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Linux Mint 20.1 released, will be supported until 2025

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Linux Mint 20.1 has now been officially released, and this is an LTS version which means it will be supported for quite some time until 2025. Plenty of time to get comfy with Linux.

Coming in three official flavours you can pick between the Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce desktop environments all supported by the Mint team directly. Cinnamon being Mint's own flagship desktop environment, which saw lots of attention this release including some big performance improvements and less resource use with 4K.

Pictured - Linux Mint 20.1 Cinnamon edition.

As of this release you will also see their brand new Hypnotix IPTV player, which comes with the Free-IPTV provider by default. There's also their very useful looking Web Apps manager, allowing you to turn any website into what almost looks like an actual dedicated desktop application with its own window and icon. Not just new applications though, lots of other improvements to be found throughout the entire release. Here's some of the highlights:

  • Better Flatpak support
  • Percentage in the sound volume OSD
  • The option to always show the panel when the menu is open
  • Scrolling in the window-quick-list applet
  • Configurable scrolling direction in the workspace-switcher-applet
  • The ability to assign a keybinding to mute the microphone
  • Zstd support in nemo-fileroller
  • Tiff support and PDF page numbers in nemo-media-columns
  • Thumbnails for files up to 64GB in nemo

Linux Mint also continues to block the Snap store by default, due to issues the Mint leadership have with how the Snap system is being handled. Since on Ubuntu the Chromium browser is a forced Snap package, the Mint team are now also packaging Chromium for Mint themselves.

See more on the Linux Mint website. Here's quick links for the release notes:

Is Linux Mint a good choice for Linux gaming? Well, we know plenty of people using it who are very happy with it. Accessible for beginners due to the traditional interface and setup, with plenty of room for power users to do whatever they want. Based upon Ubuntu too, it makes things easy when you need to get a little help.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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About the author -
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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29 comments
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officernice Jan 9, 2021
Quoting: BielFPsI miss Cinnamon

...Then install it? :p
Whitewolfe80 Jan 9, 2021
Quoting: BielFPsI miss Cinnamon

you know you can install it on any distro right its just an environment/window manager you can install any of them
Solarwing Jan 9, 2021
I knew it!I mean I knew the release day beforehand!Wherefrom? You wanna know it? I tell you gladly ofc. Because I saw big green flying saucers in the sky from Mars just the day before Mint 20.1 was released. Therefrom I knew the exact date!Can you believe it?Ofc not!It was an old fashioned joke from 50's!Well this will be enough. I'm really glad about this release.So many improvements. I haven't tried it yet because of my studies.Maybe in the next week...
BielFPs Jan 9, 2021
Quoting: furaxhornyxThere a Community edition of Manjaro Cinnamon
I know, I was using it before

Quoting: furaxhornyxWhat prevents you from using it ?
Lack of Wayland support

Quoting: officernice...Then install it? :p
I wish, but it only supports x11 right now

Quoting: officerniceyou know you can install it on any distro right its just an environment/window manager you can install any of them
I know that, but I almost sure Cinnamon won't support wayland in a near future, and personally I don't want to go back to x11 despite having to use Gnome


Last edited by BielFPs on 10 January 2021 at 3:47 pm UTC
Whitewolfe80 Jan 9, 2021
Quoting: officerniceyou know you can install it on any distro right its just an environment/window manager you can install any of them
I know that, but I almost sure Cinnamon won't support wayland in a near future, and personally I don't want to go back to x11 despite having to use Gnome[/quote]
Thing with wayland is its still not as good as Xorg for gaming if your not gaming then apprently its good.
BielFPs Jan 9, 2021
Quoting: Whitewolfe80Thing with wayland is its still not as good as Xorg for gaming if your not gaming then apprently its good.
After I changed to Wayland/Xwayland I've only noticed improvements in my setup, specially with native games being more responsive (like Left 4 Dead 2) or more fps (Magicka 2). Also didn't notice any regressions with other games I've tested compared to x11.

Of course I'm only talking about my case, and I haven't tested all the games out there, but today personally I would recommend wayland for gaming too, and speaking for myself, I don't want to use x11 as default again, even if means stop using my favorite desktop enviroment (Cinnamon)
Purple Library Guy Jan 10, 2021
Quoting: Whitewolfe80
Quoting: officerniceyou know you can install it on any distro right its just an environment/window manager you can install any of them
I know that, but I almost sure Cinnamon won't support wayland in a near future, and personally I don't want to go back to x11 despite having to use Gnome

I don't think that link went where you intended it to go.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 10 January 2021 at 7:44 am UTC
Purple Library Guy Jan 10, 2021
Personally, I like Cinnamon quite well, but I use Mint with Mate because of a particular personal schtick: I like having a few launchers on the taskbar and launching my most-used applications that way. But I also like plenty of space on the taskbar for showing the different windows, because my long habit from old Windows days is to switch between things that way. So I like having two taskbars--one along the bottom for application switching, one going up the right hand side for launchers (on the side because widescreen real estate). Mate is happy to do that for me, and thus far every time I've tried Cinnamon I couldn't get that to happen. So I've stuck with Mate, but it's not like I have anything against Cinnamon; it's quite nice, it's just that one feature I want.

Recently when I got a new desktop I tried out Ubuntu Mate on it for a while. Didn't like it as much, I'm happy to be back with Mint.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 10 January 2021 at 9:45 am UTC
kneekoo Jan 10, 2021
I just installed a fresh Linux Mint 20.1 Cinnamon. Damn, it's so snappy... they've done a really nice job with this DE. No tearing with the iGPU (Haswell GT2), 27-28°C with air cooling, everything stable so far (15h uptime), I'm impressed. :)
BielFPs Jan 10, 2021
Quoting: Purple Library GuyI don't think that link went where you intended it to go.
No, the link went exactly where I intended
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