Linux Mint

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Linux Mint
File:Linux-Mint-Felicia.png
Linux Mint 6 ("Felicia")
OS familyDebian GNU/Linux (Ubuntu)
Working stateCurrent
Source modelFree software / Open source
Latest releaseLinux Mint 7 ("Gloria") / May 26, 2009; 14 years ago (2009-05-26)
Available inMultilingual
Update methodAPT
Package managerdpkg
Platformsx86, x86-64
Kernel typeMonolithic
Default
user interface		GNOME
LicenseMainly the GNU GPL / Various others
Official websitewww.linuxmint.com

Linux Mint is an operating system for personal computers. While Mint is mostly based on (and compatible with) Ubuntu, the design of the user interface differs. Design differences include:

  • A distinct user interface, including a simplified bootloader, desktop layout, theme, and the custom Mint menu.
  • A strong focus on full functionality out of the box (E.g.: Wireless drivers included, plugins required to play common media formats installed by default, screen resolution automatically set, etc.).[1] Linux Mint 6 also includes or features a free Flash player so users can view sites such as YouTube without having to install anything else.
  • The Mint Tools, a collection of system tools designed to make system management and administration easier for end users.

Linux Mint is available for download in the form of ISO images, which can be used to create Live CDs or Live USBs. The latter can be created either manually or using UNetbootin.[2]

Branches

Like many other Linux distributions, Linux Mint has different repositories, or "branches". The branch with the newest features, or "unstable branch" of the repositories, is called "Romeo". It is not activated by default in Linux Mint releases. Users who wish to get cutting-edge features and help the distribution test new packages can add Romeo to their Advanced Packaging Tool (APT) sources.

New packages are first released in "Romeo", where they are tested by developers and community members who use it. After a package is found to be stable enough, it is backported to the latest stable release.

Editions

Linux Mint comes in several editions, the main one being the GNOME edition. There is also a 64-bit version, called 'x64 Edition', which is designed to be as similar as possible to the main edition. There is also the Universal Edition, which doesn't include proprietary software, patented technologies or support for restricted formats.

Mint is also distributed via Community Editions, with the KDE architecture, along with XFCE and Fluxbox (an even lighter alternative to GNOME) versions.

Repositories

Linux Mint has its own repositories for Mint specific or Mint customized tools but also uses Ubuntu's repositories for other software.

mint4win

As of Linux Mint 6 'Felicia', a Windows installer is included as one of the installation methods, a rebranded version of Wubi.[3] It is activated when the CD is inserted into a computer under Windows providing autorun is enabled.

Releases

Linux Mint 2.2 GNOME
File:Linux Mint 6 KDE 4 2.png
Linux Mint 6 KDE

Originally, Linux Mint didn't follow a predictable release cycle. The project first defined the goals for the next release,[citation needed] and when all the goals are achieved a beta is released and a date is announced for the stable release. Recently however, it has been decided that Linux Mint will correlate with the 6 month Ubuntu release cycle and Linux Mint releases now reach end of life when their corresponding Ubuntu releases do.

Color Meaning
Red Old release; not supported
Green Supported release
Blue Future or test release

Fluxbox

Version Codename Edition Code Base APT Base Release Date
4.0 Daryna BETA 028 Fluxbox CE Daryna 4.0 Ubuntu 7.10 3 January2008
5 Elyssa Fluxbox CE Ubuntu 8.04 Ubuntu 8.04 21 October2008
6 Felicia Fluxbox CE Xubuntu 8.10 Ubuntu 8.10 7 April 2009

GNOME

Version Codename Edition Code Base APT Base Release Date
2.0 Barbara Main Ubuntu 6.10 Ubuntu 6.10 13 November2006
2.1 Bea Main Ubuntu 6.10 Ubuntu 6.10 20 December2006
2.2 Bianca Main Ubuntu 6.10 Ubuntu 6.10 20 February2007
2.2 Bianca Light Ubuntu 6.10 Ubuntu 6.10 29 March2007
3.0 Cassandra Main Bianca 2.2 Ubuntu 7.04 30 May2007
3.0 Cassandra Light Bianca 2.2 Ubuntu 7.04 15 June2007
3.1 Celena Main Bianca 2.2 Ubuntu 7.04 24 September2007
3.1 Celena Light Bianca 2.2 Ubuntu 7.04 01 October2007
4.0 Daryna Main Celena 3.1 Ubuntu 7.10 15 October2007
4.0 Daryna Light Celena 3.1 Ubuntu 7.10 15 October2007
Test Debian ALPHA 023 Debian Debian Testing 3 January2008
5 Elyssa Main Daryna 4.0 Ubuntu 8.04 8 June2008
5 Elyssa Light Daryna 4.0 Ubuntu 8.04 8 June2008
5 Elyssa x64 Ubuntu 8.04 Ubuntu 8.04 18 October2008
6 Felicia Main Ubuntu 8.10 Ubuntu 8.10 15 December2008
6 Felicia Universal (Light) Ubuntu 8.10 Ubuntu 8.10 15 December2008
6 Felicia x64 Ubuntu 8.10 Ubuntu 8.10 6 February2009
7 Gloria Main Ubuntu 9.04 Ubuntu 9.04 26 May 2009
7 Gloria Universal (Light) Ubuntu 9.04 Ubuntu 9.04 26 May 2009
7 Gloria x64 Ubuntu 9.04 Ubuntu 9.04 May 2009

KDE

Version Codename Edition Code Base APT Base Release Date
1.0 Ada Main Kubuntu Dapper Dapper 27 August2006
2.2 Bianca KDE CE Kubuntu Edgy Edgy 20 April2007
3.0 Cassandra KDE CE Bianca 2.2 Feisty 14 August2007
3.0 Cassandra MiniKDE CE Bianca 2.2 Feisty 14 August2007
4.0 Daryna KDE CE Cassandra 3.0 Gutsy 03 March2008
5 Elyssa KDE CE Daryna 4.0 Hardy 15 September2008
6 Felicia KDE CE Elyssa 5 Intrepid 08 April 2009

XFCE

Version Codename Edition Code Base APT Base Release Date
3.0 Cassandra Xfce CE Cassandra 3.0 Feisty 07 August2007
4.0 Daryna BETA 008 Xfce CE Cassandra 3.0 Gutsy 2 November2007
5 Elyssa XFCE CE Daryna 4.0 Hardy 8 September2008
6 Felicia XFCE CE Xubuntu Intrepid Intrepid 24 February 2009
  • As of "Elyssa," the minor version number has been dropped (i.e. "Linux Mint 5.0" is now "Linux Mint 5"). This is due to a decision to follow Ubuntu's 6 month release cycle; there should no longer be more than one release per Ubuntu base.[4]
  • The Debian base release is released as an alpha because "it is not intended to be used as your main operating system but to give you a technological preview of how Linux Mint would behave if it was based on Debian."[5] Also note that the ISO acts as a "non-installable" live CD.

Team

Linux Mint is maintained by the following people:

  • Clement Lefebvre - Founder, project leader, developer and maintainer of the Main, Universal and x64 editions.
  • merlwiz79 - Maintainer of the XFCE edition.
  • Jamie Boo Birse - Maintainer of the KDE edition.
  • Shane Joe Lazar - Maintainer of the Fluxbox edition.
  • Mats Geier - Forums moderator.
  • Don Cosner - Tester.

A full listing is available on the distribution's website: http://www.linuxmint.com/about.php

Mint tools

Mintupdate, Linux mint's update manager.
File:Mintinstall5.png
MintInstall, a tool that allows you to view and download files from the Software Portal directly from your desktop.

Linux Mint comes with its own set of tools aimed at making the experience easier for the user.

  • MintInstall: Lets you run .mint files, which are files containing instructions to install packages. As of Linux Mint 6, this tool has been revamped, and now lets you view all the applications on the Mint Software Portal offline, providing you have an Internet connection to download the information first. Also allows you to install any of the programs listed directly from the desktop, instead of going to the site.[6] The option to use the old MintInstall program is available, where you can go to the Ubuntu Repositories or the Getdeb.net website from a search.
  • MintUpdate: Update-software designed specifically for Linux Mint. MintUpdate assigns updates a safety-level (from 1 to 5), based on the stability and necessity of the update. Updates can be set to notify users (as is normal), be listed but not notify, or be hidden by default. In addition to including updates specifically for the Mint distribution, the development team tests all package-wide updates. This system is designed to prevent inexperienced users from installing updates that are unnecessary or require a certain level of knowledge to configure properly. MintUpdate is currently in beta 1.5 and will be included in the next Mint release. If mintInstall is used to install a program from the default repositories, that program is able to receive updates via mintUpdate.[7]
  • MintDesktop: A desktop configuration tool for easy configuration of the Gnome desktop. Also acts as a background process to do various tasks upon login. Also network browsing is made easier (through fusesmb). MintDesktop has received a major overhaul in Mint 4.0.[8]
  • MintConfig: (Obsolete from Daryna.) A customizable control center. It gathers all the tools from "Preferences" and "Administration" and organizes them into categories. The purpose of mintConfig was to give users a control center since Gnome didn’t have one. In Daryna only the Gnome Control Center is present.
  • MintAssistant: A customization wizard that appears during first log-in for users, asking a few questions to customize Mint based on the user's level of knowledge and comfort with various Linux components. It currently asks if the user wants to enable or disable fortune-cookies in the terminal, and if the root account should be enabled or disabled.
  • MintUpload: An FTP client that uploads files to a server by right-clicking on the icons and selecting upload. The user will then be given a link he or she can give to other people for quick and easy sharing.
  • MintSpace: The larger sibling of MintUpload. Provides an additional 1 GB of storage space and files stay on the server for seven days (rather than 2 days).[9]
  • MintMenu: A python-coded menu that allows for fully customizable text, icons, and colors. It shares the same hotlinks to software as the Gnome main menu.
  • MintWifi: Drivers for quite a few wlan gadgets and mintWifi.py. Located in /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintWifi
  • MintNanny: A basic domain blocking parental control tool. Lets you manually add domains to be blocked system wide. This tool was introduced with the release of Linux Mint 6.[10]
  • MintMake: A command line tool that allows you to make .mint files for programs.

Software from the Mint repositories can be installed in Debian and Ubuntu as well through APT.

Comparison with Ubuntu

Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu and the two distributions have much in common. Both distributions use the same software repositories. For instance, release 6 (“Felicia”) uses the package pools of Ubuntu “Intrepid Ibex” (8.10). Most packages are the same on both distributions, and as of Linux Mint 6 'Felicia', each Linux Mint release is based on Ubuntu, whereas before they were based on the previous Linux Mint release.[11]

Most differences are on the desktop. Linux Mint has a stated focus on elegance, and it includes a number of applications that are not available in Ubuntu (see aforementioned Mint Tools). Support for popular sound and video formats are installed by default in Linux Mint's standard edition, but there is a "patent-friendly" version intended for the U.S & Japanese markets. Visually, the distro has some GTK+ themes not found in Ubuntu, and cowsay is enabled as of Mint 5 for terminal sessions.

Disputed political tones

On May 3rd 2009, the lead developer of Linux Mint, Clement Lefebvre, said he was touched by what was happening in Palestine and asked supporters of the Israeli government not to use or donate to Linux Mint. This was expressed as his own personal stance, but displayed on the official Linux Mint blog. He later apologized to the development team and to the community for the initial wording of his post and for posting it in the wrong place. [12] As requested by the development team and many people within the community, the post was rephrased and moved to his personal blog. [13] This incident caused some users to quit the project and others to join it. [14] [15]

On May 7th 2009, Clement Lefebvre posted in his personal blog to further explain his position. He refuted accusations of racism and anti-Semitism, and underlined that he was primarily opposed to cruelty and terror in the conflict between Israel and Palestine. He explained that he didn't blame citizens for their need of protection or their patriotism, but people, Israeli or not, who thought cruelty and terror should continue and for whom peace wasn't an option. [16]

On May 12th 2009, Clement Lefebvre said he hoped for peace in the Middle-East and expressed his support to Palestinians and Israelis who suffered from the conflict. [17]

Critical reception

One of the main things that Mint is praised for is its user friendliness and out of the box functionality.[18] It is often complimented for providing multimedia codecs and Adobe Flash by default, saving the user from having to install them. It has also been praised for the large variety of utilities (called mintTools) available for it, adding extra functionality via a GUI.[19] Linux Mint consistently ranks highly on DistroWatch, which tracks the popularity of various Linux and BSD distributions based on the number of daily page hits which each distribution generates. As of May 2009, Linux Mint was ranked 3rd.[20]

Criticisms of Linux Mint are that it does not support enough media formats commonly found on the web, and that it still has some features of Ubuntu that are undesirable, such as the screensavers that come with Ubuntu, which are claimed to be resource hogs.[21]

References

  1. ^ http://on-disk.com/product_info.php/products_id/612
  2. ^ UNetbootin
  3. ^ http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_felicia_whatsnew.php
  4. ^ Minor version number dropped
  5. ^ Linux Mint Debian edition - release notes
  6. ^ http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_felicia_whatsnew.php
  7. ^ Blueprint: “Integration with mintInstall”
  8. ^ mintDesktop in Launchpad
  9. ^ "MintUpload tutorial and integration with mintSpace". Retrieved 2008-04-01.
  10. ^ http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_felicia_whatsnew.php
  11. ^ http://www.linuxmint.com/blog/?p=560
  12. ^ http://www.linuxmint.com/blog/?p=775
  13. ^ http://eclelef.blogspot.com/search/label/Politics
  14. ^ http://www.linuxhaxor.net/2009/05/04/linux-and-politics-dont-mix-well/
  15. ^ http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2346637,00.asp
  16. ^ http://eclelef.blogspot.com/2009/05/personal-facts-mistakes-and-apologies.html
  17. ^ http://eclelef.blogspot.com/2009/05/middle-east-what-matters-most.html
  18. ^ http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1271263&seqNum=2
  19. ^ http://linuxbsdos.com/2008/05/12/linux-mint/
  20. ^ http://distrowatch.com/stats.php?section=popularity
  21. ^ http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1271263&seqNum=2

External links

Template:Xfce

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