3 Cinammon on my Lenovo laptop and Mate on my desktop (which also has Windoze 7 Home Premium on a second bootable drive). What more could a guy want??

  28. Will 17.3 versions be upgradable to 18.x version easily or a clean install will be needed?

    Edit by Clem: It’s too soon to say, it really depends on what 18 is, and how steep the upgrade path is. We are planning to work on it though and we’ll communicate about it when we have more details.

  29. Hi Clem,
    Slightly off topic, but when will we see some additional features coming to LMDE Betsy?
    I’m running both Mint 17 for my family and friends, as well as LMDE myself.
    Whilst I appreciate that I get Mate DE updates regularly, there are still a few nice features and utilities in Mint that would benefit the LMDE user experience.
    Mark

  30. I guess that is something for me to look forward to. Linux Mint is interesting to me. I just wish it would do better introducing Windows applications and programs that Play on Linux, Wine and Code Weavers won’t tackle. Maybe develop an internal process.

  31. @Mark Walton
    what features and utilities? I use LMDE Mate, but have M17.x installed also. I see no differences
    thanks

  32. I am getting married soon, and my bride’s name is Sarah. Definitely, I am upgrading to this coming release. I am already in love with it 🙂

  33. @peter e

    I don’t know what Mark is missing, but Compiz is not available in LMDE. That’s what I’m pining after.

    It was there for LMDE 1, but not in 2.

  34. What about LMDE3 Clara? Is it on horizon? Flat horizon that is 🙂

    Edit by Clem: LMDE 3 will be based on Debian Stretch, it’s too soon to talk about this one.

  35. Linux Mint 18 will be great! It will be really good to move up to Ubuntu 16.04 so that we can use all the latest versions of software again; I’m managing a lot of PPAs now (and I love the GUI for that in Linux Mint 17.3). Given the constant improvement I’ve seen while using Mint, I trust the development team will give Linux Mint 18 a great new look and feel. I support the request to include a dark version of the default theme. I also like the idea of a recent apps section in the Cinnamon menu.

  36. Looking forward to the new release…though I’m still hoping you won’t go for the ugly flat color theme that plagues everything these days.

    I actually like the idea of dark themes (I myself use a cyan (text), on black (background, scheme. It has good contrast, looks nice, and is easier on the eyes than a bright white screen. Why not implement a series of dark themes names after different types of mints? Examples like Peppermint (a red on black theme), Spearmint (a teal-ish on black theme), Cosmic Mint (a purple on black theme), and Ice Mint (a cyan on black theme)? Just a few ideas, but if “Sarah” is to be a princess, it would be an insult to dress her in simple peasants’ garb.

  37. My preeminent request is that NO advancement or enhancement will be sacrificed based on a perception of the users’ inability or disinclination to install from scratch.

    Love to the team.

  38. I am a convert from Windows 10 and already love Mint 17.3 so if Mint18 is better than 17.3 I am already in love with it. I suspect that many other Windows users will be investigating Linux Mint over the next few months and years who like me will be transferring their allegiance to Linux distro’s. By the way mohammad my wife is also called Sarah.

  39. Est-ce que nous pouvons avoir plusieres des screensavers cette fois? Continuez-vous l’environment MATE?)
    (Can we have more screensavers this time?)

  40. Sounds promising. I use default MATE 17.3 because of its look and feel, so I hope the “new look and feel” turns out well. I guess we’ll need to see some more details before we’ll know.

    And an in-place upgrade from 17.3 would be great, too, if possible!

  41. Thanks for a great OS. Love the name “Sarah” When you get back to the letter “A”. could you use Abigail? my now 11yr old. Thanks. I am sure she will be using Mint…..she does now.

  42. *shudders* ….. sorry…. i have this co-worker named Sarah…. she’s a total (insert tasteless expletive here). :\ Oh well… I hope Mint 18 turns out to be as great as, if not greater than, 17.3.

  43. no flat icons with primary colors please! I don’t want my computer to look like its meant for a 5-year old.

  44. I like 17.3 not sure there is any reason to change yet. Never the less I will be super excited to see what 18 will bring to the table.

  45. You can name a new release whatever you guys want following the naming rules. But I don’t think its a good thing to mention a name as Jewish or something… Religion is a burning issue nowadays. It’s better not to bind any name to any religion. As a mint user, I want mint for all cast, all religion and for all the people around the world. Thanks!

    Edit by Clem: You read too much into it. It doesn’t matter what religion people are. This is our common history and it belongs to all of us. We always explain the origins of the name. It’s not chosen based on where it comes from (it’s usually chosen because it sounds good, because it’s not hard to spell (important for a codename), because it’s relatively short etc etc ..), but it’s interesting nonetheless. This is a beautiful name, and like with every other name, there’s an interesting story coming with it. You don’t need to be Jewish or even Deist to enjoy it. All it takes is to like a bit of culture and history.

  46. Please provide in-system (live) upgrade from 17.x to 18.x, similar to what Ubuntu does, without the need to do a fresh install of 18.x.

  47. @kiran

    That is what I hope for. If absolutely necessary, I’ll probably do a fresh install, but I’d really prefer not to. If that’s the case, anyway, I hope the 18.x line will live long.

  48. Hi Clem and team, just want to say thank you for all your great work on this distro! It’s amazing 🙂 I’ve experimented with many Linux distros, and I think I like this one best – it’s fast, slick, works out of the box! Also no issues setting it up, and it’s stable 🙂 My mother also uses it with pleasure!

  49. What is it with with these ridiculous naming conventions? Sarah, Lollipop, El Capitan, Threshold… ‘Mint 18.x’ or ‘Mint 2016.month’ is so much clearer now and in the future.

  50. Oh no! Not a ‘New Look and Feel’. The whole point of Cinnamon and Mate is that they are the ‘old look and feel’.

    Edit by Clem: We’re talking about themes and icons here, not desktop paradigms.

  51. Sarah is a lovely….. but please do not dress her in those ugly windows and google like flat garments…

    I join to all this requests : please, a least keep good old look as option

    ( I checked Kubuntu with plasma 5 …..aiiii…it looked so wrong )

  52. PLEASE give us old DINOSAURS the option to keep the “old” look.

    I use MATE simply because it is not multicoloured. Dark background and Mint-Grey colours.

    Edit by Clem: We will.

  53. Great news, But please can we have an effort made to support Wacom Tablets, in particular the entry-level ones, CTL-xxx series.

  54. Hi, Clem, and Happy New Year!

    I’m very glad to read that the Mint theme will be changed finally. However please do not follow “the flat” trend of Windows 8/8.1/10. And also I would be glad to have at least light and dark theme included.

    Thanks and have a nice day! 🙂

  55. “I removed parts of your comment (some religious people might find have found them offending/insulting)”
    Editing ones comments seems highly insulting to me and probably lots of other freeminded, educated people. Sure..I don´t know what was exactly edited but I see no reason why such a forum has any part in such a thing as religion. Also.. do you think religion or religious people have a monopoly to feel offended? This is contributing to their idea of having that. Quit the religious references then in naming your releases.

    Edit by Clem: People who comment here are expected to respect each others. Any comment failing that gets deleted or edited. That’s how we moderate this blog and keep the comments section civil and constructive. This post explains the origin of the name we chose for Linux Mint 18, and for the most part it comes straight from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_%28given_name%29. Using this explanation (which is objective and historical) to veer into religious debates isn’t permitted. You won’t get the opportunity to comment (or similarly to turn the mere mention of religious groups into a taboo, as if simply mentioning them was religious by nature, that’s ridiculous). Anyone with an agenda for or against religion or religions in particular can debate elsewhere, this isn’t the place for it. We chose Sarah, we mention the history that comes with the name, as we always do, and that’s all there is to it.

    Edit #2 by Clem: By the way, this isn’t about “who” has the right to feel offended and whether it’s for good reasons or not. When somebody says something that is 100% sure to create a clash, we either moderate it or we see the entire discussion go off-topic and people starting insulting one another. If you enjoy heated trolls there’s plenty of comments sections where people do just that. That’s not what we want here though. FYI the deleted parts were about the Bible and so in this particular example they would have antagonized religious people. It doesn’t really matter who gets antagonized though, if it brings nothing constructive and it destroys the discussion by creating tensions, it gets moderated.

