{"id":3811,"date":"2019-10-31T12:27:24","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T12:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.linuxmint.com\/?p=3811"},"modified":"2019-10-31T12:42:58","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T12:42:58","slug":"monthly-news-october-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.linuxmint.com\/?p=3811","title":{"rendered":"Monthly News \u2013 October 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

GNOME vs Trolls<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before we start with the news, I’d like to bring this to everyone’s attention:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.gnome.org\/news\/2019\/10\/gnome-files-defense-against-patent-troll\/<\/a><\/p>\n

We are standing on the shoulders of giants, and among them GNOME is probably the tallest. Ubuntu provides an amazing base for us to build upon. If tomorrow they were to disappear it would be a tragedy for our project. Would it be the end? No, we wouldn’t have to start from scratch. Mint without Ubuntu is LMDE. What would Mint be without GNOME though?<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

When people hear GNOME they often just think of the desktop environment, i.e. GNOME Shell, a project we don’t use.. a project we don’t use but without which Cinnamon wouldn’t have existed. And a project which came from GNOME2, which we used for years, and without which MATE wouldn’t have existed.<\/p>\n

Beyond the desktop environment, GNOME is also a large project which provides us with utilities and applications we use every day: our calculator,\u00a0 agenda, the disk, screenshot, logs utilities, the system monitor are just a few of them.<\/p>\n

Without GNOME there would be no Xapp project either. Xed, Xplayer, Xreader, Pix, Xviewer are forked from GNOME apps. Blueberry is a frontend to gnome-bluetooth etc etc..<\/p>\n

Last but not least, absolutely “everything” we do, everything we develop here at Linux Mint relies on GNOME libraries and toolkits. What would Mint be without GNOME, GTK and its many libraries? I really don’t know. If it existed at all, it would definitely be completely different.<\/p>\n

Today GNOME is under threat and it needs your help. If there’s ever been a moment to acknowledge how much this project means to us, this is it. I hope you can support them as much as you’re supporting us.<\/p>\n

You can contribute to the GNOME Patent Troll Defense Fund at https:\/\/secure.givelively.org\/donate\/gnome-foundation-inc\/gnome-patent-troll-defense-fund<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Alternatively you can also help them by donating at https:\/\/www.gnome.org\/support-gnome\/donate\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Date format<\/strong><\/p>\n

The default date format was fixed in Cinnamon and MATE. It will now properly follow the locale set by LC_TIME, and this locale is configurable in the Language Settings.<\/p>\n

XAppStatusIcon<\/strong><\/p>\n

Work on the XAppStatusIcon API is finished. Applets were added to Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce. LibAppIndicator was patched. We’ll have crisp icons in all environments in 19.3, HiDPI compatible, with support for symbolic icons and without rendering issues.<\/p>\n

Linux Mint 19.3 ETA and codename<\/strong><\/p>\n

The upcoming version of Linux Mint will be codenamed “Tricia”. It will be released for Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce in 32-bit and 64-bit just before Christmas.<\/p>\n

New logo<\/strong><\/p>\n

New splash screens were made for Grub:<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a>
Grub boot screen<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

and Plymouth:<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"\/
Plymouth boot splash animation<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Celluloid<\/strong><\/p>\n

Xplayer and VLC will be replaced by Celluloid 0.17.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a>
Celluloid 0.17<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The mpv based player will be properly integrated within the OS and provide much better performance.<\/p>\n

Gnote<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tomboy will be replaced by Gnote 3.34. With the exception of the tray icon, Gnote provides the same functionality as Tomboy but it is built on modern technology.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a>
Gnote 3.34<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

With Tomboy gone we no longer need Mono in Linux Mint. Tomboy was also one of the very few remaining apps we shipped by default which didn’t support HiDPI.<\/p>\n

Xfce<\/strong><\/p>\n

Xfce will be upgraded to 4.14, based on GTK3 and with initial support for HiDPI.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a>
Xfce 4.14<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

HWE stack<\/strong><\/p>\n

To boost compatibility with modern hardware, Linux Mint 19.3 will ship with kernel 5.0 and Xorg 1.20.<\/p>\n

Sponsorships:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Linux Mint is proudly sponsored by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Platinum Sponsors:<\/span>
\n\"Private<\/a>
\nGold Sponsors:
\n\"Linux<\/a>
\nSilver Sponsors:
\n\"\"<\/a>
\n\"Sucuri\"<\/a>
\nBronze Sponsors:
\n\"Vault<\/a>
\n\"AYKsolutions<\/a>
\n\"Goscomb\"<\/a>
\n\"BGASoft<\/a>
\n\"David<\/a>
\n\"Simple<\/a><\/td>\n		Community Sponsors:

<\/p>\n