Linux Mint 8 “Helena” KDE RC1 released!

The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 8 “Helena” KDE Community Edition RC1.

Quick steps:

Introduction to Linux Mint 8 KDE:

The KDE Community Edition aims to provide a version of Linux Mint which uses the KDE desktop.

For a detailed overview of the new features and improvements included in Linux Mint 8 KDE, please read “What’s new in Helena KDE?“.

System requirements:

A minimum of 4GB of free space and 256MB RAM are needed. For a comfortable experience we recommended to have at least 512MB RAM and 10GB of free space.

Important information and known issues:

As an RC (Release Candidate) this release is targeted at developers and beta-testers who want to help Linux Mint find and correct bugs before the stable release. Please do not use this release as your main desktop. For a complete list of known issues read the Release Notes.

Feedback and bug reports:

Please report any bug you may find via the Linux Mint 8 KDE RC1 Bug Thread and give us your feedback on this release by posting a comment right here on the blog.

Download Linux Mint 8 KDE RC1:

You can download Linux Mint 8 KDE RC1 via torrent or via HTTP:

Size: 1.1GB LiveDVD
MD5Sum:  011e30de612adeccaa555da16c4ff0c6

Torrent download: http://www.linuxmint.com/torrent/LinuxMint-8-KDE-RC1.iso.torrent
HTTP download: http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=47

Asia:

Europe:

Northern America:

Rest of the World:

Enjoy!

Have a lot of fun testing this release candidate and let’s all hope it will help us make a great stable release.

67 comments

  1. Thanks Boo, Clem and the Linux Mint. I’ve been waiting for this release and will start downloading right away. I’m sure it will be an instant success. Thanks a lot to all of you.

  2. Hi!
    Thanks for a very good OS, but way not the green colour on the KDE RC1 like the”Ubuntu release”

    Best regards
    Johan

  3. Another Stunning release. Just a few ‘huh? quirks’
    1, Amarok and Songbird both installed? There is no need for both.
    2, Gwenview and Digikam both installed? There is no need for both.
    3, Gnome MPlayer installed. There is no need for this period.

    And someone please make a 64 bit version!!

  4. Thanks for this release! I’m downloading now…

    btw I noticed that the “What’s new in Helena KDE” links to KDE 3.4 and not 4.3.4 at the bottom lol

  5. Thanks Mint Team.
    I’m running this and it’s beautiful.

    Dear Mint Advocate, KDE-64 is in the works.
    See the forums where you have already posted the same as here
    (please understand – no offence intended against you! We are friendly here)

    Also, Digikam and Gwenview are not feature redundant and therefore both needed.

    The way the mint team are picking apps is *very* decent. And I appreciate it and all their effort.

  6. Yup, I agree with MintAdvocate, there’s a lot of software in the DVD, but much of it is more of the same. I made a comment in MinForum in which I said, it would be excellent if we have all that software, but if we have the chance to choose what we want, and what we don’t want.

    Other than that, is an incredible release, it just gave again some life to my old PentiumIV.

    Cheers for Boo!!!

  7. On the “What’s new…” page, at the bottom of the page you are linking to KDE 3.4 (which is ultra old). Not that it is a big deal, but it’s incorrect nonetheless. : )

  8. I am on Mint 8 Gnome and would like to try the kde version. Can I just install a meta package to get it (like you can with ubuntu/kubuntu) or would I have to install from scratch?

  9. Linux Mint 8 is Incredible and by far the best gnome based Linux distro. Linux Mint KDE 8. Very bad….Kubuntu all way if your gonna use KDE..which I do nowdays. as for filesharing. once install kubuntu you just install samba and network-filesharing and it works like a charm. The method on linuxmint kde is slower..and over all feel is less responsive. My Solid Input…I run Linux Mint 8 on one partition and Kubuntu on other.

  10. This is a rare KDE distro that I can get on my desktop. There are some issues as is to be expected. Even a so called stable version of any software will always have bugs.

    I can’t get the sound of of my PC speaker and to use my headphone jack.

    It freezes just like the Gnome one does.

    Also when I activate any system feature, especially desktop, it spontaneously logs out and back in (at least before the recent updates were installed.

