Linux Mint 17 Released

Linux Mint 17 was released:

http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=08458

 

Just installed, looks good, as usual. No issues to speak of yet.. I'm still liking Cinnamon best...

 

Nice. I have not installed it but will certainly recommend it for people who are starting off in the Linux world.
Personally I prefer xfce customized into Windows 98 format.

 

Nice. Got the 4 torrents & I'll download them later.

 

I'll try out the XFCE version on a flash drive. After that, not sure what to do with it.

 

I have just installed LM 17 Cinnamon on my little girls aging Dell Inspiron. She was sick of W8
This laptop was a great test for the offline driver support as it uses the Broadcom wireless chipset.
The new driver manager worked like a charm, I reinserted the flash drive with the LM image, hit 1 button and presto the correct drivers are installed and the wifi fired up and connects. Pretty cool and a great choice for those leaving Micro$oft, young or old. Thumbs up here.

 

it even works well alongside Win8.1.1 and all hardwares were found (touchscreen, etc...). This distro is well made.

 

I don't understand. Is there a separate Driver DVD or what?

 

Some nice updates to the update manager, including security information and information about kernel updates:

http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_qiana_cinnamon_whatsnew.php#cinnamon

 

Better than that...

"When offline, the Driver Manager asks you to plug in the installation medium and proceeds to mount it as a temporary package repository.

It's now much easier for instance to install Linux Mint on laptops equipped with Broadcom wireless chipsets, and you no longer need an an ethernet cable."

http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_qiana_cinnamon_whatsnew.php#mintdrivers

 

Redmond window manager style?
What controls do you use?
I prefer Raleigh over Redmond.

 

I am using almost default theme settings Xfce 4.6, Cheser icons, Serif font.
What I changed was the overall structure of the desktop rather than colors or icons.
- Menu is on the bottom and gray color
- Menu was renamed to "Start" and the mouse icon right next to the start menu was changed to Debian icon (that little red spiral thing)
- Clock was changed to AM-PM and I got rid of that 0 before 08:00.
- I installed Orage for my calendar and date function
- Right next to calendar I got a WiFi icon and then weather icon

Everything else was removed from the taskbar, giving it Windows 98 classic theme like structure with a gray theme and blue highlights. At the same time the Debian icon and the Orage calendar give it a bit of a modern/linux touch. I don't really like complete copying of either Mac or Windows theme. Makes me feel like Im trying to imitate something. Instead I like to copy the concept and add to it a little bit of Linux touch. I think that Windows 98 classic theme was a fair desktop design that prioritized productivity over anything else. At the same time it gives me a little bit of nostalgia as my first PC was running Windows 98.

I do sometimes miss the fancy icons. I might be buying a Macbook air 11" next year to replace my Windows Netbook for viewing Netflix and occasional skyping.

 

I had never heard of Cheser icons, thanks for the tip!

 

I can't see big differences between 16 and 17. The start menu installer & uninstaller is very nice. A few bugs with some tray icons. I also changed the default start menu, the icons and the meta theme. Now it's like [see screenshots]

 

Try them with the xfce 4.6. The icons are blue and go very well together with blue highlight. They provide fluidity to the 4.6 theme.

And the fluidity is what is missing in Linux Mint distros. The lower right hand corner tray icons are blurry, have set font which cannot be change and set boldness level which also cannot be changed. That's what initially frustrated me with Mint distros.

 

Sounds more like your monitor has problems... the tray icons here are anything but blurry, very crisp and decent looking in fact. Not sure what you're talking about...

 

same here

http://i.imgur.com/MKyz3Dy.jpg

 

Thank you for posting the picture. It shows exactly the problem that I am talking about. Please compare the font in Menu and the clock to the one in minimized firefox. You will see a huge difference in contrast and font quality. Granted beauty/ugliness may be in the eyes of the beholder but the problem is that there is no easy way to make the font uniform among the entire taskbar. Something that became a huge irritation for me to the point that I have decided to abandon that entire DE.

 

in fact they look blurry in the screenshot viewed in my 18.4 inch screen taken from the 10inch screen, in my ultra-portable (that has a 10 inch screen) it is not blurry at all; i think it is the high dpi monitor that may cause this effect.

this screenshot is taken from my 18.4inch screen laptop , mint is in a VM so you can compare it with Win8

http://i.imgur.com/I8s75iL.jpg

i never tried Linux before so i cant say if it is better or not; for me it is just fine.

 

It's not as much about being blurry as inconsistent, blurry, gray and difficult to change. Compare that Windows taskbar with your Cinnamon. MS did 100% better job in consistency in that aspect. This is one of the many reasons why I left Linux Mint.

 

Linux Mint 17 Qiana - Take 1: Cinnamon + Nvidia

Here's a long and fairly enthusiastic review of Linux Mint 17 Qiana 64-bit edition with Cinnamon desktop environment, covering live session, installation in a dual-boot configuration and post-install use, including look & feel, Wireless (2.4GH & 5GHz), Bluetooth, Samba, multimedia playback - Flash and MP3, package management & updates, default and extra applications, customization and tweaks, Nvidia drivers, printing, stability, suspend & resume, resource usage, some minor and major bugs, and more. Enjoy.

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/linux-mint-qiana-cinnamon-nvidia.html


Cheers,
Mrk

 

Thanks MrK; your reviews are very appreciated, help me a lot to choose which distros/DE i will use;i am now on Kubuntu 14.04

 

Linux Mint 17 Qiana - Take 2: Cinnamon + SSD

You did not expect it that soon, did you. But here's a second review of Linux Mint 17 Qiana 64-bit edition with Cinnamon desktop environment, covering live session, installation in a quad-boot configuration on a laptop with Intel graphics and SSD and post-install use, including look & feel, hardware compatibility, resource usage, system and network speed improvements, stability, suspend & resume, printing, battery life, small visual glitches, and more. Enjoy again.

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/linux-mint-qiana-cinnamon-ssd.html


Cheers,
Mrk

 

nope, hehe. but be ready for some new reviews, Mint Qiana KDE & XFCE are in RC and downloadable right now

 

Linux Mint 17 "KDE" was released:

http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=08491