A new major update for Linux Mint has been released

Nov 28, 2014 09:56 GMT  ·  By

Linux Mint 17.1 "Rebecca" Cinnamon has been released and is now available for download. The new version of the operating system features a major update for the desktop environment, along with a multitude of other upgrades.

The 17.1 update for the Linux Mint distro has been teased for a long time and the users will definitely enjoy it. There are actually a ton of modifications and improvements made to the system, so much so that you could call it 17.5 and it would still feel unjust.

Usually, this kind of point releases only deal with updated packages and very rarely a new feature is proposed. This is true for the Ubuntu base of the Linux Mint distro, but the team building this operating system has a different approach.

This particular flavor of the OS is powered by Cinnamon, which is a powerful desktop environment. Many of the changes made to the distro are actually related to options and functionalities for this software stack and that would explain the wealth of new features.

Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon is the best so far

Many operating systems have their high and lows. Sometimes, the developers might push out a version that is not well received by the community, but they bounce back with the next update. It doesn't seem to be the case with Linux Mint, because the 17.1 release is definitely the best in the series and it's been a steady climb until now.

"If you are running Linux Mint 17.1 RC, you do not need to wait for the stable release, and you do not need to reinstall. You can simply use the Update Manager to install any level 1 update you haven’t installed already."

"If you are running Linux Mint 17, you do not need to reinstall. Please wait a little while. We’ll provide updates to Linux Mint 17 and information in an upcoming announcement. Upgrading will be easy, fully supported and it will be an opt-in (i.e. you will have the choice to upgrade to 17.1 but also to keep 17 as it is)," wrote Clement Lefebvre.

Linux Mint 17.1 will feature much better memory usage, a new zoom animation for the login process, improved theme selection and settings, new Background Settings, a new Slideshow applet, better privacy settings, an improved Update Manager, Nemo (file manager) changes, and a refined selection menu for kernel updates.

Check the official announcement for more details about this release. You can download Linux Mint 17.1 "Rebecca" Cinnamon right now from Softpedia. This is a Live CD and it should run without any issues from a USB key or in a virtual environment.

On a side note, please keep in mind that the official images for the distribution have been made available, but the announcements have not been published.

Linux Mint 17.1 (15 Images)

Linux Mint 17.1 "Rebecca" Cinnamon desktop
Linux Mint 17.1 "Rebecca" Cinnamon launcherLinux Mint 17.1 "Rebecca" Cinnamon graphics
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