Linux Mint 8 "Helena" released!

[Pariah]

Things I would like to see...

a small thing really and if I knew how to change this I would: I miss the 'tunnel' screensaver..it was the only one i used

not so small thing: login screen is so fugly!

Mandriva's interactive firewall, it's awesome

[rich_roast]

I cannot believe that there are still settings set for the .iso live cd image where the update-manager refreshes at startup and also refreshes every 15 minutes. Also, the screen-saver and power options should also be considered, because at default settings: users installing each release must babysit their installation and make sure their computers don't power down. I personally found the update-manager particularly annoying and feel this is a must change. What do you think?

I agree, although somehow these issues didn't bug me as much as they did when I was installing Mint 7 - maybe that's because I fiddled around more with Gloria before installation whereas this time I pretty much just checked that it kind of worked and went for the install aqap.

Mandriva's interactive firewall, it's awesome

Just for the record: Firwall GUIs - but the Mandriva client looks sweet for sure. Wonder if it can be ported?

I miss the 'tunnel' screensaver..it was the only one i used

I didn't read this epic through but it seems that that's a feature rather than a bug, or so it's considered - the bug was "ship fewer screensavers by default" (to be more in line with the relatively sane number of wallpapers and other artwork provided by default, and also to save space, natch). Can't please everyone, huh? Look in synaptic for xscreensaver-gl-extra, hopefully that's the package that contains tunnel.

[ers1121]

As a resonably new Linux user there is one thing I have not been able to figure out, maybe someone can explain it. I began using Mint 7 about a week after it's release, I was amazed that everything, and I do mean everything worked. It recognized my Windows network, printers, wireless connections, just everything! When I tried Ubuntu it was hit & miss, some stuff worked most not. Since my understanding is that Mint is built on the Ubuntu base how does Clem and his team get a system that is so-so and turn it into something that works as well as it does?
Last night I did the upgrade from Mint 7 to Mint 8 (I have been running Mint 8 in VMware since it's RC was out). I read all of the warnings about doing the upgrade rather then a clean install, but since Mint 8 does't come with Mint4Win this was the easier way to go. The install went good, although very time consuming. The average clean install including downloading &burning the .iso was about an hour. The inplace upgrade took almost 3 hours. This time, like the others, everything worked. The only thing that didn't were some of the Compiz Settings needed to be reset, other than that it was Mint working as usual.
thanks to Clem and all of the Mint team for an outstanding job.
Ed

[loveding]

Very good!!!Welcom...

[SharkyPL]

Any updates on the XFCE CE?

[red-e-made]

As a resonably new Linux user there is one thing I have not been able to figure out, maybe someone can explain it. I began using Mint 7 about a week after it's release, I was amazed that everything, and I do mean everything worked. It recognized my Windows network, printers, wireless connections, just everything! When I tried Ubuntu it was hit & miss, some stuff worked most not. Since my understanding is that Mint is built on the Ubuntu base how does Clem and his team get a system that is so-so and turn it into something that works as well as it does?
Last night I did the upgrade from Mint 7 to Mint 8 (I have been running Mint 8 in VMware since it's RC was out). I read all of the warnings about doing the upgrade rather then a clean install, but since Mint 8 does't come with Mint4Win this was the easier way to go. The install went good, although very time consuming. The average clean install including downloading &burning the .iso was about an hour. The inplace upgrade took almost 3 hours. This time, like the others, everything worked. The only thing that didn't were some of the Compiz Settings needed to be reset, other than that it was Mint working as usual.
thanks to Clem and all of the Mint team for an outstanding job.
Ed

Personally, I always do a download and burn to CD-R. I've never tried "upgrading" Mint through terminal commands (except when we went from Cassandra to Celena, IIRC). This is also helpful if it turns out that there are way too many bugs in Ubuntu upstream, for my machine, to be running the newest version. I just get out the old disc, re-install the previous version, and wait for all those bugs to get sorted. This may actually be the case for Helena with me - I get some weird Compiz behavior, sometimes themes misload, the latest Cairo Dock will not load at all, and the machine burns a lot of CPU during the first few minutes of start-up. This is a shame, because I absolutely love the changes the Mint team made to Mint apps, especially to mintUpdate. Gloria is still a masterpiece, though, and I'm running that now. Once things get ironed out upstream, I'm sure Helena will outshine.

[ers1121]

I too usually burn a disc and do a fresh install, but this was a bit different. Mint 8 didn't include Mint4Win, since I am still new to Linux thats how I install it. I did a full install a while ago, allowing Mint to set up the partitions & allowing me to dual boot with Windows, well that worked for a day or two, something screwed up & I lost everything. so this is the easiest way to do it for now. I have been running Mint 8 (full install in VMWare) for a while and had no problems. The only problems occur when I try to install the KDE package, within hours everything stops working. Using Virtual if something goes wrong I can hit delete & reinstall, haveing a fresh installatiion in about 20 minutes. I am soon to replace the HDD in my laptop, the will be separate partitons for Windows 7,Windows Applications, Mint, Ubuntu & Data. If an O/S screws up or I want to upgrade to a newer version I won't lose everything.
Ed

[solar1951]

