Monthly News – September 2024

[clem]

https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=4749

[AZgl1800]

an awesome update Clem,
greatly appreciated.

[Ioann K]

Hello, Clem, it's me, Ioann! I recently registered on your website/forum, I wrote in the newsletters today, and in the past I also wrote about my request for the xplayer media player. Will this media player be in the next release? As users, we would like it to be fixed and improved, for example, to add support for Pipewire, audio visualization support and speed change, and also so that it can be the default, instead of Celluloid.

I wrote about the media player in the newsletters, I wrote twice via email, but I did not get a response from Clem and the developers. I was forced to register on the Linux Mint forum in order to write my requests/questions here so that I would get answers to my request.

P. S. I'm sorry that I'm writing through a translator, as I more or less know English.

[JosephM]

Hello, Clem, it's me, Ioann! I recently registered on your website/forum, I wrote in the newsletters today, and in the past I also wrote about my request for the xplayer media player. Will this media player be in the next release? As users, we would like it to be fixed and improved, for example, to add support for Pipewire, audio visualization support and speed change, and also so that it can be the default, instead of Celluloid.

I wrote about the media player in the newsletters, I wrote twice via email, but I did not get a response from Clem and the developers. I was forced to register on the Linux Mint forum in order to write my requests/questions here so that I would get answers to my request.

P. S. I'm sorry that I'm writing through a translator, as I more or less know English.

I answered your question briefly on the blog. Xplayer is no longer developed and hasn't been for years. As far as I know there are no plans to do so. It's no longer even in the repos.

[Ioann K]

Hello, Clem, it's me, Ioann! I recently registered on your website/forum, I wrote in the newsletters today, and in the past I also wrote about my request for the xplayer media player. Will this media player be in the next release? As users, we would like it to be fixed and improved, for example, to add support for Pipewire, audio visualization support and speed change, and also so that it can be the default, instead of Celluloid.

I wrote about the media player in the newsletters, I wrote twice via email, but I did not get a response from Clem and the developers. I was forced to register on the Linux Mint forum in order to write my requests/questions here so that I would get answers to my request.

P. S. I'm sorry that I'm writing through a translator, as I more or less know English.

I answered your question briefly on the blog. Xplayer is no longer developed and hasn't been for years. As far as I know there are no plans to do so. It's no longer even in the repos.

Why is xplayer not being developed and supported, for what reason? He was a good video player for me and was the most convenient to use and watch, VLC and Celluloid can't compare with him (mpv configs for a beginner in Linux, laughter through crying). It does not need to be abandoned, because this is a great legacy from the already deceased GNOME Totem. The GNOME developers themselves deliberately buried Totem and made Showtime more elegant and easy to use. Therefore, I ask Clem and the developers not to abandon xplayer, I really ask that I do NOT despair of Linux Mint.

[xenopeek]

For Linux Mint 19.3 Xplayer was replaced with Celluloid. In short because of the much better performance and (for laptops) battery life. It was detailed in the overview of new features for 19.3 and some more context in an earlier progress report (search for "xplayer" on those pages to find).

[Lady Fitzgerald]

For Linux Mint 19.3 Xplayer was replaced with Celluloid. In short because of the much better performance and (for laptops) battery life. It was detailed in the overview of new features for 19.3 and some more context in an earlier progress report (search for "xplayer" on those pages to find).

I've found Celluloid to be garbage compared to VLC. Even SMPlayer is better than Celluloid (and that's not saying much).

[Omnimaxus]

Excellent news. Thank you for the update, Clem (if you do see this, that is, anyway).

Just one question, though, please: Will there be a "light" version of this new theme?

Not everyone likes "dark" themes. It's nice to have variety to meet folks' different tastes.

Hope to hear back from you or a member of the Linux Mint team. Please keep it up.

[billyswong]

Excellent news. Thank you for the update, Clem (if you do see this, that is, anyway).

Just one question, though, please: Will there be a "light" version of this new theme?

Not everyone likes "dark" themes. It's nice to have variety to meet folks' different tastes.

Hope to hear back from you or a member of the Linux Mint team. Please keep it up.

I am confident there will be a "light" version.

