Linux Mint is one of the most popular Linux distributions . It’s known for its simplicity, stability, and ease of use. Linux Mint recently released Linux Mint 17.3 ‘Rosa’ with many improvements, new features and updated software that make it more stable and reliable. In this article, you’ll know what’s new in this release and how you can get it.

Linux Mint is based on Debian and Ubuntu . After Ubuntu, the second popular Linux distribution is Linux Mint. It has got this place for many of its features such as ease of use, stability, etc. Due to its easy to use interface Linux Mint has always been recommended for beginners for folks who know nothing about how Linux works, such folks can start off their journey with Linux Mint. But Linux Mint is not just about its simple and easy to use interface but it is also powerful and stable that makes it a strong choice of intermediate and advanced Linux users.

What’s New In Linux Mint 17.3 “Rosa”?

Linux Mint has landed some new features and many improvements to its new Linux Mint 17.3 “Rosa”. Rosa new features have made Linux Mint faster and more reliable than before. Let’s look at what developers targeted for in this new release. Don’t forget to take a poll in the last of this article to tell us what you like the most in this new release and also share your experience in the comment section below.

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.

Update manager informs you if your mirror is corrupted.

Update manager informs you if faster mirror is available.

Improvements

Improved HiDPI Support In MDM Display Manager

HiDPI (High Dots Per Inch) issues have been fixed and now touchscreen support is also improved. You can know more about HiDPI here

Improved Hardware Support

The new Linux Mint Rosa now comes with upgraded Linux Kernel and Xorg and Mesa that improves hardware support. Kernel 4.2.0 is also available in the repositories but there is also note before using it –

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

Download Linux Mint 17.3 “Rosa”

You can download Linux Mint 17.3 from the official website. Linux Mint in all desktop environments is available there in 32-bit and 64-bit system.

Conclusion

Finally, the developers have worked well to keep the simplicity, ease of use and stability at pace. Linux Mint 17.3 is an LTS and it’ll receive security updates until 2019. All the future releases until 2016 will be based on Linux Mint 17.3. Please also take poll below to tell us what you like the most in Rosa. Please do express your views with us in the comment section below.