Linux Mint 19.1 ‘Tessa’ has finally been released for public consumption. The new version is still based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and will be supported until 2023. Prospective users shouldn’t be fooled by the point release as it actually brings with it Cinnamon 4.0 which brings to option of switching to the Modern desktop layout or the Traditional version.
The final release of Linux Mint 19.1 comes just two weeks after beta builds were released for enthusiasts to try out and find any lingering bugs. Some other nice features in this release include support statuses for mainline kernels, this lets you know whether you ought to be using your current kernel or whether you should upgrade it. Additionally, there is a button that allows you to quickly remove your old kernels so that you can clear space in the boot partition.
As you’d expect with any new operating system, Mint 19.1 comes included with a whole new set of wallpapers from various photographers which will let you spruce up your setup. Additionally, if you don’t like the default colour scheme on Mint, the Mint-Y, Mint-Y-Dark, and Mint-Y-Darker themes are now available in Aqua, Blue, Brown, Grey, Orange, Pink, Purple, Red, Sand, and Teal. The text and icons on windows have also been made darker in order to give you better visibility.
Some other things to look out for include a sped up Nemo file manager, letting you get to your important documents more quickly, and improvements to the Linux Mint project"s in-house Xapps.
If you install Mint 19.1 from the ISO, you’ll automatically get Linux kernel 4.15 and all the other updates up to the point that the ISO was spun. Just like other releases in the Mint 19.x series, Mint 19.1 will receive updates until 2023. It uses the same package base as Mint 19, making it trivial to upgrade.
You can download the Cinnamon, MATE, and Xfce editions from the Linux Mint website right now, and upgrades from existing Mint 19 systems will go live in the near future.