  56. I’m not particularly bothered by names – though I might change that view if you call Mint 33 “Hitler” (says he, vainly hoping for a non-controversial unacceptable name example). I am currently using Ubuntu MATE because I have an Intel i5-6600 and I need kernel 4.2 at least to support it; downloading 4.2 into Mint 17.x proved very flaky and I had to abandon it. This has put me into the position of being very aware of the differences between Mint and Ubuntu. All praise to the Ubuntu people for what they have done – Mint is based on it, after all – but some things about Ubuntu I get super-frustrated about. Mintmenu doesn’t work and the Ubuntu menus are limited, hard to configure, and too rigid. I’m now ignoring them and using docky as if it was a “favourites” menu option, but it’s nowhere near as good. The terminal emulator is limited and less configurable. Screen positioning of panel elements means you are mousing all over the shop for what you want. Lots of key elements are missing or hidden, like wireless link icons, easy logout, system monitor. The software updater runs in secret so you never know what’s being modified. Give them their due – the workspace switcher is good. Anyway, implicit in this is what I like about Mint and should be read as a plea for not changing. I like the idea of an alternative dark default theme; it would help me in my late-night sessions. I’m not a hugely effusive person so I won’t tell you that Mint is the best thing since socialised health care, but for me it’s the best of the distros; please keep on keeping on – and in much the same way

  57. @ Charli
    Mate gets modified significantly in Mint, and I guess Ubuntu is now doing it too.
    The traditional format/layout published by the Mate people is, in general, preferred by me. http://mate-desktop.com/gallery/1.12/mate-1.12_7.png
    the good part is that Mate is rather easy to re-configure to a more workable and pleasing form.
    the other good part is that Mint adds lots of little tools that I very much appreciate.
    If somebody has a link to a comprehensive Mate configuration tutorial I would love to see it… I am too lazy to create one.

  58. I would be glad if the panel of cinnanon could be moved to all four corners of the desktop. it works in mate but seems my cinnanon isnt working.

  59. Thanks for the info, peter e. I wasn’t aware of the trad format/layout. However preferences are personal and for me the Mint mods and additional stuff is good. I’ve not posted here before so while the minor point was to mention a few things I like, the main reason I wrote was to record my thanks to Clem and team

  60. @ Clem.
    Clear and fair enough (regarding the religion thing)
    Though it would definitely show balls and sense of humor if next release was named Adolfa.. lol

    Edit by Clem: Humor is nice, it doesn’t need to be that dark though, and we can joke around on less serious topics and on things that don’t matter as much. Even though this is “only” a codename, I get up every morning working on something I love. This something for the next 6 months is going to be called “Sarah”. Similarly the next release will of course be given a name we enjoy using, not something which reminds people of something they don’t like (let alone the most hated historical figure of all times).

  61. I’m looking forward to Linux Mint 18 (Sarah) and her “new dress”! As an aside, every time I check DistroWatch, Linux Mint is in the #1 spot. What is driving this popularity?

    According to the user numbers provided by the Linux Mint Community, 53% prefer Cinnamon, 20% prefer MATE, 11% KDE, followed by the other editions.

    Clearly, Clem is doing something VERY right with Mint/Cinnamon and I’d love to see the project receive more time and attention (and funding), even if that means dropping support for some of the other editions. I’m not sure why it’s necessary to support so many editions when there’s already an existing official Ubuntu “flavour” covering all of these: http://www.ubuntu.com/about/about-ubuntu/flavours

    The official Linux Mint Cinnamon edition and a majority of users would probably benefit from the extra time and attention that would be freed up.

    Thanks and Cheers!

  62. Will you fix that battery status update after log in?
    I had this on every computer when i install Linux Mint.

  63. “Sarah” or “Sara” does not matter. 500 years from now we’ll run out of “-a” names. “-ah” is okay. Some Germanic names end with “-o” corresponding to Indo-European names that ended with long “-a.”

    Let’s not be restrictive. Work with Clem. He’s giving us the best distro with several DE choices.

  64. Clem: i am just a happy linux user :D, and so glad to have the option of use mint… mint in some way is your creation and you share it with the community… you should have at least the right to name it the way you want…

    thanks for even bother about people complying about the names… the names and other stuff are tottaly yours

    thanks for all the grte job

    fer

  65. Dear @Clem and LM team,
    May I suggest to fix some bugs in LM 18x.
    1. In LM 17.2 and 17.3 32/64 bit, when I put USB flash drive it mount corectlly, but when I try to copy something, the system say: “Error while copying to “USB stick”. The destination is read-only”. In other linux forum recommended in this case to install and use for this purpose Thunar file manager. This error is very common and LM users talk about here: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=208&t=176546

    2. When I install Gufw and open it, the password screen window appear 2-3 times.
    Can not wait and looking forward to try LM 18x.
    Greatings from Bulgaria 😉
    svetliof

  66. SteamOS was released 2 Months ago and because of this you have a new big influx of windows converts who Dualboot LinuxMint with Windows.
    One of their Main Concerns is that their games work and their gpu drivers are uptodate. They know of the windows routine to get the newest gpu driver with monthly updates for more gpu speed or error fixing in games.

    As a LinuxMint Noob who uses Linux Mint in Dual Boot for Steam Gaming mostly since a month ago i would like that the “Driver Manager” tells me:

    1. the release Date of AMD graphic cards driver for choosing.
    2. Info or Tooltip, HELP button in the Driver manager which explains directly what the difference for example between fglrx and fglrx updates is.
    3. For a noob i dont understand until now if a new driver for my gpu will be a new option in the “Driver Manager” when it is added in the repository or if the options still remain the same throughout or they will change with upgrading Linux Mint. Couldnt find an answer in the forum and nobody answered me there. When i installed LM 17.2 i had as an option Version 2:15.200-0ubuntu0.5 and after LM 17.3 too. On the other hand on the AMD website there is a generic Linux driver and an Ubuntu driver(Ubuntu ​15.04, Ubuntu ​14.04.2​​​ ​, 12.04.4 LTS​​)​. Nobody explains to a noob which to choose from the 4 drivers. As i understand LM is based on Ubuntu 14.04.2 (which is not noobfriendly to expect noobs to even know which ubuntu version underlies the current LM Version) So should i use the Generic one or U14.04.2?? What i mean is that you should make the driver issue more noobfriendly. Didnt find any good tutorial on it either which explains the differences and even whether and how the driver options in the Driver Manager get updated or not)
    http://support.amd.com/de-de/download/desktop?os=Ubuntu+x86+64
    there are 8 different drivers for ubuntu (how are noobs supposed to know which to choose) At least they have a release date : 18.12.2015

    4. The way it is now it is very complicated for a noob and hard to find answers. (On a sidenote i think we should have in the Welcome Screen [after installing first time] a button called “TUTORIALS” to a WIKIPAGE. The Forum is nice and everything but it is not central and it is difficult to find anything in comparison to a Wikipage(LinuxMintWiki).
    5. There should be another option on the Welcome Screen called “Introduction to Linux Mint for Windows Users” AND “Introduction to Linux Mint for MAC Users” which brings you to those chapters in the Linuxmintwiki.
    6. Another thing would be a central Discussion Section like “NOOBFRIENDLY MAKING SUGGESTION”. If in the future Linux should gain more and more support Linux should be even more noob friendly. Lets face it guys many people out there are no computer geeks like us (old people and others…) The most adopted distribution of Linux is the noobfriendliest of all. That is why i came to Linux Mint. Another thing is that Mint resembles Windows Desktop in comparison to ubuntu and therefore is better and easier suited to convert to as a former Windows user. If you care about Linux you should make it even easier to use than Windows and like with the “Welcome Screen Introduction for Windows Users” option you could smoothen the conversion of Windows users to Linux.
    7. In the Spirit of Noobfriendliness (or Dumbest possible user) i think Mint needs more Help Buttons explaining things during Installation and on the Desktop Interface overall.
    8. FAQ Section in the “Introduction for Windows Users” Wiki a general FAQ as well. Didnt find any FAQ and dont know if there even is any.

  67. 9. put the “Show Desktop” button by standard installation in the bottom right corner (like Windows 7) instead of placing it at the top left bottom between the console and firefox symbol. I used this button in Windows 7 very much and because it was on the bottom right corner you could easily find it with your mouse by going to the corner with one stroke and click. But as it is now you must “fish” for it in between the 4 symbols and you must concentrate to click on the right one. ( I know you can change it by personalisation but the question is the standard design when installed and if the former Windows solution with the corner isnt more intuitive than the arrangement now)
    10. More Polls overall and on Desktop Design Questions like Issue 9. above could be put up for a poll for example.

  68. I made a thread about my suggestions in the Suggestion Forum and provide here a link so perhaps everyone can comment about the Suggestions there. I wrote here because i saw Clem ( i think he is a main developer?!? i am new so please excuse me if i am wrong) will read it it seem rather in the suggestions forum where i am not sure if real Mint developers answer at all.

  69. I very hope that in KDE edition there will be Oxygen theme and Oxymentary icon theme available and well-supported.

    In current Plasma 5.5 there are some problems with “Shutdown” “Restart” and “Logout” icons in confirmation dialogs, which look ugly and Breeze-like. 🙁 Please, fix it in Sarah-KDE if possible.

  70. I think it’s very exciting that Clem and his team are working everyday to improve Linux Mint. I left Windows in order to use Linux Mint. The maturity and stability of this distro is incredible. I feel sorry for people still struggling with Windows machines that run slower and slower with use. Linux Mint 17.3 has been so much more efficient in enabling me to get things done.

    So given how great Linux Mint 17.3 is, and knowing that Clem and his team are working everyday to make it better, I’m very much looking forward to Linux Mint 18 Sarah. Thanks so much Clem and everyone working on this. You guys are awesome!

  71. Sarah Mint, sounds sweet 🙂

    Small question : is there a chance to have future releases include/follow the current LTS-kernel (e.g. now 4.1.*, next will be 4.4.*) and include eventual kernel-updates in the update-mechanism ?

    Cheers and TIA

  72. Hi, several comments here about facelifts … just because windblows has to change it’s look and feel “modernize” every 18 months does NOT mean that the rest of the world has to follow their folly.
    Some folks like to find something good and keep it.
    Change for the sake of change is just a way to keep tester’s busy with new bugs. MEH…. “what mas Mint needs is it, a change of aesthetics, more renewed current more” PFFFFT
    Changing look and feel all the time RUINS brand recognition.

  73. yes mint is #1… why? look and feel? na….. available software? na…..
    STABILITY! it works most all the time. Utilities are all functioning.
    it feels “professional” stability very similar to how apple products used to be.
    The best way in the world to drive away folks is to have instability.
    I want a system I can install and forget about. All of a sudden it seems less like typical linux and more like bsd and OSX.
    That’s why it’s winning.
    Keep up the good work folks!

  74. @Clem – I’m so grateful with whatever name you give 18 or any other release. Thank you for placing thought behind each one! You guys always strive to please the end user. Sometimes we all have to adjust to changes, but it’s ok. It’s really been exciting watching the evolution of Mint! Cheers & happy New Year!

  75. 17.2 are worst.. but 17.3 really awesome and cool!
    shortly,after updating to 17.3..i know why Mint is the best Linux!

    cant wait till Princess Sarah get her new clothes!
    Princess Sarah vs Princess Cortana 😛

  76. I have been using Linux Mint Cinnamon 17.3 64bit for quite a while now, and just like my previous experience with earlier Linux Mint Distros (I started out with 17.1) has been great. its stable on my Dell E6400 Laptop which i use mainly to do Web Graphics Design and Office Work. I just have one request if possible Sir Clem, i Hope the Linux Mint 18 will still be compatible with Old laptops, like the ones with Intel GMA4500 built in Graphics chipsets with 4GB Of RAM only. i hope you can still save us, old laptops users from having to buy newer laptops to be compatible still with This Upcoming Linux Mint 18. Linux Mint Will Always be a Great Distro for Me. It’s just a request sir, or a wishful thinking. sorry, English is not my Native Language – Philippines

  77. With that words you write, I fear cinnamon gets into *that* phase of development I hoped It’d never reach.

    The tale goes that a when a DE is born most of it’s initial development goes into building features, then there comes a long period of mostly bug fixing until the developers eventually get bored, craving to do a major rewrite (or from scratch), usually including the GUI, for no apparent reason other than to make something exciting again.

    This is how we get stuff like GNOME 3 or Unity. It’s that “new and fresh” feeling surrounding them. I don’t judge it, some people like this, some want a completely new DE every year or so or even change their distro monthly. Mint caters to the exact opposite target demographic.

    For my part, it’s been quite hard to find a DE that doesn’t change its dresses constantly, please don’t carry that away with MATE or Cinnamon. Changing icons or minor adjustments are OK, but even supposedly small things like that new system settings look can be too much if they’re not for a good reason (They made a few switches require one more click to get to).

    tl,dr: +1 for making the current look and feel at least a built-in 2nd option in future versions.

    Thanks for reading 🙂

  78. 105 Firepin : things can be dragged where you want them to be in the panel. Right click a panel, turn on edit mode, drag applets where you want them, right click the panel again and turn off edit mode

  79. To be honest, the “new look and feel” worries me just a bit. Its nice and comfortable right now, imo. I hope it doesn’t become overly modern and “cold”.
    Thanks for the continued work on this great OS! 🙂

  80. For me the best icons for Android are from Viktor Vucinic @vertumus (instagram), the REWUN icon pack. Try make contact and hire THIS guy cause he is really good making icons.

  81. Sarah is nice, but imo Sophia is better. So, this is just a suggestion for 18.x, since all of them will have names starting with ‘S’.

    Also, I think that now is the best time to change icons and themes since in last 2 years you’ve been improving cinnamon, mate and mint tools, and that is why they became very stable. On the other hand, Linux Mint 17 looks like win95. So, integrating your amazing software with Ubuntu and changing look and feel of Linux Mint will make a perfect OS.

    Keep up the good work! 🙂

  82. One more thing that I forgot to ask Clem..

    Why don’t you change Linux Mint release dates?

    Publishing new versions in May/June and November/December was logical when Linux Mint was based on new versions of Ubuntu which are coming out in April and October. When you announced that Linux Mint will be based only on LTS version of Ubuntu I thought that you will follow Hardware Enablement Stack releases because in that case Linux Mint would have the latest kernel that is available in Ubuntu. So my another suggestion would be to release Linux Mint in August (14.04.1 and 14.04.3 were released in the first week of August) and in March (14.04.2 was released in mid-February and 14.04.4 is planed for the first week of February).

    https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TrustyTahr/ReleaseSchedule

    This would make Linux Mint 18 even more stable since it would be based on 16.04.1 which will have less bugs than 16.04, and you will have more time to create new themes and icons and to integrate new LTS core with your software.

  83. Continuing previous post…

    Now you have situation that kernel 3.19 was released in Ubuntu LTS in August and you are publishing Linux Mint 17.3 with 3.19 in December. I know you have always option to easily change kernel, thanks to your amazing tools, but guys like me who doesn’t like to change original installed system will have a lot of benefits, because the OS will be more stable.

  84. Please make attachments in Thunderbird Mail from smb or Ftp available.
    It works on my laptop but not on my Desktop (17.02)

  85. Please include batch renaming directly in nemo. Something like pyrenamer would be ok but a windoze-style batch renamer is more efficient for simple renaming. Also, I strongly believe than Mint should include a system backup/restore tool. Linux purists are often against this idea on the grounds that all the bugs and linux errors can be corrected by hand without having to resort to a system backup. This kind of opinion does not help the linux cause at all. The powers users and semi-power-users who migrate from windows expect to see this kind of tool in an operating system. Have you ever damaged your graphics driver and had to repair it in cli without another computer to help with google? Good luck. I once had a power failure during a system update. The GUI was dead and my ethernet ports were no longer recognized. Took me six hours to fix. Should have taken 30 sec. Now I have 4 computers, all with Linux Mint. The first thing I do after a fresh install is to install Systemback. Great tool. Power users who migrate from windows are not always kind to their new OS and do not always know 100% what they are doing. Hence the restore tool. It eases the transition and makes you more confident in the long term stability of your OS.

    Long live Linux Mint!

  86. @bgd’s suggestion about following the Ubuntu LTS Hardware Enablement Stack release schedule makes some sense to me, and I’d be interested to hear Clem and the team’s comments on this.

    While I’m writing, since I suspect I’m probably part of a silent (or at least less vocal) majority, I would like to mention that I have no particular interest in new themes, icons etc. (I use Zukitwo as a GTK+ theme, and can easily change icons and Cinnamon themes if I want), and nor is an upgrade path from 17.x to 18 important to me — it’s trivial to keep everything I need through a new install with a separate /home partition. I am very much looking forward to updated software with Sarah, though — especially the update GTK stack which will allow recent versions of things like Evolution; at the moment, I’m stuck using an old version with significant limitations vis-à-vis the latest version.

    Cheers!

  87. Hi,Clem,Mint 17.x Cinnamon is our family OS and my daughter prefer it,instead of Windows 7.
    I use also Xfce version on an old laptop.
    So,what about Sarah Xfce(good name Sarah)?
    Thanks and good job(and I apologize for my orribile english)

  88. Only I wish is that Sarah be very strong, because when I see netflix sometime Linux Mint is going to be freezing, and the only option is to turn off the computer.
    Chaooo I love Linux Mint.

  89. @ simon : +1, there’s zillions of themes, iconpacks, cursorpacks etc. out there.Visual gimmicks are for those that like to fiiddle around, no need for that if your PC is working… It’s the basic foundation that is important, not wrapping up.

    Cheers

  90. I have to say I became quite used to the Mint-X Orange theme, that is quite a small difference but a very significant one (folder icons, text and menu highlighting)

    It feels like a mix of Mint and the classic Ubuntu releases (7.04, 8.04 etc.)
    Disabling thumbnails in the file manager also works well.

    For most installations there’s no real need to set up anything, just the wallpaper.

  91. Clem,
    I don’t want to say that I’m looking forward to Mint 18, because I’m finding no problems with 17.3 as it is 🙂

    The one request that I have is something similar to what @104 Firepin has said, and that is, more polish is added to the Linux Mint website – although I must add the additional information (& videos w.r.t Nvidia graphic cards) in the release notes in 17.3 was hugely welcomed!

    But to illustrate my point about the website, if I’m a noobie and I have a bug that i would like to raise. I visit http://www.linuxmint.com/ to make the bug. I need to know to open Project then Get Involved followed by Report a bug. Perhaps there could be a more direct route flagged on the homepage – likewise to find a tutorial on the issue I’m experiencing.

    That aside, when i do arrive at https://bugs.launchpad.net/linuxmint, searching through the bugs, you have to wonder if the majority of the bugs should be closed off given that they refer to older versions of Linux no longer supported. It gives off the wrong impression to see bugs still set to “confirmed” from 2010.

    One pedantic point about the presentation of the blogs on the different releases of the beta ISOs, the listing of all the 32-bit mirrors followed by all the 64-bit mirrors (before even the comments/feedback are included) creates very long blogs when searching through http://blog.linuxmint.com/. Would it be possible to display a 3 columned table, the left column being country name, the middle being 32-bit mirrors and the right column being 64-bit mirrors. I know some mirror names are incredibly long, perhaps just called them Mirror 1, Mirror 2 etc and have a rollover where people can see the names of the underlying mirrors.

    I see someone above questioning the moderation of these blogs, I for one welcome it and encourage more of it. So many times on the release of a beta ISO, people are repeatedly asking when the update path will be ready. It would be great to remove these posts as they add nothing to the conversation on the beta release. Likewise on the monthly update notes, people raising bugs, including myself in the past through ignorance I must admit, these posts need to be moved to the “Report a bug” page, so that pertinent points remain and there is little negativity added to the blog of what has been achieved in the month.

  92. Just finished to install Linux Mint 17.3 on all my computers. Mayor reason to finally switch to Linux was the wonderful Linux Mint Cinnamon release – and to get rid of that lousy Win10 “experience” how they call it. So plz plz plz plz don’t go down that road wit hugly full screen app style nobody wants and needs… 😉

  93. Firstly thank you to the Mint team for the best Linux Distribution.

    Please, can you ensure that Sarah includes Apple/Mac Networking compatibility ‘out of the box’. Some people are required to use other machines and adding Apple/Mac Networking is invariably a pain.

  94. Re 133 from Mindaugas This point is an important one, I think. Are you aware that in Germany in 1938 the National Socialist Government passed law 174, requiring female Jews in most cases to add Sara to the names they had, so that any female Jew could easily be identified as such. See http://jbuff.com/c110404.htm for comment on this, also Wikipedia and many other histories.

    Sara is not Sarah but I would have steered clear of this name; I wonder if this piece of history was considered. I am only trying to be helpful.

    Trevor Adcock UK

  95. Question; is there any chance of adding raid support in the installation disk. I have tried countless times over the years to install mint as a raid1 array but have never got it to successfully boot. It would be helpful as I am currently using debian as my server OS and its a real pain.

  96. First off:
    Will the new look and feel just hop on the “Ios 7” bandwagon and “Mobile feel” that everything else has now? I know you guys are intelligent enough to stay away from a mobile-based layout on a regular PC, especially one without a touchscreen. Secondly, assuming that this does take the general path that IOS’s IOS 7 update took, making everything feel fresh and new rather than robust and metallic, can I still go back to a pre-update theme (This is a no-brainer in the Open-Source world- “Of course you can!”, so I have no idea why I am asking). Third, and this is not about the look and theme finally, will you guys implement some way to upgrade to Linux Mint 18 (somewhat safely) without clearing my Linux mint partition and reinstalling everything? I have lots of things (mainly Games on Steam, which I am not sure would make it onto a backup flash drive for installation without downloading) that would be a pain in the but to reinstall.
    Thanks,
    That One Guy you saw on the Internet

  97. I will be interested to see what changes you make to the current themes. It would be very good to see the look of LibreOffice get a change to reflect a more positive environment for productivity. I would also like to see more comprehensive looking icons in some of the menus for those who are using Linux Mint for the first time. Also, I would hope that the initial loading time for the Cinnamon desktop is greatly reduced, as this is critical on slower machines running the DE. Otherwise, I will be waiting to see the changes you have coming and thanks for all you do.

  98. the name Sarah is still a very touchy subject in my little world, I would prefer it as avoided.

    (thanks for the link Trevor)

  99. Hello Linux Mint team, thank you for the hard work, and the plethora of work and patience that you have invested in Mint! I use Mint on my laptop and on the PC and everything works just fine! If you think about a new theme, please do not make the same mistake as Gnome then … not everyone has a touchscreen. And please please please retain the previous default theme as a fallback solution. By the way: My father (73) Christmas 2015 also migrated to Linux Mint and has been adopted by Windows. No operating system in the world robs the people as much as Windows … Lifetime
    Thank you thank you thank you for Linux Mint!
    Best regards from Germany, Tom S.

  100. After trying different versions of linux over the last 15 yrs or so,Mint17.3 has finally given me a real alternative to Windows which even my 6yr old granddaughter can log herself in and go online.The only thing Clem is possible to do some more work getting Brother drivers more Linux friendly so MFC machines can be used to their fullest ,Scaning and dual page printing options etc other than in virtualbox.Then it would be goodbye to dual boot.

  101. No problem with the name here. I had a GF with that name! I tend to take issue with people that keep alive the sort of hatred that gave us the German issue because it was so very long ago. Certainly remember it for what it was – a dose of pure evil – but don’t allow it to besmirch what I still believe to be a lovely name.

