Monthly News – November 2019

Many thanks to all the donors and sponsors who help fund our project. We received more than 500 donations in October. Many thanks to you for your support.

You probably know we’re aiming for a Christmas release this year 🙂 All 3 editions of Linux Mint 19.3 passed QA and we’ll be announcing the BETA release on Tuesday!

We’re really excited about this release. The 19.x series is two years old and feels very polished. There are exciting features in 19.3 we haven’t talked about on the blog yet. The software selection changed and three new apps are coming in. The artwork is new and makes 19.3 feel really fresh.

We also have tray support for system reports. That’s something we think you’ll enjoy, and it helps us communicate with you better. It’s yet another way for us to document issues, workarounds and solutions and to target that information in a precise way, when it’s relevant to people who need it. This is new in 19.3, but it’s also something we’ll backport… so when the 19.3 stable release is officially announced, you won’t just find out about it here on this blog, you’ll also be notified from within Linux Mint.

I hope you all enjoy the upcoming release. We had a lot of fun working on it and it’s a real pleasure to see you use it. We look forward to receiving your feedback and to fix any bugs which might have passed our QA.

Sponsorships:

Linux Mint is proudly sponsored by:

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

Sucuri
Bronze Sponsors:
Vault Networks *
AYKsolutions Server & Cloud Hosting
Goscomb
BGASoft Inc
David Salvo
Feathercoin
Simple Mobile Tools
Community Sponsors:

Donations in October:

A total of $8749 were raised thanks to the generous contributions of 530 donors:

$216, Benedikt R.
$200 (20th donation), Jon Espenschied aka “xeno”
$129 (3rd donation), Mary A.
$108 (2nd donation), Jens-peter U.
$108, Johannes K.
$108, Gino E.
$100 (11th donation), Jordan S.
$100 (7th donation), Mountain Computers, Inc
$100 (4th donation), The Incredibly Useful Company Limited
$100 (2nd donation), Garrick L.
$100 (2nd donation), Blueshoesnmore
$100 (2nd donation), Trevor H.
$100 (2nd donation), Jamison G.
$100, Peter F.
$100, William F.
$100, Timothy M.
$100, Stephen R.
$100, Douglas H. aka “dougxray”
$100, Antreas K.
$75, Bernd K.
$57 (2nd donation), Laurent G. aka “xboddah”
$54 (3rd donation), Matthieu L.
$54 (2nd donation), Bernhard W.
$54, RenaWare Zelfhulpgroep
$54, Thibault D.
$54, Thibaut V.
$54, Oliver S.
$54, Paolo D.
$54, Serge C.
$54, H.j.m. S.
$54, Jussi H.
$54, Jan B.
$50 (4th donation), Shermanda E.
$50 (4th donation), Tony C.
$50 (3rd donation), Ondrej Stanek aka “ostan
$50 (2nd donation), Corey P.
$50 (2nd donation), Shawn H.
$50, John E.
$50, Winston T.
$50, Herman B.
$50, Shawn H.
$50, Donald L.
$50, Auguste CHERY
$50, Leonardo E.
$50, James B.
$50, David O.
$50, Steve S.
$50, John M.
$50, Dennis K.
$50, Charles M.
$50, Wayland Alexander aka “Buddy”
$43 (5th donation), Ben E.
$43 (3rd donation), Jean-pierre S.
$43, Mathias P.
$43, David N.
$43, Arnaldo S.
$42 (2nd donation), Felipe Amaral aka “famaral42
$41 (4th donation), C. Lamb aka “Mike”
$40 (2nd donation), Harry M.
$40, Ladislav N. aka “Maitrey
$35, Ludwig R.
$32 (115th donation), Olli K.
$32 (14th donation), Geoff P
$32 (7th donation), Stephen M.
$32 (2nd donation), Gabriel D.
$32, Tobias W.
$32, James B.
$32, Dirk Postol Dissel
$32, Gabriel D.
$30 (4th donation), Jeff M.
$30 (4th donation), Benny H. aka “kalleurban”
$30 (3rd donation), Denis G.
$30, Mark A.
$30, Jean-pierre C.
$30, Ron W.
$27 (8th donation), Henrik H.
$27 (4th donation), Juergen S.
$27 (4th donation), Michael T.
$27 (3rd donation), Michael L.
$27 (3rd donation), Lucian B.
$27 (3rd donation), Bogusz S. aka “PIMPEX
$27 (2nd donation), Daniel F.
$27 (2nd donation), Karl H.
$27, Richard A.
$27, Sören K.
$27, Michel C.
$27, Klaus F.
$27, Robi N.
$27, Volker S.
$25 (98th donation), Ronald W.
$25 (20th donation), Ray
$25 (8th donation), Jon G.
$25 (7th donation), George R. aka “Az4x4”
$25 (3rd donation), Edward R. G.
$25 (2nd donation), Graham P.
$25 (2nd donation), Mark H.
$25, Anthony A.
$25, Daniel D N.
$25, Roland G.
$25, Alex O.
$25, Nguyen T T.
$25, William V.
$25, Gilles W.
$25, Jason Braganza
$25, Chloé-agathe A.
$25, Mark O.
$25, Jeff T.
$25, Dirk H.
$25, Robert Smith
$22 (18th donation), Doriano G. M.
$22 (7th donation), D. B. .
$22 (4th donation), Hubertus B.
$22 (3rd donation), Jose P. A.
$22 (2nd donation), Thomas K.
$22 (2nd donation), Rudi S.
$22 (2nd donation), Aaron W.
$22, Michael G.
$22, CyberMind
$22, S.P.
$22, Waldemar S.
$22, Monika M.
$22, Bela G.
$22, Armen E.
$22, Paul S.
$22, Björn B.
$22, Robert F.
$22, Pedro F.
$20 (14th donation), Bryan F.
$20 (13th donation), Mike W aka “bajan52”
$20 (13th donation), John D.
$20 (12th donation), Mike W aka “bajan52”
$20 (4th donation), L. W.
$20 (4th donation), John T.
$20 (4th donation), Headphonesrepair.com
$20 (3rd donation), Andrew R.
$20 (3rd donation), Winston M.
$20 (2nd donation), Jeff H.
$20 (2nd donation), Andrew L.
$20 (2nd donation), Mirtatrev
$20 (2nd donation), Colin O.
$20, Kenny S.
$20, John M.
$20, Jack G.
$20, Peter D.
$20, Horacio M.
$20, Clueless Ruler Music
$20, Tony S.
$20, David H.
$20, Al T.
$20, Ron W.
$20, Robert V.
$20, Jeffrey H.
$20, Gerald L.
$20, Tony B. aka “tROOT
$17, Wolfgang Cp Gensch
$16 (32nd donation), Andreas S.
$16 (17th donation), Francisco L. D. A.
$16 (9th donation), Michael R.
$16 (7th donation), Michele B. aka “MickyInTheSky
$16 (4th donation), José G.
$16 (3rd donation), Pascal G.
$16 (2nd donation), Antonio aka “pengu73”
$16, Romildo, 9A4RV
$15 (14th donation), AJ Gringo
$15, Vern B.
$15, Amal J.
$15, Michael S.
$15, Szabolcs N.
$15, Ron G.
$13 (2nd donation), Chris G.
$12 (103th donation), Tony C. aka “S. LaRocca”
$12 (43th donation), JobsHiringNearMe
$12 (6th donation), Robert D. aka “Wilbobob”
$12, Lance A.
$12, Jacek W.
$12, Michael M.
$11 (16th donation), Kevin O. aka “Kev”
$11 (9th donation), Janne S.
$11 (8th donation), Slobodan Vrkacevic
$11 (7th donation), Piotr L aka “xpil
$11 (5th donation), Alexander G. B.
$11 (4th donation), Demosthenes Koptsis
$11 (4th donation), Serhii B. aka “sinpavla
$11 (3rd donation), Josep Serra aka “CuYonS”
$11 (2nd donation), Philippe A. aka “Phreezoo”
$11 (2nd donation), Antal R.
$11 (2nd donation), Dmitrijs R.
$11 (2nd donation), Mathieu C. aka “LMDE4! :-)”
$11 (2nd donation), Rasmus T.
$11 (2nd donation), Enrico C.
$11 (2nd donation), Martin L.
$11 (2nd donation), Van G. H.
$11, Jens-olaf G.
$11, Alessandro C. aka “Bitcoin FTW”
$11, Unknown
$11, Guillaume L.
$11, Martin J.
$11, Lauge Ewald J.
$11, John L.
$11, Marc M.
$11, Jens L.
$11, Ghislain D.
$11, Franck R.
$11, Kathryn L.
$11, Johann K.
$11, Sveinbjorn H.
$11, Lucian I.
$11, Miguel Lamberto C.
$11, Fabio R.
$11, Raphael S.
$11, Bart D.
$11, Jan B.
$11, Maciej K.
$11, Andreas L.
$11, Jack S.
$11, Fred P.
$10 (61th donation), Tsuguo S.
$10 (43th donation), Thomas C.
$10 (38th donation), Frank K.
$10 (23rd donation), Rick R.
$10 (18th donation), Laura NL aka “lauranl
$10 (15th donation), Christopher R.
$10 (15th donation), Chris K.
$10 (10th donation), Anatolii B.
$10 (7th donation), Richard C.
$10 (6th donation), C T Johnson, Inc
$10 (5th donation), Kirill
$10 (5th donation), Troy T.
