Product Details
Introduction
This is the XFCE Community Edition for Linux Mint 5, codename
Elyssa, based on Daryna and compatible with Ubuntu Hardy and its
repositories.
1. Mint tools improvements
All mint applications were
improved in Elyssa. For the list improvements of mintUpdate, mintUpload
and mintInstall, read the Elyssa Main release notes.
XFCE's mintDesktop has a new layout and some more options to
customize your desktop.
XFCE's mintDesktop also has some translations and will be updated
when new translations are made.
XFCE's mintDesktop also enables/disables Compiz Fusion or even adds
it to auto start on login.
XFCE's mintConfig has been updated for the default applications in
Elyssa.
XFCE's mintConfig also has some translations and will be updated
when new translations are made.
XFCE's mintConfig also allows you to change the Groups position.
2. Desktop improvements
Pressing the Print button now will take a screenshot of the desktop.
You can now check the MD5 signature of an ISO file by right-clicking
on the file and by selecting "MD5 Checksum".
You
can now open a folder as root by right-clicking on that folder and by
selecting "Open Folder as root". This is a powerful but also a
dangerous feature. A warning is displayed while using this feature.
You
can now install any True Type font by right clicking the .ttf file and
selecting “Install .ttf Font”. It will check to see if the font is
already installed and display a message if it is. It can install to the
current user(User option) or to all users on the current
install(System). After the font is installed just restart any
application you want to use the new font in.
Terminal
now has colors and fortunes said by a koala, a moose, or even Tux
himself! (Don't worry, if you don't like this you can turn it off in
mintAssistant, in fact it's one of the first thing you'll be asked by
Linux Mint once it's on your hard drive.).
3. Performance improvements
MintUpdate was refactored and
its memory usage was drastically reduced. On some systems the amount of
RAM used by mintUpdate after a few days went from 100MB to 6MB.
Mozilla also greatly improved the memory usage in Firefox between
version 2 and 3 (Read more).
Elyssa comes with kernel version 2.6.24 which features a brand new
scheduler called CFS (Completely Fair Scheduler, Read more).
The kernel scheduler is responsible for the CPU time allocated to each
process. With CFS the rules have changed. Without proper benchmarks
it's hard to actually tell the consequences of this change but the
difference in behavior is quite noticeable from a user's point of view.
Some tasks seem slower, but overall the system feels much snappier.
Linux
Mint is growing and acquired a second dedicated server. The Linux Mint
repositories (starting from Elyssa) are now hosted on a distinct server
so updating and installing mint packages is now much faster.
4. Upstream improvements
If you're behind a proxy you'll
be happy to know that Ubuntu improved the Ubiquity installer. You can
now define your proxy settings in the advanced section.
Upstream
improvements from Ubuntu include the addition of an easy-to-use command
line firewall called "ufw" and the policykit framework which makes it
easy for applications to restrict some of their features depending on
the permissions assigned to users.
Printing was improved in
Ubuntu Gutsy and these improvements are coming into Linux Mint 5
Elyssa, with the exception of the Print-to-PDF feature which is kept as
it was in Daryna.
Other important upstream improvements come from OpenOffice 2.4,
Firefox 3, Linux 2.6.24
and Xorg 7.3.
5. Better Look and feel
The default set of GTK widgets
used in Daryna was called MurrinaIndustrialSM. Subtle changes and
refinements were made to it. Sliders now use the Clearlooks engine,
scrollbars are now white and come with handles, columns headers were
made glossy, dotted lines were added in tables and the roundness level
was decreased slightly. Overall it looks pretty similar to Daryna and
you might not notice the difference until you actually look into it.
It's all about attention to details though and we're quite happy with
the improvements we made on this. The colors are also configurable now
so that's probably great news for people looking for an easy way to
make Linux Mint a little greener.
The default theme also
looks similar to the one used in Daryna but with a more professional
look. Grub, usplash, gdm, and the default wallpaper look consistent and
all use artwork based on "Carbon v5", a look and feel inspired by
Daryna and designed by a new and great artist called Jernau. Isolinux
uses "Global Domination", also from Jernau.
With Elyssa also
come brand new themes: MurinaBlue, Murrina-Blue, MurrinaGreen,
Murrina-LightGreen, MurrinaMetrosuave, Overglossed, Peppermint,
Wildmint, Aurora, Carbon and Lightning. These themes take advantage of
the new Aurora and Candido GTK engines.
Emerald(Compiz Fusion themes) now comes with a new default created
by cathbard and modified by merlwiz79.
Emelrald themes has been updated and now has Mac4Lin, Metrosuave and
Overglossed themes.
6. Better Localization
All Mint tools were internationalized and are being actively
translated by the community.
Security
warnings and major announcements will also take place on the start page
which acts as an information gateway between the development team and
the Linux Mint community of users.
To help add translations you need to look in the forums under
Translations.
7. More software available
Linux Mint 5 Elyssa is supported by CNR.com which features
commercial services and applications which are not available via the
traditional channels.
The Software Portal
introduced in Linux Mint 4.0 Daryna is receiving more focus as it
represents the easiest way to install applications. About 10 times more
applications will be made available for Linux Mint 5 Elyssa.
The way we handle repositories
has changed and we're now in a position to take advantage of the
sections introduced in Linux Mint 4.0 Daryna. For instance, we will
actively import packages within the "import" section. The community is
also allowed to provide packages for the distribution which are added
to the "community" section (Note: The community section is commented
out by default in /etc/apt/sources.list).
The community
section is disabled by default and can be added by opening Synaptic and
checking the box under enabled.(Note: the settings to do this is under
Settings → Repositories)
8. Changes in the default software selection
A new Mint
tool called mintBackup was developed and added to Elyssa. This tool
provides an easy way to save the content of your home folder into a
single .backup file. You can then restore this content later on or
somewhere else by double clicking on it (provided mintBackup is
installed on the target system).
Hardware Drivers replaced Restricted Drivers Manager.
Sunbird was replace by the lightning-extension for Thunderbird.
Bluetooth-gnome was added for bluetooth support.
Gnome Device manager replaced Hal Device Manager.
Vinagre was added as the Remote Desktop Viewer.
EnvyNG replaces Envy Legacy (which was simply called "Envy").
PPPOE was added.
Upstream issues:
- GDM: It takes a while to open the "Login Window" configuration
tool. Just be patient, it will come up eventually.
- GDM: In "Login Window", if you select another theme.. even though
it will tell you everything is fine, it will actually select to show
other themes randomly. Open "Login Window" again and set the theme
again.
Mint specific issues:
- Widescreen support: If usplash doesn't fill your screen an
alternative is to install usplash-theme-mint-black (which comes with a
black background). All wallpapers come in widescreen format and GDM
also has a widescreen version of the Elyssa theme.
- Localization: Not all translations (for the Mint tools) were
included in the release. We had to code-freeze at some stage. The
missing and future translations will come in as level 1 updates.
