Linux Mint 9 KDE (Isadora)
The last review I did of Linux Mint 9 covered the GNOME version. This week it’s time to look at the KDE version. Linux Mint 9 KDE is based on Kubuntu 10.04. This release includes KDE Plasma Desktop 4.4 and Linux Kernel 2.3.2. The Linux Mint developers did a great job with this release, as you’ll find out in the review. KDE users should be very happy indeed with Linux Mint 9 KDE. It’s as good for KDE users as the GNOME version is for GNOME users.
What’s New In This Release
Here’s a sample of the new stuff you’ll find in this release:
KDE Network Manager
New Applications
New Backup Tool
New Software Manager
Enhanced Look and Feel
Windows Installer
I’ll cover the Software Manager in the software section of the review.
KDE Network Manager
Linux Mint 9 KDE now uses the KDE Network Manager instead of the GNOME version. The KDE Network Manager supports Wired Ethernet Devices (IEE 802.3), Mobile Broadband Devices (GSM, CDMA, UMTS, etc.), Wireless Ethernet Devices (IEEE 802.11) including unencrypted, WEP, WPA Personal, and WPA Enterprise. It also supports VPN (OpenVPN, VPNC), Dial-Up (PPP) and DSL (PPPoE).
New Applications
New applications include ActoneISO, Bleachbit, Yakuake, Dansguardian, Htdig and Miro. AcetoneISO is a cool application that lets you easily manage CD/DVD images. Bleachbit is a helpful tool that lets you free up disk space, remove junk and protect your privacy. Yakuake is a terminal emulator based on KDE Konsole technology. Dansguardian offers web content filtering that concerned parents might find useful. Htdig is search-indexing software, and Miro offers a large range of video content.
New Backup Tool
Linux Mint 9 KDE has a new backup too. The new backup tool preserves your preferences and data. It also tracks the software you installed. When you upgrade to a fresh install of Linux Mint, the backup tool will restore your data as well as the software you had installed on your Linux Mint system.
You can also opt to restore your software selection on a different computer. The backup tool can perform incremental restorations and backups, and it can compress and archive “on the fly.” It also performs an integrity check on each file (but you can turn this off if you want to speed up your backup).
Enhanced Look and Feel
The welcome screen is now in HTML, and contains extremely helpful links to support, documentation and community resources. Linux Mint 9 KDE also comes with better backgrounds. Update Manager now contains a new icon set that promises better integration with the desktop.
Windows Installer
The Windows Installer is back after being removed for the last release. If you use it, you can install Linux Mint as a program on your C: drive, without having to change your partitions. Frankly though, I’m not sure that it’s really worth doing. If I were going to run it in Windows and didn’t want to mess with partitions, I’d just use VirtualBox, VMWare or Parallels. However, it’s still a nice option for those who wish to use the Windows Installer.
On the next page, I’ll look at the hardware requirements and the install routine.
(11 votes, average: 3.64 out of 5)
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- Linux Mint 7 (Gnome)
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- Linux Mint 9 Xfce
I tried this edition on my testing machine and, damn, I like it a lot. Even more than the GNOME version. it looks spectacular, apps are just awesome. I’ll keep testing it for a few days more to get a bit more used to it and if all goes well I might even switch to this KDE edition.
Backtrack4-R1, They finally put Fluxbox back on it!…
This was a really good post I mentioned it on my blog…
[...] here: Linux Mint 9 KDE (Isadora) Review | Desktop Linux Reviews Categories : Linux, [...]
Hey you forgot to mention Gnome-mplayer in multimedia section of included software(page 4).
Mint cant authenticate downloaded packages by default. I installed Mint 9 KDE and noticed authentication failure on every package during first update. Went googling and found this thread on Mint forum which confirms that third most popular Linux distro is not capable of authenticating its own binaries, or any other binaries.
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=26343
This is not mentioned in the Mint release notes as it should be,
and it certainly should be mentioned in this or any other review
of this distribution. BTW: Nice site.
Thanks for a good and quite in-depth review. Might try this, I’m slowly coming around to KDE4 recently as I found it has improved a lot.
[...] Linux Mint 9 KDE (Isadora) Review | Desktop Linux Reviews [...]
Singu wrote:
I think you have found both a weakness and apparently a really “sore spot” on the forums. There are ways to authenticate. All you have to do is to include the appropriate “signature”, which is basically an encrypted Cookie like file. I am almost 100% certain that Ubuntu has such a file. Apparently Linux Mint wants THEIR packages to be installed in preference to Ubuntu packages when differences exist, and they have not (yet) figured out a way to have authenticated Ubuntu packages plus THEIR packages in the same packaging system. This may be a weakness of their new packaging software, but I’m not sure that’s where the issue lies.
This does seem to be a rather serious deficiency in what otherwise appears to be a near perfect desktop system for overall use.
Good review, Jim. I think that the packaging issue raised by Singu does elevate a couple things in what is otherwise a really good desktop system. 1. Authenticating packages ought to be an absolute requirement. In this day and age of spoofing, who knows whether ANY package, no matter how otherwise “official” it may appear, hasn’t been hijacked by someone? Not having a superb and automatic authentication scheme, especially when the installer is so much of a push button operation may be a much more serious issue than first meets the eye. 2. The defensiveness of the people on the Mint forum regarding this topic leads me to question whether or not the Mint forums are as useful as a couple of the other top vendor forums. I consider both PCLinuxOS and MEPIS Lovers Forums to be superior in this regard. Rather than constantly defend, both of the other forums would be more likely to research the issue and discuss it in detail, and typically come up with a solution.
That’s a pretty big “ding” to what is otherwise an outstanding distribution. For me, I’d rather stick to my Debian based distributions: sidux for my Sid (Debian Unstable) core system – I have to get more involved with packaging in this one than most others, but I use an external tool called smxi that really helps – but doesn’t “hide” stuff from me, I use antiX for my Squeeze (Debian Testing) system; it’s light and fast, then I use SimplyMEPIS for my Lenny (Debian Stable) system. SimplyMEPIS would be the one most closely aligned with Mint’s KDE edition. Mint is newer, fancier looking, and comes with more software. SimplyMEPIS is more basic, simpler, and has the US requirement of having to enable the Multimedia repository to get libdvdcss2, but other than that, is every bit as easy, with what I believe to be a superior user forum.
I think Mint will get more users than the alternatives I use, but based on this review and the comments I’ve seen so far, Mint isn’t for everyone, even though it’s good. The packaging issue is pretty disturbing, and that may be a deal breaker for some people.
Good review,
Being a Kde user for quite some time , i can say that kubuntu has improved over the years and mint supercedes it. For beginners mint KDE should be ideal. But KDE is not ubuntu’s strength, but improving steadily.
PCLOS,mandriva ,suse,excel at KDE because they focus more on that. Another distro which surpised me is Fedora KDE,its slowly catching up and becoming rock stable.
Keep those reviews coming,
Did You do a review on Pardus.?