We reported last week the fact that the Linux Mint developers bragged with a new project called X-Apps for the upcoming Linux Mint 18 "Sarah" computer operating system.
Today, February 3, 2016, Linux Mint project leader Clement Lefebvre reveals the first two X-Apps for Linux Mint 18, a text editor based on the well-known Pluma application, but with some features borrowed from the Gedit text editor, and a media player based on GNOME's Totem 3.10 video player software.
"In preparation for Linux Mint 18, a new project called “X-Apps” was started, which goal is to provide default and generic applications for traditional GTK desktop environments (Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce…)," said Clement Lefebvre in today's announcement. "The first two X-Apps to be ready are the text editor and the media player."
Why the trouble?!
If you're wondering why the Linux Mint team is going through all this trouble of "porting" existing applications to their operating system, you should know that their long-term plans are no longer in sync with the latest changes happing on the upstream GNOME and GNOME Shell projects.
The GNOME desktop environment is going into a totally different path, and most of the core apps will have to follow its HIG (Human Interface Guidelines) specifications. Linux Mint uses traditional desktop environments like Cinnamon, MATE or Xfce, so they need to rely on a different set of apps or start making their own.
And it looks to us like the "X-Apps" project is a combination of both, not to mention the fact that the "new" apps will work smoothly on all of Linux Mint's flavors and use the latest GTK3 technologies. Classy and stylish at the same time! Good job, Linux Mint.
