The Linux Mint Blog

There’s good and bad news about the boot sequence in the upcoming Linux Mint 8.

The Ubuntu developers implemented a new splash technology called xsplash which I find much more powerful than the older usplash. There’s a lot of underlying reasons involved in using xsplash but in this blog post I’d like to focus on the graphical part. The visuals produced by xsplash are nice-looking and it’s now easy to produce good-looking animations.

The problem in Ubuntu 9.10 and Linux Mint 8 though is that it is not possible to rely solely on xsplash and so it has to be used in combination with usplash. So when you boot the system you’ll see usplash, then xsplash, then GDM, then xsplash and then finally the desktop. We’ve made our usplash, xsplash and GDM artwork coherent and so did Ubuntu so even though the whole thing could be more integrated, that’s not a big problem for now and it still looks better than in the previous releases of both distributions.

The real problem is for users who like to customize their system. Xsplash isn’t a mature technology yet and it simply doesn’t take any configuration. It’s easy to tweak but it’s not themeable. To modify its looks you’ll have to modify the system files it uses and tell mintUpdate to ignore xsplash related package updates (this is a new feature in mintUpdate coming in Mint 8, so thankfully that’s quite easy to do).

Grub 2 replaces Grub and just as Grub wasn’t complete without its gfx-boot patch, Grub 2 isn’t complete without its new gfxmenu patch. According to some of the Grub developers though the patch is considered for inclusion and likely to be integrated soon. So the decision is for Linux Mint 8 to use Grub 2 and to wait for it to support gfx-menu.

That basically means our Grub menu will look more like this:

Than like this:

I know we got people used to nice boot menus in the previous releases and most of you will probably miss grub-gfxboot, but at this stage it makes more sense to stick to the official Grub branch and to patiently wait for them to support this feature.

GDM also comes with a lot of changes.

In brief, the boot sequence in Mint 8 is going to radically different than in Mint 7, with pros and cons compared to it, but overall with a general feeling of improvement. I hope most of you will appreciate it, if you’ve tried the RC of Ubuntu 9.10 you probably have an idea of what’s coming up. Unlike previous releases of Linux Mint, we’ll use the same technology than Ubuntu this time around and we’ll make our best to produce nice artwork for it.

I was recently contacted by a person called Graeme Cobbett. In his email he told me he got his Windows license refunded and donated that money to Linux Mint. Of course, as you can imagine, he felt pretty happy about it and he wanted to let people know how he did it.

So here’s his article on the topic. Good reading everyone!

Hello, my name is Graeme Cobbett. Today, I donated $112 to Linux Mint. But I didn’t fund this myself: Microsoft gave me the money. Here’s how I did it.

This is the story of how I bought a new notebook PC, replaced Windows with Linux and got a refund for the operating system I didn’t want. Not many people do that last bit about getting a refund, but perhaps you can too, if you have a calm attitude and persevere then it can be straightforward.

1. Choose your new computer.

Take a look at the vast array of new PCs on the market. Does the one you like come without Microsoft Windows? Unless it’s a netbook, probably not. Even if you do strike lucky, chances are it costs the same (or even more in some cases) than the equivalent with Windows. So you are probably kinda fixed with buying a copy of Windows you don’t want.

2. Don’t switch on your new computer yet!

You can only reject your software license if you do not use it. You’ll need to use another computer to do step 2:

3. Download Linux.

This one’s pretty easy. First, you choose what kind of Linux you want. I got Linux Mint because, being based on Ubuntu, it has a huge support base so you can easily Google for help. But unlike Ubuntu, it comes ready to play DVDs, music files and Flash files with no tinkering. If you use Windows to download your replacement operating system, the only tricky bit is that you have to use a special utility like Isorecorder to burn the file. (http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm).

