Monthly News – January 2018

Hello everyone.

Things are very exciting for us at the moment. This is the start of a new year, we’re working on two new bases (Ubuntu 18.04 for Linux Mint 19 and Debian 9 for LMDE 3) and rather than diving straight into the development cycle, and working on fixing bugs and developing new features, we’ve taken some time off to improve our infrastructure, our documentation and the way we work.

Before we dive into that, we’d like to thank all the people who donated to us: Neil V. in particular for donating $4,000, and the 653 other people who donated to us this December. We’ve never received as much in a single month, we’ve never received as much from a single donation, and we’ve never received donations from as many people in a single month before. So we’re extremely humbled, and extremely proud of us, and of you, and happy to see your enjoyment and your response to what we do. This is really amazing.

Continuous integration

This might sound a bit technical. If you don’t understand it, it’s OK… we are starting to use new tools and technologies which greatly empower us and make it easier and faster for us to accept code contributions, build packages and guarantee quality for all our releases and the projects we maintain.

To give you an idea, when somebody contributed a complex code change to one of our projects, we had to test that change and build the project in Linux Mint and in LMDE to make sure everything was fine. We’re now using tools which do this automatically for us.

We are now using continuous integration to automate testing on Github. Every single commit, every single pull request automatically triggers a build in Linux Mint 18, Linux Mint 19 and LMDE 3. If the build fails in any of these environments, we can see it straight from Github.

This allows us to merge some of the pull requests much faster than before.

Debian packages are now also built automatically for each new commit.

Going forward we’ll probably start using continuous integration to also perform unit and functional tests.

Static code analysis

Source code is also now scanned for every commit and pull request, against various linters and analyzers.

Static code analysis doesn’t detect everything, but it can detect potential issues and thus prevent some potential bugs from ever happening at all.

Again, when something is wrong, it appears automatically on Github, so we can see it before merging anything.

Pre-alpha ISO and build environments

We’ve made ourselves a pre-alpha ISO for Linux Mint 19 and build environments for Linux Mint 19 and LMDE 3. This allows us to work on GTK 3.22 and easily build packages for our next releases.

We also greatly improved our build tools. Cross-compiling a github project is now a single command. We’ll talk more about this next month, hopefully when the Linux Mint Developer Guide is ready.

Important system changes in Cinnamon

Cinnamon went through important changes:

  • A migration from Python 2 to Python 3
  • A migration from mozjs38 to mozjs52 (which was ported to LMDE 3)
  • The ability to set the date and time and synchronize it via the network with Systemd

That last point should allow Linux Mint and LMDE to no longer ship with NTP.

Bug squashing strategy

We had to completely review our bug squashing strategy. It just didn’t work anymore. It was inconsistent, with some bugs in Github and some bugs in Launchpad. It wasn’t documented so it wasn’t clear what we expected. We were crawling under the numbers… a massive amount of bugs (5,000 in Launchpad, 2,500 in Github), many of them not leading to actual work, fixes or improvements, just there to be processed, with a team of developers afraid to say no and to close issues, and this number getting in the way of actually seeing and tackling some important issues, some of them really easy to work on.

These reports will be processed, all of them. We’re not throwing it all away and starting from scratch with a blank sheet and the same old strategy. We’re keeping them all and redefining our strategy from scratch, this time with a strong focus on expectation, goals and efficiency.

First, we’ve put the software at the center. If a bug report isn’t likely to improve the software, it has no reason to be. Bug reports are there for us to work on, not for us to ignore, or leave open for years based on the fact that they are good ideas or point at valid issues. If something isn’t turning quickly into an improvement, we should close it.

Second, we can’t have expectations without documentation. We now benefit from having a Linux Mint Troubleshooting Guide. This guide explains how to troubleshoot issues, what a bug is and what it isn’t, and how to report bugs.

Third, we’ve set up new teams and bug squashing tools. We now have three formal teams:

  • The Cinnamon Development Team consists of 11 people and handles all components related to Cinnamon
  • The Xapp Development Team consists of 4 people and handles all cross-distribution components (xapp, xplayer, pix, xed, xreader, xviewer but also blueberry, pia-manager, slick-greeter etc..)
  • The Linux Mint Development Team consists of 6 people and handles everything else

Each team has full permission over the components it maintains on Github and a Waffle board to quickly process new issues.

We still have a huge backlog when it comes to bug reports but these new tools, this new strategy and the documentation don’t hold us back anymore. We’re confident we’ll see that backlog shrink over time and it certainly won’t grow bigger.

What’s next

Adopting new technologies and new tools takes time but when these tools are great, it makes a huge difference in the long term. Git and Slack helped us tremendously in the past. Recently, we started using ReadTheDocs, Docker, CircleCI, Waffle and Codacy. There’s one more thing we’re hoping to embrace before we dive into the next development cycle: The Meson build system. Most of our projects use autoconf. Moving to Meson could simplify and speed up compilation, make it easier to maintain and more exciting for developers to use. We’re looking at it at the moment and considering if and how we can use it.

Another important project is documentation. We’ve written three guides so far. We’re planning to write a Developer Guide next, and a Security Guide. Some of the feedback we got from the Spectre and Meltdown security announcement highlighted the fact that many people in our community were confused and didn’t know enough about security. We’ll vulgarize important concepts, cover system snapshots, emphasize the importance of applying security updates, and we’ll document some aspects (such as 2FA authentication or the principle to not run 3rd party software)  which despite not being directly related to Linux Mint are extremely important for users to understand.

We wished we had these two guides written already. We can’t wait to provide you with more documentation and we should be able to announce them shortly.

Sponsorships:

Linux Mint is proudly sponsored by:

Platinum Sponsors:
Private Internet Access
Gold Sponsors:
Linux VPS Hosting
Silver Sponsors:

Acunetix
Sucuri
Bronze Sponsors:
Vault Networks *
AYKsolutions Server & Cloud Hosting
7L Networks Toronto Colocation *
Goscomb
BGASoft Inc
David Salvo
Community Sponsors:

 

Donations in December:

A total of $20,459 were raised thanks to the generous contributions of 654 donors:

$4000 (2nd donation), Neil V.
$500, The OpenNMS Group
$500, Mark O.
$218 (6th donation),
$200, Sarbojeet S.
$150, Dave P.
$120, Peter K.
$113 (2nd donation), James R.
$109 (11th donation), Goran A.
$109 (3rd donation), Servconsultit S.
$109 (2nd donation), Lutz J.
$109 (2nd donation), Roland L.
$109 (2nd donation), Uwe P.
$109 (2nd donation), Jan S.
$109 (2nd donation), Jürgen A.
$109, Mathias M.
$109, Mario H.
$109, Mathias G.
$109, Karl T.
$109, Daniel M.
$105 (4th donation), Stefan S.
$100 (6th donation), Pasi K.
$100 (4th donation), Christophe Caillé aka “KKY”
$100 (4th donation), martywd
$100 (3rd donation), Randall H.
$100 (3rd donation), Brennan H.
$100 (3rd donation), Matt S.
$100 (2nd donation), Doug S.
$100, Harold T.
$100, Robert E.
$100, Des Éléphants et des Hommes
$100, Jim P. aka “in memory of Keith P.”
$100, Eric S.
$100, Peter H.
$100, Stephen J. K.
$100, Viacheslav P.
$100, Steve M.
$80, Damien S.
$75 (10th donation), Doug L.
$75, Ken B.
$75, Lloyd I.
$65 (2nd donation), Bernhard S.
$65 (2nd donation), Michael S.
$65, Marie-line R.
$60 (4th donation), Martin R.
$60 (3rd donation), Stephen B.
$54 (5th donation), More Linux
$54 (3rd donation), Paul S. E. aka “Paul”
$54 (3rd donation), Derek L.
$54 (3rd donation), Martin K.
$54 (2nd donation), Linus K.
$54 (2nd donation), Rosanna & Alex
$54 (2nd donation), Ludovic M.
$54 (2nd donation), David B.
$54 (2nd donation), Florian P.
$54 (2nd donation), Rhydwen V.
$54, Barbara B.
$54, Matti D.
$54, Edwin S.
$54, Ricotier Y.
$54, Johan H.
$54, Emir E.
$54, Gabor L.
$54, Helmut L.
$54, Gert-jan B.
$54, Erika O.
$54, Harald E.
$54, Thomas H.
$50 (17th donation), Philippe W.
$50 (8th donation), George H.
$50 (7th donation), Jason H aka “jaszhix
$50 (6th donation), Thomas T. aka “FullTimer1489”
$50 (6th donation), Adam H.
$50 (6th donation), Warren A.
$50 (6th donation), ranti
$50 (5th donation), Anonymous User
$50 (3rd donation), David S.
$50 (3rd donation), George H.
$50 (3rd donation), Holt D.
$50 (3rd donation), greerd
$50 (3rd donation), Walter W.
$50 (3rd donation), John M.
$50 (3rd donation), Kris J.
$50 (2nd donation), William G.
$50 (2nd donation), Ernie J.
$50 (2nd donation), James B.
$50 (2nd donation), Brian G — Sparky Geek
$50 (2nd donation), Suliman Al Adwani
$50 (2nd donation), Sam B.
$50 (2nd donation), Michael H.
$50 (2nd donation), Ryan Cragun aka “rcragun
$50, Cale B.
$50, Daniel B.
$50, Harry H. I.
$50, Craig B.
$50, Michael M.
$50, Dale A.
$50, George D. N.
$50, Michael L.
$50, Andy G.
$50, Omar T.
$50, George Y.
$50, Robin S.
$50, George A.
$50, Gary K.
$50, Robert M.
$50, Dennis B.
$50, James T.
$50, David H.
$50, Ralph P.
$50, Frederic R.
$50, Raymond H.
$44 (2nd donation), Miss anon aka “Anonymous ”
$40 (3rd donation), Rod Hassler
$40 (3rd donation), Rodney S.
$40 (3rd donation), Brian B.
$40, Frank P.
$38 (3rd donation), Ian W.
$38, Tobias S.
$38, Erwin H.
$36, Tommi V.
$35, Willem G.
$34 (3rd donation), Rosalea R.
$33 (94th donation), Olli K.
$33 (4th donation), Matteo T.
$33 (3rd donation), Susanne E. W.
$33 (3rd donation), Jérémy Meunier aka “Cervolikid”
$33 (2nd donation), Jesse C.
$33 (2nd donation), Achillefs C.
$33 (2nd donation), Christiane F.
$33, Rainer G.
$33, Armin R.
$33, Anna U.
$33, Jean-luc M.
$33, Stefano W.
$33, aka “Yamaneko”
$33, Joachim J.
$33, Antoine K.
$30 (3rd donation), Brian H. Y.
$30 (2nd donation), Kim T.
$30 (2nd donation), erwn
$30 (2nd donation), Michael L.
$30 (2nd donation), Scott W.
$30 (2nd donation), Jürgen F.
$30 (2nd donation), Gerardo V.
$30 (2nd donation), Andy H.
$30, Brian T.
$30, Dan R.
$30, Pablo L.
$30, Anthony G.
$30, Michael S.
$30, Alan U.
$27 (13th donation), Joachim M.
$27 (8th donation), Peter T.
$27 (7th donation), Lars H.
$27 (5th donation), Florin aka “~FLOW~”
$27 (5th donation), Antun K.
$27 (4th donation), Jens
$27 (4th donation), Frank M.
$27 (3rd donation), Mark F.
$27 (3rd donation), Harald S.
$27 (2nd donation), Jan F.
$27 (2nd donation), Satisfied User
$27 (2nd donation), Pedro C.
$27 (2nd donation), Benjamin L.
$27, Daniel K.
$27, Vincent S.
$27, Tobias G.
$27, Walter K.
$27, Gerard V. S.
$27, Gerd N.
$27, Paul S.
$26, Frederic B.
$25 (77th donation), Ronald W.
$25 (35th donation), Curt Vaughan aka “curtvaughan ”
$25 (6th donation), cocasema
$25 (6th donation), Bill Metzenthen
$25 (5th donation), John A.
$25 (4th donation), Oswaldo H.
$25 (3rd donation), Stuart B.
$25 (3rd donation), Karen J.
$25 (3rd donation), Daniel B. M.
$25 (3rd donation), Clifton S.
$25 (2nd donation), Brian F.
$25 (2nd donation), Leland M.
$25 (2nd donation), John Melcher, Jr
$25 (2nd donation), Murray C.
$25 (2nd donation), Edmond I.
$25 (2nd donation), Daniel B. M.
$25 (2nd donation), Pierre S.
$25 (2nd donation), Andrew C.
$25, Robert H.
$25, G H.
$25, Othmar
$25, Ulf N.
$25, Rob H.
$25, Steve aka “Andersons
$25, David B.
$25, Wiilliam N. H.
$25, Jack C.
$25, Axel H.
$25, Srikanth P.
$25, Ed T.
$25, Lukas S.
$25, Tommy P.
$25, Jorge B.
$25, Thomas S.
$25, Troels M.
$25, Family Care Plus Physical Therapy & Wellness, LLC
$25, Martin T. aka “mA”
$25, David D.
$25, James S.
$24, Andrew A.
$22 (11th donation), Derek R.
$22 (11th donation), Doriano G. M.
$22 (7th donation), Michael P. aka “www.perron.de
$22 (7th donation), Luca D.
$22 (6th donation), Ray
$22 (6th donation), nobody
$22 (5th donation), Mark A.
$22 (5th donation), Florian U.
$22 (4th donation), Arnold
$22 (4th donation), Udo F.
$22 (3rd donation), Frank V. Pedersen
$22 (3rd donation), Harm R.
$22 (3rd donation), Alonso C.
$22 (3rd donation), Victoria Holland aka “JavaDevVictoria
$22 (3rd donation), Martin L.
$22 (3rd donation), Florent G.
$22 (3rd donation), Thomas W.
$22 (2nd donation), Stefan G.
$22 (2nd donation), Jurgen G. B.
$22 (2nd donation), Vytautas M.
$22 (2nd donation), Tanev, T.
$22 (2nd donation), Aurelie L. B.
$22 (2nd donation), Ralph K.
$22 (2nd donation), Robert W.
$22 (2nd donation), Yvan R.
$22, Simone P. M.
$22, Eirik M.
$22, Pierre-louis B.
$22, Wilhelm Z.
$22, Susan M.
$22, Lars J. S.
$22, Julie A. A.
$22, Joel F.
$22, Roland M.
$22, C J. V.
$22, Bartosz D.
$22, Martin O.
$22, Kurt B.
$22, Alain P.
$22, J.F.S.
$22, Jan N.
$22, Par C. aka “SM0RWO”
$22, Herbert G.
$22, Jari
$22, Václav K.
$22, Jacques R.
$22, Juan A. C.
$22, Wolfgang S.
$22, Ralf Klawitter
$22, Jose Alcolea aka “Pepe”
$22, J.F.S.
$22, Alberto H.
$22, Amiru A.
$22, Rolf B.
$20 (8th donation), Michel S.
$20 (8th donation), Antony P.
$20 (6th donation), Joshua R.
$20 (5th donation), Malte J.
$20 (4th donation), Daniel V. M.
$20 (3rd donation), Srikanth B.
$20 (3rd donation), Andrzej C.
$20 (2nd donation), Kenneth A.
$20 (2nd donation), Samuele R. aka “dentex
$20 (2nd donation), Chris B.
$20 (2nd donation), Luc C.
$20 (2nd donation), Rodney F. P.
$20 (2nd donation), 新居 照央
$20 (2nd donation), Greg P.
$20, Terence G.
$20, John B.
