Linux Mint Changelog

What's new in Linux Mint 20.2

Aug 5, 2021
  • Linux Mint 20.2 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2025. It comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make your desktop experience more comfortable.
  • ***Linux Mint 20.2 "Uma" Cinnamon Edition:
  • Update Manager:
  • Cinnamon updates:
  • The Update Manager now supports Cinnamon spice updates (i.e. updates for applets, desklets, themes and extensions).
  • Cinnamon spice updates in the Update Manager:
  • Although they're technically different than APT updates, they are presented to you in a very similar manner. You can see the same kind of information for them, and enjoy the same features as you did already, such as the ability to blacklist a particular spice or a version of a spice.
  • You can also automate spice updates. In automatic mode spices are upgraded shortly after you log in and the desktop environment then gets refreshed. This is barely visible (Cinnamon restarts itself seamlessly, you just see the mouse cursor get reset on the screen when this happens) and a notification pops up to show you what was upgraded.
  • Automated Cinnamon Spice updates:
  • Notifications:
  • In the past, available updates were simply indicated by a little orange dot on the Update Manager's icon in the system tray and could go unnoticed for long periods of time. In Linux Mint 20.2 the Update Manager is now able to remember how long each update has been available for, how many days the computer was ON during that time and assess whether or not a notification would be welcome to remind you of available updates.
  • Updates notification:
  • This new notification feature was designed to add comfort to the user experience, not remove any, so making sure it was a nice addition and not an annoying distraction was key. The way this is handled in other operating systems such as Windows or Mac for instance was an example Linux Mint did not want to follow.
  • For the notification to be welcomed and welcomed again it needs to happen for a reason, to be easy to dismiss if your are busy, to not come back constantly and to not come back at all for a long while after you apply the updates. When a notification is dismissed it is snoozed for 2 days. When updates are applied it goes away for a long time. The conditions for the notification to be shown in the first place are configurable.
  • Notification preferences:
  • By default, the Update Manager shows a notification if a particular update has been available for more than 7 logged-in days or if it's older than 15 calendar days. These values can be configured all the way down to 2 days or all the way up to 3 months.
  • By default the Update Manager also only counts security and kernel updates as being relevant for notifications but you can change that in the preferences.
  • The last setting is a grace period. If any update has been applied on your computer in the last 30 days, whether it's via the Update Manager or via another APT software, no notifications will be shown.
  • On computers where updates are not wanted and 3 months is not enough there's no need to keep the Update Manager running in the background and it can be disabled entirely.
  • Other improvements:
  • The Update Manager handles the automation of Flatpak updates. This was previously located in "Startup Applications".
  • Automated Flatpak updates:
  • Unused Flatpak runtimes are automatically removed when this option is active.
  • The power source of the computer is now checked prior to the launch of automated updates to ensure they do not run when the computer is on battery.
  • Bulk File Renamer:
  • A new application was implemented to add the ability to bulk rename files. This new application is called Bulky and it is installed by default in Linux Mint 20.2.
  • Renaming multiple files...
  • You can launch it from the application menu and then select files, or just select multiple files in your file manager, right-click and choose "Rename...".
  • Sticky Notes:
  • Sticky Notes replaces GNote as the default application for taking notes.
  • Similar to GNote, Sticky is developed in GTK3, supports HiDPI and integrates very well in the desktop environment. In addition to the features which were present in GNote, Sticky also lets you place the notes on the desktop and quickly access them from the icon tray.
  • Sticky's tray icon:
  • Notes can be of different colors and the text inside of them can be formatted.
  • Sticky also features a backup mechanism and can import your GNote notes.
  • Warpinator:
  • With Warpinator you could already transfer files from computer to computer across the local network but thanks to a new Android app you can now also do so with your phone and tablet.
  • Warpinator running in Android:
  • To install Warpinator on your Android device simply search for it in the play store, or use the link below:
  • The latest version of Warpinator features the ability to select which network interface you want to use. If you are connected to multiple interfaces (Wireless + ethernet for instance) this allows you to select which network you want to share files on.
  • Warpinator communicating with Android devices:
  • A new optional compression setting is also available. Once enabled on both computers, compression can make transfers up to 3 times faster.
  • Cinnamon 5.0:
  • Nemo:
  • Nemo, the Cinnamon file manager, has a new search feature. Until now you could only search for files. In Nemo 5.0 you can combine file search and content search, i.e. files which are named a certain way and/or which contain particular words.
  • Content search in Nemo:
  • Regular expressions and recursive folder searches are supported.
