The release of the Linux Mint 20.2 distribution is presented, which continues the development of the branch based on the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS package base. The distribution is fully compatible with Ubuntu, but differs significantly in the approach to organizing the user interface and the selection of applications used by default. Linux Mint developers provide a desktop environment that follows the classic canons of desktop organization, which is more familiar to users who do not accept the new GNOME 3 interface building methods. DVD builds based on MATE 1.24 (2 GB), Cinnamon 5.0 ( 2 GB) and Xfce 4.16 (1.9 GB). Linux Mint 20 is classified as a Long Term Support (LTS) release, with updates for it until 2025.
Main changes in Linux Mint 20.2 (MATE, Cinnamon, Xfce):
- The composition includes a new release of the Cinnamon 5.0 desktop environment, the design and organization of work in which continues the development of 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 evolves the GNOME Shell and the Mutter window manager to provide a GNOME 2-style environment with a more modern look and elements from the GNOME Shell to complement the classic desktop experience. Xfce and MATE desktop editions ship with Xfce 4.16 and MATE 1.24.
Cinnamon 5.0 introduced a component to track memory consumption. Provides settings to determine the maximum allowable memory consumption of desktop components and set the interval for checking the memory status. When the limit is exceeded, Cinnamon background processes are automatically restarted without losing the session and keeping open application windows. The proposed feature is a workaround for hard-to-diagnose memory leaks, such as those that only show up with certain GPU drivers. Fixed 5 memory leaks.
- The screen saver startup method has been redesigned - instead of constantly running in the background, the screen saver process is now launched only when necessary during the activation of the screen lock. The change freed up from 20 to hundreds of megabytes of RAM. In addition, the screen saver now opens an additional fallback window in a separate process that allows you to block input leaks and session hijacking even if the screen saver crashes.
- Switching between applications using Alt+Tab has been accelerated.
- Improved detection of power status changes, improved accuracy of battery charge information, and timely low battery notifications.
- The window manager has improved focus capture, full-screen Wine-based applications, and window placement after restart.
- In the Nemo file manager, the ability to search by the contents of files has been added, including combining search by content with search by file name. When searching, it is possible to use regular expressions and recursively enumerate directories. In dual-pane mode, the F6 hotkey is implemented for quick panel changes. Added a sorting option in settings to display featured files before other file types in the list.
- Improved management of additional components (spice). The separation in the presentation of information in tabs with installed and available for download applets, desktops, themes and extensions has been removed. The different sections now use the same names, icons, and descriptions, making it easier to work with internationalization. In addition, additional information has been added, such as a list of authors and a unique package identifier. The cinnamon-spice-updater command-line utility is proposed, which allows you to list available updates and apply them, as well as a Python module that provides similar functionality.
- The update manager has a built-in ability to check for and install updates for additional components (spice). Previously, updating spices required calling a configurator or a third-party applet.
The update manager also supports automatic installation of updates for spices and packages in Flatpak format (updates are downloaded after the user logs in and after installing Cinnamon restarts without breaking the session, after which a pop-up notification is shown about the completed operation).
- The update installation manager has been modernized to force the distribution to be kept up to date. The study showed that only about 30% of users install updates in a timely manner, less than a week after they were published. Additional metrics have been added to the distribution that allow you to evaluate the relevance of packages in the system, such as the number of days since the last application of updates. If there are no updates for a long time, Update Manager will display reminders to apply the accumulated updates or switch to a new branch of the distribution.
By default, the update manager will show a reminder if an update is available for more than 15 calendar days or 7 days in the system. Only kernel updates and updates related to vulnerabilities are taken into account. After installing the update, notifications will be disabled for 30 days, and when you close the notification, the next warning will be shown after two days. You can turn off the alert in the settings or change the criteria for displaying reminders.
- The menu applet is adapted to take into account natural dimensions. Added the ability to switch categories on click rather than mouse hover.
- The audio control applet now displays the player, playback status, and musician in a tooltip.
- Designed for hybrid graphics systems that combine an integrated Intel GPU and a discrete NVIDIA card, the NVIDIA Prime applet adds support for systems equipped with an integrated AMD GPU and discrete NVIDIA cards.
- Added a new Bulky app for renaming a group of files in batch mode.
- For sticky notes, instead of GNote, the Sticky Notes application is used, which uses GTK3, supports HiDPI, has a built-in mechanism for creating backups and importing from GNote, allows marking with different colors, text formatting, and can be integrated with the desktop (unlike GNote, you can place notes directly on the desktop and quickly view them through the icon on the system tray).
- Improved the Warpinator utility for exchanging files between two computers on a local network using encryption during data transfer. Added the ability to select a network interface to determine through which network to provide files. Implemented settings for data transmission in compressed form. A mobile application has been prepared that allows you to exchange files with devices based on the Android platform.
- We continued to improve applications developed as part of the X-Apps initiative, aimed at unifying the software environment in editions of Linux Mint based on different desktops. X-Apps uses modern technologies (GTK3 for HiDPI support, gsettings, etc.) but retains traditional interface elements such as toolbars and menus. Among such applications are Xed text editor, Pix photo manager, Xreader document viewer, Xviewer image viewer.
In Xviewer, the ability to pause the slide show with a space bar has been implemented and support for the .svgz format has been added. The Document Viewer now shows annotations in PDF files below the text and adds the ability to scroll through the document by pressing the space bar. New options for highlighting spaces have been added to the text editor. Incognito mode has been added to the web application manager.
- Improved support for printers and scanners. The HPLIP package has been updated to version 3.21.2. Backported and included in the new ipp-usb and sane-airscan packages.
Source: opennet.ru