$20, Tomasz K.
$20, Michael B.
$20, Mark S. aka “Mark”
$20, Jeff K.
$20, An L.
$20, John D. G.
$20, Philip A. H.
$20, Sam S.
$20, John N.
$20, James D.
$20, Wilson R. M. R.
$20, Ian B.
$20, Modustech
$20, Anonymous
$20, Giovanni D. S. aka “ChibiOS
$20, John M.
$20, Samuel H. B.
$20, David W.
$20, Donald S.
$20, Isenschmid P.
$20, Carlos L.
$20, Sergey S.
$20, Alexandru C.
$18.3 (11th donation), Ke C.
$16 (5th donation), Michele B. aka “MickyInTheSky
$16 (3rd donation), Frank V.
$16 (2nd donation), Janos W.
$16 (2nd donation), Thorsten S.
$16 (2nd donation), Andreas H.
$16 (2nd donation), Klaus D. M.
$16, Glauco A.
$16, Jan-haiko T.
$16, Bernhard S. E.
$16, Peter M.
$16, Gerhard E.
$16, Elias B.
$16, Benjamin L.
$15 (29th donation), Go Live Lively
$15 (15th donation), Mike C.
$15 (3rd donation), Randy M.
$15 (3rd donation), Valentin B.
$15 (3rd donation), Michael Z.
$15 (2nd donation), David K.
$15 (2nd donation), Constantin M.
$15, R N.
$15, Ryan M.
$15, Prokopis K.
$15, Dwayne L.
$15, Robert M.
$15, Pegeen S.
$15, Kathrin B.
$15, Joseph B. Jr
$14 (2nd donation), Athanasios M.
$14 (2nd donation), Rick D.
$13 (20th donation), Anonymous
$13 (2nd donation), Theofanis-Emmanouil T.
$12 (81th donation), Tony C. aka “S. LaRocca”
$12 (27th donation), JobsHiringnearMe
$12 (11th donation), Johann J.
$12, Brian H.
$11 (6th donation), Janne S.
$11 (6th donation), Michal W.
$11 (6th donation), JCSenar – linuxirun.com
$11 (4th donation), Soutarson P.
$11 (4th donation), Dirk M.
$11 (4th donation), Jerome M.
$11 (4th donation), Eskild T.
$11 (4th donation), Michele C.
$11 (3rd donation), David B. aka “Jimbow”
$11 (3rd donation), Alrik S.
$11 (3rd donation), Antonio aka “pengu73”
$11 (3rd donation), Wieger W.
$11 (3rd donation), Kleiner Funk-Electronic
$11 (2nd donation), Thomas Z. aka “Nagev for the Slamina”
$11 (2nd donation), Miguel Á. A. R.
$11 (2nd donation), Paul B.
$11 (2nd donation), Caspar F.
$11 (2nd donation), Miguel Hernandez aka “Madh
$11 (2nd donation), Johan R.
$11 (2nd donation), Frans A.
$11 (2nd donation), Martin W.
$11 (2nd donation), Steve M.
$11, Yanko N.
$11, Jeff F.
$11, Sébastien F.
$11, Frank G.
$11, Dionysios T.
$11, Paolo C.
$11, Maciej K.
$11, Kathleen H.
$11, Thomas H.
$11, Dmitrii B.
$11, Paulo Martins aka “tuganetworks”
$11, Juan J. D. C.
$11, Alfio R.
$11, Trevor P.
$11, Jose S.
$11, Dr. E. P.
$11, HM Magnusson
$11, Vivien M.
$11, Daniel L.
$11, Egon N.
$11, Jean-marc H.
$11, Florian J.
$11, Julian R.
$11, Kim F.
$11, Alf J.
$11, Carmelo R.
$11, Jose M. M. F.
$11, Detlef O.
$11, Elias B.
$11, Ludwig B.
$11, Gertrud K.
$11, Sandor M.
$11, F A.
$11, Tobias H.
$11, Jens H.
$11, Brigitte K.
$11, Juan V. C.
$11, Daniel S.
$11, Jürgen M.
$11, Thomas G.
$11, Andy V.
$11, Jose S.
$11, Stefan B.
$11, Mikael S.
$11, Sean O.
$11, Jan D. W.
$11, Pekka H.
$11, Bledar S.
$11, Pigree P.
$11, Anton H.
$10 (25th donation), Thomas C.
$10 (16th donation), Todd A aka “thobin”
$10 (16th donation), Paul O.
$10 (16th donation), Frank K.
$10 (14th donation), Terry Poe aka “Exclusive
$10 (11th donation), Dinu P.
$10 (10th donation), Rick R.
$10 (9th donation), Terrance G.
$10 (9th donation), Antoine T.
$10 (7th donation), J. S. .
$10 (6th donation), Elsukov V.
$10 (6th donation), Jan P.
$10 (6th donation), Tomi P.
$10 (4th donation), Francois R.
$10 (4th donation), Steve O aka “stratus_ss”
$10 (4th donation), mintmem.com aka “mintmem.com
$10 (4th donation), Doug Berch
$10 (4th donation), Robert K.
$10 (4th donation), Leszek Bober
$10 (3rd donation), Jeff F.
$10 (3rd donation), Geoffrey O.
$10 (3rd donation), Derek H.
$10 (3rd donation), Thomas H.
$10 (3rd donation), Geoffrey O.
$10 (3rd donation), Thomas D. Y.
$10 (3rd donation), Frederick M.
$10 (2nd donation), Eric L.
$10 (2nd donation), Larry F.
$10 (2nd donation), anon
$10 (2nd donation), wolverine_tech aka “wolverine_tech”
$10 (2nd donation), Roy F.
$10 (2nd donation), Abigail M.
$10 (2nd donation), Juei C. C.
$10 (2nd donation), Guy L.
$10 (2nd donation), Gustavo A. B.
$10 (2nd donation), Rolando R.
$10 (2nd donation), Florin M.
$10 (2nd donation), Stephen F.
$10 (2nd donation), อนล ธรรมตระการ aka “ฮอง”
$10 (2nd donation), Michael B.
$10 (2nd donation), Sam S.
$10 (2nd donation), A. B. .
$10 (2nd donation), David B.
$10 (2nd donation), Colin T.
$10, Fortitude Boatworks:BabyBoatCradle
$10, Arvind P.
$10, Jean B.
$10, Michael C.
$10, Mohamed A.
$10, Nick A.
$10, Sripada S.
$10, Anthony I.
$10, Fran S.
$10, Ian L.
$10, Efim K.
$10, Danial B.
$10, Julio H. T. aka “Bularsson”
$10, Neilor C.
$10, Krzysztof S.
$10, Travis T.
$10, Igor R.
$10, Isaac B.
$10, Joseph P.
$10, Andre F.
$10, Test Technologies Ltd
$10, Justin B.
$10, Jeremy C.
$10, Arpad S.
$10, Chris C.
$10, Timothy L.
$10, Euijin L.
$10, Jaroslav J.
$10, Andrei Nepogodin
$10, 李 誌祥
$10, Robert K.
$10, ZS
$10, Richard A.
$10, Ondrej S.
$10, David E.
$9 (2nd donation), Michiel B.
$9, Aleksandr K.
$8 (13th donation), Jim A.
$8 (10th donation), Aliki K.
$8 (3rd donation), Omar Q.
$7.71 (2nd donation), 合同会社hartanah
$7 (9th donation), Aliki K.
$7 (3rd donation), James O.
$7 (2nd donation), Daniel J.
$7, Stevin W.
$7, Eli B.
$6.27, Alexandru B.
$5 (19th donation), Eugene T.
$5 (12th donation), 杉林晃治
$5 (11th donation), 杉林晃治
$5 (11th donation), Bhavinder Jassar
$5 (8th donation), KLM Merchant Hubs
$5 (8th donation), Dmitry P.
$5 (7th donation), Steven L.
$5 (7th donation), Jörn G.
$5 (7th donation), Eric H.
$5 (6th donation), NAGY Attila aka “GuBo”
$5 (5th donation), Joel E.
$5 (5th donation), Benjamin T.
$5 (4th donation), Dmitri B.
$5 (4th donation), Laura NL aka “lauranl
$5 (4th donation), Alexandre L.
$5 (4th donation), J. V. D. B.
$5 (4th donation), Mattias E.
$5 (3rd donation), Scott L.
$5 (3rd donation), hostflash.de
$5 (3rd donation), Chris Quedado
$5 (3rd donation), Mikko S.
$5 (3rd donation), J M. H. C.
$5 (3rd donation), Patrick T.
$5 (3rd donation), Carl W.
$5 (3rd donation), Javier V. A.
$5 (3rd donation), Gabriele I.
$5 (2nd donation), Ronald
$5 (2nd donation), Willem V. U.
$5 (2nd donation), Manuel C.
$5 (2nd donation), Kerry C.
$5 (2nd donation), Tiago A.
$5 (2nd donation), Helmar Ten Winkel
$5 (2nd donation), Glen G.
$5 (2nd donation), Patrick H.
$5 (2nd donation), Christoph C.
$5 (2nd donation), Teoh S.
$5 (2nd donation), Marcio P.
$5 (2nd donation), Mathias W.
$5 (2nd donation), Kerry C.
$5 (2nd donation), Csaba D. V.
$5 (2nd donation), Dmitry N. aka “Dimex”
$5 (2nd donation), Коробейников А.
$5, Michael A.
$5, Gary H.
$5, Roberto D. M. G.
$5, Trygve S.
$5, RAD Elemans
$5, Steven D.
$5, Christopher M.
$5, Detlef D.
$5, Monte K.
$5, Patrick S. aka “Sully311”
$5, Peter Vangsgaard
$5, Jan D.
$5, Antonio M.
$5, Javier C.
$5, Sergiy Z.
$5, Josh J.
$5, Christopher B.
$5, James M.
$5, Cédric B.
$5, Aleksandar T.
$5, Javier P. B.
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118 comments

