Linux in The News 8-1-22

Last Updated on August 1, 2022 by KC7NYR

Linux Mint 21 Vanessa Is Now Available
Linux Mint 21 Vanessa

 

The Linux Mint project published today the final ISO images of the Linux Mint 21 “Vanessa” operating system series ahead of the official announcement that will probably be made public this weekend.

Linux Mint 21 “Vanessa” has been in development for the past five months and it’s the new major series of Linux Mint after Linux Mint 20 “Ulyana”, shipping with a brand-new Ubuntu base powered by Linux kernel 5.15 LTS and derived from Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish), and supported for the next five years, until 2027.

Linux Mint 21 comes in three flavors, with the Cinnamon 5.4, Xfce 4.16, and MATE 1.26 desktop environments. All three flavors include the same under-the-hood improvements, as well as Bluetooth improvements with the adoption of the Blueman 2.3 GTK+ Bluetooth manager as a drop-in replacement for the Blueberry Bluetooth configuration tool, promising better connectivity for headsets and audio profiles.

Also present in all three flavors is a new Xapp project called xapp-thumbnailers, which brings thumbnail support in the file manager for AppImage binaries, ePUB files, MP3 album covers, RAW images, and WebP images.

The same goes for the Sticky Notes app, which now features support for duplicating notes and other minor improvements. Moreover, Linux Mint 21 comes with a new process monitor widget in the system tray that detects automated updates and system snapshots running in the background.

Linux Mint 21 Xfce

Most of Linux Mint’s apps received various improvements in Linux Mint 21. For example, the Xviewer image viewer now features support for WebP images and offers better directory browsing, the WebApp manager now supports additional browsers and custom browser parameters, and the Timeshift backup and restore utility has now become an official XApp as it’s maintained by the Linux Mint team.

Other than that, the new Linux Mint release brings more printing and scanning improvements with the use of IPP and HPLIP (both installed by default), initial GTK4 support for the Mint-Y and Mint-X themes, support for dark mode apps in the Mint-X theme, and a collection of new wallpapers.

Linux Mint 21 MATE

But wait, that’s not all as Linux Mint 21 also ensures out-of-the-box dual boot detection for those who want to install the Ubuntu-based distribution alongside Windows or another GNU/Linux distribution, removas the systemd-oom component for a performance boost, improves application management, and improves support for NVIDIA GPUs.

Linux Mint 21 “Vanessa” is available for download right now using the direct download links below as Cinnamon, Xfce, and MATE editions for 64-bit systems. While your download completes, check out my first look video at Linux Mint 21 “Vanessa” below!