KDE Plasma 5.8 is backported from Kubuntu Backports PPA

Jan 16, 2017 22:20 GMT  ·  By

After landing on the official download channels a few days ago, the Beta version of the upcoming Linux Mint 18.1 "Serena" KDE Edition operating system got today, January 16, 2017, an official announcement.

The KDE Edition is the last in the new Linux Mint 18.1 "Serena" stable series to be published, and it was delayed a little bit because Clement Lefebvre and his team wanted it to ship with the latest KDE Plasma 5.8 LTS desktop environment from the Kubuntu Backports PPA repository.

Just like all the other official flavors from the Linux Mint 18 "Sarah" and Linux Mint 18.1 "Serena" series, the KDE Edition is based on Canonical's Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) operating system, using the long-term supported Linux 4.4 kernel. This Beta release also ships with linux-firmware 1.157.5 and numerous other updated components.

Linux Mint 18.1 will receive security updates until 2021

With the exception of the fact that Linux Mint 18.1 "Serena" KDE is using the KDE Plasma 5.8 LTS desktop environment by default, which was ported from the Kubuntu 16.04 LTS backport repositories, the distro only brings various enhancements to the in-house built Software Sources and Update Manager utilities.

Clement Lefebvre confirms in the release notes that Linux Mint 18.1 "Serena" will be a long-term supported release, which will receive security patches and software updates for four more years, until 2021. You too can join the Beta testing bandwagon and download the Linux Mint 18.1 "Serena" KDE ISO images right now from our website.

During testing, please try to keep in mind that this is still a pre-release version, which means that it's not yet ready to become your daily driver. Do not install a Beta operating system if you plan on using it for production work, or you'll encounter bugs or other problems that should be fixed before the final release hits the streets.