Linux Mint team have released 19.1 code named Tessa. A list of the new features are found here: https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_tessa_cinnamon_whatsnew.php so I won’t be going into them in any depth as others will do this. I am giving my personal impressions as an average users who just wants something to work and work well.
There are two ways to get 19.1, the first being download the full ISO and do a complete new install. On my other hard drive, I tried this out and found that as with all previous versions it was easy to and very quick to do, less than 10 minutes including the reboot. I have always loved this about Mint, the ease which the ordinary person can install and get things running without jumping through hoops. Once installed, the welcome screen will soon have you up and running, it is then up to you to decide what you want to add. If you use Thunderbird as your email application, you need to be aware of the fact that you might need to know your configuration settings for your email provider. I found this very frustrating and a right pain and there is not much help on line. I suggest that you take a note of these before installing as it will save the pain later. This is not really a Mint problem, as Thunderbird is from Mozilla and from what I read has caused similar problems in the past.
The second way of getting 19.1 is to upgrade. The instructions for doing it are found here: https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3715 . This I chose to do on my main drive as I already have 19.0 Tara installed and everything set up the way I want. Following the instructions, it really was a breeze to do and the only thing to really remember is that you have to download the upgrade so ensure you have enough bandwidth left to do so. This method took longer, I would estimate about 25 minutes to complete, but most of that time was down to having to wait until the download had completed, once that was done the install was very quick less than five minutes to complete. If you are doing it this way the most important thing to remember is to do a TimeShift in case anything does go wrong or you want to go back to the previous version.
Okay so, I like the new Cinnamon 4.0 it is very clean and fast and the visual improvements are great. I like the fact that you can choose your panel size, you can even resize it via the panel settings, if you want to do. I have kept the classic look, because I like it and for no other reason. Having done the upgrade, most of my settings were in place, if you have not done so then you will have to do them. I had to remember to turn on the firewall which wasn’t automatically turned on. So far I have not found out how to change the screen saver, I had Noof on before which I liked, but 19.1 doesn’t seem to have any choices. This really doesn’t matter as you don’t really look at your screen saver any more than you do your desktop back ground. Talking about which Tessa has some really great ones to choose from.
What I have always loved about Mint is that it just does everything you want and allows you just to get on and do things. Tessa is no different in that respect, it is great and easy to use and it is no wonder that Mint is so very popular amongst Linux users. When you look at the improvements made, you go wow that’s great, but if you are like me, none techie most go above your head anyway. Clem and the team have delivered another winner without taking anything away from what makes Mint great, its ease of use. I really hope that they keep this up and don’t forget that the majority of users just want what Mint does now a great OS that doesn’t crash and just works.
I can not fault Tessa, to be honest I wasn’t expecting to do so. Would I recommend it to everyone, most definitely without missing a heartbeat. Nothing is perfect, but for me this comes as close to it as anything I am likely to come across and for me and my needs she is a perfect fit.
I have edited this which I originally posted on my blog as I am not promoting my blog but wanted to give a general idea for others who might be considering Mint 19.1