Monthly News – March 2024 – The Linux Mint Blog

Hello everybody,

We’ve obtained lots to speak about this month, however initially I’d prefer to thank our donors, our sponsors and all of the individuals who assist us.

Many due to you all.

Localization

Enhancements have been made for Linux Mint 22 installations to be higher localized and to make use of much less disk house than earlier than.

Preinstalled packages for languages aside from English and the one you choose will likely be eliminated on the finish of the set up. This was not optimized in earlier Linux Mint releases. The elimination of those packages in Linux Mint 22 will save a major quantity of disk house post-installation.

For those who’re linked to the Web through the set up, language packs to your chosen language will likely be downloaded.

As well as, the next languages received’t require an Web connections since their language packs will likely be current on the ISO picture: English, German, Spanish, French, Russian, Portuguese, Dutch and Italian.

Deb822 assist

The Software program Sources device will function assist for the brand new Deb822 format.

Pipewire

The default sound server in Linux Mint 22 will likely be Pipewire.

JXL assist in Pix

The subsequent model of Pix will assist JXL pictures.

Kernels Collection

To prioritize stability our 21.x releases shipped with Ubuntu LTS kernels (5.15). EDGE ISOs have been made accessible, with HWE kernels, to carry assist for brand new {hardware}.

Ubuntu 22.04.x releases used HWE kernels, and model 24.04 is about to make use of kernel 6.8.

Over the past two years we didn’t observe important variations when it comes to stability between LTS and HWE collection. Each have been fairly steady. A rising variety of customers with new laptops/chipsets relied on EDGE pictures to have the ability to set up Linux Mint although.

Linux Mint 22 will comply with Ubuntu going ahead and ship with new kernel collection launch after launch.

XAPP Thumbnailer Gimp

A brand new thumbnailer for Gimp information was applied.

Will probably be accessible in xapp-thumbnailers 1.2.4.

On-line Accounts

GNOME On-line Accounts, aka “GOA”, is a undertaking which permits customers to connect with their information within the cloud. This undertaking was solely designed for GNOME although so it doesn’t present any front-end. It solely offers libraries (specifically libgoa and libgoa-backend).

Aside from GNOME, many desktop environments built-in a front-end to those libraries of their management heart: Cinnamon, Budgie, Unity, and so on.

This undertaking is vital as a result of it doesn’t simply join a desktop to the cloud, it’s utilized by many purposes and libraries. Amongst different stuff you may use it to attach the Calendar utility, the Thunderbird e mail program or the file browser to your on-line information.

With GNOME 46, libgoa/libgoa-backend 3.50 moved to GTK4. It will possibly not be utilized by GTK3 purposes.

To unravel this drawback a brand new XApp known as GNOME On-line Account GTK was created. As any XApp its objective is to work for everyone, in any desktop atmosphere and in any Linux distribution.

This app makes it attainable for Cinnamon/Budgie/Unity customers to proceed to make use of this performance. It additionally offers it to any desktop that didn’t have entry to it earlier than (as an illustration: MATE and Xfce editions in Linux Mint).

It options two variations: One in GTK4 to assist distributions which ship the brand new libgoa 3.50, and one in GTK3 for distributions which ship older variations of libgoa.

Thunderbird

In Ubuntu 24.04, Thunderbird was moved to a Snap.

Since we don’t wish to ship with Snaps we had to decide on between eradicating Thunderbird from the default software program choice or packaging it. We determined to bundle it.

Thunderbird will proceed to be accessible in Linux Mint 22 as a local .deb bundle.

Jargonaut

Work continues on the Chat Room utility.

It acquired a brand new format, a tray icon, picture thumbnails, channel occasions, nickserv authentication, textual content formatting, /me instructions, scrolling/catch-up assist, auto-completion, spell-check…and so on.

Bundle repositories

Our bundle repositories have been tuned final month to just accept a bigger variety of concurrent connections. Though this helped tackle a number of the points we had, they’re nonetheless actually sluggish when the visitors is excessive.