But I hate the "modern" trend of everything must be huge padding with tiny font. This is one of the biggest problems when libadwaita removed GTK themability from new applications. UI density ought to be part of computer accessibility, something that either one can tune like font size, or at least be available with a few preset choices. Fractional scaling, even if supported natively in future Wayland world, isn't going to cover that as they shrink/enlarge image/icon size together with margin/padding.

[Coffeeee]

Nice for people who like round.
Evil for those who do not... Excuse me while I claw out my eyes.

Even SMPlayer is better than Celluloid (and that's not saying much).

after a few tweaks to theme and attaching a playlist SMPlayer is good.

[Omnimaxus]

Excellent news. Thank you for the update, Clem (if you do see this, that is, anyway).

Just one question, though, please: Will there be a "light" version of this new theme?

Not everyone likes "dark" themes. It's nice to have variety to meet folks' different tastes.

Hope to hear back from you or a member of the Linux Mint team. Please keep it up.

I am confident there will be a "light" version.

But I hate the "modern" trend of everything must be huge padding with tiny font. This is one of the biggest problems when libadwaita removed GTK themability from new applications. UI density ought to be part of computer accessibility, something that either one can tune like font size, or at least be available with a few preset choices. Fractional scaling, even if supported natively in future Wayland world, isn't going to cover that as they shrink/enlarge image/icon size together with margin/padding.

Agreed.

[JosephM]

Excellent news. Thank you for the update, Clem (if you do see this, that is, anyway).

Just one question, though, please: Will there be a "light" version of this new theme?

Not everyone likes "dark" themes. It's nice to have variety to meet folks' different tastes.

Hope to hear back from you or a member of the Linux Mint team. Please keep it up.

As of now, no. The theme isn't even the default for Linux Mint. It's for Cinnamon. It will be available in the theme settings, just like now. It's main use is that it's set as the default in most other distros when you install Cinnamon from the repos. Mint-Y should still be the Mint default. Though it may get some modifications.

[Omnimaxus]

Excellent news. Thank you for the update, Clem (if you do see this, that is, anyway).

Just one question, though, please: Will there be a "light" version of this new theme?

Not everyone likes "dark" themes. It's nice to have variety to meet folks' different tastes.

Hope to hear back from you or a member of the Linux Mint team. Please keep it up.

As of now, no. The theme isn't even the default for Linux Mint. It's for Cinnamon. It will be available in the theme settings, just like now. It's main use is that it's set as the default in most other distros when you install Cinnamon from the repos. Mint-Y should still be the Mint default. Though it may get some modifications.

Wait. Are you the same "Joseph" Clem referred to in his blog post? You're the same "Joseph" who's working on this? Wow; OK. Well - thank you for your efforts, of course. Thank you. And gotcha about what you said. Well, I mean, I understand, but speaking for myself, it'd be nice to have options, you know? That's all I'm saying. But yeah. Floating menus and windows would be a nice (and the next logical, IMHO) update for Linux Mint, but gotcha also about this dark theme not being a new "default." I get that part. Sure. But hopefully Mint-Y (which I like) will also get some changes to match. Fingers crossed. I mean, it makes sense. Not sure why Linux Mint got rid of the earlier floating menu and windows. That was a step ahead of other OSes. Now everyone's doing floating windows. Zorin, etc. Windows, even. Anyway, again, thanks. Looking forward to seeing your work in Linux Mint 22.1 when it's released.

[JosephM]

Wait. Are you the same "Joseph" Clem referred to in his blog post? You're the same "Joseph" who's working on this?

Lol. Yes. Been with the Mint dev team for 10 or 12 years. Just been on break for awhile and not contributing much due to outside life.

[lsemmens]

Just as a light hearted comment. When I clicked on the link to the blog (Good job, BTW) the ads I see at the top of the post were all for AVG! Do they think that Linux is some sort of virus, or something. LOL!

[billyswong]

Wait. Are you the same "Joseph" Clem referred to in his blog post? You're the same "Joseph" who's working on this?

Lol. Yes. Been with the Mint dev team for 10 or 12 years. Just been on break for awhile and not contributing much due to outside life.

