Linux Mint 11 released – plays safe with GNOME 2 desktop, but adds some Natty touches

By , Published May 26, 2011

The latest edition of Ubuntu-based Linux Mint been released.

Version 11 of the popular distro sees it opting to use neither Ubuntu’s Unity interface or GNOME’s latest ‘GNOME 3′ or ‘GNOME Shell’ desktops. Instead Linux Mint 11 has decided to retain use of the “classic” GNOME 2.32 desktop that many users have long been accustomed to.

katya-r88

Linux Mint itself is notable for shipping a DVD version of the OS supplied with restricted packages such as in audio and video codecs and Adobe Flash making it particularly popular with users new to Linux.

The Live CD version, whilst omitting these packages on the disc, now provides an easy-to-use installation prompt for them in a new welcome screen that is launched on first boot.

Applications

The Linux Mint “Software Manager” application has had some new life breathed into it thanks to tweaks to the search now yielding better results and  descriptions of Software given greater attention.

mintinstall-r88

Amongst the application changes are present in this release are the replacement of OpenOffice with LibreOffice, the installation of gThumb and Banshee as default applications, replacing F-Spot and Rhythmbox respectively, and perhaps most interestingly, the removal of social-networking app Gwibber.

Looks

scrollbarsLinux Mint 11 sees no major change in theme. It ships with the same metallic-y silver skin as its predecessor, Mint 10, although minor performance improvements have been made to it.

Mint 11 also makes use of Ubuntu 11.04′s overlay scrollbars – albeit ‘mint themed’, and, as is tradition, a new default wallpaper is provided. This can can be seen at the top of this post.

Download

Linux Mint 11 can be downloaded in Live CD and DVD format at linuxmint.com/download.

Related posts:

  1. Other distro watch: new releases of Bodhi, PC-BSD, Linux Mint
  2. Linux Mint: No to Unity, no to Gnome-Shell
  3. Linux Mint 10 to use Faenza icon set?
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  • http://www.facebook.com/jorgeasgoncalves Jorge André Gonçalves

    using and loving

  • http://www.facebook.com/jorgeasgoncalves Jorge André Gonçalves

    using and loving

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=706905323 Aaron Boland

    Meh.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=706905323 Aaron Boland

    Meh.

  • http://profiles.google.com/write.tmartin Todd Martin

    Disappointed they are using those horrendous scrollbars. Solid distro though. I think this release is largely forgettable. I would have loved to see what they could have done with Gnome3 personally.

    • Anonymous

      they wont use gnome3 till they get the extensions working or ported.

      and i like the overlays, make it look sexier :)

    • Anonymous

      Agree with the scrollbars: not Ubuntu’s wisest decision and now neither is it Mint’s.

    • http://profiles.google.com/p4d573r Pad Ster

      My thoughts exactly!

    • Josef Esparza

      Im with you on the scrollbars.  You have to drag them instead of just clicking above or below them.  I consider it a regression.

      • Anonymous

        You can click them. Just click the arrows.

        • http://tomslominski.net/ Tom Slominski

          Have fun doing that in a five thousand line long document.

          • http://openid-provider.appspot.com/TheMerkinman Merk

            Page up/down and/or scrollwheel?

          • http://tomslominski.net/ Tom Slominski

            But that’s not clicking on the scroll bar, is it?

          • http://profiles.google.com/raybalhorn Ray Balhorn

            scroll wheel is too slow.
            page up and down, due to their location on the keyboard aren’t necessarily accessible, especially in largely mouse driven applications.

            I assume the same means of turning off those scroll bars are available in Mint?

          • fatriff

            Just use Google Docs! I freaking love it, I no longer need an office suite installed on my machine.. When your writting a new document on G.Docs, it gets auto saved everytime you press a key! You can then instantly select share and type the email addresses of all the people who can view the document.. It’s great!

          • https://launchpad.net/~shnatsel Shnatsel

            Last time I checked, a click on the arrows on the overlay scrollbars did the same thing as page up/down keys.

      • http://twitter.com/Surlent777 Sabaku no Surlent

        The scrollbars can be uninstalled quite simply. Just go to Synaptic, search for scollbar, and it should be the top two. I’m not on my Linux machine at the moment, but it won’t be hard to figure out which they are, trust me. Just look for the keyword Ayatana.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jeremy-Newton/512458865 Jeremy Newton

        Well they did post on the release note how to remove them. It’s not like it’s painful or anything.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=620840352 Jacob Morgan Dunton

      really? i LOVE the new scrollbars! they’re minimal, intuitive and snappy and the feature i like more than anything from unity.

      • http://twitter.com/the_madman Marcus Harrison

        They make sense on a netbook, but on my 1440×900 screen they’re just a hindering restriction.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_LLFBBO3CDQUMGQXOQNGXDDDBPM Ladymecha

      Oh sure switch to gnome 3, the most uncustomizable, un configurable POS.
      If you want to use the pathetically moronic gnome 3 try Fedora, a distro controlled by idiots with an interface made by idiots.

      • http://www.martinsmucker.com Michael Martin-Smucker

        Well. That’s not very nice.

      • http://www.martinsmucker.com Michael Martin-Smucker

        Well. That’s not very nice.

      • http://tomslominski.net/ Tom Slominski

        Are the users complete idiots too? Thanks!

