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-<p>The team behind Linux Mint Mint 17 using kernel 3.13.0-24 this week. Mint 17, nicknamed "Qiana", is based on Ubuntu 14.04. </p>
-
-<p>Mint 17 marks the start of a major new direction for what has quickly become one of the most popular Linux distros available today. </p>
-
-<p>Like the recently released Ubuntu 14.04 (<a href="http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/ubuntu-14-04-review-missing-the-boat-on-big-changes/">Ars review</a>), Mint 17 is a Long Term Support Release. For Linux Mint 17 that means support will continue until 2019. Perhaps more important though, this release marks a change in Mint's relationship with Ubuntu, which forms the base on which Mint builds. </p>
-
-<p>Starting with this release and continuing until 2016, every release of Linux Mint will be built on the same package base -- Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. That means that instead of working to keep up with whatever changes Ubuntu makes in the next two years, Mint can focus on those things that make it Mint.</p>
-
-<p>Given that Ubuntu has some major changes coming in the next two years, Mint's decision makes sense not just because it frees up the Mint team to focus on its two homegrown desktops (Cinnamon and MATE), but also because it spares Mint users the potential bumpy road that is Ubuntu's future. </p>
-
-<p>In other words, Mint can sit back and work on perfecting its desktop while Ubuntu stumbles through the Wayland and Unity 8 transitions. When things have settled down in Ubuntuland, Mint can jump back in with both feet (assuming it still wants to) when Ubuntu 16.04 LTS arrives.</p>
-
-<p>If all goes the way Mint developers intend, the changes will give Mint users a more polished, stable distro. </p>
-
-<p>The decision to stick with 14.04 means that Mint 17 is an important release since it's what Mint will be working with for the next two years. The good news is that Mint 17 will indeed make a great base on which to build.</p>
-
-<p>As with all Mint releases there are two separate downloads available, one for the Cinnamon desktop and one for the MATE desktop.</p>
-
-<h2>Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon</h2>
-
-<p>The more interesting of the two Mint 17 releases, to my mind anyway, is the Cinnamon flavor, which features the just released Cinnamon 2.2.</p>
-
-[image="screenshot01.png" caption="The stock Cinnamon 2.2 desktop in Linux Mint 17."]
-
-<p>The Cinnamon desktop is a curious hybrid, combining some of the best elements of KDE with the best elements of the now abandoned GNOME 2.x line. Cinnamon also has more than a few tricks of its own that build on those earlier foundations. That might sound like a recipe for a terrible Frankenstein of a desktop, but fortunately that's not the case. Instead, Cinnamon ends up being perhaps the most user-friendly and all-around useful desktop available on any platform.</p>
-
-<p>That's not to say there aren't problems in Cinnamon, but fortunately 2.2 solves many of the worst. Cinnamon 2.2 is much faster and much more stable than previous releases. In fact, if you tried out Cinnamon even just a few releases ago and dismissed it as slow and buggy -- can't say I blame you; it was -- I highly suggest you give it another try in Mint 17.</p>
-
-<p>Among the more noticeable changes in Cinnamon 2.2 is the revamped system settings panel, which is no longer divided up into the somewhat arbitrary sections "normal" and "advanced". Now there are just settings. The various settings panels are all in one place and have been reorganized into some basic categories that make it easy to find what you're looking for and change it.</p>
-
-[image="screenshot02.png" caption="Cinnamon's revamped settings panel."]
-
-<p>In fact, given that the new settings app is easy to use and it's simple to jump between settings, I'd like to see a way to remove all the individual settings that clutter up the main Cinnamon menu and just have a single "settings" button that opens the app. Alas, that does not appear to be possible at this time.</p>
-
-<p>Buried away in the revamped settings panel is one of my favorite new Cinnamon features -- the ability to shade or fade windows with the mouse wheel. To turn this on, head to Settings and click the Windows option. This will bring up a panel with all the options for controlling window behavior. Click the option to set "Action on title bar with mouse scroll" and switch it to whichever option you prefer. Now whenever you want to see what's behind your currently active window, you can just scroll the mouse wheel (or scroll on your trackpad) and the foremost window will fade out (or shade up). </p>
-
-[image="screenshot03.png" caption="Setting the behavior of the mouse wheel when hovering over window title bars."]
-
-<p>This makes it much easier to refer, for example, to something in the web browser while you're working in a word processor or text editor. You don't need to switch apps, which can break your concentration and rhythm, when all you want to do is double check a fact. </p>
-
-[image="screenshot04.png" caption="Fading a window to read what's behind it."]