  • In dual-pane mode F6 toggles panes.
  • In the preferences, a new option lets you sort favorite files before other files.
  • Nemo actions can get active window xid and their activation can depend on a path not being present.
  • Performance and resource usage:
  • 5 memory leaks were fixed in Cinnamon 5 and a new monitor was implemented to detect, log and tackle cases where Cinnamon takes too much memory.
  • Using the system settings you can now limit the maximum amount of RAM Cinnamon can use:
  • Memory limit in Cinnamon 5.0:
  • If that maximum amount is reached Cinnamon will restart itself. You won't lose your session or your windows, Cinnamon will just be unresponsive for about a second while it restarts itself internally. It will keep a log of such events so that you can see if this happens often and help the development team troubleshoot the issue.
  • The Cinnamon screensaver daemon used to run constantly in the background. In Cinnamon 5.0 it now only runs on-demand when the screensaver needs to be activated. This results in a net minimum gain of about 20MB RAM on lean specs and up to a few hundred MB of RAM on some computers.
  • Although it's technically more akin to a code change and not a resource usage optimization, the response time for quickly switching between two applications using Alt+Tab was improved, giving the impression of a snappier desktop environment.
  • Spice management
  • Cinnamon 5.0 provides a new CLI and a Python 3 module dedicated to spice updates.
  • The new command line utility is called "cinnamon-spice-updater". It lists available updates and is able to apply them. Linux distributions can also rely on the new Python 3 module to integrate Cinnamon updates within their Update Manager like it was done in Linux Mint 20.2.
  • In past Cinnamon versions there were differences between the installed tab and the download tab for applets, desklets and extensions.
  • Improved Spice Management:
  • This was improved to ensure everything is properly translated and that all spices have the same name, icon and description whether they're installed or not.
  • More information was also added such as the author's name and the spice's unique ID.
  • Behind the curtain the validation and the translation process were reviewed and checks were added to Cinnamon's continuous integration.
  • Other improvements:
  • In addition to locking the screen, the screensaver launches a new fallback window in a separate process. This is done to ensure the input is grabbed and the session is hidden even if the screensaver happened to crash.
  • Cinnamon 5.0 is better at detecting power state changes and better at reporting them (notifications, battery icons accuracy, filtering devices with no percentages).
  • In the window manager, improvements were made to focus-stealing, wine fullscreen applications and the restoration of window positions after a Cinnamon restart.
  • In the preferences, orca received better support and IPV6 DNS is now visible.
  • The menu applet respects natural dimensions and can switch categories on click rather than hover.
  • The sound applet is able to show the player, status, artist and tooltip in its tooltip.
  • Printing and Scanning improvements
  • HPLIP was upgraded to version 3.21.2 to bring the latest support for HP printers and scanner.
  • The latest versions of ipp-usb and sane-airscan were also backported and are available in the Linux Mint 20.2 repositories. Try them out if you can't get your printer or scanner to work with software drivers.
  • XApps improvements:
  • The image viewer now supports .svgz images and its slideshow mode can be paused/resumed with the space bar.
  • In PDF files annotations now appear below the text and the document can be scrolled down using the space bar.
  • The text editor features new highlighting options for a variety of white spaces.
  • Other improvements:
  • In addition to Intel, the NVIDIA Prime applet which was designed for Optimus laptops and which let's you switch between your onboard and discrete GPUs now also support AMD onboard chipsets.
  • The WebApp manager received support for incognito/private browsing.
  • System improvements:
  • This release ships with linux-firmware 1.187 and the Linux kernel 5.4.
  • Artwork improvements:
  • Linux Mint 20.2 features a superb collection of backgrounds from Aaron Thomas, Alexandre Chambon, Andy Holmes, Chase Baker, Chris Stenger, Danny Kidd, Daniel Lazar, Dan Smedley, Isaac Quesada, Kai Pilger, Malachi Brooks, Marita Kavelashvili, Maria Vojtovicova, Marek Piwnicki, Nadiya Ploschenko, Omar Ram, Robin Noguier, Tyler Duston, Vanessa Friedl, Zidhan Ibrahim and Zhang Kaiyv.
  • An overview of the new backgrounds:
  • Main components:
  • Linux Mint 20.2 features Cinnamon 5.0, a Linux kernel 5.4 and an Ubuntu 20.04 package base.
  • LTS strategy:
  • Linux Mint 20.2 will receive security updates until 2025.
  • Until 2022, future versions of Linux Mint will use the same package base as Linux Mint 20.2, making it trivial for people to upgrade.
  • Until 2022, the development team won't start working on a new base and will be fully focused on this one.
  • ***Linux Mint 20.2 "Uma" MATE Edition:
  • Update Manager:
  • Notifications:
  • In the past, available updates were simply indicated by a little orange dot on the Update Manager's icon in the system tray and could go unnoticed for long periods of time. In Linux Mint 20.2 the Update Manager is now able to remember how long each update has been available for, how many days the computer was ON during that time and assess whether or not a notification would be welcome to remind you of available updates.
  • Updates notification:
  • This new notification feature was designed to add comfort to the user experience, not remove any, so making sure it was a nice addition and not an annoying distraction was key. The way this is handled in other operating systems such as Windows or Mac for instance was an example Linux Mint did not want to follow.
  • For the notification to be welcomed and welcomed again it needs to happen for a reason, to be easy to dismiss if your are busy, to not come back constantly and to not come back at all for a long while after you apply the updates. When a notification is dismissed it is snoozed for 2 days. When updates are applied it goes away for a long time. The conditions for the notification to be shown in the first place are configurable.
  • Notification preferences:
  • By default, the Update Manager shows a notification if a particular update has been available for more than 7 logged-in days or if it's older than 15 calendar days. These values can be configured all the way down to 2 days or all the way up to 3 months.
  • By default the Update Manager also only counts security and kernel updates as being relevant for notifications but you can change that in the preferences.
  • The last setting is a grace period. If any update has been applied on your computer in the last 30 days, whether it's via the Update Manager or via another APT software, no notifications will be shown.
  • On computers where updates are not wanted and 3 months is not enough there's no need to keep the Update Manager running in the background and it can be disabled entirely.
  • Other improvements:
  • The Update Manager handles the automation of Flatpak updates. This was previously located in "Startup Applications".
  • Automated Flatpak updates:
  • Unused Flatpak runtimes are automatically removed when this option is active.
  • The power source of the computer is now checked prior to the launch of automated updates to ensure they do not run when the computer is on battery.
  • Bulk File Renamer:
  • A new application was implemented to add the ability to bulk rename files. This new application is called Bulky and it is installed by default in Linux Mint 20.2.
  • Renaming multiple files...:
  • You can launch it from the application menu and then select files, or just select multiple files in your file manager, right-click and choose "Rename...".
  • Sticky Notes:
  • Sticky Notes replaces GNote as the default application for taking notes.
  • Sticky Notes:
  • Similar to GNote, Sticky is developed in GTK3, supports HiDPI and integrates very well in the desktop environment. In addition to the features which were present in GNote, Sticky also lets you place the notes on the desktop and quickly access them from the icon tray.
  • Sticky's tray icon:
  • Notes can be of different colors and the text inside of them can be formatted.
  • Sticky also features a backup mechanism and can import your GNote notes.
  • Warpinator:
  • With Warpinator you could already transfer files from computer to computer across the local network but thanks to a new Android app you can now also do so with your phone and tablet.
  • Warpinator running in Android:
  • To install Warpinator on your Android device simply search for it in the play store, or use the link below:
  • The latest version of Warpinator features the ability to select which network interface you want to use. If you are connected to multiple interfaces (Wireless + ethernet for instance) this allows you to select which network you want to share files on.
  • Warpinator communicating with Android devices:
  • A new optional compression setting is also available. Once enabled on both computers, compression can make transfers up to 3 times faster.
  • Printing and Scanning improvements:
  • HPLIP was upgraded to version 3.21.2 to bring the latest support for HP printers and scanner.
  • The latest versions of ipp-usb and sane-airscan were also backported and are available in the Linux Mint 20.2 repositories. Try them out if you can't get your printer or scanner to work with software drivers.
  • XApps improvements:
  • The image viewer now supports .svgz images and its slideshow mode can be paused/resumed with the space bar.
  • In PDF files annotations now appear below the text and the document can be scrolled down using the space bar.
  • The text editor features new highlighting options for a variety of white spaces.
  • Other improvements:
  • In addition to Intel, the NVIDIA Prime applet which was designed for Optimus laptops and which let's you switch between your onboard and discrete GPUs now also support AMD onboard chipsets.
  • The WebApp manager received support for incognito/private browsing.
  • System improvements:
  • This release ships with linux-firmware 1.187 and the Linux kernel 5.4.
  • Artwork improvements:
  • Linux Mint 20.2 features a superb collection of backgrounds from Aaron Thomas, Alexandre Chambon, Andy Holmes, Chase Baker, Chris Stenger, Danny Kidd, Daniel Lazar, Dan Smedley, Isaac Quesada, Kai Pilger, Malachi Brooks, Marita Kavelashvili, Maria Vojtovicova, Marek Piwnicki, Nadiya Ploschenko, Omar Ram, Robin Noguier, Tyler Duston, Vanessa Friedl, Zidhan Ibrahim and Zhang Kaiyv.
  • An overview of the new backgrounds:
  • Main components:
  • Linux Mint 20.2 features MATE 1.24, a Linux kernel 5.4 and an Ubuntu 20.04 package base.
  • LTS strategy:
  • Linux Mint 20.2 will receive security updates until 2025.
  • Until 2022, future versions of Linux Mint will use the same package base as Linux Mint 20.2, making it trivial for people to upgrade.
  • Until 2022, the development team won't start working on a new base and will be fully focused on this one.
  • ***

New in Linux Mint 17.1 (Dec 6, 2014)

  • Added OEM images

New in Linux Mint 17.1 RC (Nov 15, 2014)

  • Out of the box support for Compiz
  • Update Manager
  • Language Settings
  • Login Screen
  • System Improvements
  • Artwork Improvements
  • Other Improvements
  • Main Components
  • LTS Strategy
  • Cinnamon 2.4
  • Update Manager
  • Language Settings
  • Login Screen
  • System Improvements
  • Artwork Improvements
  • Other Improvements
  • Main Components
  • LTS Strategy

New in Linux Mint 17 (Jun 29, 2014)

  • MDM crash with non-xrandr compatible GPUs:
  • On SIS cards or cards which were not compatible with xrandr, mdm crashed when scanning the available monitors and booting Linux Mint 17 resulted in a black screen.
  • Dangerously ambiguous label could lead people to mistakenly wipe their hard drive:
  • In the installer, when other operating systems were detected, the option to wipe the hard drive was ambiguously labelled “Replace $OS and install Linux Mint”. Although this option warned about removing data, it led people to believe it would only delete partitions and data associated with the mentioned operating system.
  • Driver Manager didn’t handle missing firmwares correctly:
  • The driver manager incorrectly assumed the user was running a manually installed driver when in presence of a device which required the installation of “linux-firmware-nonfree”.
  • Corrupted APT sources when / partition wasn’t formatted:
  • In the case where Linux Mint was installed over an existing / partition and this partition was not formatted, the installer used to call apt-clone and this resulted in corrupting the APT sources.
  • Skype and some WINE or Steam games didn’t work well out of the box
  • Better out of the box experience for Steam, Wine, Skype, LibreOffice-base:
  • A few additional packages were selected and installed by default, such as ia32-libs, libgl1-mesa-dri/glx, libreoffice-sdbc-hsqldb, to make it easier to run Steam or Wine games in 64-bit, to get better support in 32-bit applications such as Skype or to provide better support for LibreOffice Base.
  • All level 1 updates were added:
  • All the level 1 updates and bug fixes published since the official release a month ago were added to the new ISO images.
  • Note to existing users:
  • Although all these changes provide a smoother experience to newcomers. If you already installed Linux Mint and applied all level 1 updates, you do not need to reinstall it.
  • Note also that the KDE and Xfce editions won’t get respins as these issues either do not apply to them or were already fixed in time for their stable releases.

New in Linux Mint 16 RC (Nov 15, 2013)

  • Based on Ubuntu 13.10
  • Linux kernel 3.11
  • Cinnamon 2.0
  • MATE 1.6
  • MDM 1.4
  • Login Screen
  • USB Stick support
  • Performance improvements
  • Software Manager
  • System Improvements
  • Artwork Improvements
  • Main Components

New in Linux Mint 15 (May 29, 2013)

  • MDM
  • Software Sources
  • Driver Manager
  • Cinnamon 1.8
  • MATE 1.6
  • Software Manager
  • System Improvements
  • Artwork Improvements
  • Upstream Components

New in Linux Mint 14.1 (Nov 30, 2012)

