Linux Mint 9 KDE Edition Released
The final release of Linux Mint 9 KDE is available for download. It follows the Linux Mint tradition very well - derived from Kubuntu 10.04, with lots of additional good stuff included in the base distribution.
The core distribution is the same as for Linux Mint 9 Gnome - Linux kernel 2.6.32, X.org 7.5 (X Server 1.8), custom Mint utilities, such as the Software Manager, and much more. On top of that it has KDE SC 4.4.4 with custom (professionally designed) artwork for backgrounds and themes. Put it all together and what you get is a solid, stable, good-looking distribution.
A couple of highlights: This release uses the KDE Network Manager, rather than the Gnome Network Manager that had been carried through to the KDE distribution previously. That's good news, because it looks and feels more natural and better integrated with this Network Manager. The Mint Backup Tool has been rewritten for this release. It is one of the best and most versatile backup utilities I have ever seen on a Linux system. Not only does it do routine backups - full or incremental, with or without compression, and with integrity check - but it also keeps track of what optional/additional software packages you have installed. So you can use it to restore a complete system (no more doing the restore and then manually adding the packages again), or even to build a new system from an updated distribution, so you end up with exactly the software you want on it. Oh, and not to be overlooked, it has a new version of mint4win, a customized Windows installer based on wubi.
The distribution is quite large - 1.3 GB, much too large to fit on a CD - so it is listed as a "LiveDVD" distribution. However, the ISO image can also be converted to a LiveUSB drive if you have a running Ubuntu or Mint system (using the Startup Disk Creator utility), which fits very easily onto a 2 GB flash drive. I have just installed it to my HP Pavillion dv2-1010ez laptop, which has an AMD cpu, ATI graphics and Atheros wireless adapter, and it installed easily without a hitch. Total time for download, convert to LiveUSB and installation was well under an hour.
Check the What's New document for more complete information and screen shots.
This is only one member of the Mint Family, which also includes versions based on LXDE, Xfce and soon Fluxbox (in RC distribution now) as well as the standard Gnome distribution. As I said, Linux Mint has been a favorite for a long time, and it just keeps getting better.
jw 29/7/2010