As my last post about the beta release of Daryna, now, the final release of Linux Mint 4.0, code name "Daryna" has released. Daryna, based on Celena and compatible with Ubuntu Gutsy and its repositories. Daryna is using Gutsy's package base (kernel 2.6.22, Gnome 2.20, OpenOffice 2.3, Thunderbird 2.0...etc).
What's new in Daryna
1. mintUpdate
With mintUpdate you can now get automatic updates without compromising the stability of your system. Updates are assigned a security level which indicates how safe they are for you to apply. MintUpdate also brings you more information about the updates and the risks involved in applying them.
MintUpdate is also highly configurable and you decide which levels you want to see and which you want selected by default. The implementation of mintUpdate in Daryna follows the decision to remove the Ubuntu Update Manager in Celena because it didn't give enough information about updates and assumed all updates were without risk for the user's system.
2. mintInstall & the Software Portal
MintInstall and the Software Portal were already available in Cassandra and Celena. Even though they were better alternatives than Click'n'Run, APTURL, PBIDir or the new SUSE initiative they failed to be noticed both by the press and by our own community. We asked ourselves why and came to the conclusion that their presence had not been made obvious enough. In Daryna, you can now interact with mintInstall without starting from the Portal. A link was added directly in the System menu. And a new frontend to mintInstall now allows you to search the portal directly from your desktop. mintInstall itself was also made more intuitive and improvements were made to its interface. In the backend, mintInstall now also relies on Synaptic and brings improvements on how it handles downloads/installations of packages and hotplugging of repositories.
A lot of popular software is already available for Daryna, for instance:
Opera, Google Earth and Skype.
Visit the Software Portal and don't hesitate to use the forums to request any piece of software you would like to see added.
3. mintDesktop improvements
mintDesktop got major improvements in terms of usability and now has an extra-feature which lets you restore the default splash-screens coming with Linux Mint for OpenOffice, Gimp and Amarok.
4. Liberation Fonts
Linux Mint now includes the Red Hat Liberation Fonts, consisting of three sets of fonts: Sans (a substitute for Arial, Albany, Helvetica, Nimbus Sans L, and Bitstream Vera Sans), Serif (a substitute for Times New Roman, Thorndale, Nimbus Roman, and Bitstream Vera Serif) and Mono (a substitute for Courier New, Cumberland, Courier, Nimbus Mono L, and Bitstream Vera Sans Mono).
5. Compiz Fusion
Credits go to Xorg, Compiz Fusion and Ubuntu for bringing us the best 3D effects available and activated out of the box in Daryna.
6. Upstream improvements
- Improvements made in Linux Mint 3.1 Celena
- Upstream improvements in Gnome 2.20
- Upstream improvements in Ubuntu 7.10
- Upstream improvements in the Linux kernel 2.6.22
7. New repository structure
Linux Mint is now using pinning between its own repositories and Ubuntu/Medibuntu repositories.
Packages are now organized in a modular way which allows users to select how they pin between the two distributions:
- Main: Packages being developed by Linux Mint. (example: mintinstall)
- Community: Packages being developed by the Linux Mint Community. (example: sunbird-mint)
- Upstream: Ubuntu packages patched by Linux Mint. (example: firefox)
- Import: Packages coming from 3rd party sources. (example: envy)
- Backport: To allow optional backports for older releases.
Daryna is ideal for desktop using:
- Out of the box multimedia support
- Microsoft Windows Integration (Dual-boot, NTFS read/write support, Migration Assistant)
- One-Click install system (Linux Mint Software Portal, mintInstall)
- Easy file-sharing (mintUpload)
- Desktop features, Control Center, mintMenu
- 3D Effects
- Great configuration tools
- Great selection of default applications (OpenOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird, Gimp, Pidgin, XChat, Amarok..etc)
- Solid package base (Google Earth, Picasa, Skype.. a lot of important software present in the repositories or in the Linux Mint Software Portal, compatibility with all Ubuntu Gutsy repositories and most Debian packages)
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