Lisa - Linux Mint 12

[Krow]

The new babe is coming to town real soon. Time for a separate thread.

For the uninitiated, Linux Mint is a Linux distribution (distro) based on the extremely popular distro - Ubuntu. It is very newbie-friendly and focuses on providing an out-of-the-box working environment with not much need for additional software or codecs.

The latest version adds the new Gnome 3 desktop with Mint Gnome Shell Extensions (MGSE). This allows users to feel familiar with the new, radical Gnome 3 desktop environment. One can fully disable MGSE to get a pure Gnome 3 experience, while those who prefer traditional desktops can enable all options and it will feel familiar.

Linux Mint 12 will release with a Gnome 3 edition, a MATE (a fork of Gnome 2.32) edition and the usual KDE, XFCE flavours. The Linux Mint Debian edition will also be updated (goes without saying).

Check out What's new in Lisa.

One thing I am really happy about is that the default search engine is now DuckDuckGo, which does not track any user information and is a fairly good Google alternative.

Many bugs were fixed in preparation for the final release:

• apturl is now fully functional
• adding PPA repositories was fixed
• MATE received a critical update to mate-session-manager (this bug prevented MATE to be started from the login screen for i386 users)
• mintMenu was ported to MATE
• packages now open with gdebi
• mgse-menu received keyboard navigation and multiple bug fixes
• mgse-windowlist was given a brand new look and now looks extremely similar to the Gnome 2 window list
• mgse-bottompanel now makes it possible to switch between workspaces using the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+Alt+Arrow keys
• Mint-Z now features silver-looking bottom panels, menu and window list which look similar to Mint 11, as well as a new theme called Mint-Z-Dark which features black components and looks like an improvement of the MGSE desktop from the RC release.
• The ability to open directories as root was added to Gnome 3

A couple of screens:


Alt+tab


MGSE

Hats off to the Mint team for making the extra effort to keep the OS user-friendly.

You can download Lisa here: http://linuxmint.com/download.php

[ico]

Ubuntu done right.

Unity.is.crap

[nims11]

Mint always succeeds to create a user-friendly desktop and this time it will too. It is using GNOME 3 with MATE which makes it look and behave like GNOME 2.
here's a screeny

[doomgiver]

Originally Posted by ico

Ubuntu done right.

Unity.is.crap

really??? a bit of ping pong we got here.
but i agree, unity sucks, gnome is the wave of the future.

[Liverpool_fan]

Don't like the inclusion of the minimize and maximize buttons.

[Krow]

This version is going to be a make or break. Donations are at an all time high, indicating increasing user base. If 12 is good, Mint will have scored a major point with its target audience.

[Rahim]

Thanks Krow for the info. Mint always shows how it needs to be done without alienating the userbase.

[Zangetsu]

Thanx for the info...Mint 12 looks gr8..

Q:which Linux OS is good in UI?

[abhijangda]

thats really a good work by Linux Mint Team.

[nims11]

Originally Posted by Zangetsu

Thanx for the info...Mint 12 looks gr8..

Q:which Linux OS is good in UI?

any distro with KDE

[doomgiver]

Originally Posted by nims11

any distro with KDE

NOOOOOO!!! gnome 3 or openbox. or even awesome

[gopi_vbboy]

I have a doubt about the rolling release of mint....suppose if i have linux mint 12 installed and if mint 13 is released over few months...then can i upgrade to it without lossing apps, data,etc?

[Krow]

Originally Posted by gopi_vbboy

I have a doubt about the rolling release of mint....suppose if i have linux mint 12 installed and if mint 13 is released over few months...then can i upgrade to it without lossing apps, data,etc?

You should be able to. I am not experienced in this but you should ask Arch users how it works. The only problem is that rolling distros may break with certain updates. It is not a regular occurrence but there is a chance.

[Liverpool_fan]

Originally Posted by Krow

You should be able to. I am not experienced in this but you should ask Arch users how it works. The only problem is that rolling distros may break with certain updates. It is not a regular occurrence but there is a chance.

That's spot on. Mind you, the breakage is due to the latest and not so much tested packages pushed onto the repos rather than direct consequence of the rolling release model in itself.

@gopi, you're taking of LMDE are you? It doesn't have versions. If you're talking of versions, then it's the Linux Mint. Yeah you can upgrade without breakage but there's always the cases of failed upgrades so be prepared to fix problems IF they arise.

[gopi_vbboy]

Originally Posted by Liverpool_fan

That's spot on. Mind you, the breakage is due to the latest and not so much tested packages pushed onto the repos rather than direct consequence of the rolling release model in itself.

@gopi, you're taking of LMDE are you? It doesn't have versions. If you're talking of versions, then it's the Linux Mint. Yeah you can upgrade without breakage but there's always the cases of failed upgrades so be prepared to fix problems IF they arise.

So linux mint 11 is not a rolling edition?

My question was not about package breaking..

whether will i lose data if i upgrade from 10 to 11 or 11 to 12...so one..
ie should i do fresh install...like ubuntu

How to upgrade to a newer release - Linux Mint Community

[JojoTheDragon]

You won't loose any data if you upgrade. Atleast, not in ubuntu.

[ico]

Originally Posted by gopi_vbboy

So linux mint 11 is not a rolling edition?

My question was not about package breaking..

whether will i lose data if i upgrade from 10 to 11 or 11 to 12...so one..
ie should i do fresh install...like ubuntu

How to upgrade to a newer release - Linux Mint Community

Linux Mint Debian Edition or LMDE is a rolling release. Whereas Linux Mint is not.

Regarding data loss...I hope you are talking about Documents, Pics etc. There is a reason why most prefer having a separate /home partition if your root partition (the OS) gets screwed up.

[sygeek]

Anyone else find the UI a little messy?

[Krow]

Did you use it yet?

[sygeek]

Originally Posted by Krow

Did you use it yet?

yes. I mean it in terms of looks not usability.

[Liverpool_fan]

Should have used pure Gnome 3 with few enhancements.

[RahulB]

Linux Mint has always been very user friendly...

It is aimed at beginners, agreed..
However, what do you think of these..

1. Sabayon: Distro based on performance oriented Gentoo, however I find it more easier to use than Mint..

SABAYON: Sabayon | Home

2. Zorin OS: For complete newcomers to Linux who do not want to leave the Windows userspace, I think Zorin is even more user friendly than Mint.

ZORIN OS: Zorin OS - Home

[vaithy]

Originally Posted by RahulB

Linux Mint has always been very user friendly...

It is aimed at beginners, agreed..
However, what do you think of these..

1.

2. Zorin OS: For complete newcomers to Linux who do not want to leave the Windows userspace, I think Zorin is even more user friendly than Mint.

ZORIN OS: Zorin OS - Home

I seconded this...Use Zorin Lite which based on Lubuntu but with ability to customization of UI..

vaithy

[Liverpool_fan]

Not a fan of any kind of emulating Windows or Mac OS X look and feel. If you want to come over here, learn to work by our style which is every bit as good, if not better rather than stagnating your mind with proprietary desktops.
Taking enhancements is fine, but just exactly Windows look and feel is so meh.
If you want a Windows look and feel, and want to use your OS exactly like Windows, stick with Windows.

[doomgiver]

^^ im with lfc here

[hotshot05]

The final stable version of Linux Mint 12 code named Lisa has been released today :clap: :hap2:

It comes with Gnome 3 but has been heavily skinned so that Gnome 2 lovers don't feel overwhelmed. This version also includes Gnome 2.

Will have to stay up till 2am to download it. This version is sure to be awesome hyeah:

Release News - Linux Mint 12 “Lisaâ€� released | Linux Mint – India community

Download page - Download | Linux Mint – India community

(Added this news here as I did not want to create a separate thread about this)

[Krow]

Thanks for the update. Downloading.

[RahulB]

woot!

[hotshot05]

Originally Posted by Krow

Thanks for the update. Downloading.

have you finished downloading?
I downloaded and made a LiveUSB stick to boot into it. Looks nice.
Only one problem that I could readily spot is - whenever I change the volume using the hardware keys in my laptop, the animation of the speaker that is shown, is blurry.
But if I change the brightness, the animation shown is clear.

Anybody else having this issue?

@krow - Update the first post with the release news and download links

[Krow]

I haven't finished downloading yet. Torrenting it. I'll update with links soon.