Linux Mint 20.04 released

[DeaconFrost]

http://mirrors.usinternet.com/mint/images/linuxmint.com/stable/20

It's out in the wild, still copying to the various mirrors.

 

[JustinC]

Linux Mint:
Linux Mint 20 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.

The star of the show in Linux Mint 20 is a new application called Warpinator.

10 years ago, Linux Mint 6 featured a tool called "Giver" which could share files across the local network. Without any server or configuration, computers would automatically see each others and you could simply drag and drop files from one to another. When the Giver project was discontinued it had to be removed from Linux Mint and we’ve been missing that functionality ever since.

Warpinator is a reimplementation of Giver. Server configuration (FTP, NFS, Samba) is overkill for casual file transfers between two computers, and it’s a real pity to use external media (Internet services, USB sticks, external HDDs) just to share files when there’s a local network which could do just that.

With Warpinator, Linux Mint 20 brings back easy file sharing across the local network.

My take: I am hoping it turns out to the best way people could share files on local networks. Let us see how Linux Mint improves the Warpinator in the future versions.

 

[Deadjasper]

Great if it works but I have my doubts. Linux networking sucks unwashed ass.

 

[Executioner]

Has anyone tried updating 19.3 to 20? I started with 18.1 then upgraded to 18.2, 18.3, 19.2, and now 19.3. I'm always leery of upgrading to a new version.

 

[Deadjasper]

Has anyone tried updating 19.3 to 20? I started with 18.1 then upgraded to 18.2, 18.3, 19.2, and now 19.3. I'm always leery of upgrading to a new version.

Same here. Think I'm going to wait awhile just to be on the safe side. Most of the problems I've had with Linux has been caused bu updates / upgrades.

 

[Executioner]

When I was updating 19.2 since I haven't run the laptop for several weeks, I was surprised that I had to reboot it after installing several updates (not the 19.3). Never had to do that before.

 

[Mazzspeed]

Great if it works but I have my doubts. Linux networking sucks unwashed ass.

I've never had a problem with Linux networking that I haven't experienced under any other OS. However I believe Mint as a distro sucks unwashed ass.

 

[Deadjasper]

I've never had a problem with Linux networking that I haven't experienced under any other OS. However I believe Mint as a distro sucks unwashed ass.

Could be. I thought Linux networking was Linux networking. Does it vary from distro to distro? I've tried for a long time to get it to work but still haven't succeeded. Once upon a time, don't remember the version, it did work half assed but somewhere along the line it quit completely. Part of the problem is an ocean of bogus, out of date instructions all over the web that flat ass do not work. Nothing more frustrating than following instructions and coming to a part that does not apply to your distro or syntax that returns an error. Did I mention instructions that tell you to do something without saying how to do it and Google returns nothing?

 

[B00nie]

Could be. I thought Linux networking was Linux networking. Does it vary from distro to distro? I've tried for a long time to get it to work but still haven't succeeded. Once upon a time, don't remember the version, it did work half assed but somewhere along the line it quit completely. Part of the problem is an ocean of bogus, out of date instructions all over the web that flat ass do not work. Nothing more frustrating than following instructions and coming to a part that does not apply to your distro or syntax that returns an error. Did I mention instructions that tell you to do something without saying how to do it and Google returns nothing?

I think the networking itself doesn't very much but the configurations do. Especially now with the Ubuntu move to netplan.

 

[Mazzspeed]

Could be. I thought Linux networking was Linux networking. Does it vary from distro to distro? I've tried for a long time to get it to work but still haven't succeeded. Once upon a time, don't remember the version, it did work half assed but somewhere along the line it quit completely. Part of the problem is an ocean of bogus, out of date instructions all over the web that flat ass do not work. Nothing more frustrating than following instructions and coming to a part that does not apply to your distro or syntax that returns an error. Did I mention instructions that tell you to do something without saying how to do it and Google returns nothing?

To get what to work exactly? You mean you can't connect to a network? Or are you simply experiencing SMB issues now that literally every OS has moved on from SMB1?

 

[Deadjasper]

To get what to work exactly? You mean you can't connect to a network? Or are you simply experiencing SMB issues now that literally every OS has moved on from SMB1?

Nothing shows up in Network except the Linux box. There are about 20 network connections at any one time. I also have network printers and have no problem printing to them from Linux so it must be a security issue.