  • High CPU usage, low performance on Intel GPU:
  • This was caused by a race condition between Plymouth and Xorg and affected owners of Intel cards in particular. Rather than using the “intel” driver, Xorg was randomly using “modesetting” or “fbdev” and the desktop was rendered by the CPU rather than the GPU using LLVMPIPE software rendering.
  • This issue was fixed in MDM 1.0.8 which is available as an update in Maya backports and in Nadia and which is installed by default on the new ISOs.
  • No DNS resolution, Internet not working in virtual machine:
  • Linux Mint now uses OpenDNS as a fallback for DNS resolution. If the system fails to connect to a DNS server, the resolution is done via OpenDNS. This guarantees better out of the box connectivity especially in virtual machines.
  • Installer fails to install grub-efi:
  • A bug was fixed and the installer now successfully installs the grub-efi packages in EFI installations. You still need to disable Secure Boot and depending on the implementation of EFI on your system you might have to specify the location of the EFI boot file (EFI/BOOT/grubx64.efi).

New in Linux Mint 14 (Nov 20, 2012)

  • Linux Mint 14 is the result of 6 months of incremental development on top of stable and reliable technologies such as MATE, Cinnamon and MDM. This new release comes with updated software and brings refinements and new features to make your desktop even more comfortable to use.

New in Linux Mint 14 RC (Nov 11, 2012)

  • MATE 1.4
  • Cinnamon 1.6
  • MDM
  • Software Manager
  • System Improvements
  • Artwork Improvements
  • Upstream Components

New in Linux Mint 11 (May 26, 2011)

  • One click install for multimedia codecs and extra applications
  • The Software Manager:
  • UI improvements
  • New splash screen
  • Fonts category
  • More accurate package information
  • More application icons by default
  • More accurate search by default
  • The Update Manager:
  • Performance boosts
  • Improved dependencies handling
  • Better changelog retrieval
  • UI improvements
  • The Desktop Settings tool:
  • “Desktop-agnostic”, detection and upcoming compatibility with other desktops
  • New setting for the fortunes in the terminal
  • Artwork improvements:
  • Backgrounds, overlay scrollbars, plymouth, Mint-X, search add-on.
  • System improvements:
  • new “apt download” command
  • Adobe flash plugins
  • Changes in the software selection

New in Linux Mint 10 (Nov 12, 2010)

  • Welcome screen:
  • Install codecs and upgrade to the DVD edition from the welcome screen
  • Menu:
  • Highlights newly installed applications
  • Finds and installs software from the repositories
  • Search engines
  • GTK bookmarks support
  • GTK themes support
  • Software manager:
  • Application icons
  • Better categorization
  • Update manager:
  • Ignore updates
  • Download size
  • Upload manager:
  • UI, speed, ETA
  • Connection test
  • Cancel / Run in background
  • New look and feel
  • System improvements

New in Linux Mint 9 RC (May 4, 2010)

  • New Software Manager
  • 30,000 packages
  • Review applications straight from the Software Manager
  • APT daemon
  • Visual improvements
  • New Backup Tool
  • Incremental backups, compression, integrity checks
  • Backup/Restoration of the software selection
  • Menu improvements
  • Editable items
  • Transparent menu
  • Always start with favorites
  • “Add to” shortcuts
  • Desktop settings
  • Changes apply immediately
  • Additional options
  • Better look & feel
  • Backgrounds
  • Welcome screen
  • Update Manager
  • System improvements
  • Windows installer
  • Husse quotes
  • USB Creator
  • Default software selection
  • Local repository and Gnome-PPP
  • Apt hold/unhold/held commands
  • Project changes
  • Community Website
  • CD & DVD
  • Community Editions
  • OEM installation disks
  • USA/Japan distributors disks
  • 32 & 64-bit
  • Upstream improvements
  • Faster boot
  • Long Term Support

New in Linux Mint 6 RC1 (Nov 11, 2008)

  • Based on Ubuntu 8.10 'Intrepid Ibex', Linux kernel 2.6.27, GNOME 2.24 and X.Org 7.4, Linux Mint 6 comes with a brand new software manager, FTP support in mintUpload, proxy support and history of updates in mintUpdate, tabbed browsing in Nautilus and a lot of other improvements. Highlights: mintInstall 5, the software manager with a new offline front-end, support for multiple portals, versions information; mintUpdate 3, a brand new update manager with a new GUI, history of applied updates, proxy support, improved stability; mintUpload 2 with FTP support; mintNanny - minimal parental control....