4. Test Linux to make sure it works

You can do this on your new computer without starting Windows: just put your newly-burned CD or USB stick into your computer before you switch on. Not everything might work perfectly first time. For example, on my Dell Studio 1555, the sound didn’t work. So I just googled “Dell Studio 1555 Ubuntu Sound” and found a step-by-step fix which fixed things straight away.

5. Reject your software license

Have you ever read the Microsoft Windows End User License Agreement? It’s pretty scary what you commit yourself to. If you buy Dell, then as soon as you start Windows then you agree to a second set of scary software terms. So reject them. Email is probably the best way: unlike support phone lines it’s free, you can make your case concisely, and if your vendor makes an offer you have proof right in your inbox, so they can’t go back on their word. Don’t delay – for example, Dell like you to do this within 7 days. Here’s what I wrote:

“I do not agree to the terms of the Dell Software Licensing Agreement or the Microsoft Windows End User License Agreement.

“I confirm that I have not used any of the software, have not opened or broken the seal on any software packet and have deleted all preloaded or embedded software from my Dell.

“1. How may I promptly return the disks and other software items to you?

“2. How will you refund the cost of the software? I note that Windows Vista Home Premium retails at £133.96, Microsoft Works at £39.99 and Cyberlink PowerDVD at £39.99 today, which means a total refund of £213.94 is due.

“best regards”

6. Argue the case
I was all fired up for this bit. The article at http://www.linux.com/archive/articles/59381 covers your bases really well: I recommend looking there if your vendor tries to reject your request the first few times.

So, I was all ready for a pitched battle with Dell when they replied within 48 hours offering this:

“The software Cd’s can be returned to Dell.

“However, the refund for Cyberlink PowerDVD cannot be arranged as this software is already preinstalled on the system.

“The amount that would be refunded for  Vista Home Premium is £57.82+vat
and for Microsoft Works is £3.86+vat”

Brilliant! With tax, that adds up to about £70 (US$110), enough for me to overlook their nonsense about the DVD software. I made sure never to say “I accept your offer”, instead preferring “thank you for your offer. You may collect the CDs on [date].” Then, if they screw me around later, I can take them to court for full retail.

7. Gently persevere

So then comes the interesting bit. Dell arranged to collect the software from me but their collection agent didn’t show. Why would they? That’s going to cost them £70 ($110). They had me over a barrel, asking me to wait at home for a whole extra day. So I upped the “firm” factor with a message:

“On 27th August 2009, I wrote to you rejecting your software license terms. You wrote back on 31st August saying I could have a refund if I returned the software CDs.

“You offered to collect the CDs on 11th September. I lost a day’s work waiting at home for you to collect the CDs but you did not collect them. You have acknowledged this but not offered me an explanation.

“You now say I may not have a refund unless we arrange for you to collect the software CDs another time. I cannot afford to take another day off work, so I offered to post them to you. You declined my offer.

“I would like to give you another chance to make amends. Please grant me a refund now. If you are unable to do this, please send me a copy of Dell’s formal complaints procedure so that I may raise my complaint at the appropriate level.”

Dell knows that if I refuse a reasonable request by them then a small claims court will throw out any legal claim I make. So I played nice until they realised they would have to let me use regular post to send the CDs.

So eventually I got my refund. It took me 12 email exchanges in total, and Dell probably didn’t get a refund from Microsoft for the license. But I suspect that every time someone secures a license refund, it has a more than proportionate effect on the PC manufacturers’ next round of negotiations with Microsoft, gently loosening their tight monopoly grip on the operating system market.

8. Donate your refund to Linux Mint

Because you’re one of the good guys. Or just because you get a nice squidgy feeling from the idea that your the money you got back from your unwanted Microsoft software is keeping free, open-source software ahead of the game. Pat yourself on the back!

We’ve been very busy working on the upcoming Linux Mint 8 lately and I haven’t taken much time to communicate with the community, so here are some news of what is going on at the moment:

- The development of the LXDE edition never really started and so this edition is cancelled.

