Monthly News – December 2016

Many thanks for your donations and for your support and special thanks to all the people who helped us test the BETA.

Now let’s see what’s in our Christmas bag to kick off the holiday season 🙂

Linux Mint 18.1

The Cinnamon and MATE editions of Linux Mint 18.1 are coming out this week. I hope you’ll enjoy the release and have a wonderful time with it.

We’ll also make announcements as soon as paths are ready for people who want to upgrade to it.

New PIA Manager

We’ve been working with PIA on a new application to set up your PIA VPN connection.

Once configured, PIA and Mint work great together… it can be a little tricky to find all the information and to configure your connection at first, so we tried to tackle that.

With PIA Manager all you need is your username and password. You choose your gateway, press the Save button and your VPN is ready to go.

It’s not in the repositories yet, we still have ideas on how to make it better, but it works already so if you want to give it a try:

KDE upgrades for Kubuntu and Linux Mint KDE

Kubuntu and Linux Mint 18 KDE users should soon receive an upgrade to KDE Plasma 5.8 via the Kubuntu Backports PPA.

This upgrade will include:

  • KDE Plasma 5.8.4
  • KDE Frameworks 5.28
  • KDE Applications 16.04.3

You can help test this upgrade before it goes live. For more information please visit:

Linux mint 18.1 KDE will come with Plasma 5.8 out of the box.

If it gets delayed too much, the Xfce edition could be released on its own.

Mintbox Mini Pro

We get an email every time somebody buys a unit and we can see CompuLab has been selling many.

The Mini Pro should be available in the US, on Amazon.com in about 2 weeks and it should reach European Amazon stores early next year.

We’ve received the Mini Pro and we’re quite impressed. It goes hot but doesn’t run slow and it’s still as tiny and cute as the original.

CompuLab also sent us an Airtop with an NVIDIA GTX 1060 and accessories for the Mintbox Mini such as the fit-Uptime UPS, a large heat sink and a mounting bracket.

We’re hoping to review it all very soon.

Hoodies and T-Shirts

Last but not least, Hellotux recently added hoodies and girl t-shirts to their collection, so if you’re interested in Mint clothing, please visit https://www.hellotux.com/linux_mint.

Sponsorships:

Linux Mint is proudly sponsored by:

Platinum Sponsors:
Private Internet Access
Gold Sponsors:
Linux VPS Hosting
3CX Ltd
Silver Sponsors:

Acunetix
Sucuri
Bronze Sponsors:
Vault Networks *
AYKsolutions Server & Cloud Hosting
7L Networks Toronto Colocation *
Goscomb
BGASoft Inc
David Salvo
Milton Security Group
Sysnova Information Systems
Community Sponsors:

Donations in November:

A total of $11,372 were raised thanks to the generous contributions of 537 donors:

$200 (2nd donation), Daniel V.
$200, Andy S. aka “troozers”
$200, Paul F.
$150, Peng Y. H.
$108 (7th donation), Frederic L. aka “”nofrog””
$108 (4th donation), Sten L.
$100 (2nd donation), Pasi K.
$100, Ken H.
$100, Eric B.
$100, Ty A.
$100, David B.
$100, Roderick P.
$100, J5C Marketing, LLC.
$100, Kevin aka “kevinhughes27
$100, James F.
$100, Nicolas R.
$100, Hahn S.
$75 (3rd donation), JimM
$70 (8th donation), Doug L.
$69, H H.
$65, Timothy E.
$65, Detlef F.
$60, Dave W.
$55, Jeff N.
$54 (3rd donation), Dirk B.
$54 (3rd donation), Jan Joris Vereijken
$54 (3rd donation), Claude M.
$54 (2nd donation), Christian K.
$54 (2nd donation), Brian V. B.
$54, Roberto P.
$54, Karl-günter N.
$54, Frank S.
$54, Kelly H.
$54, Anon aka “Betty UK”
$54, Thomas B.
$54, Heribert S.
$54, Miguel V.
$54, Jesus J. L. M.
$54, Johannes A. W.
$54, Timo P.
$54, Peter G. aka “The MINT teacher”
$54, Johannes K.
$54, Tim S.
$54, Jeroen T.
$50 (15th donation), Anthony C. aka “ciak”
$50 (10th donation), Kwan L.
$50 (4th donation), George P. aka “taz840209”
$50 (3rd donation), Pamino F.
$50 (3rd donation), Alan H.
$50 (2nd donation), Christopher D.
$50 (2nd donation), Daniil K.
$50 (2nd donation), Kenneth K.
$50 (2nd donation), Vincent S.
$50 (2nd donation), Mirza B.
$50 (2nd donation), Robert E.
$50 (2nd donation), Cody W. H.
$50 (2nd donation), jcbrinfo
$50, Henrique B. D. O.
$50, Seamus O.
$50, Dinu P.
$50, Roger S.
$50, Molly M.
$50, Merchant Pagan/Card Ferret
$50, Gary S.
$50, Paul M.
$50, Dustin & Tess S.
$50, Gurtej B.
$50, Chris G.
$50, Victor I.
$50, Gary B.
$50, Louie T.
$50, Edwards W.
$50, Andreas S.
$50, Geoffrey A.
$50, Ilya K.
$50, Vincent G.
$50, Donna B.
$43, Birgit S.
$42 (2nd donation), Martin K.
$40 (4th donation), Torben C.
$40 (2nd donation), James C.
$40, Nicholas C.
$40, Patrick A. C.
$40, Andita S.
$40, Enirita S.
$40, Anders U.
$39.37 (2nd donation), Lupe A.
$32 (81th donation), Olli K.
$32 (2nd donation), Günter J.
$32 (2nd donation), Iain U.
$32, Christian V.
$32, Christian D. K.
$32, Peter B.
$32, Barry J.
$32, David B.
$32, Tomas S.
$32, Gerard N.
$32, Richard B.
$31 (2nd donation), Frederico P.
$30 (3rd donation), Robert E. S.
$30 (2nd donation), Jason H
$30 (2nd donation), Jean-michel R.
$30, Hannes L.
$30, Andita S.
$30, Barry S.
$30, David K.
$27 (4th donation), Peter Fitzsimons aka “Peter4933”
$27 (3rd donation), Karl M. H.
$27, Paolo P.
$27, Jogge Fejø
$27, Erik W.
$27, Albertus D. J.
$27, Georges R.
$27, Tabe V.
$27, Klaus K.
$27, fsa2009
$27, Herve B.
$25 (64th donation), Ronald W.
$25 (16th donation), Peter D.
$25 (5th donation), Bill Metzenthen
$25 (4th donation), Ewa K.
$25 (3rd donation), Basic I. I.
$25 (3rd donation), Bruce E.
$25 (3rd donation), Jack C.
$25 (3rd donation), Murray C.
$25 (2nd donation), Joachim T.
$25 (2nd donation), Stuart S.
$25 (2nd donation), Daniel W.
$25 (2nd donation), Raymond O.
$25 (2nd donation), Alex K.
$25 (2nd donation), Ashwin P.
$25 (2nd donation), Anatoli K.
$25 (2nd donation), Robert A.
$25 (2nd donation), MarlynScott
$25 (2nd donation), Billy Bob Roach
$25, Edmund D.
$25, Denis G.
$25, Tajvia C. W.
$25, Scotia D.
$25, Steven S.
$25, John S.
$25, Mohan D.
$25, Timmn
$25, Midsouth K. S.
$25, Tod M.
$25, Chris K.
$25, Timothy R.
$25, Christian E.
$25, Anonymous
$25, Mathieu D.
$25, Daniel B. M.
$25, Frank C.
$25, Al M.
$25, Robert M. G.
$25, Ralph H.
$25, R. H.
$25, Reynold A.
$25, Joel E. S.
$25, Peter A.
$25, Bill Williams
$22 (11th donation), Dr. R. M.
$22 (10th donation), Matsufuji H.
$22 (4th donation), Juan T.
$22 (4th donation), Dea Engineering s.r.l. aka “Andrea Tozzato
$22 (3rd donation), Gabriele G.
$22 (3rd donation), Dennis V.
$22 (3rd donation), Derek R.
$22 (2nd donation), Gauthier B.
$22 (2nd donation), Thomas T.
$22 (2nd donation), Kuno G. aka “nuko”
$22 (2nd donation), Marien L.
$22 (2nd donation), Daniel M.
$22, Benoit B.
$22, Renaud B.
$22, Andreas G.
$22, Fabio A.
$22, Kamil Z.
$22, Roberto B. R.
$22, Joachim K.
$22, Salvatore C.
$22, Dieter B.
$22, Karsten S.
$22, A. J. R. S.
$22, Michael J.
$22, Norbert M.
$22, Arend J. D. W.
$22, Jose Luis Nuñez Crespi
$21.37, Jostein N.
$20 (20th donation), Curt Vaughan aka “curtvaughan ”
$20 (20th donation), Go Live Lively
$20 (11th donation), Julie H. aka “Kjokkenutstyr
$20 (8th donation), Larry J.
$20 (5th donation), Dariusz Panasiuk aka “loczek
$20 (4th donation), Matej V.
$20 (3rd donation), Angus B.
$20 (3rd donation), Wayne M.
$20 (2nd donation), Richard L. S.
$20 (2nd donation), Edgar C.
$20 (2nd donation), Manuel J.
$20 (2nd donation), Donald S.
$20 (2nd donation), Michael M.
$20, Kenneth B.
$20, Boris B.
$20, Arend D.
$20, Anthony S.
$20, David M.
$20, Wayne D.
$20, Robert M.
$20, Stephen M.
$20, Mohammed A.
$20, Yury M. aka “YPM”
$20, David W. H.
$20, Lars Händler
$20, Danny A.
$20, Enirita S.
$20, Kenny A.
$20, Thomas R.
$20, Bosse H.
$20, Daniel J.
$20, Michael E.
$20, Umarengan D.
$20, Kristian N.
$20, Charles N.
$20, Piergiorgio V.
$20, Hans M.
$20, John M.
$20, Michael H.
$20, Keith T.
$18, Alejandro A.
$16 (8th donation), Ib O. J.
$16 (2nd donation), Colin C.
$16, Petra T.
$16, Willem L.
$16, Barry J.
$16, Peter E.
$16, Mikael P.
$15 (3rd donation), Brian G.
$15 (2nd donation), Victor W.
$15 (2nd donation), David R. M.
$15, Klaus D.
$15, Charles P.
$15, Calin Ciobanu aka “calin”
$15, Robert H.
$15, Johannes A.
$15, Rafael S. C.
$14, Abdullah H.
$13 (7th donation), Anonymous
$13 (6th donation), Martin C.
$12 (68th donation), Tony C. aka “S. LaRocca”
$12 (14th donation), Jobs Near Me
$12 (8th donation), Stefan M. H.
$12 (3rd donation), Mihir D.
$12, Y.-Y. Mao
$12, Bogdan G.
$11 (13th donation), Andreas S.
$11 (4th donation), Marc V. K.
$11 (3rd donation), Thomas Klang
$11 (3rd donation), Martin S.
$11 (3rd donation), Jordi F. N.
$11 (3rd donation), Tanguy S.
$11 (3rd donation), Gerard M. Cormick aka “gmacor2”
$11 (3rd donation), Antonio P.
$11 (3rd donation), Michal W.
$11 (2nd donation), Peter B.
$11 (2nd donation), Manfred W.
$11 (2nd donation), Juergen M. B.
$11 (2nd donation), Mario B.
$11 (2nd donation), Volker N.
$11 (2nd donation), Francisco A. V.
$11 (2nd donation), Karin B. A.
$11 (2nd donation), Tiny W.
$11 (2nd donation), Alexander G.
$11, Colin D.
$11, Markus G.
$11, Luciano D.
$11, James M.
$11, Michael S.
$11, Uwe V. R.
$11, Andrei B.
$11, Frans A.
$11, AtelierHL
$11, Dieter S.
$11, Johannes S.
$11, Aliki K.
$11, Michael S.
$11, Andreas F.
$11, Paul B.
$11, Andreas E.
$11, Stephen L.
$11, Thomas F.
$11, Karri N.
$11, Pierre V.
$11, Stanislav K.
$11, Martin H.
$11, Alberto A.
$11, Kurt H.
$11, Christian R.
$11, Grzegorz S.
$11, Eckehard S.
$11, Vítor Fernandes aka “balhau
$11, Sergio F.
$11, Michael C.
$11, NordVPN Coupons
$11, Sergej B.
$11, Bernard D. B.
$11, Giovanni F.
$11, Ilya L.
$11, Giuseppe P. W. M. C.
$11, Mattia M.
$11, Wolfgang W.
$11, John O.
$10 (57th donation), Tsuguo S.
$10 (12th donation), Thomas C.
$10 (5th donation), Luis G.
$10 (4th donation), Jeri H.
$10 (4th donation), ERESES INC.
$10 (4th donation), George H.
$10 (4th donation), Kazimir D.
$10 (4th donation), Frank K.
$10 (4th donation), Platypus Products
$10 (3rd donation), Dean A. aka “LinuxGeek”
$10 (3rd donation), William C. aka “N4ES”
$10 (3rd donation), Paul O.
$10 (3rd donation), Agustin K. aka “Kana
$10 (2nd donation), C S.
$10 (2nd donation), Sergey A.
$10 (2nd donation), Galina S.
$10 (2nd donation), Joseph C.
$10 (2nd donation), Kai-ming L.
$10 (2nd donation), Ali S.
$10 (2nd donation), Barry J.
$10 (2nd donation), Joshua S.
$10 (2nd donation), Agenor R.
$10 (2nd donation), Car Rentals Near Me
$10, RG
$10, Ampers
$10, Nart N.
$10, Csaba G.
$10, John A.
$10, MVCaraiman
$10, Claude P.
$10, Przemek D. aka “Pseudodrummer
$10, Monte M.
$10, Jean-pierre B.
$10, Björgvin O.
$10, Marius G.
$10, Larry L.
$10, Daniel B.
$10, Leszek Bober
$10, Alexander K.
$10, Damian C.
$10, Andita S.
$10, Alexander K.
$10, HugeServer Networks LLC aka “HugeServer
$10, Mert I.
$10, aka “love
$10, Jorge M.
$10, Austin F.
$10, Dellton F.
$10, Katarzyna G.
$10, Robert A.
$10, Andre Cardoso
$10, Gabriel Tardif aka “Vulgarisateur Informatique
$10, Zhenge L.
$10, Sudhakar G.
$10, Jiayue Wang
$10, Rolando R.
$10, Bruce J.
$10, Kori H.
$10, Dirk S.
$10, Bo
$10, John P.
$10, Terrance G.
$10, Hamilton F. L.
$10, Chris H.
$10, Charles S.
$10, Tibor H.
$10, Denis K.
$10, Fernando P. M.
$10, Victor K.
$10, Pauline V. B.
$10, aka “Coding Supply
$10, Gerald W.
$10, Agenor R.
$10, Bart R.
$10, Werber César aka “Werber”
$10, Kourosh P.
$10, GrowthPath Pty Ltd
$10, Jon B.
$9, Bruno C.
$9, Konstantin Y.
$8 (2nd donation), Ronyclay B. D. S. B.
$7 (5th donation), CV Smith
$7 (2nd donation), Alexandre Vikol aka “Alex
$7, Free Web Hosting Services aka “Piotr T.
$6.04 (3rd donation), Salitynam Waterlily
$5 (27th donation), LM aka “LinuxMint
$5 (19th donation), Libertad Tecnologica
$5 (8th donation), Eugene T.
$5 (5th donation), Steven L.
$5 (5th donation), Matthew B.
$5 (4th donation), SEO Las Vegas
$5 (4th donation), Gabriel S.
$5 (4th donation), Risikolebensversicherung-Vergleich
$5 (4th donation), Ian B.
$5 (4th donation), Scott L.
$5 (3rd donation), Jim A.
$5 (3rd donation), Edward F.
$5 (3rd donation), Soul-Herbs.com aka “Ayahuasca
$5 (3rd donation), Darren W.
$5 (3rd donation), Berkant I.
$5 (3rd donation), Joel E.
$5 (2nd donation), Gianfranco C.
$5 (2nd donation), kuponiarnia.pl
$5 (2nd donation), Andrew Thompson
$5 (2nd donation), Andreas M.
$5 (2nd donation), Matus I.
$5 (2nd donation), Linux Hardware Guide
$5 (2nd donation), Jobs Near Me
$5 (2nd donation), Phoenix Real Estate Photography
$5 (2nd donation), J M. H. C.
$5 (2nd donation), Gabriele S.
$5, Arndt (Games4Linux.de)
$5, Jamie W.
$5, Dmitrii C.
$5, Jose S.
$5, Jose C.
$5, Mick G. aka “Pacific Attorney Group
$5, Luca C.
$5, Raffaele I.
$5, Kleiner F.
$5, Gerhard Z.
$5, Roman A.
$5, SUPER FM
$5, Jamie S.
$5, Jorge P. C.
$5, Oscar A. A.
$5, Dan B.
$5, Nicolas R.
$5, Jose L.
$5, Weihan L.
$5, Joeri V. R.
$5, Graziano A.
$5, Pablo U.
$5, James H.
$5, Henrik J.
$5, Theodore H.
$5, William T.
$5, Miqueias P.
$5, Krzysztof S.
$5, David M. A.
$5, Andreas P.
$5, Stefano S.
$5, Jaroslaw K.
$5, Rene van Mook aka “Mookie”
$5, Elia B.
$5, Labinot O.
$5, Thomas H.
$5, Jörg W.
$5, Enirita S.
$5, Richard G.
$5, Anonymous
$5, Michael H.
$5, Richard C.
$5, Matthew S.
$5, Harry T.
$5, Benjamin D.
$5, Ariel L.
$5, Joaquim P. Q.
$5, Enrique B.
$5, Adam P.
$5, Rafał Z.
$4 (4th donation), Catalin Toader aka “catatoa”
$4 (2nd donation), Evzen M.
$4 (2nd donation), Peter H.
$4, Christian S.
$3.72 (2nd donation), Liam Whiteside
$3 (8th donation), elogbookloan
$3 (5th donation), Canister Filter
$3 (4th donation), Marko Jagodić
$3 (3rd donation), TrustedSkinSource.com
$3 (2nd donation), Best Laptop for Video Editing
$3, Janelle M.
$3, Carmela T.
$3, E O.
$3, Rodolfo T. D. O. N.
$3, Bojan M.
$3, Best Laptops for College Students
$3, Piotr Z.
$3, Prateek S.
$57.32 from 47 smaller donations

If you want to help Linux Mint with a donation, please visit http://www.linuxmint.com/donors.php

Rankings:

  • Distrowatch (popularity ranking): 2828 (1st)
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26 comments

  1. Thanks Clem and team for all these Christmas goodies. Anyway is the new Mint-PIA app similar to the PIA client already available from the PIA website? For example does it has option to select the encryption mode, VPN kill switch, PIA MACE, etc.?

    Edit by Clem: Hi, the app sets up the connection system-wide but it doesn’t impact your other connections or your routes. As such it’s not similar to NetworkManager, it’s more like a front-end for the OpenVPN configuration dialogs. Its purpose is to simplify setting up PIA, primarily for novice users. That doesn’t mean it can’t get more features though. For instance, after talking with PIA, the ability to skip DNS servers (i.e. to point to gateways via their IP address) was added. We could probably add the ability to choose the cipher. I’m not sure about MACE and the kill switch, I’ll have to talk with PIA to see what they think of it. I remember we talked about the kill switch already, but at the time we were also checking against IPV6 leaks and that took the focus away as we made sure there weren’t any.

  2. Ok. I have the download links for mate and cinnamon 18.1. Can I download these files and use or these isos will have more modifications till announcement?

  3. Thanks, totally looking forward to 18.1!

    Can we expect a XFCE 18.1 release before the end of the year, or is more likely going to be out in January?

    Edit by Clem: Probably January.

  4. Great news 🙂
    Thanks for all joy that comes with every edition. Especially cinnamon one (full respect for others).

    Best wishes to Clem, Devs and community.

  5. Can you add a check box, or a switch, or something like that in the driver manager that allows the user to toggle an “all installed devices” list? I think that would be very help full for troubleshooting. Maybe you can make it so the device manager will display the devices that need attention above the “all installed devices” list when toggled on? Idk, your the developers, you can do what ever you want, it’s just a suggestion.

  6. I’m still running Cinnamon 17.3 due to the AMD driver issue. Any update or idea when the situation will be sorted?

  7. Hi Clément.
    Any news on the Debian edition?
    Seems to be abandoned now.
    ISOs were not updated since one year and a half, mint-y stuff still not available.
    This is the edition I’m using, by the way.

    Joyeuses Fêtes!
    François

    Edit by Clem: We’re planning to look into refreshing the ISOs. In the meantime, it’s getting a lot of updates. Mint-Y won’t be in LMDE though, it’s tied to the particular version of GTK3 which is present in Mint 18.x.

  8. Great idea about the PIA manager!

    I am a PIA customer MAINLY because their Mint-commitment encouraged me to trust them more than other vpn providers. But it wasn’t very comfortable to set it up, even on Mint. They have this client which doesn’t work for me and would be a useless ressource-drain even it did, if you have a network manager like Mint. There is this script, hidden deep down on their website, which you can use to set it up, but finding and using it takes some time and is confusing.

    This solution is so much better.. Thanks!

  9. @NumOpen:
    If I remember correctly, you don’t absolutely need to type the town.
    You can just click on the map.

  10. Delighted for you and the team Clem,
    great work on getting these released before Christmas.

    From a selfish point of view, I’m chuffed with the new PIA application manager, because I am now able to connect on LM 18.1 cinnamon.

    By the way, is there a site where you are logging issues/suggestions about this new PIA Manager? I checked https://bugs.launchpad.net/linuxmint and no mention there, so rather than include any negativity in this blog, can you remove the following comments and put them elsewhere.
    1. There needs to be an applet beside the Internet connection symbol (for me it’s a LAN cable symbol) in the bottom right of the screen so you know where to go to change the server.
    2. Going through LM menu -> Administration -> Private Internet Access requires me to put in my password every time – even if I’m just changing server.
    3. It seems to hold on to the first VPN server, so should you want to change to another server, go through LM menu -> Administration -> Private Internet Access application, change the server and hit the circular arrow to refresh. You get a notification to say it has changed, but testing it using https://www.iplocation.net/find-ip-address keeps tells you that you still have the same IPaddress. I tried logging out and logging in, still no change. But, restarting the computer and then logging in does work 🙂

  11. Thank you for the PIA Manager 🙂 While PIA’s own app has a few more features, it sprays files everywhere during installation and was slowing shutdown considerably. Your package is much more simple and elegant.

  12. Very nice job guys!!! Was using Mint 17.3 because of AMD video issues, but works good in 18.1!!!

    Everything is soooooth, works exceptionally well. I am impressed with this version. Very good.

    Very proud of the team, keep up the good work.

  13. Yesterday, I’ve installed the updates coming from the Kubuntu backports repo. Unfortunately, this resulted in removing eric and sqlitebrowser, giving some obscure error messages. -f install didn’t help 🙁

    I’ve kept the log of my unsuccessful trials and investigations, is there any place where this should be pasted? It has something to do with 5.6.1+dfsg-3ubuntu1~xenialoverlay1~4 and libqt5scintilla2-12v5…
    Thanks for any help!

  14. Thank you for PIA Manager — it works with KDE, too!

    (The only confusing part was that I had to tell ‘Network Manager’ (in Cinnamon) or ‘Networks’ (in KDE) to disconnect my wired connection, and then reconnect it again, before it would let me connect using PIA.)

  15. at Clem:
    Is that bluetooth problem fixed?
    When will we receive the option to install RAID0+encryption?
    Is the calibre issue fixed (no icon in taskbar since 18)?

    Noticed again this slow shutdown process “waiting for .. shutdown 1:30”, which doesnt under 17

  16. Just a thought, put a link to the donations page next to the list of donors. It is easy to find if you get here via the main mint page but if you come in “sideways” – eg from a google search – you might give up before you found it.

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