Linux Mint 18.2 Sonya Released. In a word, Superb.

Linux Mint released its latest version(s) of it’s Desktop OS this morning. I’ve just installed Linux Mint 18.2 Cinnamon. It took less than 10 minutes to fully install (with LibreOffice to boot), fully updated using the USB ISO. In a word, the new desktop is superb.

I use Windows 10 (1607/1703), Windows 7 SP1, macOS Sierra, and Linux (various) during my working week / home. Running 18.1 along side 18.2, it’s difficult to describe what has been done to the desktop, but Linux Mint 18.2 Cinnamon has suddenly got the je ne sais quoi, in this release.

The desktop has suddenly got familar, and feels very robust, which is more than I can say for Windows 10.

Windows Update has just become an embarassment in the amount of time it takes. I’m so fed up with switches I use all time, buried deeper and deeper into the interface, to stop users accessing them. Windows defender ‘to off’ – I’m looking at you. Privacy settings take forever to switch everything off.

My current Pet hate is Windows 10 updates mark themselves in update history as failed to install, if you just decide to just reboot while Windows update is working in the background. FFS Microsoft, Windows can’t tell the difference between a user rebooting and an update failing?

Windows Update History needs it’s own editor, so you can delete this garbage from the logs. If anyone worked on my Windows machine and gave it me with failed updates in the log, I throw it back at them, and say sort it properly.

Windows is just not user friendly anymore. Windows 10 is becoming User Hostile, if anything.

Conversation 15 comments

  • Tony Barrett

    03 July, 2017 - 5:40 am

    <p>Couldn't agree more. Mint is maturing very nicely, and for anyone looking to try Linux as a Windows replacement, it's *well* worth a look. No telemetry collection, no 'we know best' attitude, apps that just work and updates that are so quick and seamless you don't even know they're happening.</p><p>Microsoft are taking Windows in a direction that suits them – not the user. If Mint carries on down this path, they could become the defacto Linux desktop in a non-Windows world.</p>

  • longhorn

    03 July, 2017 - 8:42 am

    <p>"Windows is just not user friendly anymore. Windows 10 is becoming <em>User Hostile</em>, if anything."</p><p><br></p><p>Windows 10 has always been user hostile. Windows 7 on the other hand is a very good OS. It's so sad what happened to Microsoft/Windows. Linux Mint team is doing a good job, but Linux audio/video stack is not as polished as Windows. And the eco-system can't match Win32. Compared to Windows Store, Linux is far ahead, though.</p>

    • jimchamplin

      Premium Member
      04 July, 2017 - 9:55 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#135181"><em>In reply to longhorn:</em></a></blockquote><p>Windows 10 isn't user hostile unless the user wears their heart on their sleeve.</p>

  • hrlngrv

    Premium Member
    03 July, 2017 - 11:36 am

    <p>Agreed: Debian-based distributions' dpkg and apt and Mint's own GUI Update applet make Windows Update look pretty bad. Also, only new kernels require rebooting Linux. Windows users should see how something like VirtualBox updates are handled under Linux (stop kernel modules, unload them, build new kernel modules replacing old ones, load them, start them) to get an idea just how behind Windows is.</p><p>OTOH, if you're rebooting in the MIDDLE of a Windows update, then the Windows update couldn't have completed, could it? Maybe <em>failed</em> isn't quite the correct terminology. How about <em>failed to complete</em>?</p>

    • adamjarvis

      28 July, 2017 - 9:44 am

      <blockquote><a href="#135226"><em>In reply to hrlngrv:</em></a></blockquote><p>The update still get marked as failed in Windows Update History, call it semantics whatever you want, it failed due to a normal user generated shutdown/reboot (not a forced power reset etc) during the minor update install, this wasn't a feature update from 1607 to 1703.</p><p><br></p><p>An update shouldn't get marked failed, where the user is operating the PC normally unaware of a Windows Update background task. If a user want's to shutdown, so be it. Windows Update should duly oblige, pausing the process until that computer restarts/reboots, not fail the update and not mark it as such, in the update History permanently.</p>

  • rameshthanikodi

    03 July, 2017 - 12:59 pm

    <p>This will be the year of Linux! Again!</p><p>Anyway, I don't think Windows 10 is user-hostile, and I think Windows 10 is actually as robust as Windows 7 (or better), and the desktop is as good as it's ever been with all the window snapping features. But yes, fuck windows update.</p>

  • Roger Lawhorn

    03 July, 2017 - 4:17 pm

    <p>I keep hearing people should abandon ubuntu for mint. If anyone feels that way then can I recommend my survival guide ebooks I have written for new mint 17/18 users? lulu dot com slash spotlight slash bash64</p>

    • longhorn

      03 July, 2017 - 8:42 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#135335"><em>In reply to Roger_Lawhorn:</em></a></blockquote><p>I bought your book. Very nice. I liked the tip about booting with Init. Systemd was the main reason I avoided Linux Mint. LM is a good system for grandmas and grandpas (and older machines). I think Windows 10 can become a little too intense with updates/upgrades that you can't control. I've been using Linux for many years, but still think Windows 7/8.1 are better for most people.</p>

      • jimchamplin

        Premium Member
        04 July, 2017 - 9:47 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#135523"><em>In reply to longhorn:</em></a></blockquote><p>Systemd gets a raw deal because the devs are all pretty much jerks and because it feels like the community forced it on everyone. It's really much more robust than you've been warned of. Give it a try before you switch to initd.</p>

      • Roger Lawhorn

        28 July, 2017 - 4:23 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#135523"><em>In reply to longhorn:</em></a></blockquote><p>Thanks. I hope the ebook is as helpful as it is to me everyday. All of the chapters are from my own list of personal procedures that I refer to daily. A mint 19 ebook will come out after the release, but I think that is a few years away. If you like the ebook tell your friends. I was just hired my Yum! brands and will focus on my job for a bit.</p>

  • dave0

    28 July, 2017 - 3:44 pm

    <p>I love Linux on desktop, but the world doesn't. That means always running into that "one" issue that makes me go back to Windows. </p>

    • Dan

      28 July, 2017 - 7:00 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#154934"><em>In reply to dave0:</em></a></blockquote><p>A linux distro will never take the world by storm but Chrome OS and Android all have a linux subsystem. And the internet runs off of Linux – no one runs Apache and Nginx on Windows.</p>

  • offTheRecord

    29 July, 2017 - 8:16 am

    <p>My biggest complaint with Windows 10 is Windows Update. It seems like there's *always* a Windows 10 update getting pushed down. And if you try to delay it for even a little bit, that annoying blue box keeps popping up and steals focus until you respond to it.</p><p><br></p><p>Update downloads are almost always huge, seem to be available on random schedules, take forever to download and, while downloading, they suck up huge bandwidth and bring networks to a crawl. They almost always require a reboot, too, which annoys the heck out of me. It's just a big mess, especially for Home users who have *zero* options to try to control any of it. We often have to shut down or unplug PCs at home because they decide to start downloading an update and bring the network to a crawl while others are trying to stream video.</p><p><br></p><p>And my biggest pet peeve is when you apply an update, reboot and that stupid blue box immediately pops up and says you have *more* new updates.</p><p><br></p><p>The way Windows Update now works (even with Win 10 Pro) led us to abandon Windows 10 in favor of Linux on most of our PCs at work, and I've been moving many of our PCs at home to Linux. Linux has periodic updates, too, of course (all OSes do), but the update experience with a modern Linux distribution is much better than with Win 10, IMO.</p><p><br></p><p>I've been a Microsoft OS user since the days of DOS, but I long ago tired of fiddling with my devices. It used to be "fun;" it's not anymore. I just want to get stuff done without constantly being annoyed because my OS needs attention. Windows 10 has just gotten to be too annoying.</p>

    • adamjarvis

      31 July, 2017 - 4:32 am

      <blockquote><a href="#155134"><em>In reply to offTheRecord:</em></a></blockquote><p>The Update process of Linux over Windows 10, really does show Windows Update to be a clunky bloated inconsistent bag of nails in comparison, that is really struggling to downsize and reduce the time it takes. Failed Updates in History are a real pain under Windows.</p><p><br></p><p>Often, it takes longer to check for updates in Windows (especially Win7) than it takes to fully install Linux Mint from scratch, fully updated!</p><p><br></p><p>It's an area where Linux is seriously better. I think Windows 10 still has the edge on the Desktop (maybe it's just familarity), but the latest build 18.2 of Linux Mint Cinnamon has certainly narrowed things, even for people who are die-hard Windows Users. </p><p><br></p><p>When I listened to Mary Jo-Foley on Windows Weekly state she should maybe try Linux, but hadn't. It just made her look ignorant and stupid (a journalist who's constant need to report MS, means she does nothing now but write in Notepad) because it's so easy to take a moment out, to test Linux, especially if you report tech.</p><p><br></p><p>I always think of Jeremy Bowen (a War reporter for the BBC) in this regard, who once talked about covering the Gulf War, describing the advent of 24 Hour News, he said there were 24hr news anchors on the roof of the hotel reporting for hours constantly, without ever getting out into the field to actually know/update what was really going on, it became a farce.</p><p><br></p><p>It's as easy as a booting from a Linux Mint/Fedora USB stick, to test it to see if it's for you. i.e. it's very easy to try, without any consequences. There even Windows tools to create the Bootable USB from the downloaded Linux ISO.</p><p><br></p><p>And no changes are made to your existing system if you boot the "Live USB" image, which runs everything from the USB itself. </p><p><br></p><p>There really isn't an excuse today not to have tried Linux, it's so easy to do. If people want to be criticial then fine, but at least do it from a standpoint of trying it first.</p><p><br></p><p>Let's treat all OS's equally, based on the merits, Win10, Win7, Linux and macOS have certain features that are in some way better and worse than another OS, no single OS is perfect, but there is much more parity/narrowing of the field of late, that's for sure.</p>

  • ErichK

    Premium Member
    03 August, 2017 - 12:24 pm

    <p>I do have Ubuntu 16.04 running on a refurbished Dell Optiplex 780 that I just bought, not Mint, but seeing as how those distros are somewhat related I thought I'd least comment on how well it's going. I also put in an EVGA GT 730 2 GB GDDR5 graphics card to give it some extra gaming oomph (and I'm waiting on an additional 4 GB of RAM via eBay), and even Steam is running very well. I'm very excited — this is the best Linux setup that I've ever had going on, ever. No issues so far. I mean, I used to run them via virtual machines on my main Windows rig, but it's not as fun as running it on its own dedicated hardware.</p>

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