-
-<p>It's not an earth-shattering feature -- in fact, buried as it is many users will likely never know it exists -- but it's one of many handy little extras that together add up to give Cinnamon a level of polish and user control that sets it above other desktops.</p>
-
-<p>Two other notable tweaks to the various settings panels include some changes to Cinnamon's Hot Corners and HUD features. The HUD, which is there to let you know that you are snapping a window to the edge of the screen, now only appears when you get really close to the edge. It's less sensitive which means it's harder to trigger it accidentally. The Hot Corners feature now has options to trigger events on hover, a click or both.</p>
-
-<p>Another welcome change in Cinnamon 2.2 is support for HiDPI screens. I tested this in a virtual machine running on a Retina Macbook Pro and found that while Cinnamon mostly looks just fine on a HiDPI screen, font rendering in particular isn't all that great. The same can be said of most Linux distros though, HiDPI support or not. One solution is to use <a href="http://www.infinality.net/blog/">Infinality</a>, which makes it relatively easy to tweak the font rendering to your liking.</p>
-
-<p>Nemo, the default Cinnamon file manager, gets a couple new features in this release, including a new Recent Places sidebar item and a new tab switching keyboard shortcut -- control-+ and control-shift-+ will cycle through your open tabs.</p>
-
-[image="screenshot05.png" caption="The new Recent Places item makes it easy to find the files you've been working on."]
-
-<p>The main Cinnamon menu resembles what you'd find in KDE or Windows 7, but looks a bit prettier thanks to some nice icons. Cinnamon 2.2 adds a new option to remove applications right from the menu, which can make the process of uninstalling unneeded apps a little easier. Just right click an item in the menu and you'll see a new option to "uninstall".</p>
-
-[image="screenshot06.png" caption="Uninstalling app right from the main menu"]
-
-<p>To go along with the uninstall, the Cinnamon menu also now highlights newly installed applications. Or at least the release notes say it will. I never noticed anything after I installed a new application.</p>
-
-<p>There a few other minor changes in Cinnamon 2.2, including some bug fixes that make it work better alongside GNOME 3.x on the same machine. You should no longer see GNOME Control Center in Cinnamon, or Cinnamon Settings in GNOME, making it easier to take Cinnamon for a spin without necessarily switching to Mint 17. Along those lines it's worth noting that the old Cinnamon PPA for Ubuntu is no longer being maintained, though given the increasing popularity of Cinnamon, it seems inevitable that a new one will pop up eventually.</p>
-
-<h2>Linux Mint 17 MATE edition</h2>
-
-<p>Cinnamon, while nice, definitely requires newer hardware to really shine. If you're looking for a lightweight desktop that sticks with the basic interface that served GNOME 2.x so well, Linux Mint 17 MATE edition is for you.</p>
-
-[image="screenshot07.png" caption="Linux Mint 17 MATE edition"]
-
-<p>Mint 17 ships with MATE 1.8, which isn't quite as new as Cinnamon 2.2, having been released in March 2014, but this is the first Mint release to use it. </p>
-
-<p>The MATE desktop began life as a fork of GNOME 2 and it continues to, by and large, carry on the user interface experience of GNOME 2. Don't come to MATE looking for revolutions, this is a desktop of incremental improvements and refinements.</p>
-
-<p>The version of MATE that ships with Mint 17 is in fact even lighter than its predecessor, using less RAM than MATE 1.6 running Mint 16. MATE 1.8 also claims to be faster as well, though I did not see a huge difference testing both Mint 17 and Mint 16 on an old EeePC 1000HA. </p>
-
-<p>While MATE updates tend to be a little boring, there are some new features in MATE 1.8. Marco, the window manager, now supports side-by-side window tiling, making it more consistent with Cinnamon. There's now an option to shuffle pictures when the default image viewer is in slideshow mode. The screensaver also now shows the date and time and MATE's documentation and translations have been improved.</p>
-
-<p>The Mint dev team has also done some Mint-specific work to improve Mint integration with MATE. The MintMenu got a "huge" amount of bug fixes (which is slightly odd since it's never been particularly buggy in my use, but if you had problems, hopefully this release will fix them). The MintMenu and the Mint-X theme were also adapted to respect mate-panel's transparency settings. If you happen to use Compiz with MATE, the MintDesktop now features a cleaner UI and no longer shows Marco settings when you are running Compiz.</p>
-
-<h2>Common Ground</h2>
-
-<p>MATE and Cinnamon share the same base and there are quite a few improvements that apply to the release regardless of which desktop you use.</p>
-
-<p>Linux Mint 17 gives the Update Manager a notable overhaul. The app offers considerably more information through a revamped user interface that's cleaner and feels much faster than previous releases.</p>
-
-[image="screenshot08.png" caption="The revamped Update Manager."]