    Now systemd. THAT’S an awful name. But I’ll leave my bitching about that for other places.

  102. Sounds fantastic. If people think they are going to have a fallout over the codename for their OS, they REALLY need to take life less seriously. Far more important is the kernel and package cohesiveness/stability. Ignore the naysayers Clem, and keep up the good work! There are thousands of us that love the direction of Linux Mint. Looking forward to “18”.

  103. I really want to appreciate to good works of clem and the mint team for a good work so far.

    But I hv been having this headache about my laptop running mint 17.3 cinnanon.

    Battery consumption is so high that I barely get 1.5hrs whilst I use to get 3.5hrs on windows.

    Batterylife has been a major problem on linux and am pleading to clem and the mint team to work on it.

    Linuxmint looks fine the way it is. Sarah doesnt need any new dress.
    please lets focus on batterylife since many linuxmint users have gone back to windows because of this.

    PLEASE,… IS A PRESSING NEED AND AM SURE IT WILL GO ROUND TO HELP US ALL.

    THANKS IN ADVANCE.

  104. The Sandskrit Hindi name Sara meaning “Speckled” pre-dates Judaism by thousands of years – Abraham’s wife puts an “H” at it’s end and she is a Princess all of a sudden. The Bengalese are one of the closest relatives to the Australian Aborigine and it looks like they brought Sandlewood from Australia to grow for insence because the entire Genus appears to be native to Australia

    http://www.ancient-origins.net/human-origins-science-opinion-guest-authors/out-africa-yesterday-australia-today-and-pleiades

    http://www.ancient-origins.net/opinion-guest-authors-human-origins-science/out-africa-yesterday-australia-today-and-pleiades-0

    http://www.ancient-origins.net/opinion-guest-authors-human-origins-science/out-africa-yesterday-australia-today-and-pleiades-1

  105. Whatever you do, when you update the look/appearance, please *DON’T* use that abomination known as “Material Design” or “Metro” or whatever the dimwits over at Apple call their version of the accursed “Flat-look”. If I wanted formless, colorless, boring and ugly icons, I’d be using MSWin 2.0. If you want the “hamburger” menus you could run MSWin 1.0 (one-dot-zero, not ten) instead. The “Flat-look” is nothing more than a scam perpetrated by artistically-challenged design-school dropouts. Here’s a good comparison of how MSWin10 looks compared to Cinnaon (at present, presuming it never gets fubarred): http://www.windows10forums.com/threads/colors-themes.648/#post-2782

  106. @Alex
    I run both Windows and Linuxmint on my machine. I find Linuxmint more appealing: simple, elegant, and yet powerful. I tried other Linux distros in the past but I fell in love with linuxmint. I am happy with the seamless support for proprietary drivers in the relatively recent versions of Linuxmint and other distros. My best wishes to you and your wife, princess Sarah 🙂

  107. I have gone from Windows>Ubuntu>Mint over the last 5 years. IMHO Mint Cinnamon is by far the best OS ever. Very stable and snappy although granted alot of that has to do with having an AMD 8 core bulldozer CPU and 16G of RAM. I really can’t make any comments/observations one or the other comparing Windows or Mac as I haven’t really looked at either very closely for several years. But I do agree with the prevailing sentiment Mint 17.3 at least Cinnamon anyway does not need a new look and feel. OK I guess a dark theme option since that seems to have come up.

    A few things that I would like to see developed are:
    MINOR
    2.) The ability to install without swap – although I can live with the work-around.
    MEDIUM
    1.) The ability to install RAID – although I can live with the work-around as well
    MAJOR
    3.) Encryption that works (seahorse does not work, encrypting the entire SSD on installation does not work, it crashes the installation and I really cannot see that my home dir is encrypted even though I chose to do so during installation but then I had to copy the install from an external HD to two internal SSD for a RAID 0 config )

  108. When does the beta come out? I would love to test it for you guys. If I may suggest the ease of making and switching “power plans”. Thats literally the only thing I miss from windows.

    Just to add my word to sarah vs sara … im tossed. The best character is always the rebel. and the “h” is silent, kinda little higher brow, higher iq addition to the tradition. but its ended with “a” since for ever.

  109. First thanks to the Linux team and supporters for one of the most popular and user friendly linux platforms.

    Not sure why all the hoopla about a name (any of them). Letter sequentials make sense but perhaps even more would be just to number hem based on the Ubuntu platform. ie Linux 17.2 Kde etc. That has more meaning than a persons name or image.

    Also with the hoopla of new editions it would be nice to know in advance exactly what operational improvements are being made. Everyone has their taste, I much prefer 17.2 to 17.3 both in appearance and speed/simplicity. When there is an “upgrade” what is the real difference.

    Sarah is better because: Sarah has these new features which should… etc. Vaguries and superlatives dont help the end user make a good decision.

    Thanks to all….

  110. As my rant continues, perhaps more useful changes would be to have installed a decent backup/restore system – perhaps the only good thing that Microslop Windows has?

  111. Just another thought (forgive spelling please). When we have the option for updates it would really help a lot if the description(s) could be specific –

    For example: The Ubuntu System Adjustment updates says:

    These adjustments modify some unwanted behaviors of the Ubuntu package base and are specific to this base. specific to this base. –> what are the unwanted behaviors…

    This doesnt tell me enough to know if it is worth doing or not, especially when everything is working fine. Microslop does the same thing with their update descriptions – so vague as to be useless in making a decision but then they waste your time by taking you to a reference key, which when read also tells you next to nothing.

    This doesnt tell me enough to know if it is worth doing or not, especially when everything is working fine. Microslop does the same thing with their update descriptions – so vague as to be useless in making a decision but then they waste your time by taking you to a reference key, which when read also tells you next to nothing.

  112. Wondering why some “packages” if uninstalled also remove vital components.

    Regarding Mint-User-Guide-Xfce, if removed states:

    Impact on packages:
    The following packages would be removed: mint-info-xfce, mintwelcome, mint-artwork-common, mint-artwork-xfce, mintdesktop, mintsystem, ubuntu-system-adjustments

    Why on earth would all these other items (some essential?) also be removed. This seems a very bad design and intentional rather than careless?

    Thank you…

  113. Thank you Mohammad and our best wishes to you and your Sarah. As a complete newbe to Linux Mint Cinnamon 17.3 64 bit so at the moment feeling around and suddenly realising there is a lot to learn if you really get into the system. I realised that Windows 10 was not what I needed with all the controversy about data mining and the possible annual charge for the privilege of having their OS plus all the money one has to pay for the apps. I decided to download Mint because for a beginner Mint had everything already on it that I would need AND a bank of hundreds of apps should I need them. I have now found out that is a lot more to Mint than I realised and will be able to do a great deal more with it than I could with Windows only trouble it is going to some time to get my head around than I thought as I am an elderly old git who has been spoon fed by MS for many years. I should mention I have gone bull at a gate and only run Linux Mint on my PC. My main problem at the moment is getting my head around Command Line which I need to use to download World Community Grid so any help with that issue would be gratefully received.

  114. will the question about the Network controller RTL8723BE be solved ? The wireless always breakout ,and
    we should configure it by ourself with the help of someone who can make it .

  115. Hi,
    I hope Mint 18 will finally sort out setting up printer (a basic requirement) It has been, for me, very problematic to get even new printers connected correctly to say nothing about scanners.

  116. 17.3 is awesome. It is now my main OS.

    Please focus all energies on the future, not the past. This will not make everyone happy but will make Mint the best there is. Please focus on:

    -Top if the line! — Kernal 4.5, with Skylake and z170 support
    -Cinnamon Cinnamon Cinnamon, forget the rest

    Customization is nice, but having the best OS with the best interface and Mint 18 cannot be stopped.

  117. Not worried about the name, or it’s derivation. The name doesn’t effect how I interact with my computer. I tend to use the version number anyway.

    I think I was among those who nearly had a heart attack upon reading “New look and feel.” Many of us here are converts from Microsoft because they kept making major changes to their interfaces. I’m pleased to read that we’re talking about “Color schemes, icon art and desktop backgrounds.”

