Linux Mint 11 Final Is Out

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 28 May 2011

The development team behind the Linux Mint operating system has announced that Linux Mint 11 codename Katya (word of Russian origin associated with the meaning “pure”) has reached an important milestone in its development process – the final version of Linux Mint 11 'Katya' has been released to the public.

To be honest, this is not exactly unexpected. At the start of the month Lead Linux Mint developer Clem Lefebvre announced that by the middle of May a Release Candidate (RC) of Linux Mint 11 would be released and that by the end of May the final version of Linux Mint 11 would be released. And that is precisely what happened.

If you would like to get Linux Mint 11, you can find several download links on the official Linux Mint site here and on the Linux Mint blog here. Before you go get the operating system, perhaps you would like to know what it has to offer. Here’s the lowdown:

Easily Upgrade to DVD Edition, Multimedia Codecs
Linux Mint 11 'Katya' is available as a liveDVD and a liveCD. In the Welcome Screen of the liveCD (which comes with less applications, no multimedia codecs and no restricted software) you can access two links: Upgrade to the DVD edition and Install Multimedia Codecs. You can also upgrade to the DVD edition and install multimedia codecs from the Menu: Menu->Administration->Upgrade to the DVD Edition and Menu->Sound and Video->Install Multimedia Codecs.

A more polished Software Manager
It features a new splash screen, bigger category icons, a new template, and a new Fonts category. Application screens have an improved look and display more information.

A faster and better looking Update Manager
The Update Manager only looks for package updates instead of checking your internet connection, updating its rules, and then looking for package updates. The rules are embedded within the Update manager so they don’t have to be downloaded every time. When the rules are updated, a new version of Update Manager will be released.

The Update Manager handles dependencies differently in Linux Mint 11. Only updates are displayed, not their dependencies. A dialog will pop up if the upgrade of a package needs additional changes; the pop up will display info on which packages will be installed or removed.

The Update Manager comes with a few visual changes as well: all dialogs are modal, the Update Manager hides itself when an upgrade is successful, change logs are downloaded in the background.

Desktop Settings tool improvements
The tool lets you easily turn on and off the quotes that are displayed in the terminal.
The tool is desktop-agnostic, it detects which desktop is running and shows settings specific to that desktop.

Mint-X theme improvements
Mint-X features better integration with Deluge, Synaptic, Gimp and Banshee. In the final version it will also feature new round radio buttons.

Software
LibreOffice, Banshee, and gThumb replace OpenOffice.org, Rhythmbox, and F-Spot. Gwibber, padevchooser, paman, paprefs, pavumeter and pavucontrol will not be installed by default in Linux Mint 11.

Improved mint-search-addon plugin for Firefox 4, Chromium and Opera
New 'apt download' command that downloads a .deb package locally along with all its dependencies.

The complete list of Linux Mint 11 changes is available here.




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