$10 (4th donation), Francois-R L.
$10 (4th donation), Michael A. aka “one of 2programmers”
$10 (4th donation), Philip E.
$10 (4th donation), Les E.
$10 (4th donation), Kerry C.
$10 (3rd donation), Alejandro N.
$10 (3rd donation), Ian H.
$10 (3rd donation), Alex P.
$10 (3rd donation), Joshua O.
$10 (3rd donation), blueredgreen
$10 (3rd donation), Yoichi N.
$10 (3rd donation), Igor Chistruga aka “dreadangel”
$10 (3rd donation), Bob S.
$10 (2nd donation), Wayne R.
$10 (2nd donation), Charles G.
$10 (2nd donation), Jim J.
$10 (2nd donation), Louis C.
$10 (2nd donation), Ilija L.
$10, John M.
$10, Philippe M. 55300 ST MIHIEL
$10, Richard V.
$10, Wilfrid S.
$10, Peter V.
$10, Rodrigo A.
$10, John S.
$10, Mark S.
$10, Todd S.
$10, Andrew K.
$10, Nikita Chursin
$10, Leslie W.
$10, Nathaniel M.
$10, John P.
$10, Alfredo O.
$10, Peter S.
$10, Jiri P.
$10, Asborn W.
$10, Rodolfo Z. aka “rodzosa
$10, Ivan Z.
$10, Federico G.
$10, Quentin M.
$10, Magdalena T.
$10, James B.
$10, Timothy L.
$10, Romulo G.
$10, Brett W.
$10, Andrew D.
$10, Bobby L.
$10, Manfred G.
$10, Hoang N.
$10, Pier Eugenio M.
$10, Oliver H.
$10, Skander B.
$10, Robert W.
$10, Michael B.
$10, Noriaki M.
$9 (2nd donation), Ivan B.
$9 (2nd donation), Sergio M.
$9, Óscar R.
$8 (8th donation), Rockford C.
$8 (5th donation), Geoffrey O.
$8 (2nd donation), Simone F.
$7 (4th donation), IxL
$7 (2nd donation), Josue C.
$6 (2nd donation), Jani aka “Sinuhesieda”
$5 (41th donation), Eugene T.
$5 (32nd donation), Bhavinder Jassar
$5 (26th donation), Todd A aka “thobin”
$5 (23rd donation), Dmitry P.
$5 (20th donation), Alessandro S.
$5 (11th donation), William Menezes
$5 (10th donation), M. P. V.
$5 (8th donation), rptev
$5 (7th donation), Hristo Gatsinski
$5 (6th donation), Alexander G. B.
$5 (5th donation), Dionisios K.
$5 (5th donation), Simone G.
$5 (5th donation), Z. K. .
$5 (4th donation), Le M.
$5 (4th donation), Mark O.
$5 (4th donation), Paweł M.
$5 (3rd donation), Cheslav R.
$5 (3rd donation), Heinz H.
$5 (3rd donation), Marcel B. aka “iMarcel
$5 (2nd donation), Lynn T.
$5 (2nd donation), Paulo Macrine A. S. aka “Kinny”
$5 (2nd donation), Jesus M. V. M.
$5 (2nd donation), Attila Á.
$5 (2nd donation), Karl H.
$5 (2nd donation), Arlen A.
$5 (2nd donation), Marc C.
$5 (2nd donation), Marek F.
$5 (2nd donation), Michael V.
$5 (2nd donation), Colin K.
$5 (2nd donation), Benjamin G.
$5, Simon A.
$5, Valentin B.
$5, Georgios C.
$5, Viktor aka “Layered”
$5, Darren K.
$5, William A.
$5, Simon B.
$5, Rolff T.
$5, Miguel G.
$5, Andreas L.
$5, Luis Alberto López aka “Wixx
$5, John R.
$5, Krisztian P.
$5, Ivan H.
$5, Ron M.
$5, Concrete Contractor Glendale AZ
$5, Marcel H.
$5, Torben S.
$5, Michael V.
$5, Michał Nowakowski
$5, Ender T.
$5, Michael M.
$5, Michael E.
$5, David A.
$5, Bingqian Ye aka “Mint!!!”
$5, ZYX Rhythm aka “ZYX
$5, Fast Track Bangkok
$5, Timothy T.
$5, Jürgen K.
$5, Georgios V.
$5, mp4th1cu5
$4 (4th donation), Jack S.
$4 (3rd donation), Todd N.
$4 (3rd donation), James P.
$4 (3rd donation), Judy E.
$4 (3rd donation), Robert D.
$4 (3rd donation), Linda S.
$4 (3rd donation), Jack S.
$4 (3rd donation), Joseph S.
$4 (3rd donation), Tiffany C.
$4 (2nd donation), Kenneth H.
$4 (2nd donation), Jack S.
$4 (2nd donation), Judy E.
$4 (2nd donation), Tiffany C.
$4 (2nd donation), Karen R.
$4 (2nd donation), James P.
$4 (2nd donation), Donald S.
$4 (2nd donation), Michelle M.
$4 (2nd donation), Linda S.
$4 (2nd donation), Eva T.
$4 (2nd donation), Robert D.
$4 (2nd donation), Patrick L.
$4 (2nd donation), Joseph L.
$4 (2nd donation), Joseph S.
$4 (2nd donation), Gary S.
$4 (2nd donation), Linda M.
$4 (2nd donation), Rita T.
$4 (2nd donation), Larry C.
$4 (2nd donation), Diane M.
$4 (2nd donation), Todd N.
$4 (2nd donation), Roger S.
$4, James K.
$4, Joseph L.
$4, Larry C.
$4, Carol Y.
$4, Michelle M.
$4, Ryan A.
$4, Linda M.
$4, Harold A.
$4, William V.
$4, Donald W.
$4, Diane M.
$4, Santiago R.
$4, Steve G.
$4, Kenneth H.
$4, Sandra S.
$4, Karen R.
$4, Kenneth A.
$4, Patrick L.
$4, Darrell J.
$4, Rita T.
$4, Annie C.
$4, Jennifer W.
$4, Jack S.
$4, Kate R.
$4, Judy E.
$4, Jo-ann G.
$4, Lance R.
$4, Linda W.
$4, Amy C.
$4, Marie S.
$4, Tom S.
$4, Roger S.
$4, Larry C.
$4, Charlotte A.
$4, James P.
$4, Richard T.
$4, Joey J.
$4, Joseph S.
$3 (41th donation), Kouji Sugibayashi
$3 (40th donation), Kouji Sugibayashi
$3 (8th donation), Cyril U.
$3 (5th donation), Fabio Baratti
$3 (4th donation), Bets Bonus
$3 (3rd donation), Fence Company Wilmington
$3 (2nd donation), Music Lessons NYC
$3 (2nd donation), Reflej0
$3 (2nd donation), Music Lessons NYC
$3 (2nd donation), Music Lessons NYC
$3 (2nd donation), Music Lessons NYC
$3, Serhii Hryshyn aka “DedMorozzz”
$3, Valter K.
$3, Tlaster
$3, Venicio S aka “arkadio”
$3, Wayne C R.
$2 (15th donation), Cornerstone Computers
$2 (8th donation), Life coaching Vancouver aka “Life coach
$2 (7th donation), Peter Dave Hello
$2 (6th donation), Music Lessons NYC
$2 (6th donation), Music Lessons NYC
$2 (6th donation), Oleksandr P.
$2 (6th donation), Music Lessons NYC
$2 (6th donation), Music Lessons NYC
$2 (6th donation), Music Lessons NYC
$2 (2nd donation), Agnieszka P.
$2 (2nd donation), Juan Carlos Núñez L. aka “proyectos.cading”
$2 (2nd donation), Dino
$2, Antonio M. aka “Taran”
$2, Yannic-noah D.
$2, Bingqian Ye aka “Mint!!!”
$2, Greg S.
$2, Painters Wollongong
$2, Brian C.
$2, Martin L.
$2, Bingqian Ye aka “Mint!!!”
$2, Danilo B.
$2, Badr Alshammeri
$71 from 71 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 361 patrons, for a sum of $2,023 per month.