  118. First, i’ll like to say that it’s a great name Sarah 🙂

    I have a suggestion : Its t possible to make a deeper program cleaner in Linux Mint 18?

    Because I found out lately in Linux Mint 17.3 Mate 32 Bit that
    some ‘’left overs’’after uninstalling a program made my system less stable.(the removing was done with the Software manager and l Synaptic) Because in the map .config were still left overs, and only when i’ve removed the map from the program that was giving problems, my system was stable again

    Thank you, and succes with the making of Sarah

  119. Hi Clem and team, regards from hot and sweaty Canberra (38C yesterday).

    I don’t give a damn about the name of the distro, it could be SalvationArmy for all I care. What matters is that it continues to be a brilliant and highly user-friendly distro. Thank you for making Mint a wonderfully productive desktop environment. I use a lot of different apps simultaneously and the good old menu-driven scenario is what works best for me – trying to use Unity sends me into profane language very quickly.

    I would like to ask if you can look at a fix for the broken ‘Caps Lock notify’ feature in the Accessibility menu. This has been broken upstream for ages, and its a pain not knowing whether Caps Lock is on or off. Details at: https://github.com/linuxmint/Cinnamon/issues/4697

  120. Mint linux is great, one wish though, if getting a facelift, can we have the little up/down arrows on scroll bars back please.

  121. Guys, I recently switched over completely to Mint from Windows 10 and before that XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1… the usual. After I had to reinstall my Windows 10 4 times in just 2 months I decided to let it go. I have been using Mint for about 2 months now and I have a VM running Windows 10 in case I need to run something that can’t be run on Mint. So far the list of such apps is ZERO! I am running 17.3 and it’s been rock solid. Can’t wait to meet Sarah. Also I wish I could turn back time and go back to Uni and join that computer science stream… would have been keen to get into development but it’s too late now! All the best!

  122. Quero parabenizar ao Sr Clemente e seus amigos mais próximos e a toda a comunidade que fazem o Mint linux ser o que é. Eu estou junto com esta distro desde a Ediçao 8. E vou continuar… este nome que escolheu esta ótimo. o sistema também e tenho certeza que continuara…

  123. “Bnna Says:…For my part, it’s been quite hard to find a DE that doesn’t change its dresses constantly, please don’t carry that away with MATE or Cinnamon…”

    I’d like to emphasise that!
    for several years I observed different Linux Distros with different Desktops fancy ones, simple ones, wired ones. but I never got excited, because they either lacked stability or usability or both. For me KDE was the one-eyed among the blind.
    Last year when I tried LMDE2 Cinnamon 2.6 it was the first time really liked a Desktop. It is stable, straight forward, convenient, pretty. So please keep going this way and keep in mind fancy dresses are nice, but the inner qualities are the things that matters.

  124. After a comprehensive test of distros, I am definitely a big fan of Linux Mint + Cinnamon. Please consider that you have a paradigm here that fits a wide range of user types. From experienced IT industry people (like me) to aged complete beginners (like my parents in law ;o) This is an incredible IXD asset that needs to be preserved, even if it is great to make it evolve. Thanks for this !
    If I may propose a very small evolution though, please consider this one :
    We know how Linux is a real multitasking system, and how powerful or confusing it can be sometimes when you are launching an Application, and it is not starting “sub-second”. Have I clicked correctly ? Let’s try again. Shit I have 2 opened now, plus potential error messages from Apps that cannot run multi-instances ;o(
    There are some unpleasant things in Kubuntu experience, but the one I love is the visual clue following the cursor about the App you last launched, some kind of bouncing App icon telling you : “Yes you have clicked, just a matter of time and you get it”. Can we have some equivalent in Sarah/cinnamon please ?
    Thanks in advance !

  125. Hi Clement and his team of Linux Mint!

    Big part of the community and users of Linux Mint, we do not want systemd in the future versions of its throwing. The success of Linux Mint largely owes that it is not contaminated with systemd, great discussion on systemd than not improved in performance, increasing the bugs and their reports no one pays attention.

    Systemd wants to dominate the system root and the user login, all controlled by few.

  126. One area for improvement is the Software Manager.

    Who has time to read thousands of descriptions for apps?

    They should be organized into groups to make it easy to browse and chhose. Easy-to-find, and easy-to-use Linux apps are desperately needed to move Linux from the geeks (not that there’s anything wrong with that) into the mainstream.

    Most folks don’t want to see or learn arcane text commands. They want to be productive, or have some fun.

    Although Linux has made great strides, there is much room for improvement. Look at how Android apps have changed our world.

    Make it end-user friendly, not geek friendly.

  127. The whole hooplah over the potential name is crazy. And LMAO! at 168/Tony Whelan, I’ll totally download SalvationArmy. XD I’m just wondering, people going nuts over names, what if they’d named it David? Yes, Abrahamic name too, BUT also for David Bowie, David Tennant, David Beckham! Heck, regarding Sarah, there’s Sarah Brightman, Sarah Connor, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Sarah McLachlan…it can be any Sarah too! It’s a lovely name, though I do prefer the Sara variation. ;P But yeah, names have history, so what? If there’s no hidden agenda, and I doubt there is, so what? Where were the complaints for Barbara, Gloria, Petra, Rebecca, Rafaela? All those have Abrahamic links too! Anyway, keep up the awesome work!

    — Posting from Linux Mint Cinnamon 🙂

  128. Hi Clem, Alex and all rest of you good folks 🙂
    I have been a long-time Mint’s fan, however i had just decided to get off the sidelines in order to register and formally join the community.
    The main reason is; I’m not sure if Clem and others are aware of an ongoing really passionate debate about Mint on Distrowatch’s commentary forum, since several days now.
    I have counted numerous comments, however i found the followings (below-stated) ones really worth to have a look at it because (i believe) their high feedback value related to Mint.
    So here are the numbers for those selective comments: #14, #27, #31, #72, #74, #83 #91 and just click on my name to read all on Distrowatch

  129. I think I’ve said it before, could you please consider making a higher contrast between the slidebars and their background? The contrast right now is so low that one often can’t spot the position of the slidebar at first sight. Especially in Firefox this becomes really annoying while browsing. Thanks!

    Other that taht, keep up the good work 🙂

  130. Clem, could you update your non-proprietary software that you include in the new upcoming distro? For example,you could fatten up the Gimp with the latest scripts and add-ons. I endorse linux mint to computer labs at schools in my area and find the #1 interest is in graphics manipulation/cad/cam drawing.Further, support for upcoming 3d printing would be a plus for the perfection that you and the team have built into your amazing operating system. Best of luck in 16…..

  131. Think Creative! Not Different! 🙂

    Can you add more touch screen support since todays laptops are becoming more convertable?
    And how about the Name “Hope” Hope is a feminine name derived from the Middle English hope, ultimately from the Old English word hopian referring to a positive expectation or to the theological virtue of hope.
    Keep up the great work, Thanyou.

  132. Still wondering if/when Mint will fix USB 3.0 speeds. I still run at USB 2.0 speeds and SATA II speeds 🙁 USB is more important for me due to large file transfers (movies). Also, when it claims the transfer is done it is NOT done by a long shot. ALL my hardware is able to run at USB 3.0 and SATA III speeds.

    Another question is will they fix atheros drivers to get full speed from wifi? Perhaps have it so it cannot be downgraded to slow speeds by windows computers using the same wifi? Every time a windows user hops on public wifi their speeds are terrific and mine drop significantly. When they leave mine go back up.

    3rd question – I have tried numerous times to dual boot Mint with windows 7 and it refuses to work. Win7 deletes all linux partitions and I tried fixing win7 to allow dual booting to no avail.

    Your tutorial/pdf claiming you can install Mint alongside another operating system is a bit misleading since it cannot easily be done or not at all. I tried for THREE YEARS to do it and it will not work.

    Running windows in a vm is not the same as dual booting. A bit slow sometimes in a VM.

    Last question: many intel CPU’s have a turbo mode. Will Mint actually do something to allow the user to switch to turbo mode, on demand, conservative, performance, etc with a simple mouse click?