-
-<p>The Update Manager features a new set of icons to indicate both the nature and severity of an available update. A very important security update for an installed application will be highlighted with a red exclamation point in the left column (to show that it's a security update). If an update isn't security related it gets an downward arrow icon, which doesn't necessarily make a ton of sense, but is at least consistent.</p>
-
-<p>These indicator icons make it easier to distinguish version upgrades from important security updates, which means you can prioritize security updates while bypassing potentially unwanted version upgrades.</p>
-
-<p>There's also a new column of numbered and colored ratings designed to show at a glance how likely a new package is to mess up your system.</p>
-
-[image="screenshot09.png" caption="Update Manager package "levels"."]
-
-<p>A minty green "1" means that the update in question comes from a certified package, tested or maintained by Mint. A green "2" means the package is recommended (tested and approved by Mint, but not from Mint). A yellow 3 denotes safe upstream packages that have not been explicitly tested, but are believed to be safe. </p>
-
-<p>Levels 4 and 5, orange and red respectively, are for packages that are considered potentially unsafe, for example updated kernel headers. By default any updates that fall in the 4 or 5 categories are shown, but not selected. If you're confident that you're not going to screw up your system you can go ahead and install them by checking the box.</p>
-
-<p>Generally speaking the first thing you should do after installing and backing up your new desktop is download the latest security patches and updates. The MintUpdate icon on the task bar will remind you that you should update, but Mint has taken some flack over the years for how and when they push out certain updates, especially kernel updates.</p>
-
-<p>The new 1-5 ranking system will hopefully make it clear to those without the technical knowledge which updates are fine and which they might want to wait for. Previously Mint didn't even show what will now be labeled "4" and "5" level updates. So while they still won't be installed by default, it's now much easier to go ahead and install these things yourself. For example, I went ahead and updated the kernel and thus far have had no problems. Though again, it's possible there might be problems, so proceed with caution and be sure to read the kernel changelogs before diving in with both feet.</p>
-
-<p>The improved Update Manager is also easier and less annoying to use in Mint 17. For example, it no longer needs to reload itself in root mode when you click on it and it will not hang up, waiting on the network manager before loading.</p>
-
-<p>The Update Manager log also now shows all installed updates, whether you installed them through Update Manager, apt-get or something like gdebi. Previously only updates installed via Update Manager would show up in the history.</p>
-
-<p>Another update tool has a very welcome improvement -- the Driver Manager is now able to install drivers without a connection to the Internet. That means if, like me, you have a Broadcom wifi chip that's not supported out of the box, you can plug in your install disk and install what you need from there. There's no need to dig out an Ethernet cable to get your wifi up and running.</p>
-
-<p>Under the hood both releases of Mint ship with what amounts to Ubuntu 14.04 plus Mint's unique set of packages.</p>
-
-[image="screenshot10.png" caption="Mint 17 using kernel 3.13.0-24."]
