Linux Mint 18.1 'Serena' BETA Ubuntu-based Operating System Now Available For Download (betanews.com)

BrianFagioli shares his story on Beta News: Feeling fatigued by Windows 10 and its constant updates and privacy concerns? Can't afford one of those beautiful new MacBook Pro laptops? Don't forget, Linux-based desktop operating systems are just a free download away, folks!

If you do decide to jump on the open source bandwagon, a good place to start is Linux Mint. Both the Mate and Cinnamon desktop environments should prove familiar to Windows converts, and since it is based on Ubuntu, there is a ton of compatible packages. Today, the first beta of Linux Mint 18.1 'Serena' becomes available for download.
Here's the release notes for both Cinammon and MATE.

Comments

Re:Visual Studio C++ equivalent?

[lgw]

I develop C++ applications mainly for Linux. I use Visual C++ and Xcode (I got accustomed to it after some time) to develop, then I log on Linux to "port" the code with vi, GCC, etc, and add Linux specific features.

Is there a decent GUI for developing on Linux now?

You can use VS on a Windows machine to build/debug on Linux now. You can also run a light version, "VS Code," natively on Linux - it's free and open source, but I don't know how full-featured it is.

Think of the target audience

[OrangeTide]

If you are on Slashdot and haven't switched to Linux by now, then it seems extremely unlikely that you ever will.

I hope you all enjoy whatever OS you happen to be using today.

Re:Think of the target audience

[h33t l4x0r]

My mouse doesn't feel right on Linux, I would switch if it weren't for that.

Ubuntu makes to much decisions for me...

[xonen]

After many years of Ubuntu use as primary desktop, the thing that drove me away was ending the support for the closed source AMD video drivers.

Someone decided that the open source drivers were 'good enough'. Well, they are not, at least for what i was doing. And the choice to use the drivers as released by AMD was removed, and doing so manually anything but trivial, as in, you'd have more luck on an arch based distro.

Imho, Ubuntu, and all derivatives like Mint, suddenly alienate half their user base with that decision. And if this wasn't an online forum i'd use stronger wordings for that.

Also, i just need to get work done. And most of the stuff i do is reasonable platform-agnostic but expects reasonable 3D performance. So, i'm back to windows 10 which serves my need, ironically has Ubuntu user land built in these days, and Linux will have to wait until i upgrade my graphics to nVidia, or when i can be bothered to try another distro, or when open source graphics drivers are really of comparable quality, whichever come first.

* Just 2 cents from a frustrated ex-Ubuntu&Mint user on the desktop. *

Re:Ubuntu makes to much decisions for me...

[Ramze]

I'm not sure I follow. Ubuntu will let you install the proprietary drivers and will let you file bug reports for issues, but if the close-sourced driver is found to be the culprit, they'll refer you to AMD... because AMD is the only one with the source code, and thus the only ones able to help you fix the bug. That's about as much support as one could ask for.

The open source drivers are the default install, but you certainly can replace them with the proprietary closed source drivers.

Here's the How To from Ubuntu for the most recent 16.04 LTS:
https://help.ubuntu.com/commun...

As for the open vs closed source quality, recent benchmarks show that the MESA 13 drivers are pretty close to the closed source ones for most chipsets, but it's still a tiny bit high on the latency. I doubt you'll ever get parity until/unless AMD phased out the closed source drivers by fully opening the source code. There's probably some things in there they license and/or don't care to share with competitors, though.

Re:Ubuntu makes to much decisions for me...

[AthanasiusKircher]

After many years of Ubuntu use as primary desktop, the thing that drove me away was ending the support for the closed source AMD video drivers.

What does this have to do with Ubuntu? AMD ended their support.

Someone decided that the open source drivers were 'good enough'. Well, they are not, at least for what i was doing.

Yep, that "someone" was AMD. They apparently decided to focus more on a new Linux driver project, as noted in the posts from AMD folks quoted in the above link. Ubuntu isn't able to offer "support" for a closed-source driver that apparently breaks with the newer versions of Xorg. (I'd note that AMD had months to prepare before the new version of Ubuntu upgraded to the newer version of Xorg, and it's been a year or more and AMD hasn't updated their driver.)

And the choice to use the drivers as released by AMD was removed

Because it might break your system.

Imho, Ubuntu, and all derivatives like Mint, suddenly alienate half their user base with that decision.

How was it Ubuntu's fault (let alone Mint's, who didn't do anything here) that AMD stopped updating their drivers for Linux? Ubuntu and its derivatives aren't the only distros that this created problems with -- anyone who is using a version of Xorg released in the past year will have the same problem. And since Xorg is standard across most Linux distros, this truly has nothing to do with Ubuntu (or Mint) per se.

So, i'm back to windows 10 which serves my need

Yep -- AMD decided to update their drivers for the latest Windows version. Ubuntu can't do so, because they don't have the source code.

Why are you angry at Ubuntu when the people who stopped the support are AMD?

I don't mean to sound insulting, but you do understand what the implications of "closed-source driver" are, right? Ubuntu would likely be happy to provide support and updates if they had the source code... but they don't, and AMD won't release it.

Re:Warning

[iggymanz]

speak for yourself but no one else. My laptop runs Linux Mint 17.3, all devices work because it takes 5 minutes of research to find laptops that will work. I don't do games. OpenShot and gimp are good enough media apps for me, vlc for viewing. SageMath works well, it was made for Linux. Spreadsheets with LIbreOffice are fine.

Re:I don't get it.

[uvajed_ekil]

Every other day, there seems to be a new "operating system" released, always in "beta" (and never leaving that stage)... but it's just a Linux distribution! It's just a bunch of standard junkware slapped together! I don't understand this obsession with making new Linux distros when there already are a billion of them.

If you want to sound crotchety and whiny, that's up to you. But you are completely wrong here, since Mint has been around for about ten years and is an excellent operating system with a great team and professional lead developer, not "junkware slapped together." I don't agree with one of the bigoted political stances Mint head Clem has taken in the past but I've been running it for 9 years and fully understand why it is one of the most popular and respected distros (and he's kept quiet about his hate for Israel in recent years). You can be lazy and let MS run your computer and data if you like, but that doesn't mean there aren't 10-20 really good Linux distros out there completely ready for prime time, beta or otherwise.