        Anyway, Fedora did not build Gnome 3. Gnome 3 is actually quite nice once you get used to it!

        • https://launchpad.net/~isantop Ian

          So is Unity, though…

          • http://tomslominski.net/ Tom Slominski

            I’ve never used Unity because I’m a Fedora user and I love Fedora. Me and Ubuntu don’t really go well together!

            But from what I’ve seen, Unity looks like a good compromise between Gnome-Shell and a normal Gnome 2 desktop. On Fedora 14, I used AWN, so I guess it’s because I’m quite used to a dock setup.

          • http://twitter.com/connorabruce Connor

            Spent most of today playing with Fedora 15, didn’t like it. Can’t change the font, theme, no easy sudo (copying my Revelation file over just to access WiFi took nearly an hour!), and it took me ages to work out how to shut down, as oppose to log out (hold down ALT whilst hovering on the menu?)

            That said, it did look good, I liked the notifications much better than Ubuntu’s, and Gnome3 was OK, much better and more polished than Unity. But it almost felt like they’d given you something shiny to make up for the fact that lots of options were missing.

            Shame there is no way to mix and match parts of different distributions.

            Think I’ll try Linux Mint next time.

          • http://tomslominski.net/ Tom Slominski

            You can fix many things using gnome-tweak-tool. Shame it’s not included by default.

            What has sudo got to do with copying stuff? You can use su -c “command” or just su and have a full root shell.

            Having to ALT to shutdown is stupid, I agree.

            And finally, I agree with everything else you said :) I love replying to IM from the notification area, but that feature is extremely Unpolished.

          • http://twitter.com/connorabruce Connor

            “What has sudo got to do with copying stuff? You can use su -c “command” or just su and have a full root shell.”

            I was using a LiveUSB stick, and the file was on my Ubuntu drive, so I didn’t have permission to copy it. I’d assumed sudo would do the trick having used Ubuntu for years (also tried gksudo nautilus out of habit), then tried su but that didn’t seem to work either (maybe because it was a Live session?). So I was stuck, not being able to get on the internet to find the answer as my wifi password was in the file! I sorted it out in the end, but I guess that is the problem with using one distro for so long, you assume that is how they all work, and get frustrated when they don’t!

            Might give Fedora another go though, it did have some good points and I really don’t like Unity so may have to switch to something.

          • http://tomslominski.net/ Tom Slominski

            Ah, I see. Fedora in itself is a brilliant OS, the only thing holding it back now for some users is Shell, methinks.

          • Anonymous

            No it is not. You see that’s opinion I merely presented as a fact as you did.

          • Anonymous

            I haven’t played with Gnome 3 yet. But Unity is not an improvement at the moment:

            - only nerds understand the concept of ‘application focus’ and how it affects which menu is associated with the global menu. My mom doesn’t, for example. She didn’t even know where the find the menu’s until I told her.

            - Then she couldn’t find her applications, afer I had to explain to her that she had to click the ‘ubuntu’ button for more apps. She figured out she had to click ‘more apps’ herself. Then she clicked a ‘show all’ link, and finally she had a list of all applications. Not organised in categories.  She had to look for 5 minutes to find her favorite game.

            Yeah, usability. 

            Sure, if you use it long enough, and learn all the quirks it’s likely usable. And it sure looks nice; it has the best dock in the world. 

            But having a steep learning curve to learn a less productive environment, isn’t a trade-off in name of usability. It’s just a regression.

            It’s all fixable, but they won’t. Because they aren’t bugs, they are ‘decisions’.  And they’ve never backed down on a wrong (design) decision ever. 

          • http://twitter.com/connorabruce Connor

            Agreed, both Unity and Gnome 3 have the same failings, missing options and both remind me more of using an iPhone/Android phone, than of using a PC.

          • Anonymous

            I haven’t played with Gnome 3 yet. But Unity is not an improvement at the moment:

            - only nerds understand the concept of ‘application focus’ and how it affects which menu is associated with the global menu. My mom doesn’t, for example. She didn’t even know where the find the menu’s until I told her.

            - Then she couldn’t find her applications, afer I had to explain to her that she had to click the ‘ubuntu’ button for more apps. She figured out she had to click ‘more apps’ herself. Then she clicked a ‘show all’ link, and finally she had a list of all applications. Not organised in categories.  She had to look for 5 minutes to find her favorite game.

            Yeah, usability. 

            Sure, if you use it long enough, and learn all the quirks it’s likely usable. And it sure looks nice; it has the best dock in the world. 

            But having a steep learning curve to learn a less productive environment, isn’t a trade-off in name of usability. It’s just a regression.

            It’s all fixable, but they won’t. Because they aren’t bugs, they are ‘decisions’.  And they’ve never backed down on a wrong (design) decision ever. 

      • Semir Kovačević

        not nice. it’s an attitude that is not appropriate for a true linux user.

      • Anonymous

        Child. If someone finds Gnome 3 easier to use and doesn’t need anything more, what is moronic? 
        using it or you arrogance?

        • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_LLFBBO3CDQUMGQXOQNGXDDDBPM Ladymecha

          What is moronic is how this is the same thing as KDE4 was at first but worse.
          You cant change the interface to your liking, you have to log out to shut down the computer, and it limits the user to a broken, crippled UI that is designed by simpletons.
          I know I wont use anything using Gnome 3, at this stage i rather use KDE because at least i can tweak it to my liking.