-
-<p>That means the kernel is 3.13.0-24, which, as I noted in the Ubuntu review, can be a huge boon depending on your hardware setup. Mint 17 should have no trouble with dual GPU hardware that uses Nvidia Optimus to switch between GPUs. That can mean significantly better battery life, which will be especially helpful to Cinnamon users since its flashier interface is naturally a bit harder on the battery than MATE.</p>
-
-<p>If you happen to have a newer laptop with UEFI Secure Boot enabled, well, the Mint devs say you should turn it off. The release notes for both Cinnamon and MATE suggest "if your system is using Secure Boot, turn it off." There are, however, numerous reports around the web of people getting Mint 17 working with Secure Boot enabled. </p>
-
-<p>Mint 17 ships with a compliment of apps that will be familiar to anyone accustomed to the basic Debian/Ubuntu application suite. In Linux Mint 17 you'll find the latest versions of all the usual suspects like Firefox, LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Pidgin, Gimp and others. </p>
-
-<p>There's one new app, HexChat, an IRC client. One possible reason for HexChat is that it automatically starts up configured to join the #linuxmint channel, making it dead-simple for IRC newbies to get some help with their newly installed Mint 17. It's a noisy channel but in the few minutes I hung around I saw several people ask for and receive assistance. If you're having problems and searching the web isn't yielding any answers, fire up HexChat and see if anyone can point you in the right direction.</p>
-
-<p>Mint ships with repositories for its own packages and the Ubuntu 14.04 repositories. There aren't any third party repos installed by default, but it's not hard to add what you need with Software Sources, which has received a slight makeover in this release. Software Sources now warns you about backports, suggesting you don't enable them unless you know what you're doing. If you leave your install media plugged in you'll see one item under the "Additional repositories" -- all the drivers included, but not installed by default are available through a deb that points to your install media.</p>
-
-<h2>Mint 17 vs Ubuntu 14.04</h2>
-
-<p>Given that they share a lot of common elements under the hood, which one you like better will be determined by which desktop you like better. If you want to explore a new desktop paradigm, Ubuntu is clearly the best option. If you're looking for a more traditional desktop along the lines of GNOME 2 or even Windows XP/7, then Mint will be more to your liking.</p>
-
-<p>In my experience testing both I found them both to be stable and never lacking when it comes to finding the right package. Mint 17 MATE edition is unquestionably the fastest of the three desktops, Cinnamon generally falls in the middle when it comes to performance with the heavyweight Unity bringing up the rear. At least that's how it falls based on RAM use while idle. In real world use on newer hardware I've never noticed a significant performance difference between Unity and Cinnamon.</p>
-
-<p>In the end I like Mint with Cinnamon over Ubuntu with Unity simply because Mint doesn't require me to uninstall anything just to maintain my privacy. The Mint project also feels like its more in tune with the needs of desktop users, solving real problems and adding useful features rather than working toward some may-or-may-not-work future of "convergence".</p>
-
-<p>In other words, Mint 17 feels like the perfect place to wait out the uncertainty of Ubuntu's future.</p>
-
-<h2>XFCE And Linux Mint Debian Edition</h2>
-
-<p>It doesn't get much press and it hasn't been updated yet to Mint 17, but there is technically an Xfce flavor of Mint as well. It's not listed on the <a href="http://community.linuxmint.com/iso">community page</a> just yet (there is a KDE version listed, though it looks like it will be a while before it's ready). Past releases of the Xfce flavor lagged about a month behind Cinnamon/MATE.</p>
-
-<p>Then there's Linux Mint Debian Edition, which aims to provide an identical desktop experience, but sitting atop snapshots of Debian testing rather than Ubuntu. LMDE is an interesting beast on several levels. It takes snapshot of what's normally a rolling distro (albeit a conservative one, Debian is not by any means Arch) and then sometimes falls considerably behind on things (for example, Debian Testing is currently using GTK 3.10 while the latest release of LMDE is at 3.8) before pouring in a ton of work and then pushing out a new release.</p>
-
-<p>As it stands LMDE is quite a ways behind Mint 17, with Cinnamon 2.0 and MATE 1.6 being the latest versions available. Still, if you want both Mint and Debian, LMDE does what you're after.</p>
-
-<h2>The Future of Linux Mint</h2>
-
-<p>As I mentioned at the start of this review, Linux Mint 17 will be the base on which the next three releases build. Rather than following Ubuntu through 14.10, 15.04 and 15.10, Mint is planning to release 17.1, 17.2 and 17.3, all based on 14.04.</p>
-
-<p>The idea behind the change is that sticking with a stable base frees up the Mint team to focus on Cinnamon and MATE (and possibly LMDE as well), but it also means that Mint will be sitting out the transition to Wayland and some of the other pretty major changes that Ubuntu has on the roadmap over the next few years. </p>
-
-<p>The concern among some Mint users is that by the time Ubuntu 16.04 (the next LTS release) rolls around, Mint may be quite a ways behind. That's a valid concern, especially given Mint's track record with LMDE. Though, to be fair, LMDE has always seemed more like a fun hobby project than a real distro.</p>
-
-<p>The other potential problem is that Mint may lag behind when it comes to incorporating new packages. The Mint team plans to offer backports for more popular applications like, one assumes, web browsers, mail clients, office suites and the like. </p>
-
-<p>There's another possible outcome as well -- focusing on what makes Mint Mint might allow the distro time to make itself less dependent on Ubuntu. Such a move would make Mint more of a distro in its own right, rather than an Ubuntu derivative and it would lay the ground work for Mint to move away from Ubuntu should it wish to in the future.</p>
-
-<p>Whatever does end up happening with future releases, Linux Mint 17 makes a fantastic Linux desktop today. It's stable, familiar enough for Windows refugees to pick it up without missing a beat and has all the familiar tools Ubuntu fans would expect. </p>
diff --git a/published/mint17/mint17review.txt b/published/mint17/mint17review.txt
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@@ -1,151 +0,0 @@
-The team behind Linux Mint Mint 17 using kernel 3.13.0-24 this week. Mint 17, nicknamed "Qiana", is based on Ubuntu 14.04. 
