Linux Mint 18 Sarah KDE Edition – OS Review

Review of Linux Mint 18 KDE, which is codenamed Sarah.
Linux Mint should be a simple enough Linux Operating System that my Mother could use it without any assistance. It should be simple enough for a Windows user to easily transition to.

[stevenyates]

I'm using Cinammon mint 18, love it, good driver compatibility, nice clean layout and everything works!!

[ww]

I was able to get plasma 5.8.90 by adding kubuntu-ci/unstable PPA. Works quite well, not to many bugs.

[AJReissig]

Great review! It seems like a lot of the distros that were known for Polish have lost focus recently. I'm testing Maui (formerly Netrunner) and I'm extremely disappointed.

[Chrns]

It's good to see that Linux Mint is making progress on the holding back updates thing. Though I still think that kernel updates should be considered critical. Until the Mint team makes that the default, I can't see myself recommending Mint for beginners, simply because it's insecure. In an absolute worst case scenario a kernel update will break your system, yes, however any distro worth it's salt will be set up to easily recover. Grub2 by default includes an option that lets you boot up using an old kernel, and it sits out in the open. What Mint should do is enable the updates, but then make the old boot options more visible on start up so users can recover if something goes wrong (the Mint team should also be more thoroughly testing the kernel updates to make sure something doesn't go wrong, that's kind of an important part in development).

I know you've said that you would rather stick with Debian/Ubuntu based systems since you're more familiar with them, but I feel like you would enjoy playing with other distros (assuming you have the time to do so, I completely understand it if you don't have the time). Who knows, maybe you'll find something you really like. For the most part switching between distro families isn't all that hard, most things operate the same since they use the same DEs. I've just found that most distros are more stable than Ubuntu (though Debian is pretty solid) and generally work better with Plasma 5. I really feel like you as a power user would love OpenSuSe. OpenSuSe is just an all around good distro, easy for beginners to pick up, but has an amazing configuration tool for power users. The one click package system is great (though it's more than one click most of the time.... lol). It's also probably the distro with the most solid Plasma 5 set up out there (well I mean KDE and OpenSuSe kind of go hand in hand so it makes sense). If you ever have the time to look at it, I suspect you'd enjoy it.

[Chrns]

So I just wanted to mention, KDE connect just hit the 1.x series, and now supports responding to texts from your computer. If you don't use KDE, there are wrappers for it for other DEs too, so there's really not a reason to not at least look at it if you have an Android phone.

[sairamsundaram]

Hi Quids. I have easily changed the Klauncher short cut. I've tried many combinations and finally sticked with super+space without installing any tool which you've said. And it is working fine with all 3 menu styles. I am not a tech guy like you. I would say better install all the necessary updates.

[chrysanth.]

I would use that Mint KDE theme in a second. That is absolutely amazing. Thanks for your review. It still isn't good enough for me to jump from Ubuntu though.

[terranrepublican]

QuidsUp you silly, you don't change the key for the KDE Menu by right clicking on the Menu. You have to go to:
System Settings > Input Devices > Keyboard > Advanced > Alt/Win key behavior > and check "Add standard behavior to Menu Key";

The only catch is, the Menu doesn't pop-up when you press the Meta key but when you release it. This is due to the fact that Plasma has mapped the Meta key for several shortcuts and overwriting the default behavior will result in the removal of those shortcuts.

[ThatLinuxDude]

Nice Review...
Funny of how Linux Mint KDE doesn't support Super Key by default unlike Linux Mint Cinnamon...

[paulbuk]

I use linux mint on 17.3 on my laptop but i prefer mate on my computers and i am using mint 18 on my all in one desktop pc there is an issue with steam if it does not boot you need to enter a line of code in a terminal over all i like mint and it has worked fine for me .

[oneautumnleaf]

Can you assign the super key `alone` to a shortcut without any third party app?

[classicrockonly]

Do you know how to enable transparent panels? Using KDE 5.7

[oneautumnleaf]

Can you assign the `super key` alone the mint menu? I find it hard not to use the super key alone in accessing the mint menu. T_T

[andreasd.]

Hello! What is the name of your Desktop-Glaz-Theme?

[RalphBromleyMadmanRB]

Why didnt you re evaluate the cinnamon edition?

[waynefoutz]

I put this on my girlfriend's computer. it didn't last a week. The desktop was buggy, and my God, the boot up time was excruciating. I have her on Neon now. My only gripe about Neon was jockey isn't installed, so I had to install the Nvidia drivers from the command line. Not a big deal to me, but I don't understand why KDE chose to omit it.

[ascandone]

what theme are you using for the transparent taskbar?

[cswann]

I expect that Mint-KDE was packaged to bring KDE Linux users to bring new Linux users to KDE.

[diegorodezno]

I'm running it on virtualbox. Am I wrong or the guest additions are installed by default after the installation?

[AndrewBryantPianoTuner]

Quids your attitude is clone like of liz kendell