    Konqueror causes spontaneous log outs also.

    The good points are: It looks good, has plenty of apps, and it will be better with the Mint influence to bring the KDE beast in subjection to the user.

  11. Thank you to the KDE team, yet again a great release and for a RC it’s still more stable and much faster than xp on my system (seems i wont be able to install anything higher than that do to my bios dam windoze strikes again such a pitty for a dual opteron server oh well! ) iv been hooked on mint kde since v.4 and thay just keep getting better. thanks again to all who worked on it !

  12. I have the gnome version right now. I know that you can download kde-desktop and switch between them but can I download the kde linux mint desktop and switch between that and gnome because I really like all the mint tools?

  13. Is there any way to set up Linux Mint upon login, to choose between Gnome and KDE? It has been a while but I thought that was either possible at one time or planned for a future release. Using Linux Mint Helena 64-bit.

  14. Regarding the programs with the same functionality, I understand why the would include for example, Songbird but not take out Amarok. Lots of people are Amarok fans and it is part of the KDE package after all, but I think Songbird works better for me. Besides there are probably people who don’t know it even exists, so I think it makes sense to include it in the installation. Some people who use Linux Mint are first time linux users who’ve been using itunes, WMP, winamp and others before and don’t know much about the alternatives. I appreciate the software selection very much.

  15. Is there any kind of metapackage (something like mint-kde-desktop os somthing like that) so the Gnome users could give it a try?

  16. KDE Community Edition
    Version: Linux Mint 8 “Gloria” KDE RC1??** 😉

    One beautiful OS! I came from Mandriva (distro hopping again–will I never learn?) which also does a fine job of taming KDE4 and the beast called Plasma but the Helena KDE is one step above it and more. Wonderful job!

    **One thing though.The announcement of the RC on the main site “Downloads/Community Editions” states that the release is; “Version: Linux Mint 8 “Gloria” KDE RC1″ not “Helena” KDE RC1. That’s a rather glaring typo that ought to be fixed.

    Just letting you know.

  17. Sorry about the bold, folks. I fat fingered the html tag and didn’t catch it before I submitted. Time for that second cup of coffee I guess.

  18. Thanks! This is good news and I will give it a try. I would be really interested in a 64 bit version too.

  19. Tried to install it.

    People, was that slow.

    Not slow as a turtle.
    Not slow as a snail.
    No, slow as Barnell’s asphalt experiment.
    So I put the DVD to the waste.
    Waiting for the final.
    H. 🙁

  20. @hamburn

    Yes the installation process in general is a little slow since if you choose to partitioning manually the installer works not too fast to do its work and when the files were copied we still have to download a lot of unnecessary packages of languages which that most of us don’t need them. But i think the final result is worth.

    *
    Before the official announcements:
    I got my Mint KDE 8 RC 1 ISO via torrent from btjunkie. Burn it into a DVD/speed 4x and checked out the integrity of my DVD and the ISO MD5 – Perfect.

  21. @ Roberto

    did it as you. ok did it today.torrent, burning at 4x speed, and all the other things.

    But you are right. I do my install ever with partitioning manually, and so I choose it. But even before, to get my language takes more than five minutes
    so this is not for me.

  22. How do get rad of this Linux mint? Does it come with the computer or do you download it? The reason I don’t know much about this, I just got this computer.Can someone help me? please

  23. >Gwenview and Digikam both installed? There is no need for both

    Yes there is.
    Most people use Gvenview to view images.. maybe do some light cropping and red eye but its a light program like Irfanview is on Windows.
    My parents have it full screen all the time and the slideshow is simple to use.
    Digikam we all use to download pictures from our digital cameras.
    You can do a lot of great things with DigiKam but viewing a few pictures with it would be overkill.

    Anyone know when this KDE’s (final) version is due out?

  24. For the SOUND (LarryGW), try with the “No Amplifier” option. It solved my problem with the Gnome distro.

  25. Linux Mint’s KDE version of Ubuntu ties together the sophistication of KDE, with the simplicity of Gnome, in a brilliant marriage of excellence. Thanks to all who contribute to this wonderful distro.