          • http://tomslominski.net/ Tom Slominski

            Press and hold ALT and then use the user menu. It’s it’s the stupidest design decision of the century, but what can you do?

          • Anonymous

            Divorcing the functionality of the application from it’s Window (global menus) will give that a run for it’s money (sorry Mac users).

          • http://tomslominski.net/ Tom Slominski

            themainliner: I don’t actually see anything wrong with that, but I’ve just downloaded Ubuntu to try it out.

          • Anonymous

            @Ladymecha i agree, it’s more than unfortunate that Canonical decided to ship this as the default interface in 11.04 before it’s anything like finished. I don’t mind beta testing, but being suckered into beta testing on my production OS…c’mon.

      • Ĵono Reĝo

        Hey, this ain’t the Linux Action Show (nothing against them though, they’re quite entertaining) :P Lay off Fedora.

        Seriously, I stick with Debian/Ubuntu based distros because I’m so used to them now, but everything just worked for me on Fedora. The Noveau driver worked off the disc (unlike Ubuntu), Firefox scrolling was smooth (unlike Ubuntu), and though I haven’t tried the new release with Gnome 3, I’m sure it’s just as solid. The devs behind Fedora are awesome and work hard to introduce awesome things on the technical side of Linux distros, that *everyone*, even Ubuntu users benefit from. You should be thanking them for their contributions to the Linux community.

        • http://twitter.com/the_madman Marcus Harrison

          Firefox smooth scrolling is a Firefox option, not a distro option. It’s available everywhere in Settings –> Advanced –> General –> Use Smooth Scrolling

          • Ĵono Reĝo

            I know this, but the difference between the two is night and day; and I’m not quite sure whether it’s drivers, default configuration, add-on bloat, or what.

            On my installed Ubuntu 10.04, enabling smooth scrolling was terrible. It was slow, it overscrolled a lot, and it could just barely be called ‘smooth’.

            On the Fedora LiveCD, smooth scrolling was enabled by default, but it was much faster, more usable and actually smooth.

            I’m not try to bash Ubuntu or say that Fedora is the greatest distro ever, but just that a few things worked better for me there and I wish those strengths would be implemented in Ubuntu.

          • https://launchpad.net/~shnatsel Shnatsel

            Firefox integration in Ubuntu SUCKS. Looks like the devs are far too busy even to fix major bugs.

          • https://launchpad.net/~shnatsel Shnatsel

            Firefox integration in Ubuntu SUCKS. Looks like the devs are far too busy even to fix major bugs.

          • Anonymous

            @Shnatsel it’s integrated lovely in Windows. Oh sorry, trollin’ now.

      • Ĵono Reĝo

        Hey, this ain’t the Linux Action Show (nothing against them though, they’re quite entertaining) :P Lay off Fedora.

        Seriously, I stick with Debian/Ubuntu based distros because I’m so used to them now, but everything just worked for me on Fedora. The Noveau driver worked off the disc (unlike Ubuntu), Firefox scrolling was smooth (unlike Ubuntu), and though I haven’t tried the new release with Gnome 3, I’m sure it’s just as solid. The devs behind Fedora are awesome and work hard to introduce awesome things on the technical side of Linux distros, that *everyone*, even Ubuntu users benefit from. You should be thanking them for their contributions to the Linux community.

      • Anonymous

        seems you never seen all the gnome3 extensions…

      • Anonymous

        seems you never seen all the gnome3 extensions…

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_O6HB7QHELSGXKGMQMAWRAD3QBU neil

      Try this:  http://tips4linux.com/disable-the-overlay-scrollbars-in-ubuntu-1104/#comments

  • http://profiles.google.com/write.tmartin Todd Martin

    Disappointed they are using those horrendous scrollbars. Solid distro though. I think this release is largely forgettable. I would have loved to see what they could have done with Gnome3 personally.

  • Anonymous

    goodbye, ubuntu !welcome,mint !

    • http://twitter.com/Nicorp97 Nicolas Reyes

      have a good time and see you soon

      • Anonymous

        Glad you like it, gonna stick with Ubuntu myself, but isn’t that the point, now we can all find a flavour of Linux we like. Have tried loads of different distros in the past, but got a little bored of them all looking the same apart from the wallpaper ;)

        • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jeremy-Newton/512458865 Jeremy Newton

          Agreed!

          But that doesn’t stop me from making my Ubuntu look like fedora 15 ;)
          Ubuntu Goodness + Fedora Style Points = :D

          • http://www.khattam.info _khAttAm_

            Fuduntu is a distro you might be interested in. However, it has Fedora base….

      • Anonymous

        Glad you like it, gonna stick with Ubuntu myself, but isn’t that the point, now we can all find a flavour of Linux we like. Have tried loads of different distros in the past, but got a little bored of them all looking the same apart from the wallpaper ;)

    • http://twitter.com/Nicorp97 Nicolas Reyes

      have a good time and see you soon

    • Anonymous

      Glad you like it, gonna stick with Ubuntu myself, but isn’t that the point, now we can all find a flavour of Linux we like. Have tried loads of different distros in the past, but got a little bored of them all looking the same apart from the wallpaper ;)

    • Ĵono Reĝo

      I’m switching too. It’s nothing against Ubuntu though. Unity really excites me and I love to see how it’s developing. That doesn’t mean though, that I’m ready to use Unity full-time, and I’m ready to finally upgrade my Lucid Lynx install.