  1. Thank you all so much for doing such a great work in order to make Linux Mint such a great an enjoyable OS.
    Je vous en remercie tellement!

  2. LinuxMint is rightly regarded as the best distro
    .
    I don’t trust PayPal and have tried to make donations but they have not been accepted.

    Mint downloads only work when downloaded at certain times so sabotage is likely and a scheme for policing Mirrors is needed.

    ‘Just because I am paranoid doesn’t mean that they are not out to get me.’

    1. Your distrust of PayPal is very understandable. It was beset by thieves in its early days, and some of them worked for the company and took advantage of customers unable to hold them to account (what do you think the chances are of a software developer working in India to get money stolen by an employee restored?). The purchase by eBay and increased requirement for regulatory compliance helped clean up PayPal considerably. I now use it quite often, including in making a monthly payment to Linux Mint, and it works fine. It’s linked to my American Express card NOT MY BANK ACCOUNT — there is no way that will ever happen unless it’s a separate, dedicated, account.

      Your best way of obtaining a download quickly is not to use mirrors at all. Just download the torrent and use Transmission or whatever you use for torrents. Your constraint will be your Internet connection not the source.

  3. I would like to understand the change from GTK2 to GTK3.22 and what drives that. I realize that I am ignorant of the whole process, but as a user of OS’s it feels as if the Gnome folks are slowly squeezing us out of choices. I am using Mint MATE 18.1 because I can change anything I like and I can use the colors I want in my Themes. This is how Gnome 2 always was. But then came Gnome 3 which took away all our options, and to me it was unusable, very stiff and very boring. Then came Cinnamon, a VAST improvement over just Gnome 3. I was so very grateful. With MATE I was able to continue with the OS & DE I love Mint MATE. All seemed well. But now we get to Mint MATE 18.3 and here we loose the ability to change colors in themes because it just doesn’t fit with GTK3. Now as a user it feels like, well, here we go again. Our ability to use something we love is slowly being diminished. And our freedoms are being taken. Now is this Gnome 3 driving the GTK3 or something else? Will we have to stay with Mint MATE 18.1 to keep these abilities while the rest of the world moves on? What will we be loosing next? Will Mint no longer include ia32-libs? A set of libraries that allow me to run my favorite apps; Like: Adobe AIR & the Pandora radio app, Adobe Reader 9, Avast Anti-virus, just to name a few. Are those going to be lost too? Can someone please explain how it works and what we who love Mint MATE 18.1 have to look forward to? I don’t get it. Thank you for your time.

    1. I too find it a little concerning that Cinnamon is tied into GTK. Gnome development drives the direction of the GTK toolkit, no doubt about it, and Gnome makes more news over the features it drops than the ones it introduces.

    2. GTK is a fantastic toolkit. It is tied to GNOME, which is fantastic as well, we do have disagreements when it comes to timing, design and priorities, but we get a lot of inspiration from GNOME and a huge part of the technology and projects we use and maintain either come directly from GNOME or revolve around it. We can criticize it as long as we’re constructive and we can tackle issues if they are important only to us, but we need to acknowledge how much it brings us and how much we get from it. It isn’t just Cinnamon which is tied to GTK, it’s Linux Mint as a whole. Everything we do, everything we develop is built on GTK, Glib, Gio, Gobject.. etc. We can make Linux Mint without Ubuntu (that’s basically what LMDE is), we could probably make Linux Mint without Debian (although that would be a lot more work), we could not make Linux Mint without the libs and techs coming from the GNOME project. Rewriting that entire ecosystem from scratch or moving to something completely different, such as Qt (which also has its pros and cons) wouldn’t be reasonable.

      GNOME is much more than a desktop environment, it’s a huge project, an ecosystem and some of it is central in our development. It has been from the very start (in 2006) and it’s very unlikely to change.

    3. Then, being that everything Mint does, everything Mint develops is built on GTK, Glib, Gio, Gobject.. and the entire Gnome ecosystem, can we look forward to developments which will bring back some features, or do we have to accept them as gone forever and just move on. I am grateful Clem for your many hours of work. I have benefited greatly since Isadora, please don’t think I’m just complaining. I just may be a dinosaur and need to accept it.

    4. Some features are gone and nobody’s working on bringing them back. That said, you can use them until 2021, and there are many improvements and features coming in which are much more exciting than them. Nostalgia is a normal thing and it’s very human to grow attach and fond of what you’re used to. The decision to stick to LTS was made to improve quality and boost development, but it also protects you from constant design changes (some of which do not last). Long term though, we either embrace change or we put the resources where we think they’re needed. We put our foot down to guarantee some features and paradigms wouldn’t be lost. We also embraced many changes. To answer your question, it really depends on the feature. For some of them, yes, if most people are happy to see them gone and nobody’s working on them, you should get ready to see them disappear.

    5. Alright Clem, I understand and appreciate your time spent responding to me.
      Incidentally, I have a very modern computer Quad core i7 with 16 gs of RAM,
      and Geforce 970 graphics 2 monitors and I have been able to get Isadora running with
      ALL the bells and whistles like Boot Screen Manager and Compiz & Gnome 2.
      Now that’s for nostalgia. I use Mint 18.1 for every day stuff. I guess I’ll try to
      get used to progress in a few years. Meantime I’ll crawl back in my hole. ————————>

    6. Perhaps it’s not a progress at all. Computing has come to masses. So demand for mass product. Mass production require regress. It looks like Clem is trying to balance on the edge of Mint survival, being a delicious cherry on the top of Ubuntu cake and quite a new mass product at the same time. He is a lord of coding and really able to win the game. If not a battle, so the casualties…

  4. Great news regarding the new procedures on handling bugs. Please if you have not done so already consider directing people to the forum ideas section in the first instance with bugs. The community could do a good job of sieving out the time wasters before they turn into bug reports and sap dev time.

    1. Hi,

      We’ve a mod team for that, its job is mostly to ensure people get along on the forums and the IRC, but it also reports ideas and noteworthy posts to the dev team.

  5. thanks to all mint-devs for your hard work.
    do you really drive the mint-project with only 21 people? that makes me really very proud of you all! amazing!

    thanks again!
    and please stay on the track (you take in the past) to make it good, not just fast.

    1. While the core group of regular devs is pretty small, a lot of help and improvements come from “drive by” contributors. People who stumble across some issue, figure out how to fix it, and submit the fix. These are a big help and make things better for everyone.

  6. Great work.
    Question: Is there a reason the default sound setting slider on the desktops won’t allow the user to go beyond the 100% setting unless one goes into sound settings. (Cinnamon & Mate).
    Thanks…keep up the outstanding project.

    1. There’s a PR for this in Cinnamon, we’re looking into the best way to fix this. Whichever solution we chose, it’s very likely to be there in Cinnamon 3.8.

  7. $4000.. wow! I am sure that will help in big way.
    And good decision with moving to continuous integration. This is 2018 and all collaborative software project should have CI.

  8. I’ve noticed a spelling mistake in your Troubleshooting Guide. If I want to help you out by reporting this, and proof-reading the rest of the guide, how do I do this?

  9. Will there be an upgrade path from Mint 18.3 to Mint 19 in the Update Manager without reinstalls? REALLY Looking forward to new theming options – a lot of customization for themes was lost with the Mint 17-Mint 18 upgrade (changing window border colors, etc) and I miss it!

    1. My recommended procedure is:
      -Backup your /home folder
      -Set up a / partition with 10GB and a separate /home
      -The following times, you can just mount and format /, while just mounting /home and you’ll keep all your data

      I find this method better than a messy upgrade…

  10. They said in a blog a while back, no need to be concerned about the fate of XFCE. Basically it”s like this- XFCE is stable and ‘boring’ (I used quotes- some people like boring.) No headline changes and don’t expect any headline feature improvements – but’s that’s kind of the point of XFCE. However…. XFCE is compatible with the Mint developed X-apps so will benefit from improvements like those. Unlike KDE, it’s not a totally incompatible technology stack with the rest of the Mint family, so does not take an undue amount of effort to maintain. XFCE Mint is safe, but won’t be grabbing any headlines.

  11. Gentlemen
    You have successively broken wireless connectivity, caused kernel panics and bricked Samba connectivity with your poorly tested and released kernel updates. Your very credibility is at stake here. If you continue to release poorly tested kernel updates, I will leave your distribution in the dust of unacceptable performers. TEST. TEST. TEST. Stop delivering CRAP.

    1. Hi Leo,

      Ubuntu maintains the kernel updates. They had to rush things and take shortcut to get patches out for the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities. For this reason the 4.13 series came into Xenial, and thus into Mint 18 earlier than it should have and some regressions were observed. It’s very hard for them to test new kernels on such a large variety of hardware. They rely heavily on feedback and on user testing to fix regressions. I assume you submitted a bug report to them on Launchpad? I hope you were more precise than you were here and gave them a little more info and a little less opinion. If we were to tackle the issue you describe, based on the feedback you gave us here in this comment, we couldn’t do anything… there’s nothing to work on.

    2. Hi Leo. You don’t have to upgrade the kernel. Also you do understand you are getting a free operating system? Also Samba will not work unless you have a working network connection. Also you can change the kernel you are using in update manager. However you appear to have little knowledge so best you leave that alone. 🙂

    3. @Leo
      Canonical is responsible for that.
      If you do have issues you should consider submit a bug in launchpad.

      Also you should know by now that the Mint team only releases high quality software and they cannot control other projects…

  12. Hi Robert,

    We don’t have any special plans. Linux Mint 19, 19.1, 19.2 and 19.3 will have an Xfce edition, just as they will have a MATE and a Cinnamon edition. That’s our plan for the next two years and these editions will be supported until 2023.

  13. Good morning and thanks for the Linux Mint OS. I’ve been trying it for a week or so and do have to admit that it’s worth downloading and installing it on your laptop or desktop. Do enjoy the speed it boots up and it’s not clutter like WINDOWS 10 AND GETTING ALL THOSE APPS I DO DO NOT NEED OR WANT.
    Again thanks keep up the outstanding work and I will pass on to others about the wonderful OS your company offers.

  14. After using Mint 17.2 xfce then 17.3 xfce for the last few years, I have just set up a bootable usb stick with Mint 18.3, with the Cinnamon desktop for a change. I am using this on a new Dell Inspiron 3650, supplied with Windows 10. Mint 18.3 Cinnamon is stylish, fast OS which I will install in the next day or so. The freedom of using Mint is to be able to choose, in my case I have changed to a different desktop, which I prefer to xfce, at least aesthetically. If I hadn’t liked it, then I have the freedom to test another desktop. In any case, I can install whatever software I need, to give me the system I need.
    Of course, these comments apply to the Linux world in general, and long may it continue, with my gratitude, admiration, and appreciation, not only toward the Mint team, but to all of you out there who support them by using and helping to develop Mint by making positive criticisms and asking the right questions .
    Well done Clem & Mint!!

  15. Hello,
    1:) Thanks you for the DevOps education. I ‘am using your Devops process for my Development on Linux Mint.

    Best regards,

    Looking forward for more on the development tour…..

  16. Ill try an keep this short. For ref. I posted a question on the mint forums. id 262032. In 17.3 mate im able to have a custom place point to a calc spreadsheet on a nas. When i open it from custom places it works. However in 18 this no longer works and i get the message : “The location is not a folder.”
    Will this be fixed in 19.?”

    Appreciate all the time and effort you put in for the community

  17. Hey , I stumbled upon mint by accident. but it was an accident I apreciate a great deal as i was at a loss and unable to even boot Ubuntu or windows. Being new more or less to linux as an end user Imriffled through my old os disks CD box and found Mint isadora. this booted my 64bit formerly windows formerly susi formerly ubuntu lap top back to 32 bt infstrucr \ os and now It or me are confused as to force certin updates and do wish I could return to 64 bt and would much rather be on mint 17 18 19 or where it is to date with the latest stable 64 or 32 i guess if I could just reinstall the newest stable id be content. I dont want to take up any more of anyones time . but if there is a link or some terminal commands i could use to get passed the distro gap it would amaze me and help me move forward

    1. I have an old Gateway 32bit laptop, now maybe 15 yrs old, onto which I installed LM8. Some years later the boot sector failed, but data was intact and also backed up. I purchased a much larger capacity HD and installed LM12 and used it as such until recently; though with diminishing abilities because it was well past the support period. Recently I installed LM18.3 beside LM12 and copied all my data over. For nostalgia I can now compare the older with the latest some much advanced versions of Linux Mint and enjoy an aging machine to its fullest capacities! The one funny thing I do need to do however each time I upgrade is add two lines to a particular file to activate the line out for external audio, as this particular laptop, and not newer versions need this.
      One piece of advice: back up your valuable files and settings. They can be imported later. As your machine is 64bit, why not download and burn 64bit versions of the LIVE isos offered? Choose one you like and install it and add your data. Have fun!

  18. I’m happy to see that Linux Mint Teams had become rolling the newest updates very quickly, especially when it considers Security! Plus, even Arch Linux and Arch-based Distros don’t have yet Mozila 58! Most of the “more advanced” Distros are still with Mozilla 57.04… And I’m happy to see, the better and faster Kernel updates to the most stable and secure ones, although!

    I’ve started and loved Linux Mint since v.17, then I’d become an advanced and recognized Fedora Project contributor – because of the faster technology updates – but the first love always stays still – so I’m back and looking how could help, as a volunteer contributor to my First Love 🙂 Especially interesting in LMDE to be up to date with Debian advancement – because, maybe, the old Giant might be the future, since Google’s internal Developers Machines are moving from Ubuntu, as a base, to Debian!… It’s expected, that Google’s money could PUSH UP the best of Debian potential, so… I believe – and hope – that in the near future we will see a very new advancements form the old Giant – Debian… But without my Love – Linux Mint – it won’t be as pleasant, at all 🙂

    Best regards,

    Miro

    1. Thanks for Fedora. It become my main production system because of KDE. But Mint is always in my head. I install it everywhere too. Simply can’t resist 🙂

  19. Hello,
    First of all , many thanks for the great job you are doing. Ok , GTK is great , Gnome is full ecosystem, Mint need both of them but – to keep it simple – why do not use instead of a full ecosystem a simply Desktop as Lumina (https://lumina-desktop.org/?lang=en) ? Is written from scratch, does not imply any other framework is “it is only a system interface” and “Communicate directly with the operating system” . More info herein: https://lumina-desktop.org/get-lumina/

  20. Great work! I am personally hoping for two features:
    1. The ability to remember the on/off state in blueberry.
    2. The ability to annotate pdf (which is saved into pdf file itself) in xreader.
    Do you expect to include these two features in the (near) future?

    1. 1. This is already there, it’s rfkill, it’s handled by systemd. We know it’s buggy in Xenial, hopefully it will work better in Bionic.
      2. PDF annotations are already there in Xreader. They’re getting improved in Mint 19 (you can now remove them for instance). Xreader is also getting new features, we’ll talk about this soon.

  21. Hi Everyone
    Tired of banging my head against a brick wall this is probably the last posting that I will make about ‘BrucesWay’.
    Similarly, despite medical staff Incompetence under a naive and incompetent Theresa May aiming for UK decline and fall, I have thwarted metformin addiction, but Donald Trump may be allowed to wake her up.
    For Your Information this post is coming from a tiny 128GB USBkey plugged in to one of my PCs, with a 119.8GB shared NTFS data partion plus a less obvious 15GiB LinuxMintSylviaMATE64 installalation, all installed BrucesWay
    Boring folk once again, BrucesWay merely uses standard Mint tools in an unusual way to create devices that are too small to be bombs although I am sure that terrorist or other boffins are working hard to prove me wrong whilst laptops and phones are quite big enough to contain such bombs.

  22. If you work apart of Ubuntu and create you’re own SO, you probably can get a good quality with all that work that you did and have in Linux Mint. Think about it. Probably you can win more that the own Canonical in Desktop.

  23. Alright! Looks like 2018 is going to be a great year for Linux Mint already. I’m loving some of the new features of 18.3, I can’t wait to see what’s in store with LM19. I consider myself a ‘novice power user’ of linux. Linux Mint is so easy to use I keep coming back to it for myself and recommend it to all my non-techy friends who want to try linux. Keep up the great work guys.

  24. Is there a way to access the pre- alpha ISO? I would be honoured to do bug testing for Linux Mint 19 MATE.

    1. Those isos don’t get shared publicly. When it hits the beta/RC stage they will be and then testing and feedback is always wanted. When those are available please jump on board and help us get a good final out the door.

  25. I am proud to be a linuxmint user, I started using linux in 2009 and never looked back, beginning with ubuntu and upgrading as needed. I never was fortunate enough to own a new computer or laptop, so always installed my os on windows computers, sometimes the os was slow to start up, but always worked, THANK YOU SO MUCH ,for the gift of your hard work.
    Sincerely; Raymond Castonguay

  26. Hi, I would like to report these issues:
    Using a live Linux Mint 18.3 CD…
    Nemo toolbar buttons are not drawn properly on mouse hover. Toolbar buttons added using nemo preferences.
    Also when menu effects are turned off, Cinnamon popup menus are missing effects too. This was not the case with 17.X versions. I think effects in app menus and in Cinnamon should be handled separately.
    I made a small video for this, thanks!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9-_wLOvG4o

  27. I’m using LM for at least 5 years and I’m very satisfied with it. I always recommend LM for new users. LM Cinnamon is pretty user-friendly and installs out of the box. There is one glitch I want to mention here, namely
    a lot of problems with Skype (See the forum). I encountered a problem myself on a computer (Skype can’t find the camera, although other apps do eg. Cheese, VLC). I got Skype working just be removing the latest version and be installing an old version 8.9.0.1. Where do we have to report the problems with Skype?

  28. Hello every one
    First I would like to pay my respect to every member on Linuxmint team and Cinnamon team for the beautiful environment that is running on our computers,

    Here I want to draw your tension to a problem in u(efi) installation … this happens to me in 2 separate computers on is HP workstation which is uses efi hibered Bios so it was not big deal as I alternatively changed into legacy mode and installed linux mint but this was not the case in the laptop Sony Vaio

    in both case the same problem after starting installation and formatting the hdd and let Linux mint installer make the necessary changes automatically by choosing ( erase everything and install mint) … the installation just crash on the point while trying to but the grub on the /boot directory and never can be done even with boot repair CD … but when try to use ubuntu unity version 16.04.3 it is installed as it should be with the same option (erase every thing ..) also fedora 27 mint installed normally on the same two computers … so this problem is concernd with linux mint and not the PC’s
    I use my External Hdd with the Software E2B and uses the converter to convert iso file into .imgPTN which is can replace to boot partition and mount the image as efi booting for more details about this I may refer to there website
    http://www.easy2boot.com
    I hope I have explained the situation in a way you can understand ..
    please do not mind my English as I am not native English speaker and try to got the point
    Thank you again and looking to see LM 19 next April

    1. nomadewolf

      Thanks for the Reply,, The Option of Disabling the uefi is not present on the Sony Vaio laptop ,, although I did that on the HP workstation and it works there!

    2. Hi Adil,
      do you install grub to the device (for instance /dev/sda) or to a EFI partition (for example /dev/sda2) ? With EFI, you should install to the EFI partition. Hope it helps.

  29. I’ve played around with the likes of ubuntu, redhat, seamonkey ect…..and i can honestly say that I’m in love with Linux Mint. I’ve finally been able to move totally away from Microsoft windows which is a blessing. My only comment would be that it would be nice if the ‘Wine’ app worked liked its meant too. The likes of Eveonline and Diablo games will not work and trying to access anything off my Iphone is impossible. This is not a winge but constructive criticism. Using virtualbox defeats the purpose of using linux based os’s in the first place so i don’t want to go down that road. Great work to all the Linux Mint team, keep up the great work .

    1. Let’s hope not, if it becomes another indistinguishable Fat Slab Style piece of ugliness.

      Anyway, many thanks to Clem for Mint. I”ll stick with it whilst it offers KDE. One of it’s amazing features is that it simply installs on practically anything…

  30. Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2018-05
    Arbitrary code execution through unsanitized browser UI

    Announced
    January 29, 2018
    Reporter
    Johann Hofmann
    Impact
    Critical
    Products
    Firefox
    Fixed in

    Firefox 58.0.1

    Description

    Mozilla developer Johann Hofmann reported that unsanitized output in the browser UI can lead to arbitrary code execution.

    This issue did not affect Firefox for Android or Firefox 52 ESR.

  31. Have you guys ever thought of using Patreon to get more donations? You could have rewards at various levels like stickers or packaged DVDs. I’m thinking maybe you can get sustained donations from the community after all you do seem to be the number one distribution!

  32. Big thanks for 18.3 32bit – hope you will stay by 32bit versions. There are so many old, but good 32bit PCs and Laptops and more and more distributions only support 64bit Hardware.
    Now my 10 years old useless PC is a fine allround PC and a fast ( backup) samba server too
    (To install Samba was a bit……)

  33. Thank you all donators, developers, contributors and LinuxMint lovers.

    Guys, I had the same issue with all kernels(Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia 64-bit). Mate Control Center eats so much cpu usage. Are you aware for this problem?
    …..%CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
    ….. 100,1 0,2 0:26.57 mate-control-ce

  34. Very glad to read that the LM bug tracking is being improved – how to do it has been confusing. I’ll reread to see if new feature suggestion is somehow included.
    NOW for my monthly 🙂 suggested improvement to xreader – PULEESE add multiple tab support that porky, security flawed Adobe Reader has had Forever. The only Linux reader I’ve found that includes this is qpdfview – not bad but not sure if it is maintained.
    TIA, Mike

  35. Fully satisfied with Mint 18.3, thanks for your great job!
    Feature idea for LM 19: Implement a “double click at free space moves one directory up/back” functionality into file browsers (Nemo,…)
    I use this at work with Freecommander – it is really great and reduces mouse movements drastically.

    1. Hi Henrik,

      You’ll be pleased to hear this option is already available in Nemo. 🙂
      Nemo -> Edit -> Preferences -> Behavior -> ‘Double-click on a blank area to go to the parent folder’

  36. Bonjour,

    Pourquoi LinuxMint ne propose pas le moteur de recherche “Qwant” par défaut ?
    Qwant est un moteur qui respecte la vie privée contrairement à Google, Bing ou Yahoo.
    Et contrairement à DuckDuck Go basé aux USA, Qwant n’a pas besoin de signer le médiocre PatriotAct.

    Je vous conseille de vous intéresser à ce moteur de recherche et pourquoi pas prendre contact avec Eric Léandri pour faire un partenariat, au moins vous aurez une bonne image, en tout cas en Europe.

    cordialement;

  37. It’s very good journey with Linux Mint so far.
    I would recommend you to add members to your team for the greater cause.

