The Linux Mint team has made a new version of its distro available for testing. Linux Mint 20.1 Beta is notable for having new IPTV and WebApp Manager apps. Linux Mint 20.1 "Ulyssa" is the upcoming release which will receive security updates until 2025.
As you could expect, this beta release is available in Cinnamon, Xfce, and MATE editions, and already includes a number of updated apps and features. The team behind the Linux Mint distro are expecting to release Linux Mint 20.1 during this holiday season.
What’s New In Linux Mint 20.1 Beta
- Cinnamon 4.8, MATE 1.24, and Xfce 4.14 desktop
- Linux Kernel 5.4
- It is built on top of the Ubuntu 20.04 package base
- A native Chromium package (not snap)
- New Favorites feature in the Nemo file manager
- Printing and Scanning will no loger use the ippusbxd
- The HPLIP driver 3.20.11 for HP printers
- New filters in Pix, the default image viewer and browser
- Hardware video acceleration is enabled by default in Celluloid, a GUI for the mplayer/mpv apps.
- Xed can now automatically close brackets when it's used to edit source code.
- In Xviewer, the behaviors of the primary and secondary (tilt) mouse wheels are now configurable.
Also, Mint is now using a unified file system layout. This means the following directories are now symlinks:
/bin → /usr/bin
/sbin → /usr/sbin
/lib → /usr/lib
/lib64 → /usr/lib64Hypnotix, an IPTV player
Hypnotix is an IPTV player from Linux Mint, an exciting project that allows watching IPTV streams on Linux without a hassle. It supports multiple TV providers:
These providers can be configured via a local M3U playlists, remote M3U URLs or the Xtream API.
Some settings were also added to let you set MPV options, an HTTP user agent and an HTTP referrer:
Hypnotix can handle live TV channels but also VOD libraries for movies and TV series.
Depending on the provider, content can be organized by categories:
You can then select your TV channel on the left and watch it on the right, or go full screen:
VOD (Movies and Series) work slightly differently. Once you select a category you can see all of its content:
Hypnotix fetches IMDb information for the movie or series you want to watch:
To make it easy to browse, episodes within TV Series are organized by seasons:
There’s a lot more we can do with Hypnotix going forward such as:
- EPG support (Live TV Program)
- PVR (pausing, time-shifting, recording…etc)
- Custom categories
- Favorites
- Hiding unused content
Web App Manager
Web App Manager is a brand new app from the Linux Mint project that allows you to easily launch your favorite websites and have them running in their own windows as if they were desktop applications. Web App Manager, based on PeppermintOS app "ICE", includes the following features:
- A new icon and generic name
- A new user interface
- 100% back and forth compatibility with ICE
- A split backend to make it easy for ICE and Web App manager to use the same codebase if they both want to retain separate UIs.
- The ability to edit Web applications
- Icon theme support with icons automatically guessed for popular websites
- Improved favicon downloads (including support for favicongrabber.com)
- The ability to show or hide the Firefox navigation bar
- Full translation support for all major languages
Each website launched with this app will have its own browser profile, and its own window. This will save your time.
Download Linux Mint 20.1 Beta
The ISO images are available HERE. Also, it is a good idea to read the official announcements here:
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