Hi, since you are the one behind the new work shown in the monthly news, I got a question about "Clutter".

When an application is frozen and no longer responds Cinnamon shows a “Force Quit” dialog. This used to be a Gtk window. It was rewritten in Clutter to look like the rest of Cinnamon:

I don't know what is Clutter so I do a Google search. Then I find this https://blogs.gnome.org/clutter/2022/02 ... g-clutter/

Starting from GNOME 42, Clutter and its related libraries:

• Cogl
• Clutter-GTK
• Clutter-GStreamer

have been removed from the GNOME SDK run time. This means it is finally time to officially archive Clutter & friends.

...

If you’re writing GNOME Shell extensions, then nothing changes for you: GNOME Shell has had internal copies of Cogl and Clutter for years.

If you are maintaining a GTK3 application using Clutter, Clutter-GTK, and Clutter-GStreamer, I strongly recommend you move to libadwaita, GTK4 and to GStreamer. In the meantime, you should add Cogl, Clutter, and every other dependency to your Flatpak manifest once you update the dependency on the GNOME run time.

So Clutter is a GUI toolset that now only exist in Gnome's Mutter, or its Cinnamon's fork Muffin?

[Omnimaxus]

Wait. Are you the same "Joseph" Clem referred to in his blog post? You're the same "Joseph" who's working on this?

Lol. Yes. Been with the Mint dev team for 10 or 12 years. Just been on break for awhile and not contributing much due to outside life.

Gotcha. Well, thank you again! Appreciate your chiming in here.

[JosephM]

Wait. Are you the same "Joseph" Clem referred to in his blog post? You're the same "Joseph" who's working on this?

Lol. Yes. Been with the Mint dev team for 10 or 12 years. Just been on break for awhile and not contributing much due to outside life.

Hi, since you are the one behind the new work shown in the monthly news, I got a question about "Clutter".

When an application is frozen and no longer responds Cinnamon shows a “Force Quit” dialog. This used to be a Gtk window. It was rewritten in Clutter to look like the rest of Cinnamon:

I don't know what is Clutter so I do a Google search. Then I find this https://blogs.gnome.org/clutter/2022/02 ... g-clutter/

Starting from GNOME 42, Clutter and its related libraries:

• Cogl
• Clutter-GTK
• Clutter-GStreamer

have been removed from the GNOME SDK run time. This means it is finally time to officially archive Clutter & friends.

...

If you’re writing GNOME Shell extensions, then nothing changes for you: GNOME Shell has had internal copies of Cogl and Clutter for years.

If you are maintaining a GTK3 application using Clutter, Clutter-GTK, and Clutter-GStreamer, I strongly recommend you move to libadwaita, GTK4 and to GStreamer. In the meantime, you should add Cogl, Clutter, and every other dependency to your Flatpak manifest once you update the dependency on the GNOME run time.

So Clutter is a GUI toolset that now only exist in Gnome's Mutter, or its Cinnamon's fork Muffin?

Yes. That's exactly what it means. The standalone version really hasn't been maintained for quite a long time.

[rick gen]

Users will forever vary with their tastes and preferences. Some don't like theme A and prefer B, some like it and for some it's simply not a huge deal either way. Some don't like rounded as if it's life-changing, some simply feel it's not a huge deal. Solution: OPTIONS, OPTIONS, OPTIONS. The other choice if you are a developer is leave it the way it is so that people won't have anything to criticize about. Appreciation for the effort will never come for some, anyways. Problem solved.

I'd probably focus more on consistency like group of icons on the left side of the same panel have different sizes on the right side; then in Cinnamon's file manager folders or icons changes sizes in different modes, like view, tree, icon, detail, etc. Which is why I prefer Thunar, albeit it got less features. Still, I have to say Cinnamon is a beauty and it got many useful and easy-to-use features than other DEs. It's got all you need when it comes to customizing accessibility with your applications and mostly-used apps.

[Coffeeee]

then in Cinnamon's file manager folders or icons changes sizes in different modes, like view, tree, icon, detail, etc.

Preferences>View>Icon View Defaults, Compact View Defaults, List View Defaults
set them all to the same percentage. All fixed except tree view. Should be default.