Extend the life of your CentOS 8 servers while you plan your migration: https://tuxcare.org/eol-linux-support Get your Linux desktop or laptop here: https://slimbook.es/en/ 👏 SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: Get access to an exclusive weekly podcast, vote on the next topics I cover, and get your name in the credits: YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5UAwBUum7CPN5buc-_N1Fw/join Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thelinuxexperiment Or, you can donate whatever you want: https://paypal.me/thelinuxexp?locale.x=fr_FR 🏆 FOLLOW ME ELSEWHERE: I also do a Gaming Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbRPZ11S1quJ4ESoj42A3ug Join us on our new Discord server: https://discord.gg/xK7ukavWmQ Twitter : http://twitter.com/thelinuxEXP My Gaming on Linux Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaw_Lz7oifDb-PZCAcZ07kw 📷 GEAR I USE: Sony Alpha A6600 Mirrorless Camera: https://amzn.to/30zKyn7 Sigma 56mm Fixed Prime Lens: https://amzn.to/3aRvK5l Logitech MX Master 3 Mouse: https://amzn.to/3BVI0Od Bluetooth Space Grey Mac Keyboard: https://amzn.to/3jcJETZ Logitech Brio 4K Webcam: https://amzn.to/3jgeTh9 LG Curved Ultrawide Monitor: https://amzn.to/3pcTVDH Logitech White Speakers: https://amzn.to/3n6wSb0 Xbox Controller: https://amzn.to/3BWmIA3 *Amazon Links are affiliate codes and generate small commissions to support the channel* 00:00 Intro 00:27 Sponsor: Extend the life of your CentOS 8 servers 01:27 Mint makeover: the new theme 03:47 Cinnamon updates 05:31 Application updates 06:58 Is Mint still the best for beginners? 10:31 Get a new Linux device 11:02 Support the channel First, there is a new default theme. It's not a huge departure from the previous one, but it makes a few interesting choices. The titlebars now have rounded corners. The titlebar buttons are a bit bigger now, and their hover zone has been expanded, so they're easier to click. These buttons have also taken on a more Windows-like appearance. The toolbar buttons don't use green anymore, nor do the menu items in the still pervasive menubars, the file manager's sidebar also doesn't use a black background anymore, and generally, the default grey has been made lighter compared to the previous one. The older theme is still available in the repos, under the mint-themes-legacy package, and you can still change colors in the appearance settings. Speaking of dark mode, Mint now supports it properly, and has made some of their default apps dark by default, mostly the one that display media This can be configured per app, in their respective preferences. Also to be noted, the titlebars will now automaticallyt adapt to the dark theme you picked. Mint 20.3 also improves on the Cinnamon desktop. First is the calendar integration. In the calendar applet, you can now see events from multiple calendars, using their attributed color, so you can get a quick heads-up of what your day's going to look like Nemo, the file manager now correctly handles moving or copy pasting files with the same name. Window animations have been simplified and tuned. Cinnamon also improved support for right to left languages, and it has better integration with nvidia optimus, for supporting apps that don't want to use the default GPU, among a lot of other smaller fixes. The default apps also have received a lot of updates. First, there is a new application, called "Thingy". It serves as a document manager, which means it will list all your recent and favorite documents, like PDFs, but also LibreOffice documents. Hypnotix, the IPTV player now has search to find channels, but also specific movies and series. The sticky notes app now lets you search through your notes, the title of each note is now embedded into its body, which looks much better, and you can change the text size from the notes toolbar. XReader, the PDF and document viewer can now read manga properly using right to left mode, and using the arrow keys moves the pages in the right direction: going left moves the document forward. Is Linux Mint still THE distro to recommend to beginners? Does it still hold up compared to other options that have moved more aggressively, like Fedora, or Zorin OS ? Mint still offers one of the most complete experiences for newcomers. It comes with a backup tool, a driver manager, power statistics, preferences for virtually anything you might want to change. In that, it still retains an edge over GNOME based distributions, for beginners, especially coming from Windows. Where Mint falls behind, in my opinion, is in the software manager. Mint bases itself on Ubuntu 20.04, which means that the apps in its repos are outdated. Really outdated. Apart from that, I don't really see anything that can compete with Mint for beginners, still. So yeah, for now, MINT keeps the crown, in my opinion. If you want a complete graphical experience, you go to MINT, if you want better looks out of the box, you go to Zorin.