I' Been to Ubuntu: Linux Mint 7 (Gloria) is Available.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Linux Mint 7 (Gloria) is Available.

Image by plynoi via Flickr

Linux Mint vesions normally trail the Ubuntu versions they're based on by about a month. Mint 7 is based on Ubuntu, so it has most of the same new features that Jaunty has, plus the extras normally in Mint.

Mint doesn't think about the problems of software patents and codec licensing, and ships things like restricted codecs and drivers and Flash already installed. The Moonlight plugin (Mono's Silverlight) is also pre-installed. It eschews Gnome's two-panel display and goes for a more Windows-like look. These three "features" make it a great choice for curious users coming from the Windows side of life.

Mint 7 has an updated main menu which sports suggestions which include installing applications if they aren't available in the menu. The installation application has a new set of "recommended" software which are the most requested ones (e.g. Skype, Google Earth, Opera, etc.) and are installable without searching further. The updater has been ... umm ... updated to conform with Gnome's HIG.