 

[Mazzspeed]

View attachment 264556

Nothing shows up in Network except the Linux box. There are about 20 network connections at any one time. I also have network printers and have no problem printing to them from Linux so it must be a security issue.

This also happens under Windows, it's quite common since SMB1 was forcibly depreciated. You can either enable SMB1 (not recommended) or add shares as //IP address/share as opposed to trying to browse for shares. Is Samba actually installed? As Mint didn't used to have Samba installed by default.

Just tried to browse for a newly created SMB share on my Mac Mini to my KDE Neon machine, it was picked up first time no problems and this is an out of the box install of KDE Neon.

 

[Deadjasper]

This also happens under Windows, it's quite common since SMB1 was forcibly depreciated. You can either enable SMB1 (not recommended) or add shares as //IP address/share as opposed to trying to browse for shares. Is Samba actually installed? As Mint didn't used to have Samba installed by default.

Just tried to browse for a newly created SMB share on my Mac Mini to my KDE Neon machine, it was picked up first time no problems and this is an out of the box install of KDE Neon.

View attachment 264979

Yes, Samba is installed. Should I upgrade to Mint 20. Has anything changed? networking wise?

 

[Mazzspeed]

Yes, Samba is installed. Should I upgrade to Mint 20. Has anything changed? networking wise?

Honestly, I haven't used mint since Mint 16. I'm KDE Neon all the way now.

 

[FSCDiablo]

100% recommend KDE Neon for anyone that wants a stable KDE desktop experience. I rarely had any issues and they were minor. Outside of needing to update to newer kernel/nvidia for games its a great out of the box experience and deb package management never failed me. I think the only program that ever died on me was Amarok due to phonon backend issues. Loved Amarok for years!!! but after this failure I found Clementine and haven't looked back.

Hate to give a BUT to this comment, but I am currently trying out Manjaro. I ran into my first ever big problem with Neon last week were the update for grub killed my boot and I wasn't smart enough to fix it. easily. In the process of reloaded decided to give Manjaro a test while fixing things. Not too many complaints setting Manjaro up, it takes a little more tweaking things like enabling services that aren't by default or loading a couple packages from AUR. Documentation was good and plentiful though. Currently reloaded and working 99.999% perfectly (rare minor issue like mouseover on a system tray item displaying bad info. Only major concern is I read Arch distros can run into dependency problems over time. I'll report back if I ever run into them.

 

[cybereality]

I tried Mint for a few months, and I did like it a lot for most things. Seemed smoother than Ubuntu.

However, once I started trying to do serious work, I noticed (for example) the version of Blender in the repo was several years old and I had to use work arounds to get the Snap version installed (and Mint has since abandoned Snap).

Kind of a strange decision and it's not great for work if the apps are several years out of date. Been on a Windows kick for a bit, but thinking about installing the new Ubuntu and giving it another chance.

 

[IdiotInCharge]

I tried Mint for a few months, and I did like it a lot for most things. Seemed smoother than Ubuntu.

However, once I started trying to do serious work, I noticed (for example) the version of Blender in the repo was several years old and I had to use work arounds to get the Snap version installed (and Mint has since abandoned Snap).

Kind of a strange decision and it's not great for work if the apps are several years out of date. Been on a Windows kick for a bit, but thinking about installing the new Ubuntu and giving it another chance.

People using Linux to actually do work are either a) doing their own integration testing between their entire hardware and software stack, b) paying someone else to do it, or c) using something that stays intentionally ancient like RHEL.

Or they use Linux for a specific small set of tasks, or even a single task. Or just 'color within the lines', which is just about completely opposite of what FOSS is supposed to be about.

Updates and versioning issues are largely a problem of the past with Linux, but integration with constantly-released software across a half-dozen major distros and at least a decade of hardware releases?

I'd love to do work on Linux, but I seriously do not have the time (nor skill nor experience or some acceptable combination of the three) to keep a relatively up-to-date Linux workstation, well, working.

Honestly, as much as I dislike Apple's walled gardens, when it comes to the breadth of just getting work done, they may very well have the edge while they're still on x86.


