Linux Mint 20 has today been officially released across multiple official desktop environments and it's all sounding great. The Cinnamon desktop edition sounding especially good.
This is the first Linux Mint release to be based upon Ubuntu 20.04, the latest Long-Term Support release so you can keep on using Linux Mint 20 happily until around 2025. If you're looking for a good starting point with Linux, Mint is often a good choice.
Pictured: Linux Mint 20 Cinnamon
Linux Mint 20 will likely see 2-3 point releases, all supported until 2025 and all made from the same base Mint 20. They no longer chase all the interim Ubuntu releases so they can focus on keeping things stable, this should mean upgrades to Mint 20.1 and 20.2 should be quite easy.
With this latest release, there's lots of fun new features included. For the Cinnamon edition, the biggest is the inclusion of fractional scaling for the UI along with each monitor being able to be scaled differently. Another big improvement is better support for NVIDIA Optimus out of the box, as their included applet easily allows you to pick your GPU from its menu. It also now support the NVIDIA "On-Demand" profile too. For gamers, the Optimus improvements are a big plus.
Some other nice fluff improvements came with it, like the Welcome app letting you pick a colour scheme easily.
More improvements can be found elsewhere like the improved system tray icon system, a new application named Warpinator to easily share files across networks, Nemo file manager performance improvements and the Gdebi tool used to manually install .deb files was given a fresh look.
The most controversial change in Linux Mint 20 is their disabling of Snap packages by default. Snap is the Canonical-backed next-gen Linux packaging format, which Mint's Clément Lefèbvre is not currently a fan of for various reasons like the Chromium package on Ubuntu actually being empty and just sets up a Snap instead. Their reasoning goes a lot deeper than that though, including Snaps being from one centralized store. If you want to read more on Mint's stance on Snaps, see here.
Additionally, the is the first time the Mint team have gone 64bit only as they've retired the 32bit downloads.
The currently released editions are:
Are you a Linux Mint or Cinnamon fan? Let us know what you think of the latest releases in the comments.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: DefaultX-odI don't know. How do you add a snap repository? Oh right, you can't.Quoting: Purple Library GuyI use GUIs. If I wanted to fiddle with command lines, instead of Mint I'd use Debian or Arch or, I dunno, does Slackware still exist?
Not that there's anything wrong with the command line. It's powerful, useful for those it's useful for, and I'm glad it's there. But probably anyone for whom the length of the command is the main feature shouldn't actually be using it.
Ok, if you use GUI, how on earth you'll add flatpak repository without terminal(because it's same as PPA, but sandboxed)?
For now, most people who only use a GUI will be happy with the selection on flathub. And if they actually need a different repo, they can copy-paste a line from the web just like they might do for a PPA, until their distro adds a GUI for this.
Quoting: SchattenspiegelAs much as I enjoy most of Alan Pope's interviews here he is speaking as 'Developer Advocate, Canonical', so we should probably take it with a grain of salt, don't you think? The funny thing about statistics is you can usaually interpret them one way, in the completely opposite direction or as the colour green, if you set your mind to it."Lies, damned lies, and statistics"
DefaultX-od Jun 30, 2020
Quoting: tuubiI don't know. How do you add a snap repository? Oh right, you can't.
And that's great, why should user add something to install something, just upload everything to one place and be Gucci
Quoting: ageresMint should switch its base from Ubuntu to ... something ...Debian rebase. They already have LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) as a contingency plan for the day when they can no longer withstand Canonicals... canonicalisms.
DefaultX-od Jun 30, 2020
Quoting: dpanterQuoting: ageresMint should switch its base from Ubuntu to ... something ...Debian rebase. They already have LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) as a contingency plan for the day when they can no longer withstand Canonicals... canonicalisms.
Yeah right, yet again Canonical is guilty that Linux Mint uses Ubuntu's repositories. Who else to blame?
Quoting: DefaultX-odYeah right, yet again Canonical is guilty that Linux Mint uses Ubuntu's repositories. Who else to blame?Canonical does weird things these days, like dropping 32-bit compatibility. They think they are Apple and their users are brainwashed too and will accept anything. But they are wrong, and there is a possibility that Ubuntu (and therefore Mint) will eventually become unusable and Ubuntu users will have to migrate.
slaapliedje Jul 1, 2020
Quoting: ageresSeriously, I wonder if there was an alternate version of macOS if Apple would end up doing a lot of the things that they have done in past.Quoting: DefaultX-odYeah right, yet again Canonical is guilty that Linux Mint uses Ubuntu's repositories. Who else to blame?Canonical does weird things these days, like dropping 32-bit compatibility. They think they are Apple and their users are brainwashed too and will accept anything. But they are wrong, and there is a possibility that Ubuntu (and therefore Mint) will eventually become unusable and Ubuntu users will have to migrate.
Unlike macOS, there are tons of alternatives to Ubuntu, so whenever they start doing things that cause rifts, people can easily move to other Linux distributions.
Quoting: slaapliedjeI wonder if there was an alternate version of macOSelementary OS?
Quoting: slaapliedjeif Apple would end up doing a lot of the things that they have done in past.They are going to use ARM processors for their next computers and turn macOS into iOS, locked down completely and without x86 compatibility.
slaapliedje Jul 1, 2020
Quoting: ageresQuoting: slaapliedjeI wonder if there was an alternate version of macOSelementary OS?
Quoting: slaapliedjeif Apple would end up doing a lot of the things that they have done in past.They are going to use ARM processors for their next computers and turn macOS into iOS, locked down completely and without x86 compatibility.
Elementary OS isn't an alternative to macOS, as it doesn't run macOS software. For example, if ReactOS was actually a full featured, completely stable release, how many people would use Windows? I'd switch to ReactOS in a second if it ran all the Windows software that doesn't work under Wine.
If there were a 100% open source solution for macOS software that ran closer to the PPC era macOS in functionality / look. I bet a lot of Apple users would leave (from my understanding, most don't like the direction it took after they switched to Intel, it just seemed... less cool.)
A good example would be if macOS had kept compatibility with OpenSTEP.
slaapliedje Jul 8, 2020
Quoting: Purple Library GuyYeah, I kind of think the same for the Steam forums. You dare ask for a port and there is always someone who decides they should take time out of everyone's day to say Linux sucks and if you want to game use Windows... freaking turds is what these people are.Quoting: Comandante ÑoñardoThe Mint 20 Cinnamon is ideal for former Windows 7 users... Specially if They use the right tweakI have noticed that every time I see an article relating to Linux as a general use desktop that might interest Windows users, somebody always comes along in its comments claiming to be a Windows user who has spent time recently, recently mind you, switching to or trying to switch to Linux, and they always claim software has to be installed from the command line etc. etc. in Linux.
Every. Damn. Time.
I have begun to think that Microsoft has some PR company on call whose job it is to browse for such articles and go in there with a sock puppet or two and recycle old anti-Linux propaganda while pretending to be sympathetic.
Last edited by slaapliedje on 14 August 2020 at 6:16 pm UTC
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