-
-Mint 17 marks the start of a major new direction for what has quickly become one of the most popular Linux distros available today. 
-
-Like the recently released Ubuntu 14.04 ([Ars review](http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/ubuntu-14-04-review-missing-the-boat-on-big-changes/)), Mint 17 is a Long Term Support Release. For Linux Mint 17 that means support will continue until 2019. Perhaps more important though, this release marks a change in Mint's relationship with Ubuntu, which forms the base on which Mint builds. 
-
-Starting with this release and continuing until 2016, every release of Linux Mint will be built on the same package base -- Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. That means that instead of working to keep up with whatever changes Ubuntu makes in the next two years, Mint can focus on those things that make it Mint.
-
-Given that Ubuntu has some major changes coming in the next two years, Mint's decision makes sense not just because it frees up the Mint team to focus on its two homegrown desktops (Cinnamon and MATE), but also because it spares Mint users the potential bumpy road that is Ubuntu's future. 
-
-In other words, Mint can sit back and work on perfecting its desktop while Ubuntu stumbles through the Wayland and Unity 8 transitions. When things have settled down in Ubuntuland, Mint can jump back in with both feet (assuming it still wants to) when Ubuntu 16.04 LTS arrives.
-
-If all goes the way Mint developers intend, the changes will give Mint users a more polished, stable distro. 
-
-The decision to stick with 14.04 means that Mint 17 is an important release since it's what Mint will be working with for the next two years. The good news is that Mint 17 will indeed make a great base on which to build.
-
-As with all Mint releases there are two separate downloads available, one for the Cinnamon desktop and one for the MATE desktop.
-
-## Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon
-
-The more interesting of the two Mint 17 releases, to my mind anyway, is the Cinnamon flavor, which features the just released Cinnamon 2.2.
-
-[image="screenshot01.png" caption="The stock Cinnamon 2.2 desktop in Linux Mint 17".]
-
-The Cinnamon desktop is a curious hybrid, combining some of the best elements of KDE with the best elements of the now abandoned GNOME 2.x line. Cinnamon also has more than a few tricks of its own that build on those earlier foundations. That might sound like a recipe for a terrible Frankenstein of a desktop, but fortunately that's not the case. Instead, Cinnamon ends up being perhaps the most user-friendly and all-around useful desktop available on any platform.
-
-That's not to say there aren't problems in Cinnamon, but fortunately 2.2 solves many of the worst. Cinnamon 2.2 is much faster and much more stable than previous releases. In fact, if you tried out Cinnamon even just a few releases ago and dismissed it as slow and buggy -- can't say I blame you; it was -- I highly suggest you give it another try in Mint 17.
-
-Among the more noticeable changes in Cinnamon 2.2 is the revamped system settings panel, which is no longer divided up into the somewhat arbitrary sections "normal" and "advanced". Now there are just settings. The various settings panels are all in one place and have been reorganized into some basic categories that make it easy to find what you're looking for and change it.
-
-[image="screenshot02.png" caption="Cinnamon's revamped settings panel."]
-
-In fact, given that the new settings app is easy to use and it's simple to jump between settings, I'd like to see a way to remove all the individual settings that clutter up the main Cinnamon menu and just have a single "settings" button that opens the app. Alas, that does not appear to be possible at this time.
-
-Buried away in the revamped settings panel is one of my favorite new Cinnamon features -- the ability to shade or fade windows with the mouse wheel. To turn this on, head to Settings and click the Windows option. This will bring up a panel with all the options for controlling window behavior. Click the option to set "Action on title bar with mouse scroll" and switch it to whichever option you prefer. Now whenever you want to see what's behind your currently active window, you can just scroll the mouse wheel (or scroll on your trackpad) and the foremost window will fade out (or shade up). 