      I’ve been back and forth between Ubuntu and Mint for a while, I used Mint 8 as my daily driver before 10.04. Basically I love Ubuntu, but as they both grow and start to diverge from each other, I find Mint affords me the least effort at getting everything done the way I want it. But I will say, that the things that Ubuntu does with each new release get me a lot more excited. :)

    • http://profiles.google.com/shvakov Кирилл Шваков

      ? Mint = Ubuntu + simple funny theme )

      • Anonymous

        Ubuntu already = Debian + simple funny theme

        • http://profiles.google.com/shvakov Кирилл Шваков

          Ubuntu has been developing and contributing to various projects linux.Mint - Ubuntu release with a delay of 1 month, just one month when to correct manyproblems in Ubuntu

      • http://www.khattam.info _khAttAm_

        … someone who hasn’t used Linux Mint.

  • Anonymous

    goodbye, ubuntu !welcome,mint !

  • Anonymous

    goodbye, ubuntu !welcome,mint !

  • Anonymous

    goodbye, ubuntu !welcome,mint !

  • Anonymous

    wonder why they didn’t ship with Unity…

    • Anonymous

      because they have always went with the windows look (panel at the bottom and a big menu).

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_VVFJAAR4PBTTFWNWT2CFRXZRCA Rebecca

        Which in fact is the OS/2 Warp look :P

        You can always change it easily :)

    • Anonymous

      Cause of two reasons:

      1. Choice.
      2. It is not mature as yet.

      • Seventh Reign

        you forgot
        3. Its worthless :-D

        • Anonymous

          Give up. What do you hope to achieve by trolling blog comment threads. If you don’t like Unity, that’s your problem. Keep it to yourself unless you are going to post something constructive.

          • http://profiles.google.com/write.tmartin Todd Martin

            He wasn’t trolling, he was stating an opinion. Take a chill pill and relax. Stop getting all butt hurt because someone insulted your favorite DE. 

          • Ĵono Reĝo

            Because we all know that opinions can never be trolling. :p

          • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_VVFJAAR4PBTTFWNWT2CFRXZRCA Rebecca

            So why are you giving MadnessRed a hard time? He’s just stating an opinion about that troll… I mean, opinion.  Grow a thicker skin!  Stop getting all butt hurt because someone insulted a random troll… errrr… upstanding commenter.

          • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_VVFJAAR4PBTTFWNWT2CFRXZRCA Rebecca

            So why are you giving MadnessRed a hard time? He’s just stating an opinion about that troll… I mean, opinion.  Grow a thicker skin!  Stop getting all butt hurt because someone insulted a random troll… errrr… upstanding commenter.

          • Anonymous

            No, Unity is not my favourite, I would have replied the same about any free DE. It was the attitude, that some people have with free software, that the developers are slaves that should write them what they want. I am annoyed that people are willing to look at something, that people have put a lot of effort into, given to the community, for free, then tell them it’s worthless. If your aunt gives you a book token, you don’t turn round and tell her it’s worthless. If you don’t like something about it, either keep it to yourself, or post something constructive. Or even better, write a de yourself. You would never tell someone something they have spend hours on was useless if you met them face-to-face. So don’t do it online.

        • http://twitter.com/me4oslav Georgi Karavasilev

          That is a question of personal opinion! I for one really like Unity. 

          • Ziv Leyes

            Maybe MadnessRed is stating his opinion too? In his opinion, that’s called trolling…

            So let him state his opinion about other’s people’s trolling… ehm opinions

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1479054588 Calvin Smith

      Unity is horrid, and I’m expecting that the Linux Mint team is expecting “defectors”, if you like, from Ubuntu. Hopefully all the problems with GNOME 3 can be ironed out for Mint’s next release.

  • Anonymous

    wonder why they didn’t ship with Unity…

  • Anonymous

    wonder why they didn’t ship with Unity…

  • http://www.facebook.com/atjesse Jesse P Francis

    Download link is invalid!

  • http://www.facebook.com/atjesse Jesse P Francis

    Download link is invalid!

  • http://www.facebook.com/atjesse Jesse P Francis

    Download link is invalid!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bufanu-Loren/100002059694623 Bufanu Loren

    me too

  • Anonymous

    Heh, now Mint’s aiming to take over Ubuntu users dissatisfied with Unity. Considering Mint practically is Ubuntu that might actually work out for them.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000781434516 Patrick Bodemann

    i don’t know, but it seems like the “classic” gnome2 desktop is slower than unity… and as soon as one got used to unity, one can see its very advantages, especially on smaller screens, i.e. on netbooks.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_VVFJAAR4PBTTFWNWT2CFRXZRCA Rebecca

      Hmmm… Interesting! Your results seem to contradict what Phoronix wrote last time they spoke about the Linux Mint 11 RC.

      I know you may be speaking about workflow (right?) but I fail to see the advantages of Unity on bigger screens and a steeper learning curve for those who come from other OSes.

      • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000781434516 Patrick Bodemann

        I’m talking about workflow as well as general speed (starting of programs, usage of ram, etc)… I can be wrong, but the gnome-desktop seems to run less “fluidly”. by the way, I have the same impression comparing gnome3 and gnome2.. And I don’t think there’s a problem when migrating from other OSes to unity. However – as I said – one has to get used to it ;)

        I can understand why e.g. a global menu seems to be redundant on bigger screens, maybe they should have left the division between desktop (running gnome3) and netbook (unity) editions.

        • https://launchpad.net/~isantop Ian

          Reduction of UI Chrome, and consistency of Menu placement. The only real problem with it is the hiding.

        • Ethan Adams

          Unity is very close to windows 7 in my experience so any new users coming from there will have no problem. Right now i think unity gets basic features right while gnome 3 gets advanced features right.

          • http://profiles.google.com/pazuzuthewise Pazuzu the Wise

            How so? Do you have globalmenu in Win 7 or a startmenu (that is actually menu-driven, you know, starting an application with 2 clicks) in Unity?

          • http://profiles.google.com/pazuzuthewise Pazuzu the Wise

            How so? Do you have globalmenu in Win 7 or a startmenu (that is actually menu-driven, you know, starting an application with 2 clicks) in Unity?

      • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000781434516 Patrick Bodemann

        I’m talking about workflow as well as general speed (starting of programs, usage of ram, etc)… I can be wrong, but the gnome-desktop seems to run less “fluidly”. by the way, I have the same impression comparing gnome3 and gnome2.. And I don’t think there’s a problem when migrating from other OSes to unity. However – as I said – one has to get used to it ;)

        I can understand why e.g. a global menu seems to be redundant on bigger screens, maybe they should have left the division between desktop (running gnome3) and netbook (unity) editions.

  • Anonymous

    too bad they didnt include dockbarX by default… :/

    still good for all gnome2 lovers, but will be interesting to see what they will do for next release, since they will need to move to gnome3 eventually.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_VVFJAAR4PBTTFWNWT2CFRXZRCA Rebecca

      Sorry, but why by default? The whole point is to have a “This is what I’ve grown accustomed” experience.  Nothing stops you from installing it once you’ve got Linux Mint 11 on your system. :)

      Remember this is geared towards new comers. :)

      • Anonymous

        well there was a big thread about dockbarX on their forums, so maybe this time they would consider it by default, because it makes it look more modern and sexier, takes a lot less space, customizable and imitates part of the win7 bar which most new mint users come from and are already used to.

        But i think they didnt add it now, because they dont know yet what they will do after they move from gnome2…

      • Anonymous

        well there was a big thread about dockbarX on their forums, so maybe this time they would consider it by default, because it makes it look more modern and sexier, takes a lot less space, customizable and imitates part of the win7 bar which most new mint users come from and are already used to.

        But i think they didnt add it now, because they dont know yet what they will do after they move from gnome2…

      • Anonymous

        well there was a big thread about dockbarX on their forums, so maybe this time they would consider it by default, because it makes it look more modern and sexier, takes a lot less space, customizable and imitates part of the win7 bar which most new mint users come from and are already used to.

        But i think they didnt add it now, because they dont know yet what they will do after they move from gnome2…

  • Anonymous

    I am proud of them for not going the GNOME 3 route. Although I love GNOME 3′s new panel, nautilus, and settings (and so much more), the whole thing needs more polish (like Unity) before it is ready for prime time. The Shell (GNOME Shell) also needs some major (did I say major) polish, before it can be used in Distros like mint ;).

    • http://tomslominski.net/ Tom Slominski

      I can’t really imagine doing work in Gnome 3. Too much prettyness, not enough usefulness.

      • http://twitter.com/icyeh Shelby

        I’ve never been able to see how Gnome 3′s “prettyness.” I think it’s ugly. XD

        • http://tomslominski.net/ Tom Slominski

          I’m a fool, I misworded the sentence AGAIN. I meant all the effects and animations etc.

      • daas88

        >Too much uglyness, not enough usefulness.
        There, I fixed it, according to what @twitter-177418043:disqus  said

  • http://lucidfox.org/ Maia Kozheva

    > and perhaps most interestingly, the removal of social-networking app Gwibber.

    Nice! Perhaps I should switch.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000781434516 Patrick Bodemann

      you could rather remove it yourself ;-)

    • http://twitter.com/strycore Mathieu Comandon

      Yes, totally ! Because it’s way more simple to switch than apt-get remove gwibber

  • http://twitter.com/xapel wilhelm stapelberg

    Thats it! I’m moving to Mint! (is this still funny or does it only work with Arch?)

    • http://twitter.com/strycore Mathieu Comandon

      It works with Arch, but could also work with Gentoo, Slackware or  OpenBSD. It does NOT work with Mint !

      • Yi Sun-sin

        That’s it, I’m switching to LFS !

      • http://mark-y-a.myopenid.com/ Mark

        It should work for Windows too! :p

      • Anonymous

        That’s it, I’m switching to FreeDoS!

      • http://twitter.com/the_madman Marcus Harrison

        That’s it, I’m switching to BeOS!

      • https://launchpad.net/~shnatsel Shnatsel

        That’s it, I’m switching to Foresight!

    • Anonymous

      In all honesty I think it stopped being funny a while ago. 

  • http://twitter.com/ojdon Ollie Reardon

    Great now Linux Mint is now fiddly to use for Tablet users since they have those hidden scroll bar things which are so tedious to reveal.