  38. Please fix the gnome-keyring-daemon still running at shutdown-issue. Can we help in debugging this annoying event?

  39. Hi, I have Mint running on my Dell Latitude E7440 and if I take kernel update 4.13.0 it runs fine until I reboot – then it boots to a black screen and nothing. I have to do a fresh install and recover. Any suggestions? I updated my laptop firmware and it didn’t help. For now I just won’t take that update but how will I know when this is resolved or when it’s safe to update?

    Thank you in advance.

    1. Hi Greg,

      No need to perform a fresh Mint install if a kernel update fails to boot.
      1) Restart the system, keep pressing the Shift key until the GRUB screen appears
      2) Choose advanced options, select the older kernel
      3) After Mint boots, use ‘Update Manager’ -> ‘View’ -> ‘Linux kernels’ to remove the new non-working kernel
      4) Install the latest 4.4.x.x revision kernel
      5) Restart the system, go back to GRUB advanced menu and select the 4.4.x.x kernel
      6) After Mint boots, using the ‘Update Manager’ remove the higher numbered older kernel e.g. 4.10.x.x

      After performing the above steps, you should be on the lower revision number, but latest LTS kernel.

      If you get stuck, please visit the Linux Mint Forum for further assistance.
      https://forums.linuxmint.com

  40. Would it be possible to show in the Software Manager flatpack the software version?
    Just empower the user to compare the version from the official repository versus flatpack version.
    e.g. I would like to install the new VLC v3.0 but I do not know if this version is already available on flatpack.

  41. I have no knowledge of this SOFTWARE, but would like 2 know if this is available 2 every DAY users like myself who require security not available 2 the MATRIX.

  42. For me, Linux Mint Cinnamon is excellent.My only problem is that when I populate the kernel from 4.10 onwards a message appears: usb device descriptor. In Elementary Os no appears this message more in the other distros appear. I think it’s a kernel-related issue. If you can solve this, I’ll keep Linux Mint, because it gives you more freedom and stability. Linux has finally gotten easier.

  43. @Clem (et al.),

    Since Tara comments are closed, posting here.

    – Linux Mint 19 Xfce
    How do you feel about replacing panel item ‘DateTime’ with ‘Clock’, latter displays nicer hover date time info by default (very similar to Cinnamon ‘Calendar’). Plus, the ‘Clock’ item calendar conveniently auto closes when clicked away from, unlike ‘DateTime’ which requires a second click on the item to close its calendar.

    – Further consideration
    Possibly switch ‘Indicator Plugin’ and ‘Notification Area’ order?

    Current:
    …’Separator’, ‘Indicator Plugin’, ‘Notification Area’, ‘DateTime’

    Proposed:
    …’Separator’, ‘Notification Area’ , ‘Indicator Plugin’, ‘Clock’

    Update Manager is then shown first (similar to Cinnamon), possibly one of the most accessed notifications?

    Thank you for your time, and for Linux Mint. 🙂

  44. “We’ve made ourselves a pre-alpha ISO for Linux Mint 19 and build environments for Linux Mint 19 and LMDE 3”

    Where can these be donwloaded from? Any links?

  45. Sorry for the ‘politics’. Been a fan ever since LinuxMin4, Daryna.
    Still don’t trust PayPal and cannot make a donation,.
    I have been looking forward to the next version which may even be the last.
    The good news is that I have found an HP2620 alternative to no longer supported Epson Inkjets.
    Many thanks for all the good work so far.

    1. Sorry, I’m puzzled: you don’t trust PayPal to do what, exactly? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like PayPal either, to be honest, but I trust them to properly conduct the money I donate to Linux Mint. What should I be concerned about?

  46. Hi Wilo – Basically PayPal have so many identical customer lists that it guarantees access via hackers, whilst in my case payments have been acknowledged by PayPall but haven’t reached Clem yet thankfully, have not left my bank accounts.
    Indeed I have just donated $49 via my Mastercard which has once again been acknowledged by PayPal but hasn’t left my account so it will be interesting to see whether it ever reaches Clem.

  47. I’ve used PayPal for many years now both credit and debit paypal accounts and I have linked in a few outside bank accounts as well. Never had a problem – not one, and donated here maybe 9 times.

  48. Linux Mint 18.3 Mate is very good and I don’t think that I will upgrade to 19.
    Maybe one PC to see any differences but the other ones stay at 18.3.
    It works right from the start well, not like Win10 thats is an annoyance to use, monstrous big updates that take hours and afterwards you have to reset all your settings and delete all their extra crap.
    Mint is doing a good job and that is the reason I support them just like LibreOffice.

  49. What are you suppose to do with these System Reports on crashes? I hit Pastebin and added it anonymously to the website, but is that right? Please add more precise instructions as to what to do with these crash reports! Thank You for your time and effort Linux Mint Team 🙂

  50. Linux Mint has become in recent years perhaps one of the most reliable and stable distros in the ecosystem. Some of us could even say that its the “new Ubuntu.” Novice proof, easy to use for those coming from Windows, stable, with excellent compatibility, and a well-maintained interface.

    Good Luck Guys!

  51. @Linux Mint anonymous replier who threatened to ban me on the allegation of spreading FUD when I questioned if Ubuntu is still a trusted base considering how close Canonical is to Microsoft…
    Do you still think that way considering how fast Ubuntu is stepping into Windows 10 footsteps?
    http://news.softpedia.com/news/canonical-wants-to-collect-some-data-from-ubuntu-users-to-improve-new-releases-519815.shtml
    I bet the Spyware will be called Telemetry like in Windows 10.
    BTW, it’s enabled by default because they really care about user’s security and privacy…

    1. Agreed. LM needs to not only disable, but completely uninstall any thing that calls home. “Telemetry”, “anonymous data”, Nothing. If LM is based on the next MS/Ubuntu, it might be time to for LM to drop Ubuntu and focus on LMDE (which is also great)

    2. Hi Daniel,

      With all due respect, this “IS” FUD. We’ve been slandered many times by Ubuntu fanboys, sometimes even by Canonical employees. We’re not interested in pointing the finger and making ridiculous claims. Making competitors look bad doesn’t make us look better and it’s quite despicable and contrary to the very reason we’re working on a project like Linux Mint. We’re here because we enjoy what we do, we’re here because it’s fun. The more this happens, the less it is.

      So anyway, let’s ignore the analogies and accusations you made here and let’s answer the question that’s relevant to us. Yes, Ubuntu is the best base to build Linux Mint 19. Yes, it will be used. No, we won’t have stats or data going from your computer towards upstream in Linux Mint 19. We’re not quite sure yet how this will be implemented so it’s too early to say whether it will be “removed”, “disabled” or simply “not added”, but we’re not interested in collecting data, whether it’s for us or for anyone else, so you won’t see anything like this in Linux Mint 19.

      I hope this addresses any questions you might have about Linux Mint in the scope of this topic.

  52. Hi – thanks for Mint and all the work. Could you tell me more about your automated build setup. I just started working for a software company and it’d be interesting to learn from others to perhaps improve our build process as well. Thanks!

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