14 DAY TRIAL // The first Release Candidate for Linux Mint 17 KDE "Qiana" has been officially launched and it's based on KDE 4.13.0.
This current build of Linux Mint 17 KDE "Qiana" comes with KDE 4.13.0, which is the latest version available right now, but the developers have also integrated a large number of other packages and improvements.
"Linux Mint 17 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2019. It comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make your desktop even more comfortable to use," reads the official announcement.
The Mint developers said a couple of months ago that all future versions of their operating system would be based on Ubuntu LTS, and the current KDE release falls into this category as well.
The Update Manager is one of the components in Linux Mint 17 KDE "Qiana" (just like in Cinnamon and MATE) that received a great deal of attention, and it shows in the list of new features that have been integrated.
"The Update Manager was hugely improved. It shows more information, it looks better, it feels faster, and it gets less in your way. It no longer needs to reload itself in root mode when you click on it. It no longer checks for an Internet connection or waits for the network manager and it no longer locks the APT cache at session startup. The UI was improved, the icons were modified a bit and the changelog retrieval is now much faster and more reliable," say the devs on their website.
Also, the Driver Manager is now able to install drivers without a connection to the Internet, the login screen has been improved, the HTML greeter now comes with HiDPI support, the "Software Sources" configuration tool received a few UI and usability improvements, the welcome screen has been changed and no longer uses Webkit, lsb_release now supports a -u option to show upstream LSB information, the shutdown sequence has been fixed, and Linux kernel is now at version 3.13.
The developers have explained that there are still a number of problems with the release, like the broken DVD Playback with VLC, missing EFI support, issues with Skype, and a few others.
Check the official announcement for more details about this release. Users can download Linux Mint 17 KDE RC "Qiana" right now from Softpedia.
Remember that this is a development version and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended for testing purposes only.