- Shane, the maintainer of the Fluxbox edition, had to focus on personal matters and is likely to be unavailable in the future. The maintenance of this edition might be delegated to another member of the team, to myself or to a new person in the near future, but in the meantime there will not be a Fluxbox edition of Linux Mint 7.

- A lot of new features and improvements were made for mintUpdate and mintInstall. Both tools are ready to be included in Linux Mint 8. Among other things, mintUpdate now comes with better error handling and the ability for the user to block particular updates based on the name of the package. The graphical interface was also enhanced.

- Linux Mint 8 will come with support for OEM installs.

- Drastic changes were planned for mintBackup and mintUpload and were partly implemented. Both tools are however far from being stable at the moment and so we might reduce the scope of these developments or include the old versions of these tools in the upcoming Linux Mint 8. For mintBackup, the ambition was to rely on rsync, for mintUpload it was to implement a brand new concept called an “Upload Manager”.

- I resigned and left the company I used to work for. To compliment the income generated by Linux Mint I also take part in contracting work based on the distribution itself. So in other words, I’m now working full time on Linux Mint and on projects based or related to it.

- The members of the team were asked to provide commercial support to customers buying it from Linux Mint, and are given the money generated through this activity. Although this isn’t enough for them to work full time on Linux Mint, it generates an income which helps them invest more time working on our project. So far, emorrp1 and husse joined in on that scheme. As we go along and as the overal income gets bigger, more money will be spent on the team and directed towards the people who are devoting their time to make Linux Mint better.

Now, with all I’ve said, you probably have even more questions than before I would like to apologize for being so silent and for not giving more frequent news. A lot is happening under the curtains at the moment… we’re all running as fast as we can and sometimes in different directions, when Linux Mint 8 comes out, I hope the work we’ve put in it will be worth it and that you’ll enjoy it a lot. As always we’re planning to release in the end of November. In the meantime I’ll try to give you more news update and I’d like to thank everyone for their patience.

Donations & Sponsorships:

Many thanks to the following donors and sponsors for financially supporting Linux Mint:

Donors:

• $600 (3rd donation), Philippe Lotz aka “alsaphil” (France)
• $150 (2nd donation), Alan D S. (USA)
• $100, Carl – Y. B. (Sweden)
• $100, Phillip N. (USA)
• $100, Marcos Scriven (United Kingdom) – http://www.aboxo.com
• $75, John Di Stefano (Canada)
• $50 (3rd donation), Gordon Hilliard aka “ghilly” (United Kingdom)
• $50, Serge-Etienne Parent (Canada)
• $50, Rev. Bernard Quinn aka “Chiff” (Australia)
• $50, Tim L. (USA)
• $50, Hawkeye_52 (USA)
• $50, Peter S. (Australia)
• $50, Wayne W. (Canada)
• $45, Jason A. (United Kingdom)
• $45, Pau Carre Cardona (Spain)
• $44, Oerpen T. (Germany)
• $41, Ronnie Rosenqvist aka “DrRP” (Sweden)
• $40, Mary M. (USA)
• $39, Jean-Paul Genette (Belgium)
• $37, Manuel F. (Portugal)
• $30, Marvin W. (USA)
• $30, Daniel W. (World) – http://www.downloadstube.net
• $28, Dewi P. (World)
• $28, Soulakellis K. (Greece)
• $28, Frantisek Sofka aka “peso00 ” (Czech Republic)
• $28, Francisco C. C. (Spain)
• $28, Christoph H. (Germany)
• $28, Joakim R. (Finland)
• $26, Haynes J. aka “Wi11i@m” (USA)
• $25, Norman Skiba aka “GrayWizardLinux” (USA) – http://www.k-9training.us
• $25, Douglas A. (USA)
• $25, Jan Z. (Sweden)
• $25, Mark B. (Australia)
• $25, Rich Hladky (USA)
• $25, M H R. (Australia)
• $25, Jay Stewart aka “jag1182″ (USA)
• $25, Denys F. (Canada)
• $25, Ronald T. (USA)
• $22, Steven Rattray (United Kingdom)
• $20, Ricardo Calimanis aka “linux.nyx” (Brazil) – http://goetti.blogspot.com
• $20, Mark C. aka “geekman” (USA)
• $20, Jay Butcher (USA)
• $20, Chris Kemp-Jackson (Canada)
• $20, Andrew A. (USA)
• $20, William R. (USA)
• $20, Dalibor Saula (Australia)
• $20, Jens B. (USA)
• $20, Finn-Erik H. (Norway)
• $20, Tim C. (United Kingdom)
• $15, Nigel Dyer aka “NigelDyer56″ (United Kingdom)
• $15, Jim H. (United Kingdom)
• $15, Russ W. (World)
• $14, Stephen M. (Ireland)
• $14, Lasse H. (Finland)
• $14, Marek Polasek (Czech Republic)
• $14, Mikkel M. (Denmark)
• $14, Lee Sturman aka “Hammerlee” (United Kingdom)
• $14, Holger F. (Germany)
• $14, Enrique O. (Spain)
• $14, MJH van der W. (Netherlands)
• $11, Nick Koumaris (Greece) – http://www.lightrap.net
• $10 (2nd donation), Douglas S. (USA)
• $10, Scott M. (USA)
• $10, 室津 恵三 (Japan)
• $10, William S. (World)
• $10, John C. (USA)
• $10, Troy C. (USA)
• $10, Michael N. (Sweden)
• $10, Zoran (USA)
• $10, Serguei S. (Russia)
• $10, Adnan C. (Germany)
• $10, James G. (USA)
• $10, Kevin C. (USA)
• $10, Grzegorz G. (Poland)
• $10, Leonardo S. (USA)
• $10, Garrett H. (USA)
• $10, Christopher B. (United Kingdom)
• $10, Ryan J. (USA)
• $10, Raphael C. (USA)
• $10, Matt E. (USA)
• $10, Karthikanand K. (United Kingdom)
• $7, Florian G. (Germany)
• $7, Evzen H. (United Kingdom)
• $7, Isabel F. (Portugal)
• $7, Motta L. (Italy)
• $7, Ralf S. (Germany)
• $6, Loonie Bazaar (Canada) – http://www.looniebazaar.com
• $5, Havary Camara aka “justflea” (Brazil)
• $5, Kris Occhipinti (USA) – http://www.bashscripts.info
• $5, Stephen B. (USA)
• $5, Daifallah A. (Saudi Arabia)
• $5, Khuong D. N. (United Kingdom)
• $5, Tobias H. aka “bisato” (Germany)
• $5, Mateus H. (Brazil)
• $5, Eaves L. (USA)
• $5, Enrico Galli (Italy) – http://www.egw.it
• $5, Lubos Rendek (World) – http://www.linuxconfig.org
• $5, Marcus H. (USA)
• $5, Michael K. (USA)
• $5, Slavoljub M. (Norway)
• $3, Nils K. (Germany)
• $3, Mohd Z. (Malaysia)
• $2, Lubomir J. (Czech Republic)
• $1, Jaime M. (World)
• $1, B F (Suriname)

Sponsors:

• $105, R1Soft – http://www.r1soft.com/tools/linux-hot-copy/?ls=linuxmint
• $75, John Ritchie (Aging Technogeek – USA)
• $45, Linux Compatible Poker (USA) - http://www.linuxcompatiblepoker.com
• $40, Az Van (newW2 – USA)
• $25, American Broadband Family of Companies (USA) – http://www.americanbroadbandservice.com
• $20, TOPIMMOBILIEN (Tim – Germany) - http://www.immobilien-es.com
• $20, Scott P. (USA)
• $15, Russ W.
• $11, cheap vps hosting – http://www.neosurