the release of the distribution , the second update of the Linux Mint 19.x branch, which is based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and supported until 2023. The distribution is fully compatible with Ubuntu, but significantly differs in its approach to user interface organization and the selection of default applications. The developers of Linux Mint provide a desktop environment that aligns with the classic standards of desktop organization, which is more familiar to users who do not adopt the new interface construction methods of Unity and GNOME 3. DVD builds based on the shells are available for download (), () and Xfce 4.12 ().
Key features of Linux Mint 19.2 (, , ):
- The package includes versions of desktop environments and , whose design and organization of work continue to develop the ideas of GNOME 2 — the user is offered a desktop and a panel with a menu, a quick launch area, a list of open windows, and a system tray with running applets. Cinnamon is based on GTK3+ and GNOME 3 technologies. The project advances the GNOME Shell environment and the Mutter window manager towards providing an environment in the style of GNOME 2 with a more modern design and the involvement of elements from GNOME Shell that complement the tools of the classic desktop. MATE continues to develop the code base of GNOME 2.32 and is completely free of intersections with GNOME 3, allowing the traditional GNOME 2 desktop to be used alongside the GNOME 3 desktop.
- Cinnamon has significantly reduced memory consumption; for instance, version 4.2 uses about 67MB of RAM, while version 4.0 used 95MB. An applet for managing print output has been added. Recently opened documents are displayed by default. The session manager has been ported to gdbus.
New widgets for creating configurators have been added to simplify the writing of settings dialogs and make their design more cohesive and unified with the Cinnamon interface. The configurator now includes settings for the appearance and thickness of scroll bars.
- In MintMenu, the search bar has been moved to the top. In the plugin for displaying recently opened files, documents are now shown first. The performance of the MintMenu component has been significantly increased, now starting up twice as fast. The menu configuration interface has been completely rewritten, moving to the python-xapp API. When installing multiple programs of the same type, the name of each program is now additionally displayed in the menu. Similar indication has been added for duplicates of applications installed via Flatpak.
- In the Nemo file manager, the ability to pin favorite folders and files to the top of the list has been added.
The process of sharing folders via Samba has been simplified. Through the nemo-share plugin, package installation is provided if necessary.
samba, placing the user in the sambashare group, and checking/changing access rights for the shared folder is provided without the need to manually perform these operations from the command line. The new release additionally adds settings for firewall rules, checks access rights not only on the folder itself but also on its contents, and handles situations where the home folder is stored on an encrypted partition (requests adding the 'force user' option). - The capabilities of the update manager have been expanded. The list of available Linux kernels for installation now shows the support time for each kernel. It is now possible to select multiple kernels for installation at once. A special button for removing outdated kernels has been added, as well as the option for automatic removal of kernels that are no longer needed.
The settings section in the update manager has been simplified and translated to the new set of Xapp Gsettings widgets. The ability to blacklist certain package versions has been added. A restart/shutdown block has been implemented during the automatic update installation process. A log has been added at /var/log/mintupdate.log. The list is now automatically updated upon changes to the APT cache. Notifications for the need to reboot after kernel updates and warnings about the impending end of support for the Linux Mint release (starting 90 days in advance) have been added. A separate page with information about the availability of a new version of the update manager has been prepared.
- In the Software Manager, cache update indication and the option to manually identify installed programs have been added. The interface has been optimized for use on low-resolution screens. The 'Software Sources' utility has added buttons to search for missing keys for PPA repositories and to remove duplicate repository definitions.
- The interface of the System Reports utility has been changed. A separate page with system information has been added. Porting to systemd-coredump has been completed, and the use of Ubuntu apport has been discontinued, allowing for compatibility with LMDE and other distributions.
- The development of applications under the X-Apps initiative, aimed at unifying the software environment across different Linux Mint desktop editions, has continued. Modern technologies (GTK3 for HiDPI support, gsettings, etc.) have been applied in X-Apps, while traditional interface elements such as toolbars and menus have been preserved. Among these applications are: the text editor Xed, the photo manager Pix, the multimedia player Xplayer, the document viewer Xreader, and the image viewer Xviewer.
- Support for keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+Q and Ctrl+W has been added to the photo manager, text editor, document viewer, video player, and image viewer.
- The Blueberry system tray menu has added the ability to connect and disconnect paired devices with a single click.
- The Xed text editor (a fork of Pluma/Gedit) now includes the ability to turn lines into comments (you can select a block of code and by pressing 'Ctrl+/' turn it into a comment and vice versa);
- The document viewer panel Xreader (a fork of Atril/Evince) has new buttons for selecting screen and zoom level;
- The installation image now includes the 'Boot-Repair' utility, which helps resolve most common boot configuration issues.
- The Mint-Y theme has been upgraded. The default font set is now Ubuntu (previously, Noto fonts were used).
Source: opennet.ru
