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Linux Mint 19 'Tara' Released (betanews.com)

Posted by msmash on from the weekend-projects dept.

Linux Mint, the maker of popular Linux distro, announced on Friday the general availability of a new version of their operating system. Called Linux Mint 19 "Tara", the new version offers a range of new features, improvements, and a promise that it would stick around for a while. Writing for BetaNews, Brian Fagioli: The most significant aspect of Linux Mint 19 is the new Ubuntu 18.04 LTS base. Tara will receive updates until 2023 -- very impressive. The kernel is at 4.15, and all three desktop environments are being updated too. Mate is now at version 1.2, Cinnamon gets bumped up to 3.8, and Xfce is updated to 4.12.

In Linux Mint 19, the star of the show is Timeshift, said, Clement Lefebvre, Linux Mint Project Leader. Although it was introduced in Linux Mint 18.3 and backported to all Linux Mint releases, it is now at the center of Linux Mint's update strategy and communication, he added. Thanks to Timeshift you can go back in time and restore your computer to the last functional system snapshot. If anything breaks, you can go back to the previous snapshot and it's as if the problem never happened.

75 comments

  1. Tera? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I thought it was Tara...

    1. Re:Tera? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Either way your a terarrist.

    2. Re:Tera? by Desler · · Score: 1, Troll

      Itnis. It's even called Tara in the direct quote. msmash, in the grand Slashdot "editor" tradition, is only barely literate.

    3. Re:Tera? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I suspect that /. "editors" are encouraged to make typos to troll the readers and create controversy that results in more comments.

      (Note: The encouragement may be accidental; management may reward editors who have the most comments in their posts, and the editors may have learned that they can game the numbers and get more comments by adding typos to increase the number of comments.)

    4. Re:Tera? by CaptainDork · · Score: 0

      It was Tarabull.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    5. Re:Tera? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well his name is M$ Mash. He probably fucked it up on purpose.

    6. Re:Tera? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought it was Toro, like that Japanese fish shit.

  2. Sweet, cant wait to update by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I use xfce mainly, so will be waiting for the xfce release

    1. Re:Sweet, cant wait to update by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      This time they did a triple release : Mate, Cinnamon and XFCE.

      No KDE but all the Mint apps and tools fit in with the three above, being made as GTK3 apps with "file edit view" menu bar.
      XFCE hasn't had a new release. So here is it :)

    2. Re:Sweet, cant wait to update by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh they did; thanks for the heads up ;)

    3. Re:Sweet, cant wait to update by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For Debian-based distros, I prefer KDE neon anyway.

  3. Only one open beta... by Bonker · · Score: 5, Informative

    The open beta has been out for about a month prior to the mirrors starting their seed yesterday. It's had some fairly serious issues, mostly related to video. I've personally had some hardware lockups while watching videos on an integrated Intel adapter with VLC (and have submitted bug reports). I've also seen other bug reports and feature requests go simply ignored... Not even addressed as 'will fix' or 'won't fix'.

    I love me some Mint, but I personally feel that I'm going to have to treat this as a 'wait for the .1 release' before I personally consider it stable.

    --
    The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
    1. Re:Only one open beta... by iggymanz · · Score: 4, Informative

      Ubuntu 18.04 has those same issues.

      you know Mint doesn't make those video drivers or VLC, right?

      of course they are dependent on upstream for any solutions to those problems. of course they won't say they'll fix it, how could they?

    2. Re:Only one open beta... by Kjella · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ubuntu 18.04 has those same issues. you know Mint doesn't make those video drivers or VLC, right? of course they are dependent on upstream for any solutions to those problems. of course they won't say they'll fix it, how could they?

      Why would the average user know any of that? If it comes as part of Linux Mint then it could be a packaging bug. It could be an outdated version. Even if it's a valid upstream bug the user shouldn't have to know where all the thousands of packages come from and what their bug reporting process is.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    3. Re:Only one open beta... by roc97007 · · Score: 2

      Thanks for the tip. I'm still on 17 and was going to jump right on this, reformat and start fresh, as soon as it came out. But I agree, that breaks Rule One of OS Upgrades: Always wait for the .1 release.

      Besides this gives me time to scrap all to pr0n to an external drive.

      Wait, did I say that out loud?

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    4. Re:Only one open beta... by roc97007 · · Score: 1

      Ubuntu 18.04 has those same issues. you know Mint doesn't make those video drivers or VLC, right? of course they are dependent on upstream for any solutions to those problems. of course they won't say they'll fix it, how could they?

      Why would the average user know any of that? If it comes as part of Linux Mint then it could be a packaging bug. It could be an outdated version. Even if it's a valid upstream bug the user shouldn't have to know where all the thousands of packages come from and what their bug reporting process is.