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

Rankings:

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114 comments

  1. I hope to finally be able to do a minimal installation without any extra software. For example, I prefer ONLYOFFICE and Krita over LibreOffice and GIMP.

    1. Unlike Windows, Linux distros allow you to uninstall whatever you like.
      You can even uninstall the kernel…
      I don’t get all the fuss about ‘default’ software…
      Whatever i don’t like, just click uninstal…

    2. go archlinux you will have only what you specifically install and nothing else …. yes it is not automated… who said freedom never comes at a price ?!

  2. Please enable the Software and Kernels on Offline Linux Mint Systems to be more easily updated.

    Can apt-offline and apt-offline-gui please be added to the Linux Mint ISO to simplify to process to fully update and upgrade Offline Linux Mint Systems?

    If a better solution to apt-offline* is available, which has a GUI, please include it in the default Linux Mint installation.

    Thank you

  3. Do you have any plans to allow the root file system to be formatted as ZFS? If so, how would that impact timeshift? The question arises because Ubuntu now has experimental ZFS support.

    1. Thanks Dave. It doesn’t really matter what Ubuntu does, we’re more interested in the reasons you’d what ZFS to be in there. We’re likely to inherit this from 20.40 when we move to Mint 20. I don’t think it’ll affect Timeshift since it’s using rsync on top of the FS, but again, if you want ZFS support, tell us why. This is what matters to us.

    2. Multi-volume file pools, encrypted boot volume, snapshots. My interest is mostly curiosity, wondering if there is anything in ZFS that would materially enhance Linux Mint. Also wondering if the ZFS snapshot function would be a replacement for Timeshift.

  4. Comme un bon vin, la cuvée se bonifie avec l’age, j’ai hâte de la tester ! merci à toute l’equipe LM sans qui cette expérience enrichie d’ubuntu n’existerai pas et longue vie au projet. merci pour vos effort et surtout tenez bon.

    Like a good wine, the vintage improve with age, I look forward to testing it! thanks to the whole LM team without whom this enriched Ubuntu experience will not exist and long life to the project. thank you for your effort and especially hold on.

    Merci Clem

  5. Many thanks to everyone who is giving love to Linux Mint !!
    and hope you can throw a peek into the Suggestions & New Ideas forum…wink wink :))

  6. Hi Linux Mint team,

    Release more videos on your youtube channel covering the same programming content as the last videos!

  7. And not a single word for the second class LMDE users? I’m trying really hard, guys, but i don’t understand you. If LMDE is just a side project, something you play with on your spare time, then just don’t release it to the public.

    1. I feel like what LMDE is and is not, and it’s place, has been covered really well on the blog in the past.

    2. Like the Mint team has already explained numerous times, LMDE is important, but is not a priority.
      LMDE is more of a safety measure in case problems arise with Ubuntu.

  8. Been using the daily builds and kernel 5.0 for about three weeks now with barely an issue. If the alpha is that stable then the beta and the release are going to be great.

    1. It is “stable”, then again, experience tells us there’s nothing better than a BETA to uncover bugs we didn’t notice before. For this reason we always have a BETA before going stable.

  9. I hate the way that Time Machine reportedly creates it own partition on one’s SSD drive. In my view Time Machine should be an optional installation component.

    Admittedly Partition Magic can remove this partition, but this is not a risk free operation. Time Machine is quite unnecessary for those of us who back up our entire SSD weekly to a USB drive using Clonezilla.

    My fear is that Mint is gradually becoming more and more complex and bloated. I am getting seriously tempted by LMDE.

    1. Well Scott, I don’t share your opinion but if you feel we’re going too far and Mint is getting too bloated, I want to know why. Please explain a little bit more.