    I would prefer automatic turbo mode for my 4 core I5 or always on turbo mode. Manually trying to switch is rather burdensome and doesn’t seem to work.

    Note: I tried downloading 17.3 cinnamon but got 17.2.

  133. @ zolar1
    you should pose all of those questions/issues in the Mint Forums, describing your hardware. (individually)
    They are all solvable…

  134. Given how many folk use Mint to drive quite capable media boxes, just wondering if the version of VLC Media Player bundled with the release will support x265 playback out-of-the-box?

    I know it’s relatively straightforward to add x265 support yourself, but for more casual users this would help Mint’s profile as a multimedia platform.

    (it’d also avoid my having to re-install VLC and its x265 support every time I reinstall the OS, as applies at the moment [Jan 2016] 🙂

    Related: It would be nice if the NIC drivers are better behaved this time around – I’m forever having Nemo/VLC/Audacious drop packets when the Windows PC on the same network sails along playing the same source files via the same network (especially Audacious, in comparison with the venerable Winamp on Win7).

    Agarthan

  135. Name…really…pages of comments about the name. Who needs facts. Even better when we install let us pick our own name. OR maybe have a useful designation, consecutive letters in the alphabet tell us nothing…since it is a mode of ubuntu…use their edition in the name. Mint v12.3 Kde etc… where 12.3 would be the ubuntu base.

    Now how about some precise description changes and what they mean – better performance, how, evidence. Better appearance, more efficient, how, evidence?

    I am using 17.3 fresh install now, and it is slower to boot, more cumbersome menu, some apps preinstalled dont work or improperly, installing themes doesnt change the desktop etc… So how mo bettah?

    Hyped out right now, debating whether to wait it out or go back to 17.2.

    Maybe put energy into fixing screen brightness saves, etc.

    Linux Mint sti

  136. @190 Wesley:

    TV support is more a kernel thing than Mint itself and the kernel already supports many TV cards out-of-the-box. Probably a question for the forum. A simple TV application is “Me-TV” in the standard repository.

  137. ok so whats the deal with amd drivers from the amd website there site says up to kernel 3.19 does it work with newer kernels? which kernel is 18 releasing with? and if amd drivers from their website don’t work with said kernel whats being done about that? or are we just gonna be stuck with the outdated version of the drivers that are in the driver management thing?

  138. Thanks Linux Mint Team!
    But please do not forget a crucial point when you’ll implement the change of look in Mint 18: I believe the main reason for the success of Mint has been its amazingly easy to grasp GUI, allowing a seamless transition from a Windows environment for new Linux users!
    I have installed Mint XFCE for dozens of completely new Linux users and 95 % of them were able to start to operate autonomously within 10 minutes, with such a high degree of satisfaction thanks to the unique combination of the “Windows XP feel” and the efficiency of Linux!
    Something unimaginable with Ubuntu or other distros…
    PLEASE DO NOT ABANDON THIS.

  139. I note that Mint 18 will use systemd, isn’t that going to get Mint into Windows style “registry hell”? If I understand it correctly (and that is not at all certain 🙂 ) systemd uses a central database instead of individual configurations per program, server or application

  140. Fell in love with an Iranian girl named ‘Sara’ ten years ago, and she not only beautiful, but her voice was so sweet, it’d make my heart skip a beat. Seeing the name announcement for Linux Mint 18 kinda reminded me of her. I wonder just how lovely this princess is going to be…? Well, since clothes can make the woman, I’m not leaving anything to chance.

    @Clem: I’ve been using BestOfDark as my main GTK theme, whether I’m using MATE, or just playing around in XFCE or Cinnamon. It’s actually quite a pretty theme, and very easy on the eyes. Since my old love was an earth tone girl, why not work with black,burgundy, deep browns which convey the impression of fine leather, brass, etc but inspired by BestOfDark? ‘Sarah’ is royalty, right? And why not address the longstanding problem of the lack of theming across both KDE and GTK by going with the same rich, dark, and elegant theme across the board?

  141. J’espère qu’avec Plasma 5 il sera enfin possible d’installer “KDE” avec un clavier suisse et en français car le bog dure depuis la version 14 sans jamais avoir été corrigé.

  142. I honestly don’t care what you call it as long as you call it ready. Names mean nothing as long as you have a stable, secure and pleasing distro. I appreciate the hard work put into it all and I promise not to whine about the chosen name.

  143. Will there be a change in the needed System requirements for Linux Mint 18?

    In Linux Mint 17.3 it is:
    512MB RAM (1GB recommended for a comfortable usage).
    9GB of disk space (20GB recommended).
    Graphics card capable of 800×600 resolution (1024×768 recommended).
    DVD drive or USB port.

  144. Great i was thinking that a change in the interface wouldn’t be bad.
    Btw, Sarah in spanish is Sara so you are not breaking the rule that ends with a.

  145. I wish to see Muffin tweaks tool in next Cinnamon release. Simple things like removing maximized window decorations, speed of animation, etc… Also stable global menu applet, and window buttons on pannel applet. And it would be perfect to set working area borders for applets (via separator). For example I want list of opened windows applet not to cross center of the pannel. So new windows buttons will not increase length of the applet – they will just decrease their size (like tabs in any webbrowser) It is possible only in Mate now.

  146. I love the name Sarah and the 17.3 name Rosa. Only problem is, they are short lived =( . Could more forethought be put into the naming scheme? Something like 18 being represented by “Sarah” and the version being represented by another? Like maybe 18.1 “Sarah Lynn”, 18.2 “Sarah Lane”, 18.3 “Sarah Little”, etc…

  147. I hope they refresh Mint with modern look, yet still simple and minimal. Chrome OS or material design is one example. maybe with darker UI elements.

  148. Utterly stunned at how many people ask for Plasma 5 when it is right there in the very brief note to which they are replying. Amazing.

    The timing is perfect for me, as I am hoping to be building another custom PC (or two) for my kids and want to get a semi-bleeding edge mobo/chipset/video card. I look forward to the final decisions on kernel support.

  149. My eldest daughter is called Sarah and I approve this message.

    I’m sticking with 17.3 for now because it’s awesome AND for the very first time in more years that I care to remember, I’ve been able to use Linux on the desktop without swearing at it.

    The Mint team has made some astonishing leaps and its paying off. Finally, I feel confident enough to ignore Windows and only switch the Mac on for very specific jobs that are not fully catered for by open source.

  150. Roll on the day I can abandon Win7 and migrate 100% to Linux Mint – I am currently dual booting Win7/LM on one system and full-time LM dual booting with Ubuntu on a low-priority system. I have been using PCs since the days of DOS command lines … when 20MB was a huge HDD. The main thing that stops me going 100% LM is printer/scanner support. I know this is a Linux universe issue, not unique to LM, but being unable to use my laser printer and scanner at all, with restricted performance from two inkjets, I am frustrated and cannot move 100& to any flavour of Linux. I know it’s the manufacturers … and yes, it’s the whole chicken-and-egg problem – they won’t develop drivers because not enough people use Linux; and not enough people will use Linux until they can drive their hardware. Somehow this has to be fixed – it’s certainly stopping me making a commitment. Well, that’s the main barrier for me. The other is the comparative difficulty of installing/updating software in Linux compared with Windows. I am sure there are valid security/flexibility reasons for this, but it can take me 5-10 minutes to work out how to update something in Linux when I just double-click in Win7. Even so, I can live with that – I have learnt to love the command line again after nearly 30 years – but hardware support is a big issue. Otherwise I enjoy using LM and wish the team well with the next step forward.

  151. Please allow us to use again small icons, small text and a bit of 3d/shadows.
    Large and flat icons, that makes me feel stupid…

  152. Hi Clem and team. Many thanks for all the good work. I am a happy user 99% of the time. Unfortunately I bumped on the 1% today. I bought a bluetooth mouse and could not get it to work.

    Will Sarah have Blueberry included, and will that solve the bluetooth 4.0 Mouse problem?

