Linux Mint 19 codenamed “Tara”

[Portreve]

Coming from the world of more traditional commercial operating systems, I'm biased toward nuking and doing a fresh install.

Debian, out of probably most if not all GNU+Linux distros, is the one most geared towards in-place major upgrades. For my part, when I was actively maintaining a personal file server, I had done several major release upgrades, and they worked.

That said, LM may be based on Debian, but it is not Debian. There's also a lot of other little things going on. Therefore, when 19.0 comes out, I'll nuke-n-pave as I have for every other release.

[Kilz]

Partitions and symlinks can make a nuke and reinstall much faster than an upgrade. I have folders like Documents. .mozilla, .thunderbird and others on a separate partition. Mount it in fstab and just symlink them into the home folder.

[Song]

Alright guys, thanks for all the great answers!

I guess I'll continue to wait for the full 19 release.

I just kinda hoped an upgrade path might mean something more than the usual "You can certainly try."
we have after each major release. It would've made it easier for me.
Also, thanks for pointing out Timeshift!

Cheers!

If any developers/maintainers read this: Thanks for a great OS! Been greatly enjoying it for years now.

[lsemmens]

Slightly OT but as a new Mint user. What are the options for "Upgrade" Do they work in a similar manner to the latest round of Windows stuff where the upgrade is forced on you? Does the new version fix bugs and security holes that have been discovered or is it just a better way to do do things i.e. tidy up of old code, and making use of newer technologies?

[smurphos]

Slightly OT but as a new Mint user. What are the options for "Upgrade" Do they work in a similar manner to the latest round of Windows stuff where the upgrade is forced on you? Does the new version fix bugs and security holes that have been discovered or is it just a better way to do do things i.e. tidy up of old code, and making use of newer technologies?

There are no 'forced' updates or upgrades in Mint with the exception that you have to be using the current version of Update Manager to get any updates at all (and that can be worked around although I see no reason to want to). Within series upgrades (e.g 18.2 to 18.3) bring new features and bugfixes in mint maintained components. Major version jumps (18.3 to 19) will bring an entirely new Ubuntu base plus updated Ubuntu repos with newer versions of other software. Most security issues and bug-fixes come via the regular package updates.

Support for older versions does end - e.g Mint 17.x will be out of support in April 19 and Mint 18.x in April 2021. You can still use them after these dates but you won't get any further security or bug fixes via update manager and eventually won't be able to install any new software from the repos at all because they will have been taken offline.

[StevenC21]

So... question about Mint 19. I heard that it is going to improve nVidia PRIME support, which would be very helpful to me. ie, it would decrease the screen tearing I experience with my notebook GTX 1050ti. I heard from one person it would b entirely gone. Is this true?

[Cosmo.]

What you do not find in the blog is most likely pure speculative. You will not find anybody here who knows more about this than Clem. Especially "one person" has no meaning at all.

[StevenC21]

Would it be appropriate to PM him?

[Cosmo.]

No.
At first you cannot (try it). Second: What he wants to tell gets posted in the blog and is meant for the public, not only for one person. What you cannot read there is too early to discuss.

What you can do is to ask in the comment of the latest blog. If you get an answer is another question.

[Pippin]

What you do not find in the blog is most likely pure speculative. You will not find anybody here who knows more about this than Clem. Especially "one person" has no meaning at all.

Are you saying Clem has no meaning at all?

[Spearmint2]

What you do not find in the blog is most likely pure speculative. You will not find anybody here who knows more about this than Clem. Especially "one person" has no meaning at all.

Are you saying Clem has no meaning at all?

It means mild, lenient, or merciful.

[Cosmo.]

You will not find anybody here who knows more about this than Clem.

Are you saying Clem has no meaning at all?

I said exactly the contrary. You twist the word in my mouth.

[Pippin]

Ok, that was ment as a joke, apologies.

[turtlebay]

@ Pipin - you must realise that most of the Mods and experts in Mint who answer the questions, are not native English speakers nor British residents living in Great Britain, thus our humour is often lost on them. I'm not knocking them just explaining.

[Moem]

most of the Mods and experts in Mint who answer the questions, are not native English speakers nor British residents living in Great Britain, thus our humour is often lost on them.

There's that, yes... and also, references to pop culture and media may fall flat as we don't all consume the same media.

[turtlebay]

Some of us don't even consume any media.

[Moem]

Well, we all consume a bit of a certain internet forum... I think we can call that a form of media.
(I otherwise agree.)

[Cosmo.]

Ok, that was ment as a joke, apologies.

As much as I make an effort, I don't see a joke. But I accept the apologies, if this does not repeat.

[Royi]

I really wish the Linux Mint 19.x will keep the use of system resources to a minimum.

Make sure the least memory is used, the less background processes the better and everything is lean and fast.
This minimalism approach is the best thing to do.

[Pjotr]

I really wish the Linux Mint 19.x will keep the use of system resources to a minimum.

Make sure the least memory is used, the less background processes the better and everything is lean and fast.
This minimalism approach is the best thing to do.

Each to his own taste. It seems that the lightweight Xfce edition is the right one for you.