    2. This is Linux…
      Not only you’re not forced to use TimeMachine, but you can even uninstall it…

    3. Presumbably you are referring to Timeshift not Time Machine?

      I disagree. I was using it before it was included in Mint and consider it indispensable. Using it on the same drive you run the OS off is bad practice. Just get yourself a USB drive and backup to that and disable the schedule if you prefer not to use it, then you won’t have to give up any space. I used it with a USB drive in a docking station taking a daily snapshot. A weekly backup with Clonezilla is simply not as good but would be a useful redundant backup.

    4. I think the usefulness that Timeshift provides justifies its inclusion in Mint. Performing a Timeshift snapshot before upgrading Mint is an excellent application of it.

    5. Clem; Thanks very much for your reply. Mint contains numerous non-essential features that I would prefer not to have installed, such as programming languages (I am not a programmer).

      Admittedly these can be uninstalled pretty easily. Thank goodness Linux does not have anything like the notorious Windows Registry! Nevertheless I would prefer to have a “granular” (very trendy term) clean installation regime which gives me choices as to which non-crucial components will be installed.

      On a totally separate subject several times I have donated $25, but it has not shown up on the donor list. This is not at all a vanity thing, but I would like to ensure that you are actually getting the money from PayPal.

      Best Regards as always for your team’s terrific work.

    6. Hi Scott,

      I’m not sure there are any programming languages installed which don’t need to be there. If they’re there it’s usually because they’re needed. Take python for instance, it’s not there for you to use it per se, it’s there because many of the programs installed require it to run.

      PS: Can you send me the details of the donations by email at root@linuxmint.com?

    7. I totally agree with @Neil Darlow. I have found it to be a really easy to use tool, and just as importantly, very reliable tool, and will also often make a snapshot before I embark on a voyage of discovery with trying out a range different programs I can use to accomplish a task (one nice thing is that the Linux Mint Software Manager offers such a wide range of options for doing things) , then I can just roll back to where I was at the end of my “playing” when I have decided on a preferred application to perform the tasks I wish to complete

  10. Clem,

    Please DockBarX for XFCE and a bigger panel as Zorin 15 Lite does for the next version.

    Merry Xmas

  11. You guys need to get setup to take Braves BAT tokens. You could take BAT tips/donations and convert them into cash.

  12. Ahhh, my favorite time of year: new Mint releases! 😀 Always look forward to these. I love seeing what you guys have done with it. Mint is always so polished and the hard work you guys put in is obvious. My entire household runs Mint, and I put my mother on Mint too a year or two ago (time flies; could be longer by now! Still haven’t received a single tech support request). We all really appreciate what you and your team do. Thank you for a great OS!

  13. Dear Clem:
    I’m looking forward to trying this new version of Linux Mint which, I’m sure, will be excellent.
    One question, will you update the applets? I ask because many of them do not support the new version of Cinnamon.
    Thank you in advance for this fantastic work.
    Alexandros

    1. A number have already been adapted and that’s expected to continue as the applet authors become aware of the new version.

  14. Could there be an advanced “at your own risk” option in the installer to download and use the latest kernel? I’ve had problems installing Mint to friends and family because the default kernel doesn’t support for example ryzen graphics properly. I’m sure there could be other use cases for this feature too.

    1. I’m not sure this would help much. To get to the installer you already need a kernel which can boot and give you a graphical display. What we did in 19.3 is boost the kernel version to 5.0 though.

  15. //We received more than 500 donations in October//
    //Donations in October://

    This is the report for November, please correct the text…

    1. Hi Vlad,

      We can’t report monthly donations until the month is over. I’m sorry for posting this late, ideally we should post the November news in the middle of November… but they should indeed report on October donations.

  16. Clem and The Team,
    Thank you for all you are doing. Many of us have benefit greatly over the years, by sticking to Linux Mint. I am sharing my love for Linux Mint with my friends and family and I have to say: Every new release is welcome.
    I found one minor problem (that I can’t find a cure for) and that is a “mintinstall” Software manager. It just wouldn’t work and all my searches for a fix, didn’t work. I hope 19.3 will fix that. Cheers!

    1. Hi Neb,

      What do you mean by “wouldn’t work”? If it doesn’t launch, try to run “mintinstall” from the terminal and see if you can spot an error message.

    2. Hi,
      as I read it, “mintinstall” should appreciate us: opting for Mint’s selection of default apps. In the former days I remember getting into trouble removing «thunderbird» ‘cause of dependencies ← so I ever since did install «evolution» beside of it. The modularity could give an argument selecting software during install individually. This then with «calamares» maybe ‥??

    3. I spent a better part of the afternoon to find the error and I couldn’t. It was stuck at “caching”. Searched for answer from other people and couldn’t find out what was wrong.
      However, I now use the beta 19.3 instead and am very happy. Everything works great.
      Thanks.

  17. Just grabbed the Cinnamon 64bit Beta, and I have to say Clem and the team have hit it out of the ballpark on this release. Smooth, fast and stable.

  18. Hello,

    Is there a way to contribute to the online documentation translation ? (the one found on readthedoc.io)

    Can’t wait to see what’s inside 19.3 btw 🙂

    1. Hi Romain,

      Ah I see. This one is only in English, and so is the Developer Guide. The idea was that, if you were going to report bugs anyway or develop with us, English was a requirement. With that in mind we didn’t open these books to translations. It’s less work for everyone involved.