-
-[image="screenshot03.png" caption="Setting the behavior of the mouse wheel when hovering over window title bars".]
-
-This makes it much easier to refer, for example, to something in the web browser while you're working in a word processor or text editor. You don't need to switch apps, which can break your concentration and rhythm, when all you want to do is double check a fact. 
-
-[image="screenshot04.png" caption="Fading a window to read what's behind it".]
-
-It's not an earth-shattering feature -- in fact, buried as it is many users will likely never know it exists -- but it's one of many handy little extras that together add up to give Cinnamon a level of polish and user control that sets it above other desktops.
-
-Two other notable tweaks to the various settings panels include some changes to Cinnamon's Hot Corners and HUD features. The HUD, which is there to let you know that you are snapping a window to the edge of the screen, now only appears when you get really close to the edge. It's less sensitive which means it's harder to trigger it accidentally. The Hot Corners feature now has options to trigger events on hover, a click or both.
-
-Another welcome change in Cinnamon 2.2 is support for HiDPI screens. I tested this in a virtual machine running on a Retina Macbook Pro and found that while Cinnamon mostly looks just fine on a HiDPI screen, font rendering in particular isn't all that great. The same can be said of most Linux distros though, HiDPI support or not. One solution is to use [Infinality](http://www.infinality.net/blog/), which makes it relatively easy to tweak the font rendering to your liking.
-
-Nemo, the default Cinnamon file manager, gets a couple new features in this release, including a new Recent Places sidebar item and a new tab switching keyboard shortcut -- control-+ and control-shift-+ will cycle through your open tabs.
-
-[image="screenshot05.png" caption="The new Recent Places item makes it easy to find the files you've been working on."]
-
-The main Cinnamon menu resembles what you'd find in KDE or Windows 7, but looks a bit prettier thanks to some nice icons. Cinnamon 2.2 adds a new option to remove applications right from the menu, which can make the process of uninstalling unneeded apps a little easier. Just right click an item in the menu and you'll see a new option to "uninstall".
-
-[image="screenshot06.png" caption="Uninstalling app right from the main menu"]
-
-To go along with the uninstall, the Cinnamon menu also now highlights newly installed applications. Or at least the release notes say it will. I never noticed anything after I installed a new application.
-
-There a few other minor changes in Cinnamon 2.2, including some bug fixes that make it work better alongside GNOME 3.x on the same machine. You should no longer see GNOME Control Center in Cinnamon, or Cinnamon Settings in GNOME, making it easier to take Cinnamon for a spin without necessarily switching to Mint 17. Along those lines it's worth noting that the old Cinnamon PPA for Ubuntu is no longer being maintained, though given the increasing popularity of Cinnamon, it seems inevitable that a new one will pop up eventually.
-
-## Linux Mint 17 MATE edition
-
-Cinnamon, while nice, definitely requires newer hardware to really shine. If you're looking for a lightweight desktop that sticks with the basic interface that served GNOME 2.x so well, Linux Mint 17 MATE edition is for you.
-
-[image="screenshot07.png" caption="Linux Mint 17 MATE edition"]
-
-Mint 17 ships with MATE 1.8, which isn't quite as new as Cinnamon 2.2, having been released in March 2014, but this is the first Mint release to use it. 
-
-The MATE desktop began life as a fork of GNOME 2 and it continues to, by and large, carry on the user interface experience of GNOME 2. Don't come to MATE looking for revolutions, this is a desktop of incremental improvements and refinements.
-
-The version of MATE that ships with Mint 17 is in fact even lighter than its predecessor, using less RAM than MATE 1.6 running Mint 16. MATE 1.8 also claims to be faster as well, though I did not see a huge difference testing both Mint 17 and Mint 16 on an old EeePC 1000HA. 
-
-While MATE updates tend to be a little boring, there are some new features in MATE 1.8. Marco, the window manager, now supports side-by-side window tiling, making it more consistent with Cinnamon. There's now an option to shuffle pictures when the default image viewer is in slideshow mode. The screensaver also now shows the date and time and MATE's documentation and translations have been improved.
-
-The Mint dev team has also done some Mint-specific work to improve Mint integration with MATE. The MintMenu got a "huge" amount of bug fixes (which is slightly odd since it's never been particularly buggy in my use, but if you had problems, hopefully this release will fix them). The MintMenu and the Mint-X theme were also adapted to respect mate-panel's transparency settings. If you happen to use Compiz with MATE, the MintDesktop now features a cleaner UI and no longer shows Marco settings when you are running Compiz.
-
-## Common Ground
-
-MATE and Cinnamon share the same base and there are quite a few improvements that apply to the release regardless of which desktop you use.
-
-Linux Mint 17 gives the Update Manager a notable overhaul. The app offers considerably more information through a revamped user interface that's cleaner and feels much faster than previous releases.
-
-[image="screenshot08.png" caption="The revamped Update Manager."]
-
-The Update Manager features a new set of icons to indicate both the nature and severity of an available update. A very important security update for an installed application will be highlighted with a red exclamation point in the left column (to show that it's a security update). If an update isn't security related it gets an downward arrow icon, which doesn't necessarily make a ton of sense, but is at least consistent.
-
-These indicator icons make it easier to distinguish version upgrades from important security updates, which means you can prioritize security updates while bypassing potentially unwanted version upgrades.
-
-There's also a new column of numbered and colored ratings designed to show at a glance how likely a new package is to mess up your system.
-
-[image="screenshot09.png" caption="Update Manager package "levels"."]
-
-A minty green "1" means that the update in question comes from a certified package, tested or maintained by Mint. A green "2" means the package is recommended (tested and approved by Mint, but not from Mint). A yellow 3 denotes safe upstream packages that have not been explicitly tested, but are believed to be safe. 
-
-Levels 4 and 5, orange and red respectively, are for packages that are considered potentially unsafe, for example updated kernel headers. By default any updates that fall in the 4 or 5 categories are shown, but not selected. If you're confident that you're not going to screw up your system you can go ahead and install them by checking the box.
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-Generally speaking the first thing you should do after installing and backing up your new desktop is download the latest security patches and updates. The MintUpdate icon on the task bar will remind you that you should update, but Mint has taken some flack over the years for how and when they push out certain updates, especially kernel updates.
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-The new 1-5 ranking system will hopefully make it clear to those without the technical knowledge which updates are fine and which they might want to wait for. Previously Mint didn't even show what will now be labeled "4" and "5" level updates. So while they still won't be installed by default, it's now much easier to go ahead and install these things yourself. For example, I went ahead and updated the kernel and thus far have had no problems. Though again, it's possible there might be problems, so proceed with caution and be sure to read the kernel changelogs before diving in with both feet.
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-The improved Update Manager is also easier and less annoying to use in Mint 17. For example, it no longer needs to reload itself in root mode when you click on it and it will not hang up, waiting on the network manager before loading.
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-The Update Manager log also now shows all installed updates, whether you installed them through Update Manager, apt-get or something like gdebi. Previously only updates installed via Update Manager would show up in the history.
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-Another update tool has a very welcome improvement -- the Driver Manager is now able to install drivers without a connection to the Internet. That means if, like me, you have a Broadcom wifi chip that's not supported out of the box, you can plug in your install disk and install what you need from there. There's no need to dig out an Ethernet cable to get your wifi up and running.
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-Under the hood both releases of Mint ship with what amounts to Ubuntu 14.04 plus Mint's unique set of packages.
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-[image="screenshot10.png" caption="Mint 17 using kernel 3.13.0-24."]
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-That means the kernel is 3.13.0-24, which, as I noted in the Ubuntu review, can be a huge boon depending on your hardware setup. Mint 17 should have no trouble with dual GPU hardware that uses Nvidia Optimus to switch between GPUs. That can mean significantly better battery life, which will be especially helpful to Cinnamon users since its flashier interface is naturally a bit harder on the battery than MATE.
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-If you happen to have a newer laptop with UEFI Secure Boot enabled, well, the Mint devs say you should turn it off. The release notes for both Cinnamon and MATE suggest "if your system is using Secure Boot, turn it off." There are, however, numerous reports around the web of people getting Mint 17 working with Secure Boot enabled. 
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-Mint 17 ships with a compliment of apps that will be familiar to anyone accustomed to the basic Debian/Ubuntu application suite. In Linux Mint 17 you'll find the latest versions of all the usual suspects like Firefox, LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Pidgin, Gimp and others. 
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-There's one new app, HexChat, an IRC client. One possible reason for HexChat is that it automatically starts up configured to join the #linuxmint channel, making it dead-simple for IRC newbies to get some help with their newly installed Mint 17. It's a noisy channel but in the few minutes I hung around I saw several people ask for and receive assistance. If you're having problems and searching the web isn't yielding any answers, fire up HexChat and see if anyone can point you in the right direction.
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-Mint ships with repositories for its own packages and the Ubuntu 14.04 repositories. There aren't any third party repos installed by default, but it's not hard to add what you need with Software Sources, which has received a slight makeover in this release. Software Sources now warns you about backports, suggesting you don't enable them unless you know what you're doing. If you leave your install media plugged in you'll see one item under the "Additional repositories" -- all the drivers included, but not installed by default are available through a deb that points to your install media.
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-## Mint 17 vs Ubuntu 14.04
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-Given that they share a lot of common elements under the hood, which one you like better will be determined by which desktop you like better. If you want to explore a new desktop paradigm, Ubuntu is clearly the best option. If you're looking for a more traditional desktop along the lines of GNOME 2 or even Windows XP/7, then Mint will be more to your liking.
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-In my experience testing both I found them both to be stable and never lacking when it comes to finding the right package. Mint 17 MATE edition is unquestionably the fastest of the three desktops, Cinnamon generally falls in the middle when it comes to performance with the heavyweight Unity bringing up the rear. At least that's how it falls based on RAM use while idle. In real world use on newer hardware I've never noticed a significant performance difference between Unity and Cinnamon.
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-In the end I like Mint with Cinnamon over Ubuntu with Unity simply because Mint doesn't require me to uninstall anything just to maintain my privacy. The Mint project also feels like its more in tune with the needs of desktop users, solving real problems and adding useful features rather than working toward some may-or-may-not-work future of "convergence".
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-In other words, Mint 17 feels like the perfect place to wait out the uncertainty of Ubuntu's future.
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-## XFCE And Linux Mint Debian Edition
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-It doesn't get much press and it hasn't been updated yet to Mint 17, but there is technically an Xfce flavor of Mint as well. It's not listed on the <a href="http://community.linuxmint.com/iso">community page</a> just yet (there is a KDE version listed, though it looks like it will be a while before it's ready). Past releases of the Xfce flavor lagged about a month behind Cinnamon/MATE.
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-Then there's Linux Mint Debian Edition, which aims to provide an identical desktop experience, but sitting atop snapshots of Debian testing rather than Ubuntu. LMDE is an interesting beast on several levels. It takes snapshot of what's normally a rolling distro (albeit a conservative one, Debian is not by any means Arch) and then sometimes falls considerably behind on things (for example, Debian Testing is currently using GTK 3.10 while the latest release of LMDE is at 3.8) before pouring in a ton of work and then pushing out a new release.
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-As it stands LMDE is quite a ways behind Mint 17, with Cinnamon 2.0 and MATE 1.6 being the latest versions available. Still, if you want both Mint and Debian, LMDE does what you're after.
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-## The Future of Linux Mint 
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-As I mentioned at the start of this review, Linux Mint 17 will be the base on which the next three releases build. Rather than following Ubuntu through 14.10, 15.04 and 15.10, Mint is planning to release 17.1, 17.2 and 17.3, all based on 14.04.
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-The idea behind the change is that sticking with a stable base frees up the Mint team to focus on Cinnamon and MATE (and possibly LMDE as well), but it also means that Mint will be sitting out the transition to Wayland and some of the other pretty major changes that Ubuntu has on the roadmap over the next few years. 
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-The concern among some Mint users is that by the time Ubuntu 16.04 (the next LTS release) rolls around, Mint may be quite a ways behind. That's a valid concern, especially given Mint's track record with LMDE. Though, to be fair, LMDE has always seemed more like a fun hobby project than a real distro.
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-The other potential problem is that Mint may lag behind when it comes to incorporating new packages. The Mint team plans to offer backports for more popular applications like, one assumes, web browsers, mail clients, office suites and the like. 
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-There's another possible outcome as well -- focusing on what makes Mint Mint might allow the distro time to make itself less dependent on Ubuntu. Such a move would make Mint more of a distro in its own right, rather than an Ubuntu derivative and it would lay the ground work for Mint to move away from Ubuntu should it wish to in the future.
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-Whatever does end up happening with future releases, Linux Mint 17 makes a fantastic Linux desktop today. It's stable, familiar enough for Windows refugees to pick it up without missing a beat and has all the familiar tools Ubuntu fans would expect.