Try the new version of Thunderbird (it's now my email & calendar client of choice!): https://mzla.link/tb-flatpak Grab a brand new laptop or desktop running Linux: https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en# 👏 SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: Get access to a weekly podcast, vote on the next topics I cover, and get your name in the credits: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thelinuxexp/join Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thelinuxexperiment Liberapay: https://liberapay.com/TheLinuxExperiment/ Or, you can donate whatever you want: https://paypal.me/thelinuxexp 👕 GET TLE MERCH Support the channel AND get cool new gear: https://the-linux-experiment.creator-spring.com/ 🎙️ LINUX AND OPEN SOURCE NEWS PODCAST: Listen to the latest Linux and open source news, with more in depth coverage, and ad-free! https://podcast.thelinuxexp.com 🏆 FOLLOW ME ELSEWHERE: Website: https://thelinuxexp.com Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/web/@thelinuxEXP Pixelfed: https://pixelfed.social/TLENick PeerTube: https://tilvids.com/c/thelinuxexperiment_channel/videos Discord: https://discord.gg/mdnHftjkja Timecodes: 00:00 Intro 00:38 Sponsor: Thunderbird 01:26 Mint 21.3: still the old LTS 02:37 Wayland session: pretty good! 07:10 Wayland + Nvidia: no extra issues 08:20 Gaming: works as expected 09:51 Other Changes to Mint 21.3 12:11 Parting Thoughts 13:46 Sponsor: Tuxedo 14:56 Support the channel #Linux #linuxmint #linuxdistro #wayland #linuxdesktop Mint 21.3 is still based on Ubuntu 22.04 and its super old kernel, version 5.15. You do get the Mesa drivers version 23, but you don't get the latest Nvidia drivers either, you're still on 535. So, you can select that new Wayland session from the login screen. I tested this on a spare laptop that uses an Intel Xe integrated GPU, and also has a dedicated Nvidia GPU. At first glance, everything seems to work ok, but it's an experimental session, and it's missing a few things. OBS, for example, has no source for the display: Cinnamon doesn't seem to support the screen sharing protocol through pipewire, so OBS has nothing to display here. You won't be sharing your screen to anyone just yet. Another issue I encountered is the lack of any sudo graphical prompt: anytime I needed to install a package or update the system, I had to use the command line. I also got some inconsistencies in the place where menus appeared, there were also a few things that I couldn't find, like changing the keyboard layout in the Wayland session, the "layouts" tab doesn't appear in the settings where it should be. The gestures of Cinnamon also don't work here for now, you can enable them, but they won't do anything. The hot corners did work though, with their nice animations and features, but there were some weird graphical things happening. Some settings pages also seemed to have some sort of infinite scroll and didn't stop at their own content, which was a bit weird. After that, I tried the Wayland session on Nvidia, and, all the problems I had experienced previously were still there, obviously, because they all are missing features in that experimental session, so no reason to expect them to work better here. But I also didn't get any other issue that I didn't see in the wayland session with the Mesa drivers. So just as a little experiment, I also decided to run a game in the Wayland session, namely Warhammer 40K Mechanicus: - Wayland + Intel: 25-32 FPS - Wayland + Nvidia: 60-65 FPS - X11 + Intel: 32-37 FPS - X11 + Nvidia: 65-75 FPS Ok, so now, let's talk about the other changes in Linux Mint 21.3. In terms of apps updates, Hypnotix, the TV watching app now lets you set channels as favorites. You can also create your own custom TV channels if you want. Cinnamon will also now let you download Actions. These are add-ons for the file manager, that will appear in the right click context menu, letting you do, well, custom actions. Warpinator, the file sharing app now lets you connect to a device manually by just entering its IP address of scanning a QR code. The Sticky Notes app can now be managed by DBus, meaning you can manage notes using scripts, and the bulk rename tool of Mint now supports drag and drop and thumbnails. As per the desktop itself, you can now use 75% fractional scaling on X11 if you want that, you can also set keybinds to change the window opacity again, you can disable stylus buttons if you use that sort of hardware, and gestures got a bit better with the ability to set a gesture to zoom in on the desktop.

Summary

  • Experimental wayland support is introduced which turns out to already well developed but still has some rough edges (no support for gestures, portal/polkit malfunctioning and missing wayland protocols), see video for more details.
  • Updates to all core Mint apps and introduces an unstable repository nicknamed "Romeo" in the Sources apps for those who want to test out the latest versions of programs.
  • Various QOL improvements for Mint apps such as bulk renamer and warpinator.
  • Introduces "Actions" which are context menu buttons that can be customized in the Nemo file manager.
  • New gestures such as zoom and increased customization.

This update does not change Linux Mint 21.X significantly, but it does set the foundations for an exciting 2024 for the Mint team as they work to rebase Linux Mint 22 on the future Ubuntu LTS 24.04 coming this April. Of which, like Debian 12 last year, will be a massive update and hype train.

Sources:

  1. Linux Mint 21.3 “Virginia” released!
  2. New Features in 21.3
  3. Invidious Redirect Link

"So what are you still doing with Windows? Switch to Linux Mint!"

  • AssortedBiscuits [they/them]
    ·
    10 months ago

    One way to tell the difference is to use a distro that doesn't have a desktop environment like Bunsenlabs. Bunsenlabs doesn't have a DE, but it uses a windows manager called Openbox. The menu and the theme of the windows is controlled by Openbox, the panel at the bottom is Tint2, the file manager is Thunar, the application that controls the desktop wallpaper is Nitrogen, and the display at the top right is Conky. All of these applications are independent applications with independent developers, meaning they aren't really designed with each other in mind. Nothing's stopping you from replacing Openbox with a tiling manager like i3 but keeping everything else the same. It's for this reason that Bunsenlabs doesn't have an actual DE.

    In sharp contrast, for something like Gnome or KDE Plasma, the suite of applications that form the DE are very much designed to work with each other. You don't have to stick with the default applications and some DE's like xfce are designed to be modular like that, but it's a pretty janky experience. For a while, I had an xfce DE except that I used Cinnamon's file manager Nemo instead. But since Nemo was designed to work in the context of the Cinnamon DE, there were certain features that Nemo should be capable of but I was unable to use because I was using xfce instead of Cinnamon.