  19. Hi Clem
    It is great to hear you and the team are really enjoying working on Mint again! I am always amazed how you keep coming up with new ideas for even more improvements to what to me is already a brilliant, and I agree a very polished, OS. Really looking forward to the new release

  20. Great work Linux Mint staff! Looking forward to it. I occasionally distrohop to see if the grass is greener on the other side but always (since 2009) return to Linux Mint. It (Cinnamon that I use) is not the most beautiful DE (deepin is) but the stability is second to none.

  21. Hey Clem,

    if you are doeing a Christma-Release, then you will need some nice Christmas-Wallpapers or?? Desktopnexus hat fine ones, if you are looking out.

    And which MATE-Desktop-version will LinuxMint 19.3 be??

  22. Hi Clem!

    Just want to thank the Mint Team for the wonderfull work you’ve done over the years.
    I’ve been using and loving Mint since version 7 when i first discoveredi it…

  23. Thank you to Clem and Everyone in the Linux MINT Team,
    I absolutely love Linux MINT its really great, it just allows you to do the things you want to do, its just doesn’t get in the way like W10. I find W10 constantly demanding & annoying. I find Microsoft constantly trying to lock me into the Windows Eco-system very frustrating. MINT is a breath of fresh air. MINT is just superb by contrast. I joy to work with each day. Thank You ALL SO MUCH!! TOP NOTCH.

  24. Hi
    From last month’s blog it seems that you’re opting for a gnome skin/shell on top of MPV media player called Celluloid?
    How about simply releasing MPV media player without any modification as the default media player for LM and LMDE?

    One (probably impossible) request for the upcoming LMDE release. Although this release is based on Debian stable, is it technically possible to release LMDE 4 with a newer kernel than Debian 10. I think the Debian 10 kernel is 4.19 or so. Could we get LMDE 4 with Linux kernel 5.0 and then keep the rest of LMDE 4 at Debian 10 level?

    1. Hi Paul,

      You’re right, we moved to Celluloid, but it’s more than just a skin. It’s an entire player, i.e. a complete UI, on top of libmpv. The MPV player itself is also available from the repositories but it’s pretty barebone when it comes to user interface. It has no playlist, there’s a HUD but you’re expected to know the keyboard shortcuts..etc..

      Technically speaking it’s possible to ship with any kernel, but if we were to deviate from upstream and use a different series we’d have to commit to its long term maintenance and security advisories. This work is already done by Debian (and Ubuntu) and there’s no reason to think we’d do a better job (considering the pace from upstream Linux, I’d say it’s very hard to really pick and choose, and so the regressions we see in Ubuntu kernels for instance are probably inevitable). If we were to take care of security updates, we may as well just snapshot the base and/or fork it (like Ubuntu does) to get more empowerment. To be realistic though, the best way to produce the best result isn’t necessarily to control everything, but to focus on what we’re good at and use what’s already there when it’s being done very well. I don’t think we’d be better at doing this, and if we did we’d definitely lose focus on areas we’re much better at.

  25. Hi and many thanks again for your fantastic work on LM. Today I installed LM 19.3 Cinnamon in a VM. Now there is a hint to define a root password. I did, but mentioned that it seems not not to be saved. After restart there is the hint again. Bug or feature?

    1. Hi Thomas,

      Checking whether or not you did it requires admin privileges, which the tool doesn’t have. You’ll need to click “ignore this report” to dismiss it.

  26. I hope the new release will allow laptop installation that the previous edition foiled with deactivation of touchpad in some of the newer machines

  27. Thank you all for the splendid work. LM 19.2 Xfce is really polished, stable and a joy to use. I have had a look at 19.3 and I am sure this will be an excellent release. Xfce 4.14 has made a huge step forward in the direction to be a classy daily driver for those who like to keep it simple. The new artwork in this release nails it.

  28. You added Hardware Detection Tool in the GRUB menu, thank you very much.
    https://infolib.re/Choisir_et_verifier_un_ordinateur
    The picture at the boot is beautiful but we don’t see the GRUB menu et there’s no indication about how to access to this menu (ESC key). A new user will never know how to access to the GRUB menu and test the memory, see the configuration, boot another kernel…
    Could you show the GRUB menu instead of the picture or add a message (“Press ESC to see GRUB menu”) on this picture ?

    1. Indeed, pressing any key shows the menu. But no message says that the menu exists and that we can press a key to show it.
      Perhaps you could immediately show the menu during the downcount “Automatic boot in x seconds…”.

  29. I see 19.3 will ship with HWE packages for kernel and Xorg. Will the upgrade of 19.2 be safe if it’s already running those HWE packages?

    1. Hi Neil,

      Yes, it will be. I can’t really talk about the upgrade path since it’s not tested yet, but I don’t foresee any issue with it.

  30. As always, great work lads, we do appreciate the long hours you put in on your users behalf!

    I know is not officially released but I went ahead and downloaded it from HEAnet.
    Anyway, just some incredibly pedantic things i noticed
    – many, if not all, will probably be gone when the BETA is officially released tomorrow anyway 🙂

    1. I installed 19.3 alongside 19.2 so on the reboot, Grub asked me which to boot as expected.
    But it was the way the the OS were listed – they were inconsistent.
    One read “Linux Mint 19.2 Tina (on /dev/sda1)” while the second just read “Linux Mint 19.3 Cinnamon”

    2. One the welcome screen, it read “In the name of the development team, and everyone involved” …..
    I think it might be better to read “On behalf of the development team, and everyone involved”…
    while there is nothing technically wrong with the former, it’s just something i would associate with something negative..”In the name of ….
    Also, the last line says to send us your feedback without saying where, wonder if we should say in the forums and give a link.