  26. Is there a standard procedure to “upgrade” the Gnome version of Mint to this KDE version?

    I already have KDE installed on the Gnome version but want the official version just the same. By the way, I don’t know why but installing KDE onto the regular Gnome version has given me a more responsive system than I get when I install KDE default versions of Linux (not compared it with this version of KDE Helena…yet). Just something I noticed accidentally.

  27. This might be a stupid question. I have mint 8 main edition and I want to try KDE. Can I install the KDE desktop environment on my mint 8 main edition like an update? or should I install the KDE in a separate partition?

  28. I would like to suggest that since the KDE version of Mint is using Gnome dependencies, Qparted should be dropped and Gparted should be used instead.

    While using the KDE partitioner I was unable to modify the names of previously created partitions nor was I able to name or label new ones. Also the graphics are too “busy” and it makes using the program a chore. Maybe installing the disk utility in the Gnome version would be even better.

    Thanks 🙂

  29. The link from the line that says “download the ISO or Torrent” is wrong, it points to the original Mint 8 RC1 image, rather than the KDE RC1 image.

    jw

  30. Guys ,

    to test new distros i have a 2 gb usbflash and i use a unetbootin software to copy the iso .. it s work flawless and fast .. now i am running Helena KDE .. great job devs

    Thanks

  31. Why it hasn’t been mentioned by distrowatch??? Helena 8 KDE, has nothing to do with satan, as far as I am concerned.

  32. “Yes the installation process in general is a little slow since if you choose to partitioning manually the installer works not too fast to do its work and when the files were copied we still have to download a lot of unnecessary packages of languages which that most of us don’t need them.”
    Partition before installing, with somthing like gparted. disconnect the network, before installing, so nothing is downloaded, during the install. I do this on any distro I install

  33. Not to deviate too far from this thread, but on Distrowatch it was shown a few days ago that Mint 8 fluxbox was release but there’s been no mention of it here yet.

  34. @sivo (51) – January 24th, 2010 at 2:34 am

    “This might be a stupid question. I have mint 8 main edition and I want to try KDE. Can I install the KDE desktop environment on my mint 8 main edition like an update? or should I install the KDE in a separate partition?”

    I installed KDE just after installing the Gnome edition. I went through Synaptic and installed all the bits that looked like they formed a KDE desktop (can’t remember what they were, just typed KDE in the search box). If you use WiFi you will need to install wicd (a wireless network manager) – it will remove the default manager but is more reliable than it. In fact, KDE installed onto Gnome is much more responsive than when KDE is installed as the default window manager; I’d love to know why that is but no one seems to have an answer.

  35. now we have KDE 4.4 RC2, so will you wait until the last version of KDE to come first to make linux mint 8 KDE the first operating system with KDE 4.4 ?
    i wish you do that

  36. @mohaned_nj
    Hello my friend, we are all tech junkies and want the latest and greates – however Mint wants to be stable as a rock.
    It took them 2 1/2 months to get KDE 4.3 into an acceptable state.

    Clem, Boo, Husse, exploder and all the other colleagues do rigorous testing and optimizations, for quality that is better than Kubuntu’s.

    To Introduce a new KDE version that’s not even testet would be counterproductive. We are at **release candidate** status, means close to a release. Expect no more big changes until then.

    I support the Mint team the way they are doing it.

    If you want to play with KDE-4.4 there will be live-CDs soon. There will also be Kubuntu packages (for the next 10.04, or backports for 9.10). Maybe install Kubuntu in a Virtualbox and play with it, to find if it has interesting new features. That is a good idea for the curious. You could even help the developers find bugs.

  37. I had one problem on the first boot, where I ended up in a terminal. Using the startx command, after I logged in got my desktop up. After the first update, there hasn’t been any more problems booting.
    I’ve been all over this OS the last few days and I love it. It works with every piece of hardware connected and it the OS let’s me use the computer the way I’ve been wanting an OS to work.
    On top of that, it looks awesome!!!

  38. Will there be a 64bit edition of Linux Mint KDE???
    I love Linux Mint & KDE. But I need a 64bit KDE desktop for my workstation and I have to stick with Kubuntu. 🙁

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