With Ada, Barbara, Bea, and Bianca the spark faded far too soon. Cassandra was my first love. Celena, Daryna, Elyssa, and Felicia were all good to me. Gloria? It could be love! A look at the latest Linux Mint release coming your way - Linux Mint 7 "Gloria"! (What did you think I was talking about?)
A Brief History of Linux Mint
Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu and attempts to offer you all that Ubuntu does and more. With Linux Mint you will get an Ubuntu based system with a custom desktop, several Linux Mint specific configuration tools, a Linux Mint repository of additional software (as well as the ability to use the Ubuntu repositories), the addition of several non-free media codecs, support for DVD playback, and your most common browser plugins all pre-installed.
The first release of Linux Mint, code named ‘Ada’, was released in August 2006 by creator Clement “Clem” Lefebvre. Since then we’ve seen Barbara, Bea, Bianca, Cassandra, Celena, Daryna, Elyssa, Felicia, and now, not quite 3 years later, Gloria!
What’s New in Linux Mint “Gloria”?
Linux Mint 7 “Gloria” is a major release of the Linux Mint distribution, bringing many new changes and improvements. With this release we see some significant changes to the MintMenu, improvements to MintInstall, MintUpdate, and MintUpload, as well as changes to the overall look-and-feel of the distribution. Lets take a look at a few of these in more detail.
MintMenu
The biggest change to the MintMenu is the improvement of the “filter” or search box. This addition allows you to filter your installed applications as well as install new applications should the filter not give you any results.
Type, for example, Amarok into the filter box and the operating system will narrow your results based on what you have installed. Should Amarok not be installed the menu itself will allow you to check the repositories for the application and begin the install process.
This is an excellent addition to Linux Mint, allowing you to quickly and easily locate your applications, check the availability of applications in the repositories, and finally install the application in question should it not be on your system. This style of menu has served OpenSuse well in the past and Linux Mint has taken it one step further adding more functionality.