Just my thoughts.
Didn't like the startup screen when the cursor changes from two chasing dots to the standard gnome - looks amateurish.
Start up wallpaper too busy - once again could be more subdued and professional.
On Sony vaio laptop - not high spec only 512 ram - the machine would freeze with no keyboard or mouse available if compiz was selected. This does not happen with Ubuntu 9.10
Also another minor point the link and activity lamps on my pcmcia card stop functioning after a short while - no big deal, same on Ubuntu 9.10
I will try it on my Desktop in a while to replace Gloria, but maybe wait for Mint 8.1 updates.
Overall 7/10

[Supamarioana]

I'm (still) new to Linux and like Mint 7 Gloria a lot beacause it works and looks really professional. That's why I tried out Mint 8 Helena as it came out and I honestly wasn't pleased. Why the "hard to configure" GRub 2? And why are the grub menu and the login screen so ugly? As I understand it, Linux Mint is supposed to be an "elegant" OS so what happened to this premise?
To draw people from Windows to Linux, you need appropriate eyecandy from the first second you start your PC. And Mint 8 completely failes in that, I'm really sorry to say that because I know that there is big team standing behind this release and all of them have worked a lot for that task. But the new login screen really makes my head ache. That's why I went back from Helena to Gloria: Because Gloria works just as well, but is a lot prettier.

[Az4x4]

Creí que aqui se hablaba español, creo que me equivoqué. Prové el LiveCD de Linux Mint 8 y funciona muy lento en una vieja computadora que tengo, luego lo probé en mi LAPTOP que no es tan vieja y alli funcionó pero no con la rapidez que tenia Linux Mint 7, definitivamente la nueva versión al parecer heredó los problemas de su madre Ubuntu, espero que Linux Mint 9 de un salto porque de momento fue hacia atrás.

salu2

Mi español es pobre, así que por favor tengan paciencia conmigo.

Su experiencia es común con los que tratan de la nueva versión de Linux Mint. Mint 7 de veces funciona mejor que la Mint 8 en un equipo determinado. Pero más a menudo que no Mint 8 resulta ser una mejora útil. Seis meses a partir de ahora Mint 9 pasa a ser. Si usted siente que Mint 7 funciona mejor para usted ahora que siempre puede pegarse con él y esperar a que Mint 9!

[mrjeth]

Hi
Thank you for the Helena release it looks very good, however it looks like i will have to stay with Mint 7 as I have experienced some issues with Helena. Any one that also have recognized these issues?

My computer is an eeepc 900 with multi touch mouse pad.
I did a new fresh Linux mint 8 Helena installation.

The issues:
- No longer possible to connect to mobile network using my Huawei E169 modem (worked fine in Mint 7). Seems to be a problem introduced in the new Linux kernel introduced in Ubuntu 9.10

- The multi touch keypad no longer works (worked fine in Mint 7 where it was used to scroll in a convenient way). If I connect an ordinary mouse with a wheel the wheel works fine. Was there a special eeepc mouse driver in Mint 7? have tried to Google on this without any results.

Best regards
Tomas

[carlos.16]

I have installed and is running without any problem since 3 days. I think it is a great OS.

[markcynt]

After trying the RC and then reading a lot of negative posts about Helena I originally chose not to install the final.

I decided to try it last night and I must say I'm at least as impressed as I was with Gloria.

The default desktop background is so nice I'm keeping it which is a first for me!

I haven't run into any bugs and overall this distro runs smooth and very fast on my computer.

[Husse]

If you don't run into bugs Helena is a nice release

[bobd13045]

Just installed Linux Mint 8 on my HP desktop PC.
Great job guys!

Merry Christmas

Bob

[Wilsonsway]

Got LM8 installed on my HP dv1000t laptop and so far, it's cruising right along. Much better than Ubuntu 9.10 did initially too. Not sure what the difference is now but whatever it is, keep up the good work. Once I get my files moved over and miscellaneous software reinstalled, I may go ahead and install it on my workstation too.

[DavidS]

Remember that you need a valid XP license for that

Hey... thanks for the info!

But I don't have a copy of XP or any license for it. Can't fathom purchasing
any Microsoft products any more.

[DavidS]

..Hi, I actually like CS3 Adobe suite the best and wish I could at least get Dreamweaver running on Mint. If I could, I would leave windows in the dust!! Would you have any idea how to do this??

Hey David! You can run Adobe CS to CS4 products on Mint 8 by installing VirtualBox then putting a light weight version of Windows XP in place. I run a minimalist version of TinyXP (do a Google search for an active torrent) in VB. Adobe CS to CS4 programs run perfectly in it.

Tried searching for TinyXP and either was not found on sites or you had to pay to download from those bogus download sites.

[Az4x4]

..Tried searching for TinyXP and either was not found on sites or you had to pay to download from those bogus download sites.

Did a quick torrent search and found the following free TinyXP Rev9 torrent:

URL removed

Got it downloading as I type. Running at 500kbs + with less than 1/2 hour to go..

..Now it's jumped up to 1500kbs and has less than 6 minutes left to finish!

[Husse]

Please do not post links to (semi)illegal software
The last thing we need is the company of some "pirate hunter"