    • http://openid-provider.appspot.com/TheMerkinman Merk

      Wouldn’t tablet users just swipe the content area to scroll?

      • http://twitter.com/ojdon Ollie Reardon

        They would… If they implemented that like in Gnome-Shell. In Unity you can do any swiping gestures what so ever. So Tablet users like myself tend to opt for Gnome-Shell since you can do swiping gestures like in the Applications menu, for example. 

      • Marius Nielsen

        I agree; they could also use two-finger scroll.

      • Anonymous

        No, doesn’t work in most applications, although I am getting the hand of the ayatana scrollbars and now I find them easier than the standard ones. Just tab once to show, then drag, it’s a bit awkward in some apps but it is generally fine. 

    • https://launchpad.net/~david4dev david4dev

      Mint is not a tablet OS …

    • https://launchpad.net/~david4dev david4dev

      Mint is not a tablet OS …

    • http://twitter.com/zc456 Squeaks

      Just because of the scrollbars? It’s based off of Ubuntu, it’s going to carry some traits from it.

  • http://profiles.google.com/p4d573r Pad Ster

    Why did they have to add those overlay scrollbars?
    Other than that, Mint is (and has always been) Ubuntu without all the crap.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=620840352 Jacob Morgan Dunton

    ooooh, mint just looks better and better. their theme/icon choice has been spot on and the inclusion of those neat scrollbars is great. plus, no loss of customization by shipping with gnome 2.  good for them!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=620840352 Jacob Morgan Dunton

    ooooh, mint just looks better and better. their theme/icon choice has been spot on and the inclusion of those neat scrollbars is great. plus, no loss of customization by shipping with gnome 2.  good for them!

  • Жарко Каранфилов

    How can I upgrade from Mint 10 to 11? tnx!

    • Anonymous

      You can either:

      1. Back up your data, burn the CD/DVD and do a fresh install, or

      2. In /etc/apt/sources.list, change all instances of “julia” to “katya”, and “maverick” to “natty”, then apt-get update, apt-get dist-upgrade

  • Neil Grover

    I’m using Mint Debian Edition (aka LMDE).. loving it like mad. I really dig the idea of a rolling release. Debian is also a little “behind” which used to bother me. But in the current state of the Linux desktop, I actually appreciate not being on the bleeding edge. LMDE (gnome edition) will get Gnome 3 eventually… but it won’t happen until ALL the kinks have been worked out.

    • Anonymous

      “I really dig the idea of a rolling release.”

      Oh dear. You just made yourself a target for Arch users. “Arch is a rolling release distro! You should totally switch to Arch!” in 3… 2… 1…

    • http://profiles.google.com/klevin92 Kleverson Royther

      Arch is a rolling release distro! You should totally switch to Arch! /trollface

    • http://www.facebook.com/isaac.esteve.cardona Isaac Esteve Cardona

      “Arch is a rolling release distro! You should totally switch to Arch!” xD

      You should try it, but use it on dual boot or in a Virtualbox, or else it can be a curse… there’s so much to tweak that you can’t stop, and you can easily screw it irremediably. 

      • http://www.facebook.com/itbcn8 Isaac Trumbo

        Arch and LMDE are both rolling releases, yes… but they are too very opposite distros. I love LMDE. I have it on a flash drive. I just pop it into a computer, installs like a charm, everything works out of the box. Peace. 

        Arch on the other hand, while REALLY fun and interesting it is to install for geeks (like me, I did), it’s just not as easy. 
        Sometimes you just need an OS that is 0 hassel and those are great moments for our good friend Linux Mint. ;)

        • http://grvrulz.wordpress.com/ Gaurav

          have u tried archbang. It comes with grub2, openbox, and a lot of apps such as dropbox, smplayer etc preinstalled. And its great for carrying on a usb drive.

    • http://www.facebook.com/isaac.esteve.cardona Isaac Esteve Cardona

      “Arch is a rolling release distro! You should totally switch to Arch!” xD

      You should try it, but use it on dual boot or in a Virtualbox, or else it can be a curse… there’s so much to tweak that you can’t stop, and you can easily screw it irremediably. 

    • http://www.mobile-phones.cn/ smartphones

      Mobile Phones Deals – Wholesale Unlocked Mobile Phones – Mobile-Phones.CN http://www.mobile-phones.cn/

  • http://www.facebook.com/cespinal17 Carlos Alberto Espinal

    SOFTWARE MANAGER

  • Otter Nox

    Or, for a slightly more complete article, check out: http://www.webupd8.org/2011/05/linux-mint-11-has-been-released.html

    • Anonymous

      Or simply download a copy and put it on a stick?

  • Otter Nox

    Or, for a slightly more complete article, check out: http://www.webupd8.org/2011/05/linux-mint-11-has-been-released.html

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_DWSOTHNJWUCFFCL5XJPX6CNABQ Renan

    That’s it! I’m moving to Mint!

  • Anonymous

    Looks good, probably going to stick with ubuntu 11.04. 

    Plus unity is growing on me.

  • Anonymous

    Looks good, probably going to stick with ubuntu 11.04. 

    Plus unity is growing on me.

  • Anonymous

    Wow, super stable and solid, love it.

    • http://www.facebook.com/itbcn8 Isaac Trumbo

      Yup. All you do is open the mint menu and type ‘docky’, it searches for the correct PPA, click, installs. :) No waiting for the software center to open! LMFTW!

