14 DAY TRIAL // A month after the initial Linux Mint 11 release, the LXDE flavor is getting ready for launch as well. The release candidate for Linux Mint 11 LXDE is now available for download and brings all of the new features from Linux Mint 11 along with customizations and tweaks specific to the LXDE environment.
"The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 11 LXDE RC," Linux Mint's Clement Lefebvre wrote in the short release announcement.
If everything goes according to plan, the final version of Linux Mint 11 LXDE should be landing soon.
Linux Mint 11 LXDE is based on the most recent Ubuntu 11.04 release. It also comes with a modern Linux kernel 2.6.38.
One of the big additions in Linux Mint 11 is the improved Software Manager tool. The tool features a cleaner and better looking user interface, a splash screen revealing the number of total packages available, and general improvements to the package information, the app icons and the search feature.
The Update Manager has gotten a revamp as well, including a performance upgrade. The Update Manager now has better dependency handling, improved changelog retrieval and some UI tweaks.
The Desktop Settings tool is now universal, it works regardless of the desktop environment you're using, be it Gnome, KDE, XFCE, LXDE or Fluxbox.
Linux Mint 11 LXDE features the same artwork and GTK theme from the regular Linux Mint 11, including the overlay scrollbars, borrowed from Ubuntu 11.04.
The new scrollbars, inspired by scrollbars used by mobile apps, are enabled by default and are much thinner than the regular ones, leaving more space for the actual content.
Another change, that you may or may not notice, is the lack of a Plymouth boot screen. Actually, it hasn't been removed altogether, but because the boot sequence is now so fast, it has been replaced by a black screen since anything else would have only been visible for a few seconds.
Linux Mint 11 LXDE RC is available for download here on Softpedia. Linux Mint 11 is available for download here on Softpedia.