The operating system is based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Jul 16, 2015 19:53 GMT  ·  By

Clement Lefebvre and the hard-working developers behind the popular Linux Mint project had the great pleasure of announcing a few minutes ago that the RC (Release Candidate) version of the forthcoming Linux Mint 17.2 "Rafaela" KDE Edition operating system is available for download and testing.

Based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr), Linux Mint 17.2 KDE Edition includes awesome new features like better support for Nvidia and Optimus graphics cards, improved UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) support, system and artwork improvements, updated Software Sources, Login Screen, and Update Manager components, as well as LTS (Long Term Support) strategy.

"Linux Mint 17.2 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," says Clement Lefebvre, leader and main developer of the Linux Mint project.

Built around the KDE 4.14.2 desktop environment

Powered by Ubuntu 14.04's Linux 3.16 kernel, Linux Mint 17.2 "Rafaela" KDE Edition Release Candidate (RC) updates some of its main components. For example, the LibreOffice office suite was updated to version 4.4.3, the MDM (Mint Display Manager) was brought to version 2.0, and the HP Linux Imaging and Printing (HPLIP) software was upgraded to version 3.15.2, which adds support for new HP printers.

Moreover, the InkScape vector graphics editor was updated to version 0.91, there's now support for DRM playback in Adobe Flash through the HAL technology, and the Nvidia video driver was upgraded from version 331.113 to version 346.72. The release also included all the upstream updates from the Ubuntu 14.04 repositories and will be supported with security patches and software updates until year 2019.

Those of you who want to take the Release Candidate version of the Linux Mint 17.2 "Rafaela" KDE Edition operating system for a test drive can download the ISO images for 32- and 64-bit computers right now via Softpedia or directly from the official announcement of the distribution. Please try to keep in mind that it's a pre-release version and that it is not suitable for production environments.