14 DAY TRIAL // The Linux Mint project released today the beta version of the upcoming Linux Mint 19.3 "Tricia" operating system for all official flavors, including Cinnamon, MATE, and Xfce.
In development since early September, the Linux Mint 19.3 "Tricia" operating system has entered public beta testing today ahead of its official launch later this month around the Christmas holidays.
This release is based on Canonical's latest Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS (Bionic Beaver) operating system and ships with the Linux 5.0 kernel. Just like Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, it will be supported with software updates and security patches until 2023.
"Linux Mint 19.3 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2023. It comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make your desktop even more comfortable to use," reads today's announcement.
Here's what's new in Linux Mint 19.3 beta
Highlights of the Linux Mint 19.3 beta release include three new apps, Gnote note taking app as a replacement for Tomboy, Drawing simple drawing application as a replacement for GIMP, and Celluloid multimedia player as a replacement for Xplayer.
For all editions, Linux Mint 19.3 brings improve HiDPI support with crisp system tray icons, clear flags in the Language Settings and Software Sources tools, as well as better screensaver flags and themes previews in the Cinnamon editions.
The System Reports tools has also been improved for all editions and it now adds a new icon in the system tray area to inform users that they need to review certain things, along with automatic detection of potential issues in your computer for missing codecs or drivers.
The Language settings tool has been updated as well to let users set their preferred time format and there's now a new system tray solution called XAppStatusIcon, which brings support for dark themes and symbolic icons, support for multiple menus and trays, HiDPI support, native menus, and support for any mouse click or button press/release event.
Bluetooth support has been improved to support more Bluetooth devices than ever before, LightDM settings now lets you select a mouse pointer theme for the login screen, Hardware Detection Tool (HDT) is now available in the ISO images' boot menu, and the artwork has been refreshed with new Linux Mint icon and wallpaper.
Linux Mint 19.3 ships with Cinnamon, MATE, and Xfce editions featuring the latest Cinnamon 4.4, MATE 1.22, and Xfce 4.14 desktop environments. You can download the beta versions right now from our free software portal if you want to take them for a test drive, but please keep in mind not to use them for any production work.