We’re at present engaged on a brand new partnership with Fastly.

Fastly offers a worldwide CDN with load balancing, TLS encryption and a strong programmable cache engine known as Varnish.

Their answer has the potential to considerably and constantly improve the pace of our repositories.

It additionally opens the door to higher fault tolerance, higher monitoring and logging.

We’re hoping to have extra information on this quickly. We’re actually enthusiastic about it, the testing to date has been very promising.

Editions Stats

We additionally began experimenting with observability and monitoring options.

We don’t have information on this but, however as a part of our experiments we measured the recognition of the Linux Mint editions.

Observe: This chart relies on the visitors on our web site.

Cinnamon (additionally represented by EDGE and LMDE 6) represents 2/3 of our viewers. Xfce is a stable second with a 1/5 share. MATE sits in third at 13%.

Promoting

Commercial on our web sites was drastically diminished.

No extra popups, no extra overlays.

Sponsorships:

Linux Mint is proudly sponsored by:

Donations in February:

$270, Oliver H. $250 (fifteenth donation), Tomasz E. $213 (sixth donation), Andreas S. $200 (third donation), Timothy R. $119 (fifth donation), Oliver G. $115 (4th donation), Philip W. $108 (ninth donation), Mimi $108 (2nd donation), Daniel M. $108 (2nd donation), Jessica R. $108 (2nd donation), Ueli H. $108, Anna S. $100 (twentieth donation), Philip W. $100 (4th donation), Neil F. $100 (2nd donation), Dan $100 (2nd donation), Soren Ok. $100, Carl J. $100, Craig D. $100, Harlan Ok. $100, HO-HUM ENTERPRISES $100, Michael T. $100, Randolph L. $100, Stephen H. $80 (2nd donation), Timothy R. $70 (4th donation), Vincent F. $69, Jeffrey C. $65 (2nd donation), Klaus S. $55 (sixth donation), John Mc $55 (4th donation), Olivia C. $54 (twenty first donation), Naoise G. aka “Gaff” $54 (twentieth donation), Bjarne Ok. $54 (twelfth donation), Adam H. $54 (4th donation), Ivan Y. $54 (4th donation), Nicolas S. $54 (4th donation), Rainer Werner B. $54 (4th donation), Richard H. $54 (4th donation), Stephan Tietz $54 (third donation), Guillaume $54 (third donation), Jyrki A. $54 (third donation), Rolf H. $54 (2nd donation), Boris G. $54 (2nd donation), Chris B. $54 (2nd donation), Goran N. $54, António Salsinha – Graphic Designer $54, Armin S. $54, Christopher A. $54, Dominic H. $54, Dym S. $54, Georg P. $54, Gioele V. $54, Holger H. $54, Johan R. $54, Johannes A. $54, Miquel Lluís B. $54, Uwe S. $54, Willibald S. $51, Joan F. $50 (81th donation), Anthony C. aka “ciak” $50 (sixtieth donation), Michael R. $50 (ninth donation), Greg C. $50 (sixth donation), Ray W. $50 (4th donation), Alan R. $50 (4th donation), Benoit F. $50 (4th donation), Jason B. $50 (third donation), Douglas B. $50 (third donation), German Genaro R. $50 (third donation), Jerry R. $50 (third donation), Mike H. $50 (2nd donation), Daniel L. $50 (2nd donation), Derek B. $50 (2nd donation), Illya Konnoff Ok. $50 (2nd donation), John D. $50 (2nd donation), Patrick S. $50 (2nd donation), Richard M. R. $50, Andreas S. $50, Charles D L. $50, Emma