  153. Developer team : When y’all get to the v or the w in the naming scheme,
    could y’all consider — verońika, veroñíka, or weronika , all of these
    variations are pronounced as veronYIka.
    stress on the YI
    This name was brought to Texas by Silesian settlers before the Civil
    war, but I believe this name is well known in parts of Europe

  154. To the team that names Mint versions : could Veronyika be considered ?
    So like VeronYIka ! By the way, How are names chosen at the Mint works ?

  155. Alex, I see that you have a plenty of good reasons for the switch. Also, thank you for bringing my attention to a nice project such as the World Community Grid. I guess the main reasons behind the popularity of Windows are games, games, and games. Generally speaking, I believe Linux is well adopted in industry, which supports your opinion.

  156. I don’t know if everybody has this problem or not, but do to the problems with graphics drivers there should be a option in the recovery mode to set the graphics to the default state (nouveau), I still have many problems with NVIDIA drivers to work with the new kernels.

  157. Clem, I very much admire the perspective expressed in your edit of entry 14(Nick). I agree whole heartedly in your view of the artistry. This view is reflected in the interfaces available on Mint, as well as The Team’s primary concern for the end user. I hold not negative views or criticisms on your efforts or products. For myself, I look forward to where your shared creativity leads. Thanks.

  158. I would ask that the KDE Plasma 5 … she was able to adjust to each other virtual desktop wallpapers. Did you think of that?

  159. I use linux for two years, my first distro was Mint. In past releases Mint was available with LXDE. Will Mint 18 has a LXDE desktop enviorement?.
    Saludos desde España!

  160. After researching pro and against SYSTEMD I have little hope that Mint will NOT adopt it. It’s been decided at much higher levels by those who control EVERYTHING!
    systemd is Trojan horse aimed at destroying Linux community and exerting “global” control over everything.

  161. @jake: I believe there are many who commiserate with you regarding systemd, however it need not be the result of a conspiracy by higher powers to elicit such strong reactions. Human inertia alone can and often does color the perceptions of entire sectors within the Linux community, as seen in the KDE4 and Gnome 3 controversies, both of which have affected me personally. That said, might I suggest that technology, even potentially disruptive technologies such as systemd are neither good or evil, regardless of the intent behind their creation. It is within our power to bend the technology to our will, and it is this philosophy which unifies the Linux community. Please consider just how much time, energy, and resources are being wasted railing against systemd,ust as they were wasted railing against KDE4 and Gnome 3 when they debuted, which could otherwise go into technologies that’ll both put the Linux community at the head of a new technology revolution, but leave Bill Gates in a foaming rage. As long as we can see systemd’s source code, who cares who made it or why? It’s OURS now; let’s take control of it.

  162. I see that Mint is currently only one which supports Picasa – and this is favorite photo manager for many of my friends using Mint.This cant even be found in AUR repo. Please keep it in Mint 18 – even it is used by wine… 🙂

    It just works great.

    Thank you Clem for your hard work.
    Linux Mint is TOP Linux distro.

  163. @LowTek

    I do believe that most Linux distros are now under influence of “higher powers”. They may not be controlling all of them directly but, as systemd proves it, indirectly.
    I have used all Mint editions and never once did any of them freeze up and made me hard reboot.
    On the other hand almost all distros I tried which use systemd did this. Even the mighty OpenSuse. At the moment I have Mageia on my second SSD drive and I can consistently make it freeze up with simple file operation.
    Why would this be on the same hardware if not for the systemd?
    I think, as many have suggested, Linux is on it’s way to Windows hell we all went through.

  164. I was not able to use the “asus essence stx ii 7.1” sound card with the 17.3 Mint. The kernel should support the sound card but it refuses to play anything other than stereo. After some hours in forums and tweaking with settings I had to bite in the sour apple and install Windows where it worked fine. Is there any hope with the new release?

  165. My question is when the new update comes out will it allow for online updating on the system or do I need wipe the hard-drive and reload totally fresh. Then transfer documents, and etc back again as that makes it hard for my business and line of work too. It seems to cause a real bottleneck of work !

  166. Look forward to 18. I haven’t stayed with a distro so long as I have with Mint. The only other one was my first and that was Mandrake 7 and I stayed with Mandrake till Mandriva, than switched to OpenSuse for awhile, but then found Mint. Been with it since. Still play with others on older laptops, but use Mint for main. Stable, consistant. It works.

  167. mint is it nothing else but now they want to get ride of Thunderbird email this new N1 email can not be better than thunderbird
    the best and easiest and user friendly emails ever i’ll stay with
    thunderbird thanks

  168. @jake: You echo suspicions I’ve had for nearly six years, however considerable research must be conducted into not only systemd’s stability on a wide variety of systems, but who, if anyone is most directly responsible for the project’s funding and why. While I am well-aware of globalist influence in virtually all technology, with communications in particular, a suspicion alone would be insufficient to dissuade Clem from implementing systemd. Please do continue digging; in the meantime, systemd’s implementation in Linux Mint is in of itself quite a litmus test. If stability is negatively affected, or it’s doing something nefarious behind the scenes, we users are the first line of defense, because we can send logs and error reports to the Mint team. If you’re so loyal to Mint as to voice such concerns here, I’m sure you to trust the Mint team to have sufficient discernment in this matter should error reports start coming in. I for one am not worried, because the Mint team listens to the community, even to the point of detriment. Consider both MATE and Cinnamon for example. There was really nothing compelling them to create those forks but that the community felt cheated by someone else entirely. Trust ’em bro. We’ve trusted them this far.

  169. Since we are talking about ‘New Look and Feel’, dark theme would be much appreciated. And also, new sound theme is a must! Because, frankly, these default sounds are really silly (except for the login sound). 🙂 Every time when I plug in my USB drive, I get stressed! 😀
    And, ofc, new default wallpaper! It’s not that the old one is not good, because it really IS, it’s just that it’s been there for so long. We need just a little bit of something new. Not too much and not too radical.

    Cheers!

  170. Good work, I am waiting for it !
    My desire: a good quality dark theme included by default for Mate and/or Xfce edition 🙂

  171. Well you could’ve named it Sara if you wanted all your distros to end with “a”. Sara is just how we say it in Farsi. We pronounce both “a”s as in shark.

  172. #209 Androsupial Says:
    January 20th, 2016 at 8:36 pm

    “The main thing that stops me going 100% LM is printer/scanner support.”

    Exactly which printer/scanner is that? Have you looked at the device manufacturer’s Web site for drivers?

    I’ve installed various Brother/HP/Canon/Epson devices on Mint. Difficulty of installation ranges from extremely simple to more complicated, but all have worked.

    However, while there is a Canon driver for a Canon inkjet printer with CD printing abilities that I have, the Canon driver does not support that CD printing capability (unless I missed something)! Reluctantly I purchased drivers from http://www.turboprint.info/ for that. The result is excellent, though. Shame on Canon for not properly supporting their own product.

  173. Clem, We all love LINUX Mint or we wouldn’t be here, and we all join in the progress you’ve made which is why we upgrade with you. All I would say is that going too far left or right can be a problem in any situation. Your strength (unlike Windoze) has always been our ability to customise, turn off, or change, or keep the bits we don’t want to change. Please don’t lose sight of this concept (eg comment 28 re github – file grouping)

  174. Use Linux Mint 17.3 about 3 weeks and I’m amazed at how well it runs. It’ brilliant. Forward to version 18.

  175. I don’t care about the name, as long as LM stays as good as it is.
    I’m sure, you have your sound reasons for including systemd,
    but there are also quite a number of altenatives?!
    To me a dark theme by default would also be most welcome.
    Maybe something like the Gnome Color Chooser would be a good addition as a standard inside the Appearence preferences?!
    Please don’t skip the menu in LM Mate, it’s perfect, although I tend
    to use more keybindings for apps & opening folders.
    Setting up the key-shortcuts in Mate is gorgeously simple and I hope
    it’ll stay like this.
    I’d also appreciate, if you’d neither “destroy” the Mate Version. :)))

    Thanx again for LM – it’s a blessing!

  176. “Out of the box” support for external FireWire hard drives would be nice.

    Maybe a version with the “Trinity” desktop as well ??

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