Monthly News – October 2018

Before we talk about new features and project news I’d like to send a huge thank you to all the people who support our project. Many thanks to our donors, our sponsors, our patrons and all the people who are helping us. I’d also like to say we’ve had a lot of fun working on developing Linux Mint lately and we’re excited to share the news with you.

Release schedule

We will be working to get Linux Mint 19.1 out for Christmas this year, with all three editions released at the same time and the upgrade paths open before the holiday season.

Patreon

Following the many requests we received to look into an alternative to Paypal, we’re happy to announce Linux Mint is now on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/linux_mint.

Our project received 33 pledges so far and we decided to use this service to help support Timeshift, a project which is very important to us and adds significant value to Linux Mint.

Mint-Y

Joseph Mccullar continued to improve the Mint-Y theme. Through a series of subtle changes he managed to dramatically increase the theme’s contrast.

The screenshot below shows the Xed text editor using the Mint-Y theme as it was in Mint 19 (on the left), and using the Mint-Y theme with Joseph’s changes (on the right):

The difference is immediately noticeable when the theme is applied on the entire desktop. Labels look sharp and stand out on top of their backgrounds. So do the icons which now look darker than before.

The changes also make it easier to visually identify the focused window:

In the above screenshot, the terminal is focused and its titlebar label is darker than in the other windows. This contrast is much more noticeable with Joseph’s changes (below the red line) than before (above the red line).

Status icons

Linux Mint 19 featured monochrome status icons. Although these icons looked nice on dark panels they didn’t work well in white context menus or in cases where the panel background color was changed by the user.

To tackle this issue, Linux Mint 19.1 will ship with support for symbolic icons in Redshift, mate-volume-control-applet, onboard and network-manager-applet.

Xapp

Stephen Collins added an icon chooser to the XApp library.

The icon chooser provides a dialog and a button and will make it easier for our applications to select themed icons and/or icon paths.

Cinnamon

Cinnamon 4.0 will look more modern thanks to a new panel layout. Whether you enjoy the new look or prefer the old one, we want everyone to feel at home in their operating system, so you’ll have the option to embrace the change or to click a button to make Cinnamon look just like it did before.

The idea of a larger and darker panel had been in the roadmap for a while.

Within our team, Jason Hicks and Lars Mueller (Cobinja) maintained two of the most successful 3rd party Cinnamon applets, respectively “Icing Task Manager” and “CobiWindowList”, two attempts at implementing a window list with app grouping and window previews, a feature which had become the norm in other major desktop operating systems, whether it was in the form of a dock (in Mac OS), a panel (in Windows) or a sidebar (in Ubuntu).

And recently German Franco had caught our attention on the need to use strict icon sizes to guarantee icons looked crisp rather than blurry.

We talked about all of this and Niko Krause, Joseph, Jason and I started working on a new panel layout for Cinnamon. We forked “Icing Task Manager” and integrated it into Cinnamon itself. That new applet received a lot of attention, many changes and eventually replaced the traditional window list and the panel launchers in the default Cinnamon panel.

Users were given the ability to define a different icon size for each of the three panel zones (left, center and right for horizontal panels, or top, center and bottom for vertical ones). Each panel zone can now have a crisp icon size such as 16, 22, 24, 32, 48 or 64px or it can be made to scale either exactly (to fit the panel size) or optimally (to scale down to the largest crisp icon size which fits in the panel).

Mint-Y-Dark was adapted slightly to look even more awesome and is now the default Cinnamon theme in Linux Mint.

By default, Cinnamon will feature a dark large 40px panel, where icons look crisp everywhere, and where they scale in the left and center zones but are restricted to 24px on the right (where we place the system tray and status icons).

This new look, along with the new workflow defined by the grouped window list, make Cinnamon feel much more modern than before.

We hope you’ll enjoy this new layout, we’re really thrilled with it, and if you don’t that’s OK too. We made sure everyone would be happy.

As you go through the “First Steps” section of the Linux Mint 19.1 welcome screen, you’ll be asked to choose your favorite desktop layout:

With a click of a button you’ll be able to switch back and forth between old and new and choose whichever default look pleases you the most.

Update Manager

Support for mainline kernels was added to the Update Manager. Thanks to “gm10” for implementing this.

Sponsorships:

Linux Mint is proudly sponsored by:

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

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

 

Donations in September:

A total of $9,932 were raised thanks to the generous contributions of 467 donors:

$500, Marc M.
$200, Anthony W.
$200, Lasse S.
$150 (4th donation), Jan S.
$109 (14th donation), Hendrik S.
$109 (2nd donation), Richard aka “Friendica @ meld.de
$109 (2nd donation), Adler-Apotheke Ahrensburg
$109, Juan E.
$109, Henning K.
$100 (6th donation), Robert K. aka “usmc_bob”
$100 (5th donation), Michael S.
$100 (5th donation), Kenneth P.
$100 (4th donation), Randall H.
$100 (2nd donation), Timothy M.
$100 (2nd donation), Timothy M.
$100 (2nd donation), Timothy M.
$100, Sherwood O.
$100, John Czuba aka “Minky”
$100, Dorothy
$100, Megan C.
$100, Stephen M.
$100, Philip C.
$100, Ronal M.
$84 (3rd donation), Thomas Ö.
$76, Jean-marc F.
$75 (2nd donation), D. C. .
$74, Mary A.
$54 (14th donation), Dr. R. M.
$54 (9th donation), Volker P.
$54 (3rd donation), Mark P.
$54 (2nd donation), Danilo Cesari aka “Dany”
$54, Bernd W.
$54, Ronald S.
$54, Marc V.
$54, Jean-pierre V.
$54, David P.
$50 (9th donation), James Denison aka “Spearmint2”
$50 (8th donation), Hans J.
$50 (4th donation), Tibor aka “tibbi
$50 (3rd donation), An L.
$50 (3rd donation), Shermanda E.
$50 (3rd donation), Harry H. I.
$50 (2nd donation), Colin B.
$50 (2nd donation), Katherine K.
$50 (2nd donation), Richard O.
$50, Charles L.
$50, Thomas W.
$50, Dietrich S.
$50, Harrie K.
$50, Martin S.
$50, Philip C.
$50, Randy R.
$50, Joseph D.
$50, Walter D.
$45 (2nd donation), The W.
$44, Den
$42 (23rd donation), Wolfgang P.
$40 (6th donation), Efran G.
$40 (3rd donation), Soumyashant Nayak
$40, Remi L.
$40, Flint W. O.
$40, Ivan Y.
$39, Steve S.
$35 (2nd donation), Joe L.
$33 (103th donation), Olli K.
$33 (7th donation), NAGY Attila aka “GuBo”
$33 (4th donation), Alfredo T.
$33 (3rd donation), Zerlono
$33 (2nd donation), Luca D. M.
$33 (2nd donation), Stephen M.
$33, aka “kaksikanaa”
$33, Sebastian J. E.
$33, Mario S.
$33, Raxis E.
$30 (3rd donation), John W.
$30 (3rd donation), Fred C.
$30 (2nd donation), Colin H.
$30, Robert P.
$30, Paul W.
$30, Riccardo C.
$27 (6th donation), Ralf D.
$27 (2nd donation), Holger S.
$27, Florian B.
$27, Mirko G.
$27, Lars P.
$27, Horst K.
$27, Henrik K.
$26, Veikko M.
$25 (85th donation), Ronald W.
$25 (24th donation), Larry J.
$25 (5th donation), Lennart J.
$25 (4th donation), B. H. .
$25 (3rd donation), Todd W.
$25 (3rd donation), Troy A.
$25 (3rd donation), William S.
$25 (3rd donation), Peter C.
$25 (2nd donation), William M.
$25 (2nd donation), Garrett R.
$25 (2nd donation), Chungkuan T.
$25 (2nd donation), Lynn H.
$25, Michael G.
$25, Nathan M.
$25, Fred V.
$25, Rory P.
$25, Anibal M.
$25, John S.
$25, Rick Oliver aka “Rick”
$25, Tan T.
$25, Darren K.
$25, Robert M.
$25, Darren E.
$25, Leslie P.
$25, Bob S.
$25, Balázs S.
$25, Eric W.
$25, Robert M.
$22 (19th donation), Derek R.
$22 (5th donation), Nigel B.
$22 (5th donation), David M.
$22 (4th donation), Janne K.
$22 (3rd donation), Ernst L.
$22 (3rd donation), Bernhard J.
$22 (3rd donation), Daniel M.
$22 (3rd donation), Stefan N.
$22 (3rd donation), Bruno Weber
$22 (2nd donation), Bruno T.
$22 (2nd donation), Nicolas R.
$22 (2nd donation), Timm A. M.
$22, Klaus D.
$22, Alexander L.
$22, Vincent G.
$22, Stefan L.
$22, George S.
$22, Roland T.
$22, Peter D.
$22, Pa M.
$22, Thomas H.
$22, David H.
$22, Aritz M. O.
$22, Julien D.
$22, Tanguy R.
$22, Jean-christophe B.
$22, Johan Z.
$22, Alex Mich
$20 (43th donation), Curt Vaughan aka “curtvaughan ”
$20 (10th donation), Lance M.
$20 (9th donation), Kevin Safford
$20 (5th donation), John D.
$20 (4th donation), Marius G.
$20 (4th donation), K. T. .
$20 (3rd donation), Mohamed A.
$20 (3rd donation), Bezantnet, L.
$20 (3rd donation), Bryan F.
$20 (3rd donation), Tim K.
$20 (3rd donation), David F.
$20 (2nd donation), Matthew M.
$20 (2nd donation), Barry D.
$20 (2nd donation), Ronald W.
$20 (2nd donation), Graham M.
$20 (2nd donation), Srikanth P.
$20 (2nd donation), Pixel Motion Film Entertainment, LLC
$20 (2nd donation), Bryan F.
$20, Thomas H.
$20, Eric W.
$20, Arthur S.
$20, Robert G.
$20, Stuart R.
$20, Stephen D.
$20, Joseph M.
$20, Carol V.
$20, David B.
$20, Kevin E.
$20, John K.
$20, Eyal D.
$20, Lawrence M.
$20, Jesse F.
$20, Manuel D. A.
$20, John C. B. J.
$20, Raymundo P.
$20, Nemer A.
$20, Brad S.
$20, Andrew E.
$20, Mixso Qld
$20, David R DeSpain PE
$20, Monka S. aka “Kaz”
$20, Paul B.
$16 (20th donation), Andreas S.
$16 (6th donation), Sabine L.
$16 (2nd donation), Mathias B.
$16 (2nd donation), L. T. .
$16 (2nd donation), Bernard D. B.
$16, Michael N.
$16, Patrick H.
$16, Roland W.
$15 (17th donation), Stefan M. H.
$15 (7th donation), John A.
$15 (6th donation), Hermann W.
$15 (3rd donation), Ishiyama T.
$15 (2nd donation), Eugen T.
$15 (2nd donation), Thomas J. M.
$15, Fred B.
$15, Eric H.
$15, Barnard W.
$15, Francis D.
$15, Lim C. W.
$15, framaga2000
$15, Rodolfo L.
$15, Jonathan D.
$15, Travis B.
$13 (21st donation), Johann J.
$13, Rafael A. O. Paulucci aka “rpaulucci3
$12 (90th donation), Tony C. aka “S. LaRocca”
$12 (35th donation), JobsHiringNearMe
$12 (20th donation), Johann J.
$11 (16th donation), Alessandro S.
$11 (13th donation), Doriano G. M.
$11 (10th donation), Rufus
$11 (9th donation), Denis D.
$11 (9th donation), Per J.
$11 (6th donation), Annette T.
$11 (5th donation), Pierre G.
$11 (4th donation), Barry J.
$11 (4th donation), Oprea M.
$11 (4th donation), Emanuele Proietti aka “Manuermejo”
$11 (3rd donation), Marcel S.
$11 (3rd donation), Michael B.
$11 (3rd donation), Tangi Midy
$11 (3rd donation), Christian F.
$11 (2nd donation), Dominique M.
$11 (2nd donation), Alisdair L.
$11 (2nd donation), Renaud B.
$11 (2nd donation), Björn M.
$11 (2nd donation), Marius G.
$11 (2nd donation), August F.
$11 (2nd donation), Reinhard P. G.
$11 (2nd donation), David G.
$11, August F.
$11, Jeffrey R.
$11, Kerstin J.
$11, Martin L.
$11, Pjerinjo
$11, Stanislav G. aka “Sgcko7”
$11, Chavdar M.
$11, David C.
$11, Angelos N.
$11, Adam Butler
$11, Daniel C. G.
$11, Marco B.
$11, Anthony M.
$11, Stuart G.
$11, João P. D. aka “jpdiniz”
$11, Sven W.
$11, Radoslav J.
$11, Csaba Z. S.
$11, Alejandro M. G.
$11, Esa T.
$11, Hugo G.
$11, Lauri P.
$11, Johannes R.
$11, Vittorio F.
$10 (34th donation), Thomas C.
$10 (25th donation), Frank K.
$10 (21st donation), Jim A.
$10 (18th donation), Dinu P.
$10 (17th donation), Dinu P.
$10 (12th donation), Tomasz K.
$10 (11th donation), Chris K.
$10 (11th donation), hotelsnearbyme.net
$10 (6th donation), Mattias E.
$10 (4th donation), Frederick M.
$10 (4th donation), John T.
$10 (3rd donation), Roger S.
$10 (3rd donation), Wilfred F.
$10 (3rd donation), Raymond H. aka “Rosko”
$10 (2nd donation), Bobby E.
$10 (2nd donation), Neilor C.
$10 (2nd donation), Sara E.
$10 (2nd donation), Scott O.
$10 (2nd donation), Michael S.
$10 (2nd donation), John W.
$10, Richard R.
$10, George M.
$10, Leszek D.
$10, Eduardo B.
$10, Dmytro L.
$10, Dave G.
$10, Arthur A.
$10, James S.
$10, Polk O.
$10, Reid N.
$10, Geoff H.
$10, Gary G.
$10, Rodney D.
$10, Jeremy P.
$10, Randolph R.
$10, Harry S.
$10, Jett Fuel Productions
$10, Douglas S. aka “AJ Gringo”
$10, Carlos M. P. A.
$10, alphabus
$10, Ivan M.
$10, Lebogang L.
$10, lin pei hung
$10, Glen D.
$10, Brian H.
$10, Christopher D.
$10, Scott M.
$9, Roberto P.
$8 (3rd donation), Cyril U.
$8 (2nd donation), Caio C. M.
$8, Stefan S.
$8, John T.
$7 (8th donation), GaryD
$7 (5th donation), Jan Miszura
$7 (3rd donation), Kiyokawa E.
$7 (3rd donation), Daniel J G II
$7 (2nd donation), Mirko Bukilić aka “Bukela”
$7, Ante B.
$7, Wayne O.
$6.44, Mahmood M.
$6 (2nd donation), Alan H.
$6, Sydney G.
$6, Nancy H.
$5 (28th donation), Eugene T.
$5 (21st donation), Kouji Sugibayashi
$5 (20th donation), Kouji Sugibayashi
$5 (19th donation), Bhavinder Jassar
$5 (14th donation), Dmitry P.
$5 (11th donation), J. S. .
$5 (11th donation), Web Design Company
$5 (10th donation), Lumacad Coupon Advertising
$5 (10th donation), Blazej P. aka “bleyzer”
$5 (7th donation), AlephAlpha
$5 (7th donation), Joseph G.
$5 (7th donation), Халилова А.
$5 (6th donation), Goto M.
$5 (5th donation), Scott L.
$5 (5th donation), Russell S.
$5 (5th donation), Pokies Portal
$5 (4th donation), Giuseppino M.
$5 (4th donation), Adjie aka “AJ
$5 (4th donation), rptev
$5 (3rd donation), Jalister
$5 (3rd donation), Tomasz R.
$5 (3rd donation), Daniela K.
$5 (2nd donation), Pawel K.
$5 (2nd donation), Ramon O.
$5 (2nd donation), Sergei K.
$5 (2nd donation), Jerry F.
$5 (2nd donation), Joseph J. G.
$5 (2nd donation), Erik P.
$5 (2nd donation), Stefan N.
$5 (2nd donation), Nenad G.
$5, Sergio M.
$5, Paul B.
$5, Sergio G.
$5, Gregory M.
$5, Almir D. A. B. F.
$5, Paul R.
$5, Stamatis S.
$5, The Art of War by Sun Tzu
$5, Borut B.
$5, Mitchell S.
$5, Angela S.
$5, Manny V.
$5, Silviu P.
$5, Lyudmila N.
$5, Ligrani F.
$5, Drug Rehab Thailand aka “Siam Rehab
$5, Alfredo G.
$5, Mike K.
$5, Peter A. aka “Skwanchi”
$5, Harmen P.
$5, Joseangel S.
$5, Jaime S.
$5, Ruslan A.
$5, Corrie B.
$5, Beverlee H.
$5, Akiva G.
$5, Alexander P.
$5, Kepa M. S.
$5, Christian M.
$4 (9th donation), nordvpn coupon
$4, Alexander Z.
$3.7, Alex H.
$3.6, Allen D.
$3.4, Patricia G.
$3.35, Di_Mok
$3.2, Trina Z.
$3.1, Edward K.
$3.1, Sarie B.
$3 (3rd donation), Lubos S.
$3, Frederik V. D.
$3, Somfalvi J.
$3, Therese N.
$3, Mikko S.
$2.9, Allison C.
$2.8, Marsha E.
$2.8, Joe F.
$2.6, Maureen M.
$2.6, Okneia F.
$2.5, Tonya G.
$2.4 (2nd donation), Tonya G.
$2.4, Jearlin B.
$2.3 (2nd donation), Edward K.
$2.3, Henry H.
$2.3, Pedro P.
$2.2, Joseph Lenzo DOB
$79.87 from 59 smaller donations

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

Patrons:

Linux Mint is proudly supported by 33 patrons, for a sum of $239 per month.

To become a Linux Mint patron, please visit https://www.patreon.com/linux_mint

Rankings:

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202 comments

    1. I would also like to know about Mint-Y with different colours. So far sticking with Mint-X, cause I’m not a fan of green. 😉

    2. Hi Arthur,

      I can’t commit to it (I don’t like doing that until I’m absolutely sure we’ll deliver)… but we know people want this, we already wanted to get it done the last time around and we’re planning to get it in again for 19.1.

    3. I agree with Arthur. Mint-Y-Dark is so nice; just, simply a few versions like “Mint-Y-Dark-Aqua” “Mint-Y-Dark-Blue” etc. would be fine.

      Thanks to Mint Team for all they do .

  1. Dear Clem,

    what’s the advantage of using the mainline kernel?
    I thought they make trouble and we need the Ubuntu Kernels?

    Is the Mint-Y fixed, that the black theme would make the firefox input elements on a website black with black text?

    Kind Regards
    Martin

    1. Hi Martin,

      I get white input text fields here with mint-y-dark. The main purpose behind the mainline kernels, other than giving you access to series which aren’t available in Ubuntu/Mint, is testing. This feature isn’t there to promote mainline kernels to users, but to make it easier for people who already use mainline kernels to see what’s installed and install/remove kernels more easily.

    2. I’d like to second what Martin said….

      The black text input within Firefox using Mint-Y-Dark drives me nuts. You have to highlight the text to see what you’ve typed.

      Other than that, great work Mint team and look forward to 19.1!

    3. To reproduce Firefox dark text fields with Mint-Y-Dark:

      go to http://www.logicalincrements.com

      Scroll down to the email subscription entry field. It’s pretty difficult to see what you’re typing and this happens across many websites. Also seeing this issue on Mint 18 machines.

      Mint-Y-Dark is otherwise my favorite theme!

    4. Just tried out a few dark themes. (Mint-Y-Dark, X-Arc-Shadow, Adwaita-dark). I got dark input elements with all of these. Changing the theme in Firefox itself (“Customize”) has no effect on the input elements (stay dark).

      So not really a bug of Mint-Y-Dark but rather Firefox … But as a workaround: there are plugins (I used “Text Contrast for Dark Themes” before I switched to Mint-Y-Darker due to other applications that aren’t well usable)

    5. I’d like to second what other people have said about problems with dark themes, especially with firefox. I find that when I have the theme set to Mint-Y-Dark, and reply to an email in protonmail set to plain text mode (I know this is oddly specific, but it might help someone find the issue- I’m sure it would happen with other things, although it doesn’t happen in the outlook web app) the box for writing the email in is white and the text is very light grey, making it very hard to read. There’s other, smaller, issues too.

      Also, in VLC, the icons for play/pause, stop, fast forward, full screen etc (all the icons on the bottom of the window) have very bad contrast (medium grey on dark grey) on dark themes.

      Not sure to what extent those are things you can fix, and I suppose they’re only minor problems in the scheme of things, but irritating.

    6. There is a workaround for this issue with Firefox.

      Create a user.js file in ~/.mozilla/firefox/1234567.default with the contents user_pref(“widget.content.gtk-theme-override”, “Adwaita”); which forces firefox to use Adwaita (the default GTK theme) to theme website content.

      1234567.default is a placeholder for whatever Firefox has named your default profile folder.

    7. Glad to see a lot of other people chime in on dark input boxes – something I’ve raised from time to time over half a decade or so. But also have to confirm the same issue exists with every other ultra-dark theme I’ve tried, so not exclusive to Mint themes. Currently running Mint-Y dark blue but Mint X Grey Controls to avoid the problem. My other, related long term “theming” beef is the default 1990s vintage cursors, sending new users to who knows where to learn how and where to install a range of cursors. The Themes interface should offer colored and animated currors out of the box, preferably with an “inverted” set that will respond to desktop background. It’s 2019.

    8. Cursor themes – apt search cursor* will bring up some candidates for install.

      This will provide an extensive selection – apt install chameleon-cursor-theme breeze-cursor-theme comixcursors crystalcursors

    9. Martin,
      Some of us like to try mainline kernels, sometimes to get most modern drivers/features, sometimes just for kicks. I do that with other distros as well particularly on the ARch side. For LM, I haven’t had serious breakage since leaving LM17 (cause I was using AMD fglrx). Reverting isn’t that hard anyway. Now, looks like we can do that and get updates for mainline stable without manually udating. Thanks GM10!

    10. On Firefox and Waterfox, the easiest workaround I found was to install the add-on “Text Contrast for Dart Themes”. Works great on all those login-pages and search bars that were impossible to read on the gray text box.

  2. At last… the absolutely necessary contrast changes in Mint-Y (I think I’ve read that menu separators are coming back too?). I mean… that arc-theme is barely usable by people who spent more than one hour WORKING with their computers. I am also very happy about maintaining old looks alongside the new one.
    Here you go team!!!
    If I may to suggest the removal of those dashes in containers when the user has selected the normal scrollbars over the overlay ones. They are redundant in this case, arent’t they?

    1. Hi Vassilis,

      I suppose they are since they’re there to indicate there’s more to see… it might be something to ask GTK upstream though, I’m not sure we can control this here on our end.

      You’re right about menu separators, they are back indeed (sorry I didn’t mention this).

  3. Hi Clem, I wonder if you’re aware of an issue with xplayer – every time you search for subtitles the video freezes, rendering the app unresponsive.
    Otherwise good work, Mint is definitely getting better 🙂

  4. Dear Clem! Please, make these contrast changes optional or explain how it would be possible to revert them. I think, many people prefer working with soft colors/fonts/contrast and it’ll absolutely painful for those who prefer working at night. Thank you in advance.

    1. Hi Alex,

      The easiest way to revert them would be to copy your current version of /usr/share/themes/Mint-Y, rename it (and its index.theme) and place the newly obtained theme in ~/themes. These are improvements though, that contrast was needed and it won’t hurt your eyes.

      PS: It might not be relevant, or maybe you know about it already, but just in case, I thought I’d mention redshift.. it’s handy, especially if you work at night.

  5. I gave a PC with Linux Mint 19 MATE (2Gb RAM) to my brother for him try (he’s still running Vista on an even older PC). I forgot to install WINE on it but told him he could run Windows stuff like Office if he wanted to — an important “selling point”.

    I’m still on 18.3 Cinnamon. Wanted to try out an update a Windows app today so I set up Mint 19 (Cinnamon) on another old PC — couldn’t use my 18.3 as the app converts files to a new format.

    “So I’ll just install WINE” I thought.

    Oh boy. What a mess.*

    My top MUST INSTALL packages are

    Timesheet (since before it was included)
    Backintime (for Home folder backup)
    BorgBackup (for redundant backup)
    WINE

    Ordinarily I wouldn’t give anyone new to Linux a machine without all, or all but Borg, set up and working. I missed that WINE wasn’t included in 19. I’m sure there was a good reason for it. I hope this is fixed in 19.1. For anyone coming from Windows WINE is surely a must have. At least as important as Timesheet imo.

    *I followed the instructions at https://blog.softhints.com/install-wine-linux-mint-add-menu which generated errors indicating that Mono should be installed (wrongly as it turned out) and generated more problems, and uninstalling it failed.

    1. Hi PJ,

      Although it’s really useful to some people, we can’t install WINE by default for everybody.

      wine-stable (3.0) and wine-development (3.6) are available in the repositories. I think the decision to remove the menu items came from upstream (i.e. from WINE directly).

    2. To be clear: I didn’t mean having it installed/included, just installable. Didn’t know it was an upstream decision to remove the menu items, thanks for clarifying; however I’m not the only one who has had issues (maybe this is the reason for the change?) 🙁

  6. Fantastic upgrades! Can’t wait to see them. However im really concerned about this memory leak I’m getting and there haven’t been any fixes so far. I can’t leave my Linux Mint PC on for more than a few hours as memory usage starts to slow it to a crawl, even if I’m only using a browser. I think it’s a Cinnamon problem but I’m not sure.

    1. Hi Chase,

      You can see which process is eating the memory in the system monitor. A memory leak is identified once you can reproduce a minimal amount of steps/actions, and always make the memory bump by the same amount, with that memory never going back down.

      PS: We’ve got a huge amount of memory related changes in cinnamon and cjs (its Javascript interpreter) coming up in 4.0. Please make sure to participate in the BETA this December to see if your issue is still present.

  7. Hi Clem ! Thanks for the report 🙂

    About tray icons, I noticed the NextCloud client tray icons look particularly out of place (especially too big),

    cheers !

    1. Hi Mahen,

      Check the Cinnamon logs (Alt+F2+lg -> log tab) to see what size the NextCloud tray icon is resized to. That was one of our motivation for custom panel zone icon sizes, tray icons don’t play nice when they are too large. The technology behind the tray icons was designed at a time when these icons were only 16px, and it was slowly abandoned by GNOME then (they don’t really want to use them anymore).

  8. Oh, I have another question 🙂 Do you have long term plans to adopt an optional global menu ? It’s been implemented quite nicely recently in KDE 5 (both Qt & Gtk support) — also with the possibility (with Active Window Control) to “merge” the title bar and close/minimize… buttons to gain even more vertical space.
    Cheers ! 🙂

  9. Hi, Clem! Thank you for all the great work you’re doing! I have a question regarding a Canon printer. I have i-Sensys LBP6030B laser printer which was working just fine with 18.x versions of Linux Mint Cinnamon. It did take a little workarounds with installing 32bit drivers instead of 64bit ones, but it did work.
    But since I’ve upgraded to 19, there is no way to make my printer work. 🙁 I’ve tried virtually everything that one can find online as a proposed solution for the problem (it says it’s printing and all, but nothing happens – no printout whatsoever). So this is my last solution. Is there a way to implement whatever magic there is and make my printer work again?
    Thank you again! 🙂

    1. Thank you for your answer, Clem. And thank you for trying to help me resolve the printer issue.
      Unfortunately, I’ve tried all of the things that are listed there, but nothing helped. 🙁 I’ll keep searching for the solution.

  10. It all sounds good to me and worth waiting for the upgrade (my wife even bought me 24″ monitor to replace my ancient 19″ as an early Christmas present just for the occasion). And fine job “fixing” the clarity of the Mint-Y theme since that was the only thing keeping me from using it (older eyes need sharper fonts, etc).

    1. Hi Esme,

      Linux Mint 19.x releases are based on Ubuntu 18.04 and its available kernels. At the moment 18.04 only has 4.15 (though more kernel series are available upstream or via mainline).

  11. “Whether you enjoy the new look or prefer the old one, we want everyone to feel at home in their operating system, so you’ll have the option to embrace the change or to click a button to make Cinnamon look just like it did before.”

    This is why I love Linux Mint team. They listen and care about their users. Looking forward to trying the new modern Cinnamon panel.

    Thank you for you hard work.

  12. Hi Clem,
    I have noticed, that along with Mint 19 there an “aptitude show” command has been forced to use sudo. Is that some sort of a bug?
    for example:

    aptitude show top
    E: Error saving configuration file – apt_dumpcfg (13: Brak dostępu)
    E: Error saving configuration file – apt_dumpcfg (13: Brak dostępu)

    But there is nothing this command can do, only to see a description of what the program/application is about.

    Thanks

  13. Please, upgrade the open file dialog. Its so ugly in Mint Y. Use the gnome dialog or rework that. At least, upgrade the theme to adapt to it.

    The shutdown dialog is ugly too, need some love.

    1. Hi,

      Is there a command which acts as a wrapper to all this (so we don’t have to check dbus ourselves.. it’s a bit tedious just for that)? Please feel free to make a PR for this.

  14. Thank you for re-implementing support for mainline kernels in the Kernel Update Manger. I was forced to use CLI all the time as Ukuu and linux-kernel-utilities are fallen behind in some extent. Linux Mint Kernel Manager is very convenient feature absent elsewher!

  15. Clem, I lovei the sound of the new features in the upcoming release of Mint 19.1. I have what I hope is a tiny request: Is there any chance of making the Kernel Manager window stay open if you want to remove more than one old kernel, rather than continuously having to reopen it? Hopefully such a feature is something that can be implemented in time for the release of Cinnamon 4.0 in Mintn19.1.

  16. There is a *lot* of stuff I think is a good idea in here. Well done. A suggestion for further improving the Mint-Y themes: have some subtle shading in the titlebar, more so in focused and unfocused windows. The result still looks fairly flat but helps one distinguish one window from another. I’ve implemented this for Mint-Y dark, albeit drawing upon someone else’s work that enlarged the window decorations (though one could drop the last part if desired). I can supply screenshots. What do you think?

    1. Hi JN,

      Make a pull request on https://github.com/linuxmint/mint-themes and add screenshots to it.

      Note: We’re planning to move towards GTK windows in 4.2 (i.e. to have muffin render titlebars according to the GTK theme as opposed to the metacity theme). This will make all windows (CSD and non-CSD) more consistent and open the way to easier themeing of shadows. Joseph wants us to learn from Mac OS on this, with larger shadows.

  17. make Mint feel much more modern than before: change the theme and icons.. seriously guys, the best distro has one of the worst presentation to newcomer when we are talking about design and colours. Why not the original arc-theme preinstalled too?

  18. Will the modern desktop layout option or a similar alternative be implemented in the MATE and Xfce versions of 19.1 too?

  19. Hello, Clem, developers, and Linux Minters:

    This is excellent news and I am looking forward to Cinnamon 4.0. I love seeing that another donation option has been implemented (Patreon), without removing another option (PayPal). It’s also great to read that Timeshift will be getting additional financial “love”; it is a wonderful feature. Finally, I love reading that while Cinnamon will be receiving a new, additional (modern) panel layout, as is the usual case with Linux Mint, user options are maintained, for those who wish to continue using the traditional panel layout. Thank you for the options!!! It’s wonderful to have such choices in the distribution we all love.

    Thanks to everyone for all your hard work; thanks for the updates and here’s to the upcoming Cinnamon 4.0 and Linux Mint 19.1 releases. It is an exciting time in the Linux Mint world. 🙂

    1. There’s nothing wrong with using a headerbar per se. All our WMs handle that pretty well nowadays and as long as you don’t change the UI too much and use the headerbar to shove actions which would otherwise be in a menu/toolbar, the only difference it makes is in how it looks.

  20. Hopefully this will fix the issue of my laptop (HP DV5-1002nr(basically it’s 10 years old)) resuming from suspend on Xfce (etc) as that was why I had to use Cinnamon as Cinnamon does not have this problem.

    1. Pro tip from IT guy: whenever i configure a new machine, one of the first things i disable is Suspend/Hibernate.
      Trying to suspend/hibernate a PC is the tech equivalent to wanting to be able to sudden stop your car, which you’re driving at 100 Km/h and stopping it immediately, and then hopping to resume your speed of 100 Km/h instantly…
      It causes more and worse problems than the ones it solves…

    2. @nomadewolf: are you serious? Suspend is an excellent option. Please explain how it can damage the system.
      I don’t see any advantage to Hibernate myself, but Suspend is valuable.
      Suspend not working properly is a serious bug.

    1. Is thunderbird-locale-hu installed?

      Note: The maintainer for the thundebird package is Ubuntu Mozilla Team (ubuntu-mozillateam@lists.ubuntu.com). This is an Ubuntu package, you can check this with “apt policy thunderbird”.

  21. Hi,

    You say “We’ve got a huge amount of memory related changes in cinnamon and cjs (its Javascript interpreter) coming up in 4.0. “.

    Could you elaborate on that?
    Could we expect Mint 19.1 to be more efficient with memory resources?

    Thank You.

  22. Hi.
    Unfortunately, my Asus VivoBook equipped with Ryzen 7 and Vega 10 does not work stably (sometimes at all) in Linux … Is there any information when graphics drivers become stable? Now I have to work in Win 10…
    In addition, I have a different problem with the output settings of audio devices, probably due to Vega 10.
    I hope all these problems will be fixed.
    Best regards.

  23. Linux Mint being available on Patreon is a great way for people to support Mint! 😀

    And finally having a icon based taskbar is a great evolution of Cinammon, just as the improved contrast in the Mint-Y theme. As opposed to someone that complained about that, I think that facilitates visibility (maybe just decrease screen brightness or use a dark theme if that’s an issue?).

    Hopefully, Mint 19.1 will fix the clusterfuck that is Samba in Mint 19 and troubleshoot VPN adddition and network printers discovery.

  24. I admire your dedication to improve your product visually but I think your new 19+ designs look a little to much like other popular desktop surfaces and some of them are known to sacrifice usability for design.
    Look at the x-app settings dialogs or the welcome screen picture up above: the top to bottom category bar is much harder to read and comprehend then the old top tabs and instead of presenting the complete category contends in the window you have to scroll down. I would have assumed that at least the windows would be resized to display the whole contend in 19.1 🙁 .
    Same story unfortunately for the monochrome icons/symbols you seem so fond of pushing lately. Whether or not they look more “modern” or elegant can be debated but lack of colour coding makes it definitely harder to identify them at a quick glance. A coloured option would be highly appreciated.
    Btw. y-themes with a white background in rightclick/app menus inverse the icon and text upon selection – this makes it visually an elusive target. Would be better if only the text colour was inverted like in the dark themes.
    And lastly (I promise ! 😉 ) Whats up with app integration? Is gnome-calendar still shipped without integration into the system tray and without working alarms? Halve of the functionality missing in a preinstalled app is not a good impression.
    Enough with the nitpicking! Still love your work guys and looking forward to the next releases.

  25. Will we be able to switch between a “traditional” and “modern” layout for the panel from somewhere else outside of the Mint Welcome screen?

    1. Hi Peter,

      Yes and No. You can customize every aspect of Cinnamon to make it look like these two buttons do, they’re just shortcuts to two different sets of default settings for Mint.

  26. Hi, LOVE you guys, you saved my life at 10pm when my -NEW- Windows Lenovo Notebook bluescreened and I had a presentation the next day. Where do you get an OS at 10pm at night when Best Buy and Microsoft are closed? LinuxMint of course. I never went back;). How much does it cost to be a Brozen Sponsor? I have a small project I am working on, we really don’t have an ad budget, but I want to support Mint and figured if I could get a little banner ad out of it why not. Please advise. Thanks, Chris T. Florida USA

  27. Dear Clem,
    Can we already use Clearlooks-Phenix for windows’ contour on LMDE3 and Mint 19 (and the .1)?
    It gives a traditional old school very explicit distinction between the active windows and the other ones.
    (I won’t be upgrading from LMDE2 until I can this look and feel, I just can’t use my OS the way they are shipped now, sorry).

    1. Yes, Clearlooks-Phenix is already available in both repos. (Debian stable and Ubuntu bionic)

  28. Great News, once again!! Every update is a big improvement to something already fantastic.
    Looking foward to test the beta.
    Thanks!!!

  29. Congratulations for the modern panel, I can’t live without icon-only, grouped panel with pinned launchers.
    A question regarding them: are jumplists supported? I’m now very much used to them. Started with unity, then gnome, and now I’m stuck in plasma, but I still keep an eye on cinnamon.
    Actually, plasma is the best implementation in my opinion, as it supports static / dynamic actions, recently opened files, count badges and progress bars.
    Again, congrats!

  30. Hello, thank you for all your work, is there any chance that the pulseeffects is made available in the software center (not as flatpack)? The flatpack is extremely large compared to the ppa:mikhailnov.

  31. Still no words about make right side “slider” customizable in LM 19.1? With LM update, you miniaturized this slider even in LM 18.3. That’s very bad idea. I’m not the only one who complying about this, so please start listen to people. Thanx for all your work. Return from Winux to Linux.

    1. One of my Boxes is a Dell Precision T3400 that has three Linux OS’s on it. Two are Mint 19 Cinnamon and Mint 19 Mate and one other Linux version. My monitor is a Dell 1909W at 1440×900. Now, I can only run 1024×768 with all three as maximum resolution. Video is a Nvidia Quadro NVS 290.

      I would like to go back to 1440×900 on all three. Can / is there a simple to follow procedure to do this. Tried to follow one, and made a mess with Linux Mint DEB3 that was on this box. Ended up wiping the partition and putting LMDeb3 on another system. (Have all Linux Mint 19 versions installed, those on other systems work at the monitors optimum resolution. Even the two LM Mint 18.3 plus other 3 other current Linux operate on my Old 2006 HP Pavillion 1613w at a 1920×1020 with a cheap 2 meg video card and Pentium D 280 with a Samsung 24 inch SyncMaster SA300.

      My Dell 3020 i5 (the Dell 1909w) and Dell 7010 i7 (Samsung SA300) also use these two monitors at there max resolution. Two video cables each, and one wireless Logitech mouse, keyboard and movable usb unify-er.

      Really Do Not like 1024×768 which is FIVE steps down from 1440×900.

      Thanks for all your hard work on LM. Mike

      PS my email provider will not let me put “email” from MS in the spam folder. LOL

  32. Sorry about the above post as a “reply”. Had a old fart brain fart.

    Thanks again for all the good LM OS’s in the stable. Mike (Mate 19 on the T3400).

  33. Please fix Samba. It’s impossible to open more than one share per server atm. Also adding new screen definitions is a mess. These are such basic features. Thanks 🙂

    1. Hi Chris,

      Please report the issue upstream to Ubuntu (and/or Samba directly if the regression is there in their latest version). Give us the link so we can keep an eye on it.

  34. In Linux Mint Mate Caja, when you select View > Extra Pane, and at least one pane is ‘List View’, select any file/folder in the ‘List View’. Then select any file/folder in the other pane. the file/folder in the ‘List View’ pane can no longer be seen because it is white text on a white background. This is a problem in both 18.3 and 19.

    The log file viewer in 18.3 has a similar problem in that the date/time column is white text on a white background. This has been fixed in 19.

    1. I’m not able to replicate this on Mint 19 MATE with the Mint-X Theme. Which theme are you using?

  35. Loving Icing Task Manager! It’s so awesome that you forked it, further improved it and put it in Mint by default.
    Also ALL these other upcoming changes make me very very excited 🙂 Especially the performance improvements sound very promissing.

    Can’t wait for the beta! Thanks for your hard work!

  36. I’ve been an avid Linux Mint user since 2008 (KDE at the time). In essence, I was, more or less, satisfying my own curiosity as to whether or not I would drop the Windows OS and make a total commitment to use Linux as my everyday Operating System; it was, to say the least, one heck of a rough ride. In 2012, I switched to the Cinnamon DE, but I hadn’t commit to completely leave Windows and begin using Mint as my day to day OS, mostly due to inconsistencies found and the use of so many different authentication agents. After a year of sporadic use, I started moving away from Linux Mint and began testing other Linux Distros, from Ubuntu to Puppy, back and across many different distributions.

    In 2015, I made the decision that the time to leave Windows had arrived, it was now or never! Today, I’m glad to report that my Windows days are gone, over, finito!

    At the beginning of my quest to move away from Windows, the very first thing I noticed with just about all Linux Distros was the Frankenstein syndrome, which is the only characteristic of Linux I’ve been dissatisfied with to this day. And of that dissatisfaction, the number one issue I’ve had relates to the authentication agents and agent windows that pop-up when root privileges are required to run an program. It seems that this ignored inconsistency comes and goes in front of the eyes of the developers and doesn’t rise a reg flag to the idea that your distribution could be made more appealing to the user’s eyes. I know, most people will probably say this is too menial to even consider; however in my eyes, even if Linux OS is the best Operating System across the face of this planet, it still projects itself as a second rate OS, mainly because those inconsistencies have been present since the very beginning.

    SU, GKSU, GKSUDO, KDESU, KDESUDO, KTSUSS, BEESU, PKEXEC, an so on. Why don’t we just simplify this process and use PKEXEC (POLKIT) as the only authentication agent for all tasks requiring root privileges.

    I’m not a developer and my programming skills are not enough to tackle this task on my own. However, there are a lot of developers out there who should consider standardizing this aspect of the Linux Operating Systems and its many Distros. I BELIEVE THAT THE REMOVAL OF THESE INCONSISTENCIES WILL HAVE A VERY POSITIVE EFFECT ON HOW NEWBIES AND EXPERIENCED LINUX USERS ALIKE PERCEIVE THE LINUX OS AS A FIRST RATE PLATFORM.

  37. Some observations on LMDE vs the various Ubuntu-based Mint versions. I have three machines that I keep in sync for business purposes: a Dell Latitude E6500 (March 2009), in which I have replaced the original HDD with a 240GB SSD; a Dell XPS L421X (November 2012), with a dual SSD / HDD; and a Dell XPS 13 9360 (August 2017), with a HiDPI display and linked to a 27-inch external monitor. The first two machines were supplied with Windows; the XPS 13 with Ubuntu 16.04.
    The XPS 13 now has Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon as its only operating system. Works fine. Installed from USB, and no problems with Ubiquity. Now has a low-latency kernel.
    The XPS 14 was upgraded to Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon two weeks ago. Again, not problems whatsoever (I use it for music production, mainly, hence it also has a low-latency kernel).
    Then this week I tried to put Linux Mint 19 Mate on the Latitude E6500. Same BIOS set-up as the other two machines. Ubiquity kept hanging at the “Detecting File Systems” stage. I had cleaned the drive, set up /boot and root partitions (ext4) and a swap partition – which I’ve done numerous times in the past – and Ubiquity just loops. It’s nothing to do with the hardware – Linux Mint Debian Edition Cindy (Cinnamon) installed absolutely without problems, and that’s the OS presently on the machine, which is fine. However I did discover in the process that Linux Mint 19 Xfce would install (albeit slowly) on the machine *if* I had previously set up the partitions with the LMDE installer – but compare to the Debian Edition it was horribly slow and clunky.

    So my plea is: please *ditch* Ubiquity and switch to the LMDE installer for all editions! It’s not worth risking putting possible new users off from the moment they try to install the system.

  38. Ciao Clem, I would like to share a feedback about the use of keyboard shortcuts.
    On Ubuntu (and on windows, ok …) usually the keybord shortcut Windows key+L is used to lock the screen, and Windows key+directional arrow is used to maximixe to half screen, restore or make a window full screen.
    It could be useful to have this combinations of keys available by default in cinnamon, not having it sounds like an anti-pattern.
    My 2 cents

  39. Hi Clem and team,

    Would love to try one of the newer versions of Mint, but as I haven’t upgraded for a few years, the signing key I have stored (ie the one I already trust) is outdated and has been changed.

    Please please please would you just sign the new iso key using the old iso key?

    There’s a comment from around the time when the keys changed asking you to do that, and explaining why it’s important here:
    https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3051#comment-131457
    …and you said you would, but looking at the copy of the new key on the ubuntu keyservers (which is where your tutorial suggests people get them):
    https://keyserver.ubuntu.com/pks/lookup?search=0x300f846ba25bae09&op=vindex
    …it seems that never happened.

    Thanks for all your hard work folks, hoping this is something you can sort out quickly and easily.

    xxxx

    1. It’s been a week; any chance of a reply to this?

      Even just to say ‘no we’re not planning to do this’ or ‘yes, but it will take us X amount of time’.

      That way I’ll know whether to keep waiting, or switch to another OS I have in mind.

  40. I like the improvements, but I’m not a fan of grouping my apps in the panel. I hope I can get the new look, while still being able to see all my open windows and allow them to have different sizes to show their full title.
    Will there be any Hi-DPI improvements in xapps? I’m still having highlighting problems in xreader on my 4K screen laptop.

  41. hello linuxmint always been very comfortable with your operating system and never worked badly or anything for the excellent fluids of games programs that need big resource etc and even more than one at a time so I miss this error too much, I do not know if it is the program or something else but what happens is quite strange is stuck the whole system not for a program or game that need great resources although I have the minimum 6 gigs, but it is stuck visualizing a gift not in the browser but on the desktop will be a my problem or nose but it stays stuck forcing me to turn off the pc

  42. Thanks to the team for all their work.

    For the record: MATE/Mint-X here.

    For us who now do the updates automatically, how will we know when 19.1 is available? Of course, apart from watching this blog – and many non-technical users will not be reading it. (Even in the past, there was no prompt from the Update manager that a new X.n version was ready apart from looking in the Edit menu.)

  43. Is there any chance you might address how text scales in list view with zoom? I figured if you wanted to make the font bigger, you do that in settings. I don’t know why the zoom affects text in list view but not the others.

  44. If you want crisp icons at any scale, why not use SVG? Then you only need one icon and you can easily animate and change color in the icon if you want (thought that might not be the best idea).

    1. SVGs don’t scale properly either. It’s not a technical issue (Vectors are geometrical so in theory they can scale up and up and up… but not down to a certain point because you run out of pixels to render them). Say you’re looking at the US flag in glorious 200px and it looks amazing. Now scale that down to 16px and it looks awful. It looks awful because at 16px you don’t want to see the same flag, you want that blue square to take a good half of the width, you want just a few stars, not too many, maybe 4 stripes only… you want an approximation really, something that will look more like the US flag, at that size, than what the flag actually looks like, if that makes sense. And all icons are like that, depending on the size they emphasis such or such aspects of themselves, whether the theme actually uses SVG or PNG or a combination of both, it ships these sizes wich icon sets in each size that look good at that size.

  45. Interesting. Something changed between 19 beta and 19 version 2 which is interfering with my Ekiga. After a fresh install of version 2 on the same hardware/router I’m getting the dreaded Ekiga couldn’t configure my network something about router port forwarding. It’s not a firewall or router issue, and I’m seeing it with Open SUSE Leap 15 in Virtualbox as well. Since I’m using the same desktop, network card, router, Ekiga version, analog headphones (not usb) I’m thinking it’s a problem with the OS…but then SUSE failed the same way. Kernel problem?

  46. Thank you Linux Mint team. I’ve had my fill of the oppressive software company from Redmond Wa.
    After updating my old laptop to a 64bit operating system it was rendered inoperable with a no video condition after a bandwidth hogging and lengthy update. I was looking for an alternative, and discovered Linux Mint 19.
    What’s the worst that could happen? Created the iso, and booted via optical drive (system doesn’t support USB boot), and now I have video again. Looked around for a bit, and then clicked the install icon.
    I no longer have the boot of ms tyranny on my neck! I’m free! Free at last!

  47. Wow, I am really looking fwd to 19.1!
    To me Linux Mint is the living proof of a long-term succeeding business model. I just thought I’d love to read an interview or article about how Linux Mint Development is being maintained, managed and developed.
    Just go on listening to the user’s feedback as you have been doing for many years already, and I will never convert 🙂

    cheers & all the best

  48. Next time when Linux Mint releases, it would be nice if you include SystemdGenie OOTB if possible for those who want GUI to manage services. Those coming from Windows will like it since they are used to services.msc on Windows. 🙂
    But the problem is its not in the debian/ubuntu repos or has different name, on arch/manjaro you can simply install it from Pamac and manage services via GUI. https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/systemdgenie/
    Its a KDE program but works on other Desktop Environments too.

    Cinnamon having its own services.msc/SystemdGenie equivalent GUI built from groundup will be the best choice. 🙂

  49. Huge thank you to all involved … After using Sylvia for almost a year and Sonya before that for over a year, mint has surpassed my expectation and will now be the yard stick of OS’s ….Keep it guys !

  50. This is to thank all of you who are responsible for making Mint the joy that it is. I have had Mint 19 dual booted on an HP laptop for several years. A recent Win 10 update bricked my pc and I was forced to reinstall everything….except Windows 10. Microsoft finally persuaded me to dump Windows and make this machine exclusively a Linux Mint computer. By the way, I have just tried out the Mint-Y dark theme and am loving it so far.

  51. Hi Clem and the team.
    This may seem like a strange suggestion, but what about a theme variant with a light background in the left panel (devices and folders view) of the file manager, please?
    It can actually be a tad darker than the right (files) browser, just not black.
    (Greybird uses a bluish tint there, for example)
    Just a suggestion, of course!

    Thanks!
    François

  52. Hi,

    I a virgin to linux… but so far I love linux mint. Thanks.

    Was wondering if you guys will ever setup a free vpn service which is accessible free from the program menu?

    I’m guessing that many new users like myself could benefit… I’ve been trying for days to get a vpn up, yet so far unsuccessful, and very frustrated too… with windows the whole shabang took a couple of minutes at most.

    Thanks for the consideration.

  53. How will the new panel work? The preview indicates to me, running programs will be represented by a rectangular entry with an icon only. Are multiple opened folders grouped into a single folder entry on the panel?
    Or will there be some customization where I can disable grouping, show icon AND window title.
    I personally very much dislike icon-only designs as MS Windows does it and it’s the first thing I change, when I sit at a Windows machine.

  54. Hello all,

    Will the visual improvements as outlined above be available to users of Mint 19 as well, or do we have to upgrade to Mint 19.1? Same applies to when Mint-Y finally gets usable colours apart from just green 🙂

    Thank you.

  55. Hi Clem,

    Please make better file dialogs ( save \ load ). The current in Mint Y is so ugly. In mint X is perfect.

    The session dialog is ugly too. Maybe removing the application bar fix it.

    Great work!

  56. Hello there. I’m wondering if the next release of cinnamon will include the latest performance improvements of gnomeshell 3.30, will it?

  57. Gracias por ser tan geniales !!! …
    se puede decir más? … si, seguramente… dan ganas de abrazarlos y decirles GENIOOOS !!!
    . por eso solo gracias por hacer esto posible para todo el mundo.

  58. Are the better contrast improvements also coming to Mint-Y-Dark? On Chrome, it’s hard to see which tab is active.

  59. @Clem: The should be configured OOTB in Linux Mint in order to increase lifespan of SSD’s. 🙂

    fstrim.timer is already set OOTB in Linux Mint so that’s good but not enough.

    sudo nano /etc/fstab
    Add “noatime” mount option.
    Noatime mount option fully disables writing file access times to SSD every time you read a file, this reduces the writes to SSD therefore greatly increasing lifespan of SSD’s.
    GUI way to add noatime mount option is via Menu > Disks > Edit Mount Options.

    echo -e “vm.swappiness=10” | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
    This means swapfile will be used only when RAM is fillled 90%. The default vm.swappiness=60 is not good for SSD’s as you would most likely easily end up using more than half of RAM when using web browsers.
    GUI way to add vm.swappiness=10 is right click open as root /etc and open sysctl.conf in xed text editor, scroll to the bottom and add vm.swappiness=10. Reboot for it take effect.

    1. The following* should be configured OOTB in Linux Mint in order to increase lifespan of SSD’s. 🙂

      *corrected*

    2. Absolutely agree. I do all this manually for any computer that has an SSD as the main drive. For machines using a traditional HDD I always set vm.swappiness to 10 as well. Always have. The default of 60 was for servers only, not desktops.

    3. I agree, too.

      Though this is an old, 32 bit laptop with a conventional hdd and 2048 MB Ram, the first thing I do after the installation is change swappiness to “zero” . Yes, vm.swappiness=0 🙂 . Not only for Mint, but for an other Debian based distro on the other partition as well. Using with no issues. I did the same on a newer 64 bit laptop with no issues.. I wonder why they keep 60 as default, isn’t that too much?

  60. What about the LMDE 3? I don’t want to wait until December for the new Cinnamon… I think that the LMDE should get all the new software before the standard release, if I’m not mistaken, it has always been that way since the LMDE 1, right?

  61. Hi guys, I just installed LMDE 3 and everything works fine. But I see that the system does not use intel microcode. Do I have to install it by synaptic or not? Thanks for the reply.

    1. Intel Microcode I believe is now included in regular updates for those with machines using an Intel CPU. That’s why it’s no longer listed in the “Drivers” app.

  62. Please add support for other themes. I love blue based themes but when I try to switch either icons, GTK theme or window buttons don’t fit. Coherence of graphical elements is as much important as customization. Green theme looks fantastic but its green 🙂

    1. Have you tried Mint-X-Blue?
      If you are talking of the Mint-Y theme, it’s still only available in green, indeed.

    2. Well, there is the icon theme, GTK theme, shell theme and window style. For Cinnamon I don’t know how panel theme is treated.. But all those should look consistent.

  63. Hi Clem,

    Would it be possible to add an option, so that we could define active and passive windows ourselves?
    For example (and sorry for comparison with Windows, which I haven’t been using for about 10 years) in Windows 98 (and until today I guess), I could set active window title bar to have 2 colors like red that changes into yellow (left to right), and passive windows to have for example green to blue colors.
    Meaning, could we choose ourselves the color of the title bar, plus could this be 2 colors (or other options as well, like some image, decorative design, etc.).

    Also, would it be possible to choose a color of the, hmm, how shall I call it, “main color of the nemo where folders resides”? Normally it’s white (very bad for eyes, too bright), or dark grey (in Mint Y Dark). But why we cannot choose color for ourselves, like light blue or green, other shade of grey, etc.?
    I tried with better or worse ‘hacks’ reading through some forums, but no options is simple and sometimes solutions have other unpleasant side effects.

    I’m not saying, that we should copy solutions like that from windows, but it does have quite good and simple solution to change colors of almost every aspect like in here:
    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-start-winpc/how-to-change-active-title-bar-text-color-in/1a6236ea-0545-4dfc-9554-f20d9da84881

    Maybe we can use some of those options?
    We have quite good options in “Themes”, we can setup icons (though, there is no button that says “click here to choose your own icon for folders”), and other options, but we cannot set colors ourselves, icons (I know we can copy/paste it to /usr/local/share/something, but the point is, it should be easy for non-techy people as well).
    I think, it would make quite simple for adjusting Mint to everybody’s liking, but also from practical perspective, it would make better difference between active/passive windows visible, better for eyes when changing white background color for nemo and system menus to other color (I remember about RedShift, but still, it would be even better for our eyes when background is adjustable), borders of each window and it’s color plus thickness, etc.

    Hope, I didn’t get too messy in expressing my view and that it could bring more user friendly touch for others.
    Best regards,
    Martin

  64. I came from Windows 7. I’ve used Linux Mint before and my mom even had me install it on her previous laptop. I’ve got to say, the Linux Mint team did a really good job with it. Unlike Window$ 10 or even 7 or 8.1, I’m not forced to install every update pushed out to my computer. That’s the main reason why my mom wanted Linux on her computer, other than to get away from Micro$oft. Keep up the good work!!!

  65. I have a number of problems when I did a regular update of 18.3. First the work spaces tiles disappeared and could not be turned on. Second my dvd burner was labeled as read only now. Third I could not write an ISO file to a usb stick. It even render the Gigaware 8 Gb unusable. Fourth, I could not download ISO files via torrent without them being corrupted. I had to connect an old platter drive and install windows 8 to download and burn a boot-able dvd.
    So I chose to install. LMDE 3. I was expecting to be able to install Cindy along side Tara. Whereupon I could transfer files into Cindy. There was no such option offered on the choice menu.
    I went a head an installed Cindy. Sad to say there was no joy in my upgrade. The problems followed me. I am in the process of reviewing different distros in virtual box.
    So far MX Linux, Ubuntu MATE and desktop run the programs I need. The only question will they support my hardware. The only draw back to MX Linux is its XFCE desktop. But I can learn to live with it. While MATES’ software store is its strongest selling point. Ubuntu desktop is Ubuntu desktop. What else is there to say.
    I will wait until the end of January to see if you will correct these son of a glitches in Cinnamon.
    Here is my burners serial number HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH24NS72 (WM01) and my motherboard is Asus M5A78LM-Plus-USB3 with an FX 6300 cpu and 16 gigs of non buffered memory.
    Wayne

  66. The most important new feature is i liked, the grouped window list!! I`m waiting for this new model on cinnamom… #loveLinuxMint

  67. Thank you for making such an awesome distro. I am currently using Linux Mint 19 for work and absolutely love it.

  68. This almost spooky, I too have Asus M5A78LM-Plus-USB3 with an FX 6300 cpu and 16 gigs (different Burner though). Don’t know if it will make you feel any better but a clean install gave me no issues. Good luck Wayne

    1. Thanks for the moral support.
      I have found an inelegant work around the problem. I installed an old platter drive and installed windows 8 pro onto it. The noise you heard is me retching at the thought of having to use windows at all. Ugh.
      I have reformatted a 4 gig usb stick to fat32 and written Mx-17 ISO to get around this write problem.
      Wayne

  69. Hi,
    Im not sure if im too late to the comment party but i have a niggle with what was a newly introduced Cinnamon feature i looked forward too which left me a bit disappointed. Namely The ability to create a side panel, mirroring the unity/gnome look which i like ( but i also prefer everything else that is cinnamon vs gnome 🙂 ).

    Unfortunately the max size of the side panel is nowhere near wide enough to encompass larger icons. The max size of the top panel wasn’t awesome but on the side it is exasperated. I would like the ability ( no matter how irreverent to some ) to make it double the width, although myself i may only need 40 – 50% more.

    On this topic, it looks really (trying not to offend here)… cheesy that the desktop icons move with the panel width change. having the desktop icon position related to having a side panel or it’s width looks a bit odd to new users, especially when the icons end up half way off the screen :/ but it’s not the be all and end all.

    thanks for the great work, maybe C4.0 will fix this issue ( the other one was having a dock/launcher but this is coming :D). I hope you expand on the possibility of the side panel mode and make it more functional than gnome.

    ((kde is the best at the side panel game right now))

    Thanks.

  70. Is there anything on the roadmap regarding improvement to scaling in Cinnamon 4.0? Right now the choices are auto, 1 (which I think means 100%) and 2 (200%.) Sometimes, on HiDPI systems, 1 is too small and 2 is too big. I’d really appreciate more granularity in between 1 and 2, like 1.25, 1.5 and 1.75 to give me more choices to try, so I can fine-tune the system just the way I like it. That would be a great help to vision-impaired me.

    Great work on Mint and Cinnamon BTW. They’re now my distro and window manager of choice..

  71. Linux Mint 19.1, is it really necessary to update this quick ?
    Most of my PC are still running 18.3 and working well.
    I hope that Linux Mint is not following a fashion trend to bring updates because they can.
    What we want is an OS that works good and is 1000 % better than Windows, which for us it is.
    Let’s face it Win 10 is dragging a lot of faults and that will not be come good ever again.
    Most people that I know don’t want to go away from W7, my boss switched to Mac because of all the Win problems.
    I myself running still Win 2000 Pro Sp4 on 4 PC’s and they are doing well, don’t need Internet on those PC’s.
    All the rest is Linux Mint or Android (tablets and phones), which is Linux anyway.

    1. Bringing updates is not a fashion trend, it’s about improving functionality and getting rid of bugs. For many people, Linux Mint (and other distributions) are not 1000% better than windows (I love Mint, and I would never willingly use windows, but I am also aware that there are lots of ways it could improve), and there is nothing to be lost by making gradual improvements. Even if Mint was consistently 1000% better than windows in everyone’s opinion, it would be better to make it 1001% better.

      You do not have to update to 19.1- I believe you will continue to receive security updates to 18.3 until 2021, so the release of 19.1 will not affect you in any way, and will hopefully fix some of the problems that people experienced with 19.0 (although I have not had any more problems than with 18.3). Also, the changes to themeing look quite good, in my opinion, and I like that they make it easy to choose between new and old layouts in cinnamon on installation. Plus, 19.1 will come with newer software, and probably a newer kernel (bringing more compatibility with modern hardware). So it only really brings benefits to new users and those who prefer to upgrade, and it’s not being forced on you, so I don’t really see the problem.

      Anyway, I don’t mean to be dismissive, but I don’t understand how 19.1 can be a bad thing.

      Also, a small comment- Android is based on the Linux kernel, but is not (for the most part) free/open source software, and therefore does not give its users true freedom, unlike most desktop distros (I know they contain binary blobs and processor microcode, but those are fairly minor problems). So Android is really a whole different thing from desktop linux.

  72. Thank you for keeping the traditional window list an option!!

    While I agree, that the modern layout looks nice, I couldn’t do different than fall in love with the efficiency of the nongrouping window list with the wide clicking area. I am using my Linux Mint machine as a daily driver, so I extremely value the efficiency of Cinnamon over other Desktop and OS.

  73. In LM 19 Kazam can’ t record the sound and the same happen with Audacity. No problem with LM 18.x. I hope that this problem will be solved in the next edition.

  74. Just read that Ubuntu 18.04 will give a whopping 10 years of support!!
    How about it Mint, will you follow suit and do the same??

  75. The Mint desktop background photos are fantastic. But sometimes they make it hard to see icons on the desktop. It would be nice if we could hit a key combination to have the background soften to a medium value so the icons will stand out. Push the key combo, find your icon and click or double-click. The background returns to normal. If no click, hit escape to return to normal. Make it so the key combo can be set by the user.

    BTW, Mint 19 with Cinnamon is great! Looking forward to 19.1. Thank you very much and have a happy holiday season.

  76. @ wilson
    Yes I know that I don’t need to update, the point that I wanted to make is you call it 19.1 but would it not be better to simply call it update. Now it looks like a new version.
    And yes I run 19 as well, had some problems at the start so decided to wait it out some months. The way I update is to put another HD, these times mostly another SSD in one of my desktops ( I have those tray’s from Sharkoon) and install the new version to see what will happen, data is on a second HD and in the cloud.
    Most times everything works well, but you never know. Test some other distro’s as well, stick to Debian based ones, but always conclude that Linux Mint is the one for me.
    For that reason I promote Mint with my friends and support it by donating and yes why not, they deserve it.

    I have tried Android on the desktop, true those Via motherboards with Android PC on them, this is some years back, I found it sluggish, maybe it’s better now.

    1. I see your point. Personally , I prefer the idea of all the new features being bundled together and given a number, as it just seems more orderly to me, and I suppose all the software can be tested to make sure it works together, so it might be a bit more stable, but I don’t really have any major problems with doing things another way. I guess it’s also something people can get excited about, and look forward to the release of. But Mint is great, it just works, and (this can be important when convincing new users) looks pretty good too, with no tweaking.

  77. I am brand new to Linux, having finally reached critical mass with Win10 (it seemed like everything about it was something to criticize). I did try an early version of Ubuntu years ago, but was put off by the lack of (older) hardware support and gave up on it. Mint rocks. The responsiveness of the development team is a strong selling point, especially when compared to other operating systems that cannot be installed free of charge and force you to install their buggy ‘updates’.

  78. Hi Clem and team
    I have just upgraded to 19 from 18.3 (love the new look) and the hybrid sleep option has disappeared from Power options and I do not have the hibernate option in the shutdown menu. Is this a bug that will be fixed in 19.1? Cheers

  79. Off topic I know … but I have a profile on community.linuxmint.com and can’t see how to delete it – anyone know?

  80. Hello glem, my request is simple please put back the support of nvidia optimus, use 18.3 and its performance is excellent in my asus x550cc
    On the other hand, the recommended driver 340 does not work, black screen and there is no way, so I keep 18.3 for now.
    My question you have solved support optimus in 19.1
    Thank you very much for your excellent distribution!
    Juan Vaca

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