Happy Holidays: Linux Mint get a major upgrade

[HW3]

The best Linux desktop just got even better.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/happy-h...major-upgrade/

[Rockin Robbins]

So Mint just got the automatic update that Ubuntu has had since 2005 and updated the Cinnamon desktop, which is available in the Ubuntu repository. In fact all Mint is, is Ubuntu with different default software. Yawn......

Mint: Ubuntu. Potayto: Patahto. Needless user confusion and conflict. At best, they should apply for official Ubuntu flavor status, joining Lubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu Studio, Ubuntu Mate....The important thing that makes Ubuntu derivatives, and Mint is just one of these, best is the huge repository of curated and malware free software. Everything else is just insignificant trivia.

So I take my Ubuntu 16.10, install Cinnamon 3.2 and guess what I have? A BETTER Mint than Mint. Because Mint is based on a past version of Ubuntu.

[Skybird]

To sort this out: is 18 automatically upgrading to 18.1, or does auztomatic upgrading come not before havign manually installed 18.1? In other words - do I need to manually reinstall my new and just gotten Mint Cinammon 18 laptop just again, or can I install 18.1 just over 18 and have no worries with installed files, folders and software?

I'm just not in the mood to do this dance just this soon again. And 18 works nicely for me.

[Skybird]

Ah, forget what I said above, its Linux, not Windows, I just hit the button ( have not been aware it was there), and the thing ran by itself and smoothly like hot butter on a BBQ grill. Five or six minutes later all was done, and more important: no damage was done either.

Prosit Neujahr, Microsoft!

[Rockin Robbins]

Depending on how you set Ubuntu/Mint up you can either have the Update Manager run automatically at startup or require you to run it by yourself. Even if it runs automatically, it tells you exactly what's upgrading and you have the option to install or bail out.

In other words, it's exactly what Windows SHOULD have but never will. Ubuntu family upgrading is a total joy and one of the prime reasons for upgrading from Windows.

[Skybird]

The patch updater used to automatically run in 17, but does not anymore in 18.0, I have repeatedly examined the settings there and found no faulty setting - to my knowledge - so I made it a habit to manually launch the searching procedure once or twice a week. Which was okay.

The update for 18.1 however does not show up in the ordinary way like other patches, you have to manually check for a menu entry that you usually would not look at, so if you do not know that there is a OS update out, like I did not know, you easily could miss it.

I suspect that the patch updater had a problem in 18. Could not make it running automatically.

18.1 did no damage at all to installed software and files. Even system tasks running in the background and manually added by me were not affected. Thats what I call smooth OS updating. And fast! (Even Google Earth, which is a vulnerable thing under Linux and has given me repeated headaches now, retained its stability and functionality that I got since I last time installed it. The version installed by Synaptic does not work, use the Google site-package and do it man ually, then it works - and only then).

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by Skybird

The patch updater used to automatically run in 17, but does not anymore in 18.0, I have repeatedly examined the settings there and found no faulty setting - to my knowledge - so I made it a habit to manually launch the searching procedure once or twice a week. Which was okay.

The update for 18.1 however does not show up in the ordinary way like other patches, you have to manually check for a menu entry that you usually would not look at, so if you do not know that there is a OS update out, like I did not know, you easily could miss it.

I suspect that the patch updater had a problem in 18. Could not make it running automatically.

18.1 did no damage at all to installed software and files. Even system tasks running in the background and manually added by me were not affected. Thats what I call smooth OS updating. And fast! (Even Google Earth, which is a vulnerable thing under Linux and has given me repeated headaches now, retained its stability and functionality that I got since I last time installed it. The version installed by Synaptic does not work, use the Google site-package and do it man ually, then it works - and only then).

Stuff like that is why I stick with Ubuntu and just download anything Mint has that I like. Mint is Ubuntu with different goodies anyway and it gives me a more bulletproof distibution of Linux.