[You might try Ubuntu Studio if you're doing more content-creation stuff; and you'd probably do well to restrict yourself to Gnome, since that's essentially the default DE for Linux]

 

[Mazzspeed]

I tried Mint for a few months, and I did like it a lot for most things. Seemed smoother than Ubuntu.

However, once I started trying to do serious work, I noticed (for example) the version of Blender in the repo was several years old and I had to use work arounds to get the Snap version installed (and Mint has since abandoned Snap).

Kind of a strange decision and it's not great for work if the apps are several years out of date. Been on a Windows kick for a bit, but thinking about installing the new Ubuntu and giving it another chance.

You can download Blender as a self contained archive from the developers website. No need to install, just extract to a folder and run the executable file.

 

[cybereality]

Yeah, it's fine, I did get it working in the end. I would just prefer apt to install the latest version, not one from 2 years ago.

 

[IdiotInCharge]

You can download Blender as a self contained archive from the developers website. No need to install, just extract to a folder and run the executable file.

Which you have to first know is an option to even know to search for the possibility -- and then you have to know that your software isn't going to be updated by the package manager, and you have to troubleshoot any dependency issues manually, and you have to remember where you put it, and...

Yeah.

The 'Linux ecosystem' needs a better integration process.

 

[Mazzspeed]

Which you have to first know is an option to even know to search for the possibility -- and then you have to know that your software isn't going to be updated by the package manager, and you have to troubleshoot any dependency issues manually, and you have to remember where you put it, and...

Yeah.

The 'Linux ecosystem' needs a better integration process.

Don't you search the developers website under Windows? Wouldn't that be your first port of call? Windows doesn't automatically check for Blender updates.

I never use the official Ubuntu repositories if I want the latest software, being an LTS release naturally they're stuck in time. The version mentioned in my post above is a self contained archive and it is the latest version, there are no dependancy issues - I downloaded and extracted it specifically for the purpose of this thread and everything was straightforward and worked perfectly - It wasn't difficult.

There's also software under Windows that can be either installed via .msi or run via self contained archives, there's also software that has to be downloaded off the Windows store (iTunes) - This isn't something unique to Linux. I use Linux every day and I don't have a problem, because I don't expect every OS to be Windows.

 

[IdiotInCharge]

Don't you search the developers website under Windows? Wouldn't that be your first port of call? Windows doesn't automatically check for Blender updates.

On Linux, not usually. I usually expect reasonably up to date software in the repositories.

On Windows, most of my software updates itself, be it Adobe for content creation among others, or games with their stores and so on.

The version mentioned in my post above is a self contained archive and it is the latest version, there are no dependancy issues - I downloaded and extracted it specifically for the purpose of this thread and everything was straightforward and worked perfectly - It wasn't difficult.

But that's your Linux install and it also won't be kept up to date.

Note that I am not really trying to make a comparison with Windows, but rather sharing in the common trials of a fellow user.

 

[Mazzspeed]

On Linux, not usually. I usually expect reasonably up to date software in the repositories.

Well a word of advice, the Ubuntu repos aren't up to date and Mint is based on Ubuntu. If you want up to date, forget the official repos and add a PPA or download the .deb or a self contained archive and extract it to a folder of your choosing. It's not hard (well I don't find it hard in the slightest), and there's no more risk involved in developer PPA's than the AUR.

I rarely use the official repo's unless I'm installing something mundane like Gdebi or Samba.

But that's your Linux install and it also won't be kept up to date.

Note that I am not really trying to make a comparison with Windows, but rather sharing in the common trials of a fellow user.

I'm running KDE Neon based on 18.04LTS, no different to what you were most likely running under Mint. The archive is self contained, libraries and dependencies really shouldn't be an issue. As far as 'up to date' is concerned, Blender isn't kept up to date under Windows. At least under an Ubuntu flavor of Linux you have the option to use the Snap, which you would hope would be kept up to date automatically.

Everything has it's pro's and con's.

 

[blackmomba]

It's also a question of what you're used to. I definitely like Linux approach better where everything is in the same place and curated. If I need bleeding edge I always have the option of going out to get and maintain that particular piece of software myself

I was on elementaryOs Hera for the past few months. Highly recommended for anyone looking for very sleek and easy to use OS right out of the box. Decided to try MX Linux 19.2 yesterday after breaking my eOS install. Looks really cool. Testing out different distros really helps to learn what's out there and whats cool