New Linux Mint 10 - Will you be lured into trying it?

Battling to be classified as the most reliable open source operating system is the Linux Mint team, which apparently has put its plans to action by leveraging its existing and most popular product the Linux Mint and in turn has brought out a new and updated version of the same - Linux Mint 10 a.k.a. “Julia”. Considered the 2nd runner-up in the open source OS industry, Linux Mint 10 follows the lead of Ubuntu and Fedora who have dominated the open source market with products like Ubuntu 10.10 and Fedora Project.

With Linux Mint 10 making quite the stir in the market with its release candidate (RC) version of the product, the team has made an official announcement about the stable release of ‘Julia’ - The Linux Mint 10. The availability of the same is official and can be downloaded through Torrent and HTTP download. There are several reasons, rather, enhancements made to the Linux Mint 10 which could compel most open source users to try it. Let’s have a glance through all the latest enhancements:

• An all new Welcome Screen seems quite refreshing and gives users a head-start to working on their computer systems. The welcome screen allows users have options of installing any multimedia codecs that they desire from the beginning and also update to the DVD edition. Another stand-out point about Linux Mint has been its liberal inclusion of several proprietary multimedia codecs which are usually not present in the other OS. In addition to this, the new Welcome Screen enhances the compatibility to an even higher level.
• A renovated Menu, marks the installation of new applications and also the updated menu makes add-ons to support GTK bookmarks and themes for easier customization. Also, the new and improved menu will now know exactly what is available in the software silos and hence throw-up the software and install packages without even having to open the Software Manager, once the user has searched for a particular software.
• There is also the existence of 2 top-notch managers in the form of Software Manager.
• Update Manager: Making packages easier to browse through & find and letting the user tell the operating system if there are packages for which they’re not interested in receiving updates are the respective features of Software and Update Managers.
• An enhanced look and feel is given to ‘Julia’ which entails a metallic twist to the distribution’s traditional light theme and dark background.
• There have also been certain technical and system improvements, wherein an inclusion of fresh components like security-enhanced version 2.6.35 of the Linux kernel, GNOME 2.32 and Xorg 7.5. Apart from these, the steadfast Adobe Flash “Square”, a new meta-package called – virtualbox-nonfree are also part of the new Linux Mint 10.
• Yet another manager who takes care of uploads is the Upload Manager who helps out Linux developers and administrators.

These pointers, or rather the enhancements made to the Linux Mint should be reasonable enough to lure users into trying the product - Linux Mint 10 which is now available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions till April 2012. This latest announcement along with its previously existing product line could just give an edge to the number 3 open source OS in becoming the number 1 open source OS.