Linux Mint 18.x Hits End Of Life, Users Should Upgrade Now
May 2, 2021
Clement Lefebvre, head of the Linux Mint project, announced in the monthly newsletter (April 2021) that the Linux Mint 18.x series has reached EOL (End of Life).
Announced in June 2016, Linux Mint 18.x series follows the pattern set by the 17.x series, by using Ubuntu 16.04 LTS as a base.
After 5 good years of service, Linux Mint 18, 18.1, 18.2, and 18.3 has now reached EOL this month and will no be longer supported with security or software updates.
If you are running one of these releases, your operating system will continue to work but you will no longer receive security updates from the repositories, says Clement.
Linux Mint users are surprisingly irresponsible regarding updates
responsible computer users. Well, Linux
Mint users, at least.
You see, in a stunning development, it turns out Linux Mint users are often very behind in installing both operating system and application updates. In other words, Linux Mint users are often running outdated software, which could be no longer supported, or even worse, it could contain exploitable vulnerabilities. For example, a surprisingly high number of these users are running Linux Mint 17.x, which is unsupported since 2019!
Believe it or not, it is the Linux Mint developers that are highlighting this worrying trend. Yes, the devs are publicly embarrassing their own users in an effort to improve update percentages. With that said, the developers admit their metrics probably aren t very accurate they aren t entirely sure how many Linux Mint users are running outdated packages.
A few weeks ago, my kids wanted to hack my Linux desktop, so they typed and clicked everywhere while I was standing behind them looking at them play, wrote a user identifying themselves as robo2bobo.
According to the bug report, the two kids pressed random keys on both the physical and on-screen keyboards, which eventually led to a crash of the Linux Mint screensaver, allowing the two access to the desktop. I thought it was a unique incident, but they managed to do it a second time, the user added.
Bug source: Pressing the ē
key on the OSK
According to Linux Mint lead developer Clement Lefebvre, the issue was eventually tracked down to
Ubuntu-based Linux Mint 20.1 Ulyssa gets pushed to 2021 as many bugs still plague it
Let s speak openly and honestly here. The Linux Mint developers never promised that the next version of the operating system would be released in the year 2020. However, when the Linux Mint 20.1 Ulyssa BETA was released before Christmas, many people hoped a stable version would be released before 2021.
Well, folks, I am sorry to say that the terrible 2020 strikes again, as today is New Year s Eve, and the Mint developers still have no idea when 20.1 Ulyssa will be released. Since today is the last day of the year, all we know for sure is 2020 is absolutely out of the question. Sadly, the Linux distro is riddled with bugs at the moment, with a massive 34 outstanding issues.
Linux Mint developers foolishly waste resources on IPTV player called Hypnotix
Linux Mint is a great Ubuntu-based operating system, although there have been concerns about the project s financing and the morale of the developers. Over time, the small development team made some wise decisions, such as killing the KDE variant of the operating system. I think they should kill the Mate and Xfce versions and focus strictly on Cinnamon, but I digress.
Sadly, the team seems ready to make another poor decision, foolishly wasting its limited resources on an IPTV player for some reason. Called Hypnotix, no one was asking for such a thing from the Mint Team, and it isn t clear why they are bothering. While only a prototype (aka Alpha) application for now, the developers are considering making it a part of Linux Mint. But why?