    3. In the New Features popup, the URL opens “https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_tricia_cinnamon_whatsnew.php” but the page reads “Not Found”
    The requested URL was not found on this server.

    4. On the page that pops up for Release Notes, “https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_tricia_cinnamon.php” the LM icon in the middle of the page above “Important Links” is not appearing for me.

    1. Hi Ovari, we’re planning to work on on desktop search, probably as a new cross-DE project in the future. We’d like something super fast to use and access, similar to gnomeDO.

    1. Censorship and freedom of speech are political ideas. Spam, ads, promotion (of products or articles), criticism (either non-constructive or towards other projects), insulting or disrespectful language (saying somebody’s work is “junk” for instance), politics, religion, off-topic are subject to moderation. We’re interested in feedback about our work and constructive criticism that helps get forward, anything else isn’t relevant here, especially if it divides people or focuses the attention on other topics. We can talk about off-topic subjects privately and answer questions by email if need be, but this isn’t a place for people to promote their ideas.

      I’ll give you an example. If someone is annoyed and tells us they’re moving to another distribution, what we really want to know is why, and how we can fix it. What we really don’t care about is which other distribution. A comment which mentions that other distribution and doesn’t explain the source of the issue is not only useless to us it promotes another project here inside of our community. It’s even clearer when the comment isn’t addressed to us but directly to other readers.

  31. I’m in the beta installer and was just wondering if you would consider having the installer use Mint-Y-Dark window borders and adjust the darker elements slightly. It would showcase Mint-Y-Darker as a theme and fit in better with the other elements in the installer as well as the panel theme.

  32. Any business rests on the leader, but it is the team that promotes the business it has begun.
    Thank you Clem and the whole team for your work !!!
    You help many and many. Many migrate from Windows to Linux thanks to YOUR WORK!
    Merry Christmas!

    1. God created Debian. Then he decided that Debian lacked a human face and concocted Ubuntu.
      But the face turned out to be crooked, and then God called upon his Archangels and they, for normal people, made LinuxMint!

  33. Thank you for the new excellent version!
    I have only one problem, the disappearing of the Titlebar buttons setup (System Settings > Windows > Titlebar > Left/Right side title bar buttons). It was an elegant design and there is a workflow regression without “shade” functionality. Otherwise the 19.3 Beta is stable and quick with welcome refinements and additions.

  34. A general comment, I have been using Linux Mint for about 2 years after transitioning from Windows. I often comment to my fellow members of The Melbourne Computer Club (Australia) where I give presentations that Mint is so stable and reliable that I have to go looking for things to do compared with Windows where I seemed to be always having to fix something, rebooting or sitting around waiting for yet another update to complete.

    1. The problem with such projects is that for such a quick search you need to build an index on the content of all files. It is resource-intensive, requires a constant scan of files, and is rarely used by users. And taking into account today’s data volumes, it becomes just a non-stop task of constantly scanning files, which is irrational taking into account how often such a service is used.
      Spending a little time for a specific request at the moment is becoming a more rational task.

    2. Hi Vasily, I know: a constant scan would be overkill. But I do the cron job once per week and it takes less than a minute to complete.
      I don’t want to promote angrysearch itself. I just wanted to show a template that works very well.

  35. Oh sweet, I have been waiting for this. Having been with Mint since Mint 6, so the 19.3 announcement makes me excited for Christmas.
    Don’t take this the wrong way, dear Clem, I appreciate all the work you have been doing and I also know that you don’t have much or any influence on how the Linux kernel develops or how quickly and I wish that Mate or Cinnamon would get a nice GUI like gnome-disks for mdadm, so you could click your raid device together during the installation.
    As far as I know, there is no official work-around for my specific wish, which is having my two M2 drives with Intel Rapid Storage Technology(tm) as raid 0 device available during the installation process. It only works with SATA SSD’s but not with NVME M2 devices.
    For now all I can do, is leaving the drives in AHCI mode and create a raid 0 device with mdadm.

    Again, thank you guys for all of your hard work over the years and Merry Christmas!

  36. Hi Clem,
    Can we have a ‘Minimal install’ option in Ubiquity installer? Similar to one present in normal Ubuntu ISOs?

    Great work on Mint and wish you a very happy holidays in advance! ٩(^‿^)۶

    1. Actually that reminds me, when i was installing 19.3, I had already 19.2 on one partition of sda, and all my Home (documents, Downloads, Music, Videos and so on) folders on another partition of sda.
      So, I wanted to only install 19.3 on a third partition of sda so it would reside alongside 19.2 and the home folder partition that I originally had with 19.2.
      Upon installation, selecting to “install alongside 19.2” did not seem to give me that option. But even selecting “Something else” while i could choose the new partition for 19.3, the installer did not “seem” to allow me reassign the partition containing my Home folders for 19.2 to be used as my Home folders for 19.3.
      Now it probably did, i just missed that option…lol… but maybe it could be more foolproof/obvious! …
      Thanks

  37. Hi Clem,

    Thank you for another superb release. Can you add an option in the font settings that allows us to change Cinnamon panel and menu font. I know, we can change it on the theme’s .css file. But GUI options are always welcome.