  • Anonymous

    Resistance is futile!

    What will Mint do in the next cycle? Will they keep using obsolete desktops, or surrender to Unity or Shell?

    It will be interesting! 

    • Austin Williamson

      If you do want Mint+Gnome 3, try my upcoming Minty Infusion (aka Breathmint) NG.

  • Austin Williamson

    Okay! Now development on Minty Infusion NG can begin!

  • Austin Williamson

    Okay! Now development on Minty Infusion NG can begin!

  • Anonymous

    As a Linux mint 10 user, I’m not seeing much reason to go through the hassle of reinstalling my OS to get this? Am I missing something?

    • Anonymous

      To me Mint 11 is much faster and seems to be a bit more stable. Either way you cant go wrong with sticking to Mint 10.

      • http://www.facebook.com/itbcn8 Isaac Trumbo

        I want LM11 with the LM10 theme… 

      • http://profiles.google.com/pazuzuthewise Pazuzu the Wise

        For the moment at least, Mint 11 has a bit of a problem with changing the active compiz plugins (probably inherited from upstream).

  • Anonymous

    Looks nice, but I really like Ubuntu 11.O4 and have no problems with Unity.  Is this normal?

    • Ĵono Reĝo

      Not really, but I feel the same regardless :p

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/LBVYAIBBDI3WGLAO63XZMCGCRE Alec

    It boots from live usb faster than installed Ubuntu 11.04! Super fast, fresh, solid. very impressed and now installing as main OS after testing for several hours.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000153504277 Дмитро Сірик

    Looks like Windows

    • Anonymous

      XP

      • https://launchpad.net/~shnatsel Shnatsel

        Was that “Like windows XP” or just a smiley?

    • http://twitter.com/zc456 Squeaks

      Nuuuuu. Really?

  • http://twitter.com/toetjesman henk de vries

    they should implement firefox’s autoscroll it’s my most used feature

  • Anonymous

    WOW that is alot of comments in only a short time hahaha. Well I will be testing it out all the 3 version (CD, DVD, and OEM) once they are done downloading. LOVE MINT and will be switching to it once I get used to the slight differences it has lol

  • Anonymous

    WOW that is alot of comments in only a short time hahaha. Well I will be testing it out all the 3 version (CD, DVD, and OEM) once they are done downloading. LOVE MINT and will be switching to it once I get used to the slight differences it has lol

  • daas88

    They can’t run from gnome shell/unity forever… What are they going to do for the next release? Gnome 3 fallback mode?

  • daas88

    I’m thinking that maybe if the majority of users switch to the fallback mode gnome developers
    will think like “hey, that’s not supposed to happen! we want them to use
    the new shell” and disable the fallback mode or make it look like the
    default gnome shell.

  • http://www.facebook.com/malikdhadha Mohamed Malik

    can unity be installed as well…… i prefer to give mint for my friends since it saves me a lot of time while trying to tell them about multimedia codecs!

    • https://launchpad.net/~david4dev david4dev

      yes

    • https://launchpad.net/~david4dev david4dev

      yes

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Jiang/515318676 John Jiang

    We should have a vote to see how many people are migrating from Ubuntu to Mint!!!

  • Salvador Muñoz

    is only me or compiz is reaaaally slow in this last version compared with mint 10?????

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_SIPACJP24N54IR7K26HK77M5NA Tristan

    Think we’re all in for a steep learning curve here. I’m not that impressed with Unity, and having installed Fedora 15 yesterday, Gnome 3 didn’t endear itself to me much, either. I have switched to Mint as I want to stick with a more widely used DE rather than a niche product like Unity. Can’t help feeling Ubuntu have painted themselves into a corner here. Probably a wise move on Clem’s part to stay with Gnome 2 for one last release. Hopefully Gnome 3 will be a little more ready for the masses by the time 12 comes along.
    Agree with what someone said about the Fedora artwork. Always end up using the Nodoka theme from v6 or 7.

  • Great sky river

    Give it a shot! :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/stevenfarless Steven Farless

    Gnome 3 is the Windows of linux. Unity the Vista of Gnome.

    • Anonymous

      Windows is an excellent OS, it’s simple closed, propriety source and too expensive.

      • https://launchpad.net/~shnatsel Shnatsel

        Welcome back, all the beloved glitches, lags and viruses! I’ve missed you so much!

        Actually, after spending 6 hours to get Morrowind working – I’ve tried several windows versions and various hardware and VMs before I made windows install, boot up, not crash on starting morrowind, and start it without falling into a nasty system error – I’ve finally got my favorite game working, but Blue Screens of Death fsck’ing up my progress every 15 minutes have finally scared me away and convinced me that Windows is plague that needs to be cured ASAP.

        • Anonymous

          I love Linux, primarily politically, but also because it actually does work. Trying to suggest, however, that it is, in some way, easier to use with games is fanboyism. Windows is the platform Bethesda and most, if not all, games writers code for. This gives Windows an (unfair?) advantage. Your experience is unrepresentative…I used Morrowind happily on XP and 7 and while it runs perfectly happily on Linux with Wine it rarely matched the frame rate (or stability). World of Warcraft runs perfectly too, however I cannot turn on the beautiful DirectX11 effects.

