# Linux Mint 5 Elyssa - BETA 032 Released



## subratabera (May 12, 2008)

This is the first BETA release for Linux Mint 5, codename Elyssa, based on Daryna and compatible with Ubuntu Hardy and its repositories.

*linuxmint.com/pictures/screenshots/elyssa/thumbnails/elyssa.png

*What's new in Elyssa*

1. mintMenu improvements

In Daryna, mintInstall and the Software Portal made it easy to install applications. In Elyssa mintMenu is making it easy to remove them. You don't need to open synaptic or to launch a terminal anymore, if you want to uninstall an application, simply right-click on it in the menu and select “Uninstall”.

*linuxmint.com/pictures/screenshots/elyssa/thumbnails/easyuninstall.png *linuxmint.com/pictures/screenshots/elyssa/thumbnails/easyuninstall2.png

Within the same context menu you can also choose whether you want that particular application to be automatically launched when you log in. It was already possible to do this with the "Session" tool from the Control Center, it's now possible directly from within mintMenu.

MintMenu now comes with a brand new configuration screen which lets you configure the following options:
Whether to show the sidepane (where parts of the menu end up after you hide them)
Whether to show recent documents
Whether to show comments for applications
Whether to swap names and generic names in the list of favorites
Whether to show icons for categories
Whether filtering should be done by clicking on categories or by hovering (mouse over)
The hover delay
Icon sizes for the main button, the applications and the favorites
Main button text and whether to show an icon
Custom colors for headings, borders and backgrounds
The number of columns in the favorites
The borders width

*linuxmint.com/pictures/screenshots/elyssa/mintmenuconfig.png

From the configuration screen you can activate a new plugin which displays your 10 most recently opened documents.

*linuxmint.com/pictures/screenshots/elyssa/recent.png

The "system tools" and "others" categories were merged in with "administration" to make the menu smaller and to bring less confusion as to where to find configuration tools.

The speed of the menu was also improved and its memory usage reduced.

Favorites now support drag and drop and can be moved around and arranged with the mouse.

2. mintUpdate improvements

MintUpdate was introduced in Daryna and quickly became one of the most popular tools on the Linux Mint desktop. It came to our attention that a lot of people weren't aware of how it worked internally (for instance, the difference between its user and admin runtime modes). For this reason we developed an information screen from which the active logs can be read, and the runtime mode and process id can be seen.

*linuxmint.com/pictures/screenshots/elyssa/thumbnails/mintupdate-info.png

3. mintInstall improvements

The installation of the application via mintInstall is now much faster.

*linuxmint.com/pictures/screenshots/elyssa/thumbnails/mintinstall-local.png

4. Improvements in other tools

The network autobrowsing feature was removed from mintDesktop as it wasn't mature enough to be part of this LTS release.

Gnome 2.22 introduced its own compositing manager which can now be activated/deactivated from mintDesktop.

Mintupload's email feature was removed and replaced with a "Copy" button, which simply copies the shared URL to the buffer.

5. Desktop improvements

Gnome-Do doesn't just come installed by default in Elyssa, it's configured to run in the background. Press SUPER+SPACE and it should appear. From there you can quickly launch an application or use any of the advanced features provided by this tool.

*linuxmint.com/pictures/screenshots/elyssa/gnomedo.png

You can now change your wallpaper by right-clicking on an image and by selecting "Set as Wallpaper".

You can now check the MD5 signature of an ISO file by right-clicking on the file and by selecting "MD5 Sum".

You can now open a folder as root by right-clicking on that folder and by selecting "Open as root". This is a powerful but also a dangerous feature. A warning message will remind you that you're in root mode, a file browser called XFE will appear (the reason for it not being Nautilus is precisely because it looks different. This way you can associate the different look and feel with the fact that this application is run as root). From there on you've got unlimited powers so be careful because everything you launch from XFE, you launch as root.

*linuxmint.com/pictures/screenshots/elyssa/thumbnails/xfe.png

The Gedit text editor was configured not to create "~" files anymore. This feature although sometimes useful was often annoying. It is still available from within Gedit but not activated by default.

MP3 could be decoded out of the box in Daryna. In Elyssa you can now also encode in this format without having to install any extra codecs.

We improve the user experience with the terminal and this time we've added two things...

... more colors (see how the results of the grep are highlighted and how user and root modes use green and red so you know exactly in which mode you are?) ...

*linuxmint.com/pictures/screenshots/elyssa/thumbnails/terminal-colors.png

... and as it wasn't enough for the terminal to show stupid fortunes, we now have them said by a koala, a moose, or even Tux himself! 

*linuxmint.com/pictures/screenshots/elyssa/thumbnails/terminal-fortune.png

6. Performance improvements

MintUpdate was refactored and its memory usage was drastically reduced. On some systems the amount of RAM used by mintUpdate after a few days went from 100MB to 6MB.

7. Better Look and feel

All Mint tools were reviewed and changes were made for their graphical interface to be more compliant with the Gnome Human Interface Guidelines.

*linuxmint.com/pictures/screenshots/elyssa/thumbnails/twf.png 

8. Better Localization and documentation

9. More software available

Linux Mint 5 Elyssa is supported by CNR.com which features commercial services and applications which are not available via the traditional channels.

10. Changes in the default software selection

A new Mint tool called mintBackup was developed and added to Elyssa. This tool provides an easy way to save the content of your home folder into a single .backup file. You can then restore this content later on or somewhere else by double clicking on it (provided mintBackup is installed on the target system).

*linuxmint.com/pictures/screenshots/elyssa/thumbnails/mintbackup.png


MORE HERE


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## Hitboxx (May 12, 2008)

*OFFTOPIC:* Please refrain from lifting entire page content from the source, I'm not saying you did anything wrong, but taking content from top to bottom, with only 4 lines at the end left saying 'more here' doesn't look credible in nature of the forum. By all means, post more such things, but a little description in your own words and some pointers along with some pics. Hope you understand.

*ONTOPIC:* Very neat improvements I must say, been using Daryna for a while now and is pretty rock solid. One of the best starter distros for the new users without a doubt, will download once it reaches final.

Thanks for the news.


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## subratabera (May 12, 2008)

I always avoided such long posts. But posted this in a little hurry.


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## praka123 (May 13, 2008)

I dont know how this will effect Ubuntu's popularity


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## gary4gar (May 13, 2008)

praka123 said:


> I dont know how this will effect Ubuntu's popularity


Linux Disintegrates faster than it Integrates


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## MetalheadGautham (May 13, 2008)

gary4gar said:


> Linux Disintegrates faster than it Integrates


unity in diversity dude


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## gary4gar (May 13, 2008)

MetalheadGautham said:


> unity in diversity dude


Yeah, its nature.
We should accept it


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## Dark Star (May 13, 2008)

Well I am pretty disappointed, atleast they should have added new wallpaper  But Mint comes with few nifty utilities that might come handy like Mint Install,Upload and few more


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## Garbage (May 13, 2008)

Thanks for the info !!!


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## Night Rider (May 13, 2008)

Thanks for the information.


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## vish786 (May 13, 2008)

after using this MINT version, if anybody finds problems in any apps please report here.


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## MetalheadGautham (May 13, 2008)

The theme is still ugly. Why can't they make it either more metallic or more shiny ? It just looks like a human theme with colours changed. The min max and close buttons suck. They should use ubuntu dapper kde style buttons.

the mint wallpaper is one of the best ever, so no complaints on that.

they still don't have an easy to use upgrader from a previus version of ubuntu

mint menu could do with some more eye-candy and compiz effects


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## Hitboxx (May 13, 2008)

Stop trolling! Have you even used Mint? I bet you haven't, so how do you judge? By Ubuntu's looks? Goddamn! After all those things there, all you can see is a min max button and the colour being non-metallic? Wake up your senses. Any distro can be made to look anyhow, so please concentrate on the features.

And care to elaborate on the "upgrader from a previous of Ubuntu" ?!


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## MetalheadGautham (May 13, 2008)

Hitboxx said:


> Stop trolling! Have you even used Mint? I bet you haven't, so how do you judge? By Ubuntu's looks? Goddamn! After all those things there, all you can see is a min max button and the colour being non-metallic? Wake up your senses. Any distro can be made to look anyhow, so please concentrate on the features.
> 
> And care to elaborate on the "upgrader from a previous of Ubuntu" ?!


*I have used mint 4.0 daryna*

and I have to say its* looks DO NOT please me*

And as for the features, I never said anything against them.

by upgrader, I mean an option on booting to the live cd to upgrade either mint's previus version or the corrosponding ubuntu to the current version of mint. I wanted to install daryna, but it had no upgrade option in its boot menu. For a guy with an ultra slow PC like me, installing from GUI is hell I tell you.

*Comment:* It still makes an excellent starting point distro, and being community driven too, I say its the best first time use distro ever. Gnome is simple, much simpler than windows or KDE. And it has nifty tools and modifications to make several actions more easier and obvious to newbies.


PS: I have used several distros, including Vector Linux SOHO 5.1, Mandriva one 2007, freespire 1.1, DSL, Slax, etc. Don't try to say that I have not used a distro and attempt to undo my points.


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## FilledVoid (May 13, 2008)

> and I have to say its looks DO NOT please me


Why can;t you just customize it to suit your needs. Does everything have to be built to the edge of perfection? If so why don;t you contribute the phat artwork which would make it mention worthy.



> PS: I have used several distros, including Vector Linux SOHO 5.1, Mandriva one 2007, freespire 1.1, DSL, Slax, etc. Don't try to say that I have not used a distro and attempt to undo my points.



Out of all those distros you have used I still find the fact that you find Mints artwork lacking rather amusing.  By the way although Gnome maybe simple its not a lie that it isn't bloat. It consumes about the same amount of memory KDE 4.0 does on my system now. Want some real time action? Use Fluxbox.


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## x3060 (May 14, 2008)

when is the final polished version going to be realesed ?. they seems to be taking this disto better and better with every release


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