      That may be the case, but I'm not sure what the solution might be. It seems the average user is in the same boat with Winders.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    5. Re: Only one open beta... by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      Nope, even Mint site itself Clearly explains what Mint is and where it comes from. All driver issues the base Ubuntu has, MINT will have of course. MINT team makes some things but drivers not on list. Neither is VLC.

    6. Re:Only one open beta... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's because it's not a video adapter at all, it's your CPU. Get a real video card and your problems will go away.

    7. Re:Only one open beta... by Tukz · · Score: 1

      Isn't this the norm of software? Always wait for .1 release.

      I'm on 18.3 and I see no reason to rush to 19 just yet.

      --
      - Don't do what I do, it's probably not healthy nor safe. -
    8. Re:Only one open beta... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Right I'll just open the case of my laptop and plug in a new graphics card in to the the empty PCI-E x16 slot. Oh, wait... it hasn't got one because it is a fucking laptop.

      And really, Intel graphics work well enough for normal desktop use and playing videos. They might be rubbish for games, but not everyone cares about playing the latest games on their computer. And if it does the job (barring a bug in the driver, which can be fixed) why should I replace my hardware?

    9. Re:Only one open beta... by zwarte+piet · · Score: 1

      17 still got a year of support. I'm hesitant of upgrading from 17.3 kde , especially as 19 doesn't have a kde and I sort of insist on using kdesvn (which was missing in 18 and all kde themes were ugly) as it seems to be the only svn with proper filemanager integration that sort of works.

  4. Dare I dream by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Year of the Linux Desktop?

    1. Re:Dare I dream by roc97007 · · Score: 2

      Year of the Linux Desktop?

      It is at my house, and probably yours as well. What else matters?

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    2. Re:Dare I dream by Mkkby · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Tried mint on my desktop and laptop. Neither hibernate/suspend correctly. Microsoft has nailed this since 2000. So frustrating.

      It would be nice if they worked on getting the basics right after all these years. Until then linux will remain a minor player for consumers. The chicken and egg never seem to hatch. Need to fix the basics in order to drive market share in order to get driver/OEM support.

    3. Re:Dare I dream by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does on my laptop and old netbook

    4. Re:Dare I dream by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hibernate and suspend have been working just fine in Mint for years. I'm still running Mint 16 on one of my laptops and have it set to sleep or hibernate when I close the lid (depending on if it's plugged in) and wake when I open it. It's never failed to work.

    5. Re:Dare I dream by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Possibly soon, but not because of Linux Mint. It's more that Microsoft torpedoed themselves. Not many people prefer Linux over Windows 7.

    6. Re:Dare I dream by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly. With that said, the year of the Linux Desktop will be 2020 in my house. Windows 7 is the end of the road for Microsoft OSes.

    7. Re:Dare I dream by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Shill? Microsoft has definitely NOT nailed suspend/hibernate; especially since 2000. I recall lots of people being upset at suspend/hibernate as recent as Windows 7. To be honest, I have not heard any complaints recently, but the tone of your comment screams "shill".

  5. Not ready yet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When will the KDE version be out?

    1. Re:Not ready yet by sconeu · · Score: 2

      It won't.

      https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3418

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
  6. Linux Mint always fail in a VM. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Ubuntu did work as guest in a VM.
    But Linux Mint didn't work as guest in a VM.

    Why?
    Is there any kind of lock anti-guest-virtualization?

    1. Re:Linux Mint always fail in a VM. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ubuntu did work as guest in a VM.
      But Linux Mint didn't work as guest in a VM.

      Why?

      Anecdote rather than data? I've installed every fresh release of various DE flavors of both Mint and Ubuntu as guests on VMWare Workstation for several years now. Granted I don't do much with them, I just like to take a quick poke around to see what's new, but never has Mint "didn't work".

    2. Re:Linux Mint always fail in a VM. by Jetstream · · Score: 1

      Maybe I'm having better luck or you're doing more strenuous work, but LM Xfce has worked okay for me in a VM under winXP.

  7. No KDE edition by stephenjsweeney · · Score: 5, Informative

    Most Slashdot reader probably know this already, but worth mentioning is that there is no KDE edition of Tara. KDE editions were stopped with the previous release (18.3).

    https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3418

    1. Re:No KDE edition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That sucks. KDE is the only desktop environment, but now there aren't any distros left.

    2. Re:No KDE edition by SeaFox · · Score: 4, Insightful

      KDE Mint feels kinda redundant to me when you have Kubuntu and KDE's own Neon. Why do we need a KDE version of a distro that is a derivative of another distro that is a derivative of Debian? So we can play more games of point the fingers when something doesn't work right?

