
Linux Mint 16 "Petra" MATE released - conductor
http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2493
======
RRRA
If you've already upgraded before, keep doing it this way:

$ sudo sed -i 's/raring/saucy/' /etc/apt/sources.list

$ sudo sed -i 's/olivia/petra/' /etc/apt/sources.list

$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

$ sudo apt-get upgrade

$ sudo shutdown -r now

More from here:
[https://gist.github.com/hgomez/7074150](https://gist.github.com/hgomez/7074150)

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dhimes
I've been a fan of Mint for years, but 15 was a wreck for my box. I've been
looking forward for the upgrade for months.

And by 'wreck' I mean it's entirely workable but with annoying bugs. I was
hoping to be able to engage the developers (of Mate really) but they closed my
bug without comment. I switched to Cinnamon and it was much better but still
has some bizarre behavior centered around X stability AFAICT.

I'm hoping for the best with this release. When it works well it's awesome.

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MWil
In the last couple months I've tested elementary, pinguy, and the mint 16 MATE
RC. I think I'm actually going to stick with it because it's the only one of
those three that supports seamless multi-monitor/single setup (like
recognizing the hdmi output immediately without changing a setting), proper
suspend/hibernation, and probably some other hiccups in others that I've
forgotten.

Very happy with Mint.

FYI: These were my first experiences with linux so they were also beginner-
friendly.

~~~
clamour
I have a dual install of Mint on my machine precisely because of its seamless
HDMI support. It was the one thing I could never get working properly on my
primary OS, but Mint did the trick right out of the box.

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keithpeter
_" Linux Mint 16 features MATE 1.6, MDM 1.4, a Linux kernel 3.11 and an Ubuntu
13.10 package base."_

So based on Ubuntu 13.10 which means EOL in July 2014.

I'm looking at the LTS release of this distribution (based on Ubuntu 14.04) as
a _possible_ replacement for CentOS 6.4 with wider package choices.

~~~
zoowar
Does this mean it includes Canonical spyware?

~~~
ensignavenger
I don't think so, I use Mint in part because it removes some of Canonical's
garbage- and I really like Cinnamon.

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facorreia
I've been having a good experience with Mint 15, I like Cinnamon, and I plan
to install Mint 16 Cinnamon on my next laptop.

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alexpopescu
I've never upgraded before, just started out fresh. But y env got pretty
complicated so I'd like to try an upgrade. What's the experience with the
"Fresh upgrade"[1]?

[1]:
[http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/2](http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/2)

~~~
bronson
A fresh upgrade is just backup, plain install, restore. It's super reliable
but somewhat inconvenient and time consuming.

A package upgrade is easier for friends of the command line but runs the risk
of leaving your computer with an inconsistent package selection or
configuration. And it's less used so bugs are more likely.

I tried a package upgrade for 14->15, worked great. _shrug_ I did 15->16 a few
days ago reinstalling fresh (wanted to disable encrypted home directories,
figured this was the easiest way to do it). Worked great too.

------
lucb1e
Great, if they only provided decent support for older versions. I'm using the
LTS release on my desktop, but pretty much all software besides Firefox and
Thunderbird are at least three months behind.

The LTS should be good till 2017, but it's already far behind in 2013.

~~~
mrj
Heh, well that's the point of the LTS release. It gets security updates and
patches, but those releases are not designed to stay current.

If you want current software, don't run old releases.

~~~
ChuckMcM
I've encountered this sort of logic before. It is certainly one way of
defining "long term stable" but a more useful definition is that packages go
through more extensive interoperability testing prior to being made available,
so they are 3 - 6 months perhaps behind the current stuff but not years
behind.

It is perhaps one of the biggest challenges for me on a Linux desktop,
constantly having to choose between 'everything works' or 'has current
features'. Which is not a choice I need to make with commercial desktops.

~~~
Amadou
It's not a choice you are _given_ for proprietary desktops. New features are
almost always the domain of point releases. The linux distros have just
decoupled that so you know what you are missing if you wait.

------
smegel
Does this bump up LMDE also? Is there any connection between the release
cycles?

~~~
matteotom
It looks like LMDE used "update packs" which are snapshots of Debian Testing.
The website doesn't indicate when those packs are released; however, there
should be a way to get packages straight from Debian Testing for a full
rolling release distro.

------
rajbala
I've been using Crunchbang Linux and I prefer it over Linux Mint, Ubuntu, etc.

It's super lightweight, incredibly efficient, and gives me just what I need.

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jondot
Naive question: visually, this looks like all Mints before it. As an Ubuntu
and OSX user, I'm not sure I'm liking the 'retro' Linux UI style.

For a distro like Mint or Ubuntu to hire a professional design team for the OS
to provide an aesthetic and holistic UX comparable to OSX / Android - is the
stopper just budget or is there something technical in X/Mir that stops that
from happening?

~~~
Crito
> _Naive question: visually, this looks like all Mints before it. As an Ubuntu
> and OSX user, I 'm not sure I'm liking the 'retro' Linux UI style._

If you don't like the look of MATE, then don't use it. The _entire point_ of
MATE is that it is something for people to use if they don't like what self-
described UI experts did with GNOME after version 2.

Seriously, I'm not kidding:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MATE_(software)#History](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MATE_\(software\)#History)

If you want new, experimental, or 'professional', go look for it elsewhere.

(I do not use MATE, GNOME 3, Unity, or KDE.)

------
klrr
What does this provides me over Ubuntu?

~~~
rthinker
Absence of Unity.

~~~
klrr
Unity provides best UX on Linux so far, or have other desktops catched on?
Last time I checked Cinnamon (tried it on Arch Linux though) and Gnome Shell
both lacked the depth of design compared to Unity.

~~~
eitland
?

(I and many others really prefer kde3/4, gnome 2 (and even 3) as well as mate
and cinnamon and some light weight wms over Unity)

~~~
broodbucket
User experience isn't objective.

~~~
scrollbar
exactly his point

