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

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.

Comments

Re:Sweet, cant wait to update

[Anonymous Coward]

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 :)

Only one open beta...

[Bonker]

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.

Re:Only one open beta...

[iggymanz]

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?

Re:Only one open beta...

[Kjella]

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.

Re:Only one open beta...

[roc97007]

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?

No KDE edition

[stephenjsweeney]

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

Re:No KDE edition

[SeaFox]

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?

Re:No KDE edition

[Gavagai80]

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.

Re:Not ready yet

[sconeu]

It won't.

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

why mint over parent Ubuntu or Debian

[GodWasAnAlien]

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)

Re:why mint over parent Ubuntu or Debian

[Tyger-ZA]

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

Re:why mint over parent Ubuntu or Debian

[Tyger-ZA]

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

Re:why mint over parent Ubuntu or Debian

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Dare I dream

[roc97007]

Year of the Linux Desktop?

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

Re:Dare I dream

[Mkkby]

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.

So its System Restore then?

[hairyfeet]

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.

Re:So its System Restore then?

[Billly Gates]

Hairy you're back