    3. Re:No KDE edition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yeah harley riders are definitely part of the problem.

    4. Re:No KDE edition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You can't use Neon on a laptop. It doesn't have any wifi drivers.
      You can't use Kubuntu on anything. It's been crap since Intrepid.
      Linux Mint KDE Edition has been the only distro for a long time, and they've discontinued it.

    5. Re:No KDE edition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Doesn't everyone?

    6. Re:No KDE edition by Gavagai80 · · Score: 2

      Kubuntu works just fine. KDE just isn't interesting to distro maintainers because it's not broken enough to need to write a bunch of their own special new tools for.

      --
      This space intentionally left blank
    7. Re:No KDE edition by _merlin · · Score: 1

      There's Fedora KDE spin...

    8. Re:No KDE edition by pnutjam · · Score: 1

      OpenSuse had a top notch KDE environment.

      --
      Cheap storage VM.
    9. Re:No KDE edition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Coulda fooled me, KDE Neon is running fine on my Dell M6700 laptop, and has been my daily driver for a year now. There's a bug in plasmashell where the toolbar occasionally goes unresponsive and I have to restart plasma, but apart from that (and no popular hex editor with UTF 8 support?!), all good.

    10. Re:No KDE edition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Install Debian, then install KDE. It works just fine. You don't need a distro specifically tailored to your preferred desktop environment.

  8. That's sucks by future+assassin · · Score: 1

    I'm on latest LTS Xubuntu using R5 2400G and having some lock up issues was hoping Mint (my regular ) distro would be better. Gamin with Xonotic is pretty smooth but I get some system freezes when watching video and video editing.

    --
    by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
  9. Thanks again, Clem and team by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I graduated to Linux Mint Mate from Ubuntu several years ago and never looked back. It's the best OS I have ever used, by far, in five decades of using computers.

    Thank you so much for all of your hard work. It is so appreciated.

  10. Re:"Gone with the Wend" release by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Frankly, I don't give a damn.

    You've been moded down to -1 because you managed to fuck up one of the most famous quotes of all time. Just FYI.

  11. why mint over parent Ubuntu or Debian by GodWasAnAlien · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why use Mint over parent Ubuntu?

    Are there special Mint packages that you cannot just apt-get on Ubuntu.

    And the the obvious next question.
    Why use Ubuntu over the parent Debian? The Debian-Ubuntu delta is smaller than ever now that Ubuntu uses GNOME3 and wayland.
    I assume the answers here is more obvious than with Mint:
    - a more user friendly installer
    - GNOME3 with unity-like extensions
    - larger user base (more well tested versions)

    1. Re:why mint over parent Ubuntu or Debian by Tyger-ZA · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's a hierarchy: Debian -> Ubuntu -> Mint and at each level I gain something useful.

      Debian has a stable free software base to work with.

      It's easier to install 3rd party software on Ubuntu than it is on Debian.

      With Mint + Cinnamon I don't get a bullshit UI by default like I would on Ubuntu.

      Yeah I know that they killed their PoS UI eventually but they've switched to something that still isn't as good as Mint;

      in this case "good" meaning that it resembles what a desktop looked like before the rise of mobile UI idiocy being ported to the desktop

    2. Re:why mint over parent Ubuntu or Debian by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For me, Mint's purpose for existence became moot when Ubuntu started releasing Ubuntu-MATE bootable ISOs a few years ago.

      (Or if you download the vanilla ISO, you can just sudo apt install mate-desktop; sudo apt purge unity*; reboot.)

    3. Re:why mint over parent Ubuntu or Debian by Tyger-ZA · · Score: 3, Insightful

      you don't need mint to avoid a 'bullshit ui' from ubuntu. you just like slamming canonical, i guess.

      because all that's needed is 4 or 5 brain cells to power yourself to configuring something else on it.. including your precious mint's default of cinnamon.

      Let's break it down:

      you just like slamming canonical, i guess.

      It's easier to install 3rd party software on Ubuntu than it is on Debian.

      Indeed.

      because all that's needed is 4 or 5 brain cells to power yourself

      Perhaps you should have engaged your 4 or 5 remaining brain cells before replying? I've used Ubuntu from around 5.10 up to and including when they introduced Unity. Tried to like it, gave up, moved on. But Unity was so awesome that they didn't cancel it, amirite?

      to configuring something else on it.. including your precious mint's default of cinnamon.

      Do more work to achieve the same thing, why?

      And what would I gain from doing it that way anyway?

