| Linux Mint Takes on a KDE Flavor |
Aug. 16, 2007
Linux Mint, a community Linux distribution that includes some proprietary elements for a better "out of the box" user experience, is now available in an edition with KDE as its desktop environment.
This 3.0 release is based on Bianca KDE Mint 2.2. Like that edition, Cassandra KDE Community Edition is compatible with all Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn repositories.
Instead of the GNOME 2.18 interface that Linux Mint 3.0, Cassandra, the KDE version uses, the KDE 3.5.6 desktop. For those who want to live life on the 3D side of the Linux desktop, it also comes with Beryl 0.2.1 and the Beryl-Manager.
For its foundation, Mint uses the Linux kernel 2.6.20-15. According to the lead developer, Jamie "Boo" Birse, "the kernel has not been updated due to development and compatibility reasons."
While based on KDE, the developers have switched out some KDE applications for other programs. These include using OpenOffice, Thunderbird and Sunbird for KOffice and Kontact.
The primary developer made this choice so that the KDE version would have more in common with its GNOME-based sister distribution, Cassandra.
According to the Cassandra KDE Community Edition release notes, the default software selection includes:- OpenOffice 2.2.0, Firefox 2.0.0.4, Thunderbird 1.5.0.12 (version 2.0 is available in the Software Portal) and Sunbird 0.6a1
- Dolphin 0.8.1 and Tasty Menu 0.8.2
- Amarok 1.4.6
- K3B 1.0 and K9Copy 1.1.0
- Scribus 1.2.5
- KMyMoney 0.8.5
- Sun Java 6
- DigiKam, Gimp, Gwenview, Kooka, Krita, KGet, KFTPGrabber, KNetworkManager, Kopete, Konversation, and Inkscape
- mintInstall 2.4
While Linux Mint Cassandra KDE is based on Linux Mint Bianca KDE, the Mint developers recommend that users do not try to update to Cassandra from Mint. Instead, they strongly recommend that users do a fresh install of the new version.
In addition, there is a known bug with the installer. In the installer, the partitioner will ask you how you want to partition your drive. If you choose "Manual" the installer will crash. This is a bug in the KDE front-end of the Ubiquity installer. You can either use the "Guided" option or if you need to manually partition, use the Gnome front-end instead. To do this, the team recommends opening a terminal and running
sudo apt-get install ubiquity-frontend-gtk
sudo apt-get remove ubiquity-frontend-kde
sudo ubiquity
Like the rest of the Mint family, Linux Mint Cassandra KDE includes browser plug-ins, media codecs, support for DVD playback, Java, and other proprietary components.
Mint also now offers a desktop Linux distribution using the relatively obscure, but lightweight XFCE desktop, "Cassandra" XFCE Community Edition. This makes Mint one of a handful of Linux distributions that offers XFCE as a default desktop.
All of the Linux Mint distribution variations can be downloaded from the company's download site. While the distributions are free to download and use, Linux Mint also offers paid support options.
—Steven J. Vaughan Nichols
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