Upgrade from mint 18 to 19. Worthy?

[alquimista]

I have had version 18 cinnamon for a while now on a desktop PC. All is perfectly stable. Would there be a good reason to upgrade to version 19?

[gm10]

A two year more recent package base and whatever Mint-specific changes were made as per the release notes. Whether those are good reasons for you I cannot say.

[Hoser Rob]

If it's stable and there are no new features in the newer software you'd get from the Mint 19 repos ... and usually there aren't IME ... I wouldn't be in a rush.

[karlchen]

Hello, alquimista.

You can answer your own question.
Download a Mint 19 ISO image file (with Cinnamon desktop or with Mate desktop or with xfce desktop).
Create a bootable live & installation medium from the Mint 19 ISO image file.
You boot your machine from the bootable Mint 19 live system and use Mint 19 from the live system, without changing anything on your installed Mint 18 system.
You decide whether Mint 19 works well with your hardware.
You decide whether Mint 19 is worth upgrading to.

Best regards,
Karl

[Arch_Enemy]

I have had version 18 cinnamon for a while now on a desktop PC. All is perfectly stable. Would there be a good reason to upgrade to version 19?

The only issue I have had with it is a trivial one, but for me it's a big deal, since I like tweaking the desktop. I can't use some of my favourite themes, and the ability to change colours is gone. This is because of the implementation of GTk 3, which uses CSS files to set the desktop. I have tried to make changes to existing themes to get them to heel, but my skill isn't good enough. I also run MATE, since I was a Windows 95 junkie and loved the interface. Previously I could tweak the desktop so it was Jut Right for me, but now that is gone.

I know it's a small thing, but it really irks me. I also do not like flat themes, and apparently the folks who develop the GTk toolkit have made it a moving target, so even some of the more skilled theme tweakers have thrown in the towel.

As far as anything else, I haven't found anything works any better, and some things don't work as well as what I had with 17.3. The only reason I threw over and installed 19 was because I broke my system and got it stuck in dependency heel by trying to intall some of the "X" apps, and when I tried to uninstall the offending library it wanted to take 3/4 of the OS with it. I could not install or remove software, so I decided a change was as good as a rest.

And boy, do I need a rest!

Have a look at my signature...it made installing 19 a helk of a lot easier!

[kevin987]

I don't care for the tray icons on Cinnamon 19. Especially the one for Firefox. It looks fuzzy and uninspired. Firefox tray icon looks much better on Cinnamon 17 and 18.

I wonder if there will be improvement for 19.1

[AndyMH]

Thought it would be straightforward, but not. For some reason 18.3 would automatically detect my ultra-wide monitor, 19 wouldn't. Took a far amount of fiddling around to sort this. Main reason for me to switch is evolution - I find the version with LM18 (3.18) is buggy, version with LM19 is 3.28.

[carum carvi]

Alquimista, if everything works fine in LM18 I would advice you to stay with what works. Because LM19 still has got some bugs in it. I have had 6 crashes with LM19 and had none with LM18.

Best wait till LM19.1. is released somewhere in the new year. Hopefully more bugs will have been repaired in that new .1 release.

[alquimista]

Alquimista, if everything works fine in LM18 I would advice you to stay with what works. Because LM19 still has got some bugs in it. I have had 6 crashes with LM19 and had none with LM18.

Best wait till LM19.1. is released somewhere in the new year. Hopefully more bugs will have been repaired in that new .1 release.

Good to know. Thank you!

[all41]

I didn't see this stated here:
'Upgrade for a Reason'
Sylvia has a few years support left. Is there something new you need?

[KBD47]

18 is rock solid. If it ain't broke don't fix it

[majpooper]

I don't care for the tray icons on Cinnamon 19. Especially the one for Firefox. It looks fuzzy and uninspired. Firefox tray icon looks much better on Cinnamon 17 and 18.

I wonder if there will be improvement for 19.1

Icons are not my thing, one is as good as another. However my brother likes to change them, make his own whatever - yes he actually makes custom one off icons - whatever one can do to an icon he does it - it seems like a waste of time to me but to each his own. I say all this only to point out you can have any icon your heart desires. I could not begin to tell you how to change an icon as I could not be bothered but I am sure with a little research and a few questions right here on this forum you can have the FF icon from 17 on your 19 version of Cinnamon.

[karlchen]

<Mod> Moved offtopic discussion on the 2 icons dilemma, the guy who always tells the truth and the guy who always tells lies, here: The 2 icons dilemma </Mod>

[jollyjack]

When I installed LM19, I didn't like the default theme, and its icons. So I installed the Mint X theme and, lo and behold, the old icons appeared. Might be a solution

[kevin987]

When I installed LM19, I didn't like the default theme, and its icons. So I installed the Mint X theme and, lo and behold, the old icons appeared. Might be a solution

That has fixed the problem. I was using Mint-Y, but Mint-X has fixed that issue. The icons look the way they're supposed to now.

[diapason]

That's what I love about Linux and the forums. The answer is nearly always there. I, too, disliked the Firefox icon in Mint 19 and have been looking for a way to get the fox and globe back. It did not occur to me to check the Themes. I even got the "proper" Evolution icon back. Those two sit next to each other on my task bar so I won't be clicking on the wrong one by mistake now. The only icon which has not reverted is Remmina but the "new" one is not bad and I'll get used to it.