      Canonical deserves to be called out for fucking up the UI, just like one would call out MS for fucking up the UI

    4. Re:why mint over parent Ubuntu or Debian by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Debian doesn't have AppArmor by default (dunno how easy it is to manually enable and how it then works), and IIRC no firewall (ufw) on by default with sane defaults.
      Debian has less polish here and there, and a less predictable release-/lifecycle (in case you care about that).
      The (often only configuration) changes are minimal and can be implemented on Debian easily.
      But for non-techie end users like my mom I'd recommend Ubuntu over Debian, because when you add up all those tiny little defaults/changes, on the whole it makes the OS more suitable to them. Although I prefer Debian myself.

  12. Multimedia Codecs on LiveCDs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Mint (I believe it was v.17.x) was great for booting into a LiveCD with multimedia codecs right there. Now that they've been removed for a few releases, I can find no compelling reason to use Mint. Sure, they may be easy to install (and reinstall when you boot back into the LiveCD) but having them on the LiveCD was better.

    In other news, I also enjoyed one or two releases of the old Mandrake Linux which offered Nvidia drivers on the LiveCD as well as Compiz.

    Debian offers me more than Mint does.

    1. Re:Multimedia Codecs on LiveCDs by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      Hard to keep on breaking the law once you become popular enough to be noticed by the lawyers.

      --
      This space intentionally left blank
  13. mate-1.2? by kevmeister · · Score: 1

    Looks like a typo. I'm currently running mate-1.22 and it's rather old. What version is it actually running?

    --
    Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer, Retired
    1. Re:mate-1.2? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's 1.20.1 in Linux MINT 19.

      As of now, the latest release of MATE is 1.21, which is development release for 1.22. You are incorrect.
      http://pub.mate-desktop.org/releases/

  14. Fresh Install by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Popped it on an i7 with 16+ gigs of ram and Nvidia card. So far everything seems to be functioning normally after switching to the Nvidia driver.

  15. Why I prefer Mint by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    1. It has all the same security benefits of Ubuntu as long as you learn to manage the updates.

    2. It has a friendly UI that is very similar to Windows.

    3. Most anything that runs on Ubuntu will run on Mint.

    4. The Mint team genuinely cares about and listens to user input.

    5. Mint is large and established enough to where it is well-supported and won't likely fall by the wayside like many other distros.

  16. So its System Restore then? by hairyfeet · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Cuz that is exactly what it sounds like, the system takes snapshots and then if an update or anything else borks it you can restore it to a point in time when it was working.

    If that is the case then Kudos to the Mint team, I've been saying for years that if you want Linux to be usable to the masses its gonna have to be a hell of a lot easier for Joe and Jane Average to take care of basic tasks without having to read Man pages and learn CLI voodoo and having their own version of system restore is a good step in the right direction.

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    1. Re:So its System Restore then? by Billly+Gates · · Score: 2

      Hairy you're back

      --
      http://saveie6.com/
  17. if anything breaks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "If anything breaks, you can go back to the previous snapshot and it's as if the problem never happened."

    1. Isn't this the responsibility that's now baked into systemd?

    2. What if you try to go back in time before systemd?

  18. Comes with SystemD by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

    I will stick with FreeBSD. I don't want no log files or daemons that shut off without errors or logs and want things like modern NFS support that Linux can no longer do besides Duuvan

    --
    http://saveie6.com/
  19. Big KDE Plasma & Kubuntu fan here... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject Kubuntu 18.04 (KDE Plasma ROCKS & so does FreePascal + Lazarus IDE 1.8.2 which is ALL I really need).

    When my Win7 64-bit install media finally "bit it" & 2 disks (Raptor HDD & Intel SSD) blew out after ~4++ yrs.? I gave it a go (glad I did).

    * Very pleased & EXTREMELY impressed w/ how nice Linux really is now - that mythical/legendary "year of the Linux desktop"? NOT "outta the question" now imo...

    (Yes, it's THAT good!)

    Per the old Virginia Slims cig ads? "You've come a LONG ways, baby..." (sure has).

    APK

    P.S.=> ... & I'm out to help make it BETTER w/ a GUI FUTURE that MOST folks prefer + like & use (or did DOS beat out Windows + why does X/Wayland & KDE/Gnome/xfce exist w/ apps on them (that's for those of you who surfed here using Lynx (lol)) via the tools I note above & https://apple.slashdot.org/com... & I have an ODD FEELING that the BEST WORK I'm ever going to do in FREEWARE over time (hobby of mine I've done pretty ok on thru the decades) is going to be BETTER (it is already per that link) than it EVER WAS in Windows... apk

  20. Linux Desktop! by shplopt · · Score: 1

    I've got my aged mother running Linux Mint. She doesn't know the difference. Linux is absolutely ready to be a Windows replacement for the average user, and has been for some time. You don't need to learn a new OS paradigm, you don't need the command line, you sure as hell don't have to download old drivers from sketchy websites for old hardware. It's just never going to happen because PCs come with Windows installed.