14 DAY TRIAL // Clement Lefebvre has announced the release of the Linux Mint 7 "Gloria" XFCE edition, a community-maintained modification of the standard Linux Mint distribution that uses the XFCE desktop environment by default. There are a lot of changes in this new version, and, among the base packages, you will find the Linux 2.6.28 kernel, Xorg 7.4 and XFCE 4.6.
The distribution-specific tools have received some attention. MintInstall now presents the user with a "Featured applications" window that lists popular pieces of software that are not currently installed, making it easier for new users to put common programs onto their systems. Also, the apt-cache is now preinstalled, so they don't have to refresh the package lists immediately after installing the operating system, although it is advisable that one does update the lists to make sure that they receive the latest security fixes.
The MintInstall interface has been cleaned up, now it displays less information about the currently selected package, but, if the user needs to see that data, all they have to do is press the "More info" button. A new window will open, in which the application's version number is listed, along with its license, source repository, a link to its web page, a long description and the package size.
MintUpdate is now able to show changelogs for the packages contained in the Linux mint repository, previously that information was only available for official Ubuntu packages. Also, MintUpdate will now display the size of the download that each package update requires, and the method of announcing that updates are available has been changed from blinking the system tray icon to displaying a special icon.
MintUpload, the distribution's specialized upload tool, is now ad-free, and supports transferring files over SCP and SFTP. Its graphical user interface was improved, making it easier to use and hiding information that isn't useful for the currently selected upload service. The new service manager function allows you to graphically create or modify profiles for the different upload servers and methods that you use.
Other changes are that the default icon set and graphical theme have been changed, pyNeighborhood replaces the Samba share utilities used in previous versions of the distribution and Transmission is now the default torrent application. Firefox now includes the Moonlight plug-in, the Google search was enhanced to show links to other search engines and the apt url handler is now aptlinex.
Download Linux Mint 7 "Gloria" XFCE Community Edition right now from Softpedia.