Linux Mint 10 KDE is now available

I’m glad to be able to pass along the news that Linux Mint 10 KDE has moved from release candidate status to its official release. Based on Kubuntu 10.10, this release of Linux Mint has reasons to at least check it out throughout the release.

Among the reasons to get the upgrade are the use of KDE 4.6 (a good reason to upgrade all by itself), new icons and better categorization in the software manager, the ability to ignore updates in the update manager, and quicker uploads. As always you can check out the entire list of new features on the What’s New page.

While the Mint team holds back releases until it’s ready for use there are some known problems in the release, including VLC being slow to open files, Ctrl-Alt-Backspace not being enabled by default and resolution issues in the splash screen. If you run into these issues on your system you can follow the link to the known problems page and see if there are workarounds for them, as well as the complete list of known bugs.

I haven’t fired up the upgrade yet, especially since I no longer have a system to install Mint on, but I have grabbed the ISO and will be creating a new bootable USB drive shortly. I’ll post a review once I’ve had a chance to play around with it a but and see how it’s working for me.

The tees are coming back

Back when I was running my old blog I had a t-shirt shop thanks to an online Partner, Spreadshirt. Unfortunately a couple of years ago (or so) Spreadshirt launched a major update to their website and service and the process of redoing my Spreadshirt shop got to be so time-consuming I had to simply close my shop. It wasn’t an easy decision, and Nanci looked at taking it over for a while, but we decided the time required to create new designs and tees was just too great so our shop remained closed.

Nanci and I have noticed how much traffic is coming into the site as people looked for Valentine’s Day tees, as well as Anti-Valentine’s Day tees. We’ve also been getting a lot of interest in the Cancer SUCKS tees I used to sell, especially as I wear my hoodie around Boston. We talked about reopening the store and decided to set a target or Spring for reopening the store. We haven’t decided on a name for the reopened store, and we’ve decided not to go back to the YDW (You Did What?!?, the name of my old blog) Store since our blog doesn’t use that name. We also decided not to go with Nanci’s Naughties again since it won’t be tied into a store in SecondLife. The good news is that we’ve begun creating new tees with our existing designs for people to buy. In fact one big surprise I got as I was creating new Cancer SUCKS tees is the fact that Spreadshirt is once again selling items that aren’t strictly “wearable.” This includes mousepads, bags, caps and even umbrellas. They had moved away from thinks you can’t wear a few years ago and I was never entirely happy with the fact that they left that market to Cafe Press, an online retailing partner I had already used and decided I don’t want to use them for anything else thanks to poor quality and even worse customer service.

The process of creating new items will be a fairly long one, but I wanted to let our readers know that when the snow finally melts and the plants begin blooming you should be able to get tees, jackets, caps, bags and more with our Cancer SUCKS design, Simply Irresistable and other designs. We’re also looking at rolling out a brand new design inspired by the Autobiography of Mark Twain as election season rolls back around.

Once the store opens we’ll definitely be posting links on the blog so watch this space. I think you guys are going to love what we come up with.

It’s almost here! We have Release Candidates for Linux Mint 10 KDE!

After what may seem like an eternity of waiting, Linux Mint 10 (Julia) KDE is finally available as a Release Candidate. While not quite the official release, this release means that you can grab the disk image and burn it to a DVD or flash drive to check it out.

Among the new features are

• KDE 4.6, along with all the improvements that come with it
• The Lancelot KDE Menu
• Application icons and better categorization for the Software Manager
• The Update Manager provides the download size and finally lets you ignore specific updates
• A host of improvements to the Upload Manager including a nicer user interface, speed improvements, estimated time for getting and applying the updates, the ability to cancel an update or run it in the background
• System improvements

This version of Mint KDE is built on Kubuntu 10.10, but being Mint it’s even better than the parent release. You can find the complete list of new features and some great screenshots at What’s new in Linux Mint 10 KDE. While Mint users love that it doesn’t ship until it’s READY there are some known issues with the RC, and you can read them in the release notes. Of course you can read the official RC announcement on the Linux Mint blog.

I’d love to be able to take the RC for a spin and write a review but a few weeks ago my very old (in PC years) computer finally gave up the ghost and I’m now able to get online from borrowed computers. This forces me to limit what software I’m able to use, as well as when and how long I’m able to do anything online, so we’ll have to rely on others to  write reviews of this new version of Linux Mint KDE.