H. $50, Eugene W. $50, Jacob A. $50, James M. $50, James N. $50, Jeremy E. $50, John R. $50, John W. $50, Matthew G. $50, Michael F. $50, Peter I. $50, Richard G. $50, Ryan R. $50, William B. $43 (4th donation), Wielant B. $42 (seventh donation), Martin Ok. $40 (ninth donation), John B. $40 (fifth donation), Clark R. $40, Ethan H. $35 (fifteenth donation), B. H. . $33, Cesar G. $32 (ninth donation), Alexander M. $32 (fifth donation), Henry T. $32 (2nd donation), Lukas P. $32, Enrico D. $32, Fernando M. $32, Jaroslaw C. $32, Joerg B. aka “minerson” $32, Steve E. $30 (third donation), Birger M. $30 (third donation), Kevin H. $29 (2nd donation), Timothy L. $27 (seventh donation), Jonathan. H $27 (sixth donation), Niklas $27 (2nd donation), René W. $27, Dries $27, Franz R. $27, Sebastian L. $27, Stéphane B. $25 (thirty sixth donation), Linux Mint Sverige $25 (fifteenth donation), Richard N. $25 (fifth donation), Robert L. T. $25, Douglas D. $25, Mark W. $25, Rick A. $24, Khalid A. $22 (forty fifth donation), Peter E. $22 (eighth donation), Jorge R. R. $22 (eighth donation), Marek S. [LMDE SUPPORTER] $22 (seventh donation), Benjamin W. $22 (seventh donation), Danilo S. $22 (sixth donation), Chistoph B. $22 (fifth donation), Riccardo C. $22 (4th donation), Andreas M. aka “AnMe2k22” $22 (4th donation), Erkki J. $22 (third donation), James P. $22 (third donation), Jörg Ok. aka “Jku” $22 (third donation), Neil S. $22 (2nd donation), Alessandro P. $22 (2nd donation), Juan B. S. $22 (2nd donation), Lennart J. $22 (2nd donation), Odie P. $22 (2nd donation), Rafael V. $22, Alexander S. $22, Bastian S. $22, Benjami L. $22, Bernhard S. $22, Carmen A. $22, Christian B. $22, David H. $22, Denovan F. $22, Francesco I. $22, Georg W. $22, Han M. $22, Jean-pierre B. $22, Jens G. $22, Joerg M. $22, John G. $22, Karl Felix Ok. $22, Klaus H. $22, Leo $22, Marcus B. $22, Norbert J. $22, Perrin M. $22, Rafaz W. $22, Roland R. $22, Volker B. $22, Werner M. $20 (fortieth donation), John D. $20 (twenty first donation), Aimee W. $20 (twenty first donation), Pawel M. $20 (seventeenth donation), Kwan L. aka “DigitalHermit” $20 (ninth donation), Thevirtua $20 (sixth donation), Joel C. $20 (sixth donation), Ralph G. $20 (fifth donation), Curtis S. $20 (fifth donation), Joe V. $20 (4th donation), David H. $20 (4th donation), Miles S. P. $20 (4th donation), Robin V. $20 (third donation), Alex S. $20 (third donation), Harald M. $20 (third donation), Paul S. $20 (2nd donation), A D R. $20 (2nd donation), Brian U. $20 (2nd donation), Carlos L. $20 (2nd donation), Charles B. $20 (2nd donation), Douglas Ok. $20 (2nd donation), James P. $20 (2nd donation), Michael S. $20 (2nd donation), Michal E. $20 (2nd donation), Samuel F. $20 (2nd donation), Stephen S. $20 (2nd donation), TONY aka “STRUZZIN ELECTRONICS” $20 (2nd donation), William B. $20, Benjamin L. $20, Dale C. $20, Dean L. $20, Don M. $20, Gary S. $20, George M. $20, Greg C. $20, Helen H. $20, Ivan N. $20, James B. $20, Jason W. $20, John B M. $20, John M. $20, Kelly B. $20, Larry G. $20, Liam P. $20, Logan H. $20, Marie $20, Marius V. $20, Martin A. $20, Nicholas M. $20, Quickh.com $20, Rebecca L. $20, Rick Edwards aka ” ” $20, Roger G. $20, Serge S. $20, Theodore H. $18 (seventh donation), ineuw $16 (92th donation), Johann J. $16 (73th donation), Andreas S. $16 (third donation), Richard Ok. $16 (2nd donation), Benito H. $15 (4th donation), Laszlo F. $15 (2nd donation), Terry P. $13 (eighth donation), Andrei Sinkevich $12 (4th donation), John W. $11 (forty sixth donation), Daniel S. $11 (twenty third donation), Tugaleres.com $11 (twentieth donation), Denys G. $11 (eighth donation), Axel R. $11 (eighth donation), Bengt Falke aka “Falke” $11 (seventh donation), Ronald S. $11 (sixth donation), Ivo H. $11 (sixth donation), RJ $11 (fifth donation), J. S. . $11 (4th donation), Cor D. $11 (4th donation), Harald H. $11 (4th donation), Joel E. $11 (third donation), Anthony S. $11 (third donation), Björn H. $11 (third donation), Ferruccio R. $11 (third donation), Henry L. aka “Henry” $11 (third donation), Jouko Tiilikainen aka “JT65” $11 (2nd donation), Åke J. $11 (2nd donation), Francisca M. $11 (2nd donation), Gerard B. $11 (2nd donation), Giorgio F. L. $11 (2nd donation), Jan.c J. $11 (2nd donation), jjb $11 (2nd donation), John Ok. $11 (2nd donation), Jose Maria $11 (2nd donation), Martin Tobias S. $11 (2nd donation), Rafel H. $11 (2nd donation), Sebastian B. $11 (2nd donation), Stefan E. $11, Aleksei V. $11, Andreas S. $11, Anthony G. $11, Athanasios F. $11, Chelmerland $11, Csaba G. $11, Dafnis R. $11, Dominik Ok. $11, Fabio C. $11, Frederic W. $11, Giorgio D. $11, Idris H. $11, John van den Bosch aka “Jovadebo” $11, Jorge C. $11, Jose Antonio V. $11, Jose Arturo T. $11, Linus A. $11, Luca Bellinazzi aka “ilfolle” $11, Marco L. $11, Matthias Ok. $11, Michael M. $11, Michele S. $11, Morgan P. $11, Nadine B. $11, Neville M. $11, Oséias Ok. $11, Ralf L. $11, Roberto T. $11, Ruben de V. $11, Sami S. $11, Simon W. $11, Sven-oliver Ok. $11, Thibaut P. $11, Walter S. $11, Yan R. $10 (ninety fifth donation), Thomas C. $10 (89th donation), Frank Ok. $10 (42th donation), Philip Woodward $10 (thirty fourth donation), Sami Mannila $10 (thirty third donation), Carpet Cleansing Winnipeg $10 (eleventh donation), Dave S. $10 (ninth donation), Gustavo A. B. $10 (ninth donation), platypus merchandise $10 (eighth donation), Bogdan P. $10 (sixth donation), Jürgen $10 (fifth donation), Attila Ok. $10 (fifth donation), Peter Vangsgaard aka “pvangsgaard” $10 (4th donation), Gary R. $10 (third donation), Patrick P. $10 (third donation), Robert E. $10 (third donation), Robert M. $10 (2nd donation), Ameen J. $10 (2nd donation), Attila T. $10 (2nd donation), Daniel T. $10 (2nd donation), Gary I. $10 (2nd donation), Glenn P. $10 (2nd donation), Maciej D. $10 (2nd donation), Tom V. $10, Alben H. $10, Csrl Richard S. $10, Dan M. $10, Editions Artisan Devereaux LLC $10, Eduardo P. $10, Georgette D. $10, Gerardo A. $10, Jack Ok. $10, James W. $10, Jeffrey Ok. $10, Nickalou B. $10, Randal C. $10, Ronald Fernando F. $10, Ryan Z. $10, Steven S. $10, True Altitude LLC aka “True Altitude LLC” $10, Wojciech J. $10, Received Ok. $8 (4th donation), Matthew Gracie aka “Nethound” $8 (third donation), John H. $132 from 46 smaller donations