A Sneak Peek at Upcoming Linux Mint 11

Linux Mint today published a preview of the upcoming release of its popular Ubuntu derivative, a move not often shared by other distributions. For those not enjoying Ubuntu's Unity or looking forward to Fedora's GNOME 3, Linux Mint offers a comfortable old blanket of security.

One of the most notable features of version 11 will be the retention of GNOME 2.32. It will be the foundation for the same desktop layout users know and love, including Compiz and Metacity.

Despite that, version 11 will contain a few changes. Like in many of Mint's counterparts, OpenOffice.org will be replaced with LibreOffice. Rhythmbox will be replaced by Banshee and gThumb will replace F-Spot.

Clem said that the update and software managers have received some bug fixes and improvements providing better looks and performance for users. The software manager will have a few more features. One new feature will download Debian packages with its dependencies to your local hard drive.

The desktop setting tool is now universal for consistency across editions, meaning the same tool used for the GNOME desktop will be the same used for the Xfce version. Web browsers will come with an improved mint-search-addon plugin.

A release candidate should be released about mid-month with the final appearing by month's end. Linux Mint 10 is supported until April 2012.