          I love linux but you’d have to be a fanboy to suggest it’s rubbish and insane to suggest it can’t run games. One anecdotal experience does not a conclusive case make.

    • Anonymous

      Windows is an excellent OS, it’s simple closed, propriety source and too expensive.

  • Anonymous

    Mint could just fill the void temporarily since Ubuntu has imploded. Still want to try swimming upstream to Debian for a while..but a downstream system with access to those lovely repos and the Software Centre is attractive…but Mint Menu…meh.

  • http://twitter.com/pablocampis Pablo Abraham Campis

    That’s it! I’m switching tu Ubuntu!

  • Jules Raud

    Mint is stupid – it had some value back when it wasn’t totally clear how to add the multimedia codecs in Ubuntu, but since 10.10 Mint is completely irrelevant.
    It’s just Ubuntu with an obsolete DE, a different GTK theme, and a few poorly-written Python apps.
    It causes unnecessary fragmentation as it does nothing to really compete with Ubuntu apart from a different theme – and in the process it popularizes the incorrect assumption that distros’ default themes are actually relevant factors to consider when comparing different distros… Mint is bad for the GNU/Linux ecosystem.
    Use Ubuntu and install the Mint GTK theme if you want to – but don’t hinder the progress of the GNU/Linux desktop by defecting from an actually innovative distro (Ubuntu) to a pointless rebrand of it (Mint).

    I mean at least you’re using GNU/Linux, but seriously, I can’t respect anyone who uses Mint. That is my opinion as a relatively new use (only a couple of years under my belt) who runs Debian and Gentoo primarily but wants to see the Ubuntu project succeed…

    • http://profiles.google.com/l33ts0n Arron Washington

      What the?!

    • Anonymous

      A Debian user supporting Ubuntu and slamming spin offs of Ubuntu? Are cats and dogs friends now and are pigs flying?

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_LOR655GR4ZFHCMSV7FW5ROPSAA Cliff W

      I can’t respect anyone with such a poorly thought-out opinion.

      1) Not everyone thinks the classic GNOME desktop is obsolete.  In order for it to be obsolete, there must be a newer, better desktop that obsoletes it (hint: Unity and GS aren’t there yet for many people).

      2) Fragmentation isn’t terribly relevant in open source.  So long as everyone uses proper licensing, it allows for competing ideas to be fostered.  What you call “fragmentation”, I call “diversity”.

      3) What Mint is doing isn’t much different than Ubuntu did when it first started out.  You have to give them time to do anything important.

      4) You contradict yourself in a couple of ways: first you claim Mint is just Ubuntu with an out-dated desktop, then you claim it’s just Ubuntu with a different theme.  Which is it?   It can’t be both.   

      In any case, I know I can’t run Ubuntu 11.04 since it is too unstable.  So how would I be stupid for running Mint if it works for me and Ubuntu doesn’t?

      Incidentally, my definition of “stupid” would be Gentoo.  What a brilliant plan, make everyone compile everything over and over, wasting electricity and shortening the life of their systems (and yes, I used it for a couple of years. It sucks).

      These are my opinions as someone who’s used numerous Linux distros in the last 16 years.

  • http://www.facebook.com/mwhite212 Michael White

    Wow….and they rib on Ubuntu for trying to look like OS X? Brushed metal much?

  • http://twitter.com/zachburnham Zach Burnham

    I used Linux Mint 9 and I loved it – it was the most stable and overall best Linux experience my laptop has ever had and just felt very put together. I’m definitely switching to Linux Mint 11 if the Unity problems push me over the edge, though it seems like using “Ubuntu Classic” desktop would almost be the better thing to do.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=501942282 Mathew Bauler

    I’ve switched to Fedora 15 today and am loving it so far. I started with Linux Mint, then switched to Ubuntu a couple releases ago because Ubuntu was catching up to Mint and I was getting really sick of the constant barrage of logos, branding and self-advertisement…but then Ubuntu started this Unity BS which is still clearly a netbook interface forced into a desktop OS. Tried to switch back to Linux Mint but after numerous releases there has been still been no change and they refuse to implement either Gnome 3 or Unity. Fedora 15 has Gnome 3 and it just feels like all the best parts of Unity with all the annoying parts taken out.

  • http://www.facebook.com/c2leader Blaž Kranjc

    talika not working?! :(

  • Donald Lush

    Just switched to Mint from Ubuntu 11.04.  I tried for a month to like Unity but I don’t like the way it looks or works.  I’m much happier….

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=583908651 Jack Graham

    I’m loving the new Mint except for one major issue, which will be a deal breaker if I can’t find a fix.  I’m trying to run Dropbox.  It tells me I must install a proprietary daemon, and I click ok.  It downloads to 100%, and then unpacks to 97%, and then just sits there and never completes.  I’ve tied rebooting, running apt-get manually, adding Dropbox to the source list, but the daemon install always dies at 97%.  Anybody else see this or know of a fix?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=583908651 Jack Graham

    I’m loving the new Mint except for one major issue, which will be a deal breaker if I can’t find a fix.  I’m trying to run Dropbox.  It tells me I must install a proprietary daemon, and I click ok.  It downloads to 100%, and then unpacks to 97%, and then just sits there and never completes.  I’ve tied rebooting, running apt-get manually, adding Dropbox to the source list, but the daemon install always dies at 97%.  Anybody else see this or know of a fix?

 
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