    1. We added the ability to set the font size, this was requested a lot in the 19.2 feedback. We’re also aware of the wish to have Cinnamon follow the font selection, but this isn’t present in 4.4. We’re likely to look at that more in details in the next version.

  38. Without a doubt, the best linux distribution for general users out there. A great work! I can’t imagine the computer without LM!

  39. Hi, Clem and team,

    I have a little request, if it’s possible: could you add an option in the boot menu to directly install Linux Mint? You know, like being able to install it without having to boot it from the live medium, like Ubuntu does? Thanks in advance. Great work.

  40. Please make replacing an individual app icon in Cinnamon as easy as it is in Xfce. The Firefox icon in the Mint-Y theme is as fugly as they come and I would prefer to use the original from Mozilla. That’s all I got. Currently running 19.3 beta in VirtualBox and love the changes.

  41. I will not abandon the green side of the force, I love Linux Mint, we have a great relationship for years … 🙂
    But I have to make sure that I was delighted with Zorin OS 15 Lite, the most beautiful and modern XFCE today!
    Zorin appearance is fantastic, useful and very practical.
    What a beautiful, well-designed and harmonious interface, custom menu, DockBarX and Papirus icon theme, all as system defaults, results in a perfect match!
    I think the Linux Mint team should look and be inspired by the beautiful look of Zorin OS and its handy customization tool.

    Clem have a chance to see DockBarX natively in the next Mint XFCE or in future versions?

  42. hi clem, can i ask something for the control of monitors (display), in the 19.10, have a way to change the refresh rate of the monitors, can 19.3 or the next version have something like that??

    Thank and keep doing a excellent distro.

  43. Being playing with Cinnamon 19.3 all day. Excellent job. The only issue I have come across, is in the “Online Accounts” package. After adding my Google account, all works fine, but after a logout/login cycle, Google disconnects with a “Credentials lost” message. Killing the goa-daemon in system monitor resolves the issue, as does a reboot. I have added a “killall goa-daemon” as a startup command. This seems to have resolved the issue.

  44. I still hope for a KDE version again, instead of a Kubuntu install over Mate, Cinnamon, XFCE workaround.
    Although I like LXDE like Peppermint or Linux Lite and have used the other flavors of Mint; I always come back to 18.3 KDE Mint for business use.

    Thank you for that excellent distro and here is to the hope of a well integrated resurgence of KDE

  45. Thank you very much, Clem, for your work. I have been using Linux Mint for a couple of years and the flight is normal. But there is one problem – very blurry icons in some apps in the alt-tab switcher menu, especially in the apps, that were installed manually, without software manager. I have searched a lot through the forums, tried to change theme or icons, but still can’t find an easy way to change blurry apps icons by the crisp ones.

  46. Bonjour à toute l’équipe,
    Voici mon inquiétude:
    Je suis totalement affranchi de Windows depuis 1 an1/2 maintenant j’ai au début en novice essayé une dizaine de distributions (dont ubuntu) et mint à été la seule et unique assez simple et fiable pour me permettre de quitter W.
    J’ai vu dans un article que un des fondateur disait que il avait aussi une vie de famille et ne pouvait passer 24/24 pour mint (ce que je peux parfaitement comprendre) mais je suis inquiet car je dois acheter bientôt un nouveau portable et le choix du matériel va être beaucoup conditionné à l’avenir du support de mint (car si mint arrêtait un de c4 comme beaucoup de distributions arrêtent je ne veux pas me casser la tête et malheureusement retournerai sur W, ce qui vraiment me dégoutterait mais quel choix? )…… merci à tous

    1. Installe Mint en créant une partition séparée pour / et pour /home. Même si un jour Mint s’arrête (ce dont je doute très fort), tu peux facilement installer une autre distribution en conservant ta partition /home (tu ne reformates que la partition /) et ça démarrera en conservant toutes tes données et tes paramétrages.

  47. Hi Clem.
    Is there a chance on the roadmap for the next release that all spices get updated automatically without the user intervention? I configured some Mint pcs for my family/friends and the spices are always left forgotten.
    Thank you team for all the great work; I’ve been a Mint user since Ubuntu Unity adventure and absolutely love it.

  48. Merci à toi pour ta réponse (même si elle ne répond pas à ma question sur l’avenir de la disponibilité des gens qui maintiennent mint), et merci pour ta partition home etc… mais comme j’ai expliqué si mint disparaît un jour je repasserai à contre coeur à W10 car aucune autre distribution linux ne m’a apporté l’équilibre parfait que je recherche.. seul mint à réussi.

  49. Hi Clem;
    You made a really good job, and I am sure final 19.3 will be as usual like the 17.3 and 18.3 the best quality. I would just object regarding a tiny problem I had to enter in on my wife’s request: Why when answering to user’s language are you leaving a so huge quantity of asian and arabic fonts. In my mind, when you answer you are willing, say spanish, english or french user language, it should install only the fonts used in your language and leave the others as an option. When she opened LibreOffice after install, she had a list of choice of fonts longer than my arm. I would add the same remark with LO help files and I10 language files which are left in Russian, Chinese and other languages. OK, I remove all this stuff after install, but as having all these additional fonts and language files for certain software, it takes much more time when having to update (some are relatively big files) and in many parts of the world, Internet is not running as fast as in developed countries (we are in the peruvian rainforest, and sometimes it is a true hell to get internet for enough time to update, or at very low speed).

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