The Linux Mint Blog

Reviews and interviews related to Linux Mint are now tracked on the website: http://www.linuxmint.com/reviews.php

A list of download mirrors was published and we’re also starting to mirror the repositories. There was a period of downtime a few days ago and while our server was down we were unable to provide users with an alternative way of contacting our repositories. We’re hoping to solve this issue by providing users with repositories mirrors and a list kept up to date at the following address: http://www.linuxmint.com/mirrors.php

Finally, the screenshots were updated to show Linux Mint 7 and changes were made to the donors and sponsors pages to better explain why we need donations, what sponsoring is, and how it works.

The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 7 “Gloria” x64.

Quick steps:

• Download the ISO or the torrent.
• While it’s downloading look at the videos and the overview of the new features in Linux Mint 7, read the User Guide and make sure to quickly go through the known issues.
• After the ISO is downloaded verify the MD5 (as described in the user guide).
• Burn the ISO at low speed and enjoy Linux Mint 7 x64.

Introduction to Linux Mint 7 x64:

This x64 edition of Linux Mint 7 is almost identical to the Main Edition but compiled for 64 bit processors (Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Core 2 Quad, AMD Athlon X2 64 and all x86-64 compliant processors). It comes with all the improvements featured in Linux Mint 7 Gloria Main Edition.

System requirements:

An X86_64 64 bit processor (Intel Core 2, AMD X2 64, etc…) .

A minimum of 512MB of RAM is recommended. Once installed the system works fine with as low as 256MB RAM. The installation process deals with 2.5GB of data compressed on a 700MB CD and it can hang or fail on systems with less than 512MB RAM. If you have between 256MB and 512MB RAM you may have to try to install several times.

Important information and known issues:

For a complete list of known issues read the Release Notes.

The root password is now set as the same as the one chosen during the installation. A blog post will follow to explain why and how this was implemented.

If you’re using Mint tools in other distributions, make sure to turn off the adjustment system by editing /etc/linuxmint/mintSystem.conf.

Download Linux Mint 7 x64:

You can download Linux Mint 7 x64 via torrent or via HTTP:

Size: 694MB LiveCD
MD5Sum: 87a2c48f43f83278f37cd547be74ea74

Torrent download: http://www.linuxmint.com/torrent/LinuxMint-7-x64.iso.torrent
HTTP download: http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=41

Europe:

• http://mirrors.cytanet.com.cy/linux/mint/stable/7/ (Cyprus)
• http://ftp.klid.dk/ftp/linuxmint/stable/7/ (Denmark)
• http://ftp.cc.uoc.gr/mirrors/linux/linuxmint/stable/7/ (Greece)
• http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/linuxmint.com/stable/7/ (Ireland)
• http://cesium.di.uminho.pt/pub/linuxmint/stable/7/ (Portugal)
• http://ftp.df.lth.se/pub/linuxmint/stable/7/ (Sweden)
• http://mirror.sov.uk.goscomb.net/linuxmint.com/stable/7/ (UK)

Northern America:

• http://mirror.amarillolinux.com/linuxmint/stable/7/ (USA)
• http://mint.ez.by/linuxmint.com/stable/7/ (USA)
• http://linuxmint.secsup.org/stable/7/ (USA)
• ftp://mirrors.secution.com/linuxmint.com/stable/7/ (USA)

Rest of the World:

• http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/linuxmint/stable/7/ (Australia)

Order Linux Mint 7 x64 on CD/DVD:

Our partner on-disk.com ships Linux Mint 7 x64 Worldwide for as little as $10. They also contribute $5.41 to Linux Mint for each CD/DVD sold.

Linux Mint 7 x64 can be purchased as a liveCD/DVD, as a virtual machine or as a live media (Flash/SD/CF) from here (select 64bit when choosing the “Computer type”):

• http://on-disk.com/index.php/cPath/28_153_340

Upgrade instructions:

To upgrade to Linux Mint 7 x64 from Linux Mint 7 x64 RC1, launch mintUpdate, enable the “dist-upgrade” option in the preferences window and refresh the list of upgrades. Make sure to apply all level 1 and level 2 upgrades.

An upgrade path for Linux Mint 6 “Felicia” x64 users will be published in a few days.

Enjoy!

Have a lot of fun with “Gloria” and let us know what you think. Reviews will be answered and your feedback will be used to improve the distribution before the next release. We hope you enjoy this release as much as we enjoyed making it and we wish you a very nice experience with Linux Mint.

Our repositories are unavailable at the moment. We’re working on the issue and we’re hoping to have them up and running again in a few hours.

Sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

Edit: It was just a little glitch with the server. The repositories are working again.

Following his review of Linux Mint 7 Gloria, I got to talk to Erlik and we had a little interview:

http://www.tech-no-media.com/2009/06/interview-with-clem-from-linux-mint.html

Happy reading everyone.

Gloria was reviewed by Erlik from tech-no-media:

http://www.tech-no-media.com/2009/06/taking-gloria-out-for-spin-review-of.html

Happy reading everyone.

Comments:

Erlik wrote: “after about a minute I am in front of a very nicely designed login prompt with a 10 second countdown to login. Maybe they should have made the CD autologin faster, as the wait could worry newbies.”

–> This autologin usually happens fast and in the background so most people don’t see it. On slower machines the login process isn’t fast enough and GDM has enough time for you to see the prompt. It’s a minor annoyance that we should get fixed upstream.

Erlik wrote: “No network connection however. I have a look in the start menu for help: the menu is very Windows like and the control center easily accessible. The hardware driver applet tells me that I will need to download a legacy driver for my Broadcom wireless adapter.I am not too surprised as I know from my old Mint 3.0 installation that this adapter is badly supported on Linux.”

–> Broadcom wireless chipsets have always been troublesome. The Hardware Drivers application is designed to pop up 60 seconds after you’ve logged in. It’s an upstream application so I’d have to check in the code to make sure it’s designed to start automatically on the live session as well.

Erlik wrote: “There is a welcome screen waiting for me: I am offered the option to see the new features of Linux Mint 7.0, download a pdf manual or visit the Linux Mint forums. These are very good starting points for users new to Linux.”

–> We got some feedback from a review made on Linux Mint 6. The review was extremely positive but the reviewer was confused by mintAssistant and found it disturbing to be asked about a root password and the activation of fortunes in the terminal. He had a point and we decided to throw mintAssistant in the bin and to start with a new application. MintWelcome doesn’t try to mix everything, it just welcomes new users. A lot of people were unaware of the User Guide, the Release Notes or even the new features so such an application was needed. As for the root password and the fortunes in the terminal, they had to be implemented in a different way. Fortunes are activated by default and we’re planning to patch the Ubiquity installer in the future to ask the user whether to disable them or not (probably in the “advanced” section, or in a new “options” section). The root password is activated by default and set to be the same as your own password. For this as well we’re thinking of patching the Ubiquity installer.

Erlik wrote: “There is also a message appearing on the screen to tell me that a new restricted driver is available.The driver applet is also present in the system tray, just where a Windows user would expect to find it. I click on this driver applet and the missing wireless driver is flagged for my attention. I click activate, enter my password and the missing driver is installed automatically. I enter my wireless access point name, disable and enable networking and then I am connected through Wifi: all my hardware works! I tried to suspend and wake up the machine and this worked flawlessly too.”

–> Credits go to Ubuntu on this one. They designed the hardware drivers application and made it extremely easy for people with exotic hardware to get the proper drivers installed on their machine.

Erlik wrote: “The first thing that strikes you when starting Linux Mint 7.0 is how the design is polished. Not only is the theme and wallpaper superb, but everything seems to be just where someone straight out of the Windows world would expect it to be. Although this is no Windows copycat, it is much easier to get used to immediately than Ubuntu.”

–> The look and feel was built around a popular theme called “Shiki” and the “Mint Dew” wallpaper made by Zwopper one of the artists from the Linux Mint community. There is no intent to make Linux Mint look like Windows but we also use ideas and copy them from other operating systems when they seem good to us, no matter where they come from. Ease of use is important to us and I think it’s important to Ubuntu as well. In my opinion, both distributions make an easier desktop to use and maintain than Microsoft Windows.

Erlik wrote: “One thing that is very different from Ubuntu is the start menu: it looks like an improved version of Windows start menu. On the left pane you have shortcuts to important places like your home folder, the software installation applet, control center, command line (terminal) and quit button. On the right pane you have either your favorite applications or a start menu. This is a good design decision, as it allows users that just want to surf, email and play music to do that without having to search for the proper application, but at the same time all the other applications are only a button away.”

–> The concept behind the Linux Mint menu is for the user to be able to perform as many tasks as possible (both simple and advanced) in the most confortable and trivial ways. It’s not only geared towards novice users but also towards experienced ones. From the menu you can launch applications of course but you can also remove them, search for or install new ones, set them to run automatically when you log in… etc. Initially mintMenu was a fork of a project called USP which itself was inspired by SUSE’s Slab menu. Windows also has an advanced menu, particularly since the release of Vista, and although it shares similar features with mintMenu (filtering for instance) it’s extremely different in both its layout, what it lets the user achieve and how one can interact with it.

Erlik wrote: “Given how good Linux Mint is why would you install anything else? Well, there are a few caveat. First Linux Mint does not have a big support corporation behind it like Ubuntu. This means that it is more difficult to purchase paid support and that there is no software shop where you can purchase commercial applications like PowerDVD for Linux.”

–> This is very true. In brief, Linux Mint is still a very small project and it lacks the resources and structure necessary to offer adequate paid support. In comparison to Ubuntu, Linux Mint cannot support big corporations. We also recently stopped to offer paid support to small companies and individuals as our current structure wasn’t fitted for this activity and we could not guarantee satisfying response times.

Erlik wrote: “The second point is that there is no “one click upgrade” option right now, although I think that the Mint developers are working on a solution for that.”

–> Well, I both agree and disagree on this. First, let me agree on the fact that upgrading Ubuntu isn’t only easy it’s actually trivial. Upgrading Linux Mint is easy as well, we’ve got a graphical upgrader for that, and although it goes through a few more steps than its Ubuntu equivalent, it does the job. What’s important though, is that upgrading a system like Ubuntu or Linux Mint is risky and that users who aren’t experienced with APT, Xorg, kernel modules and so on can end up with a broken system that they’re unable to fix. In that regard both Ubuntu and Linux Mint need to work on the issue as it’s not enough to make the upgrade path easy, the risk has to be communicated to the user and proper workarounds, restoration paths, “plan B”s, or whatever will make this operation 100% safe will have to be implemented.

Erlik wrote: “The Final point is that the inclusion of multimedia codecs in the main edition could bring some users into legal a gray area in some countries, however a version of Mint without the codecs, the universal edition, is also available for those users.”

–> The choice is made by the user at download time instead of post-installation as it is the case in Ubuntu.

Erlik wrote: “If Linux Mint continues to provide such high quality releases I may well switch back from Ubuntu by the time of the next Long Term Support release.”

–> We’ll sure try

The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 7 x64 Gloria RC1.

Quick steps:

• Download the ISO or the torrent.
• While it’s downloading look at the videos and the overview of the new features in Linux Mint 7, read the User Guide and make sure to quickly go through the known issues.
• After the ISO is downloaded verify the MD5 (as described in the user guide).
• Burn the ISO at low speed and enjoy testing Linux Mint 7 x64 RC1.
• Report bugs on the dedicated forum thread.

Introduction to Linux Mint 7 x64:

This x64 edition of Linux Mint 7 is almost identical to the Main Edition but compiled for 64 bit processors (Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Core 2 Quad, AMD Athlon X2 64 and all x86-64 compliant processors). It comes with all the improvements featured in Linux Mint 7 Gloria Main Edition.

System requirements:

An X86_64 64 bit processor (Intel Core 2, AMD X2 64, etc…) .

A minimum of 512MB of RAM is recommended. Once installed the system works fine with as low as 256MB RAM. The installation process deals with 2.5GB of data compressed on a 700MB CD and it can hang or fail on systems with less than 512MB RAM. If you have between 256MB and 512MB RAM you may have to try to install several times.

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.

The upgrade path from Linux Mint 6 x64 will be finalized for the stable release.

Feedback and bug reports:

Please report any bug you may find via the Linux Mint 7 x64 RC1 Bug Thread and give us your feedback on this release by posting a comment right here on the blog.

Download Linux Mint 7 x64 RC1:

You can download Linux Mint 7 x64 RC1 via torrent or via HTTP:

Size: 694MB LiveCD
MD5Sum: 2bbef299edcdbdc17f9ace19b5f8d24d

Torrent download: http://www.linuxmint.com/torrent/LinuxMint-7-x64-RC1.iso.torrent
HTTP download: http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=41

Europe:

• http://cesium.di.uminho.pt/pub/linuxmint/testing/ (Portugal)
• http://mirrors.cytanet.com.cy/linux/mint/testing/ (Cyprus)
• http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/linuxmint.com/testing/ (Ireland)
• http://mirror.sov.uk.goscomb.net/linuxmint.com/testing/ (UK)
• http://ftp.klid.dk/ftp/linuxmint/testing/ (Denmark)
• http://ftp.cc.uoc.gr/mirrors/linux/linuxmint/testing/ (Greece)

Northern America:

• http://linuxmint.sourcemirrors.org/testing/ (USA)
• http://mint.ez.by/linuxmint.com/testing/ (USA)

Rest of the World:

• http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/linuxmint/testing/ (Australia)

Enjoy!

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

A call was made on the forums to all artists within the community. The goal is to produce promotional materials for Linux Mint:

Linux Mint is becoming an important project and so it’s time for it to get good promotional material and to give people the means to efficiently promote it. In comparison to other projects, we’ve made almost no efforts at marketing Linux Mint. I guess you’re all aware of the marketing campaigns lead by Microsoft and Apple, and we can also appreciate the quality of the material provided by projects such as Fedora and OpenSUSE. Our desktop is among the best available, we’re growing fast and it’s been done with people talking to people and our popularity slowly spreading from ear to ear [...]

If you want to take part and help producing marketing/promotional materials, please visit this forum thread: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=26870