What’s New In Linux Mint 17.3 “Rosa”?
Fast And Responsive PPA
One of the most important features of Linux is the PPA. We use PPAs to install new software and update our system. Linux Mint 17.3 brings major improvements to its system in choosing PPAs mirror. Now updating system and installing software will be faster and reliable because this was the major point of Rosa release. All the PPAs or software repositories are mirrored all over the world and depending on your location your repositories mirror is chosen. The chosen mirror has to be updated so that you don’t miss any update when your system performs update. Now Linux Mint Rosa catches faster mirror for you by performing a speed test from your nearest server to the servers around the world. First of all the speed test is performed from your country mirror than from your neighboring countries and then the sub-region and then regions around the World.
It is also necessary for the fastest detected mirror to be up-to-date. The software sources configuration tool can now detect whether the mirror is up-to-date or not.
Smart Update Manager
The update manager has become smarter than before. It shows you whether the mirror you are using is up-to-date or not. This increases security and stability. Maybe there is a newer version of a tool has been made available but because your mirror is not up-to-date so you wouldn’t get the update at all until that mirror syncs the newer version from the source. Update manager warns you if your mirror is not up-to-date.
- Improvements
Improved HiDPI Support In MDM Display Manager
Improved Hardware Support
Kernel 4.2.0 is also available in the repositories. However please be cautious with it if you are using proprietary drivers. At the moment, the following drivers are known not to work with it:
- fglrx (ATI/AMD drivers)
- ndiswrapper (Windows wireless drivers)
- Support for these drivers with kernel 4.2.0 should improve before February 2016.
Other Improvements
- Improved Driver Manager
- Redesigned welcome screen
- LibreOffice 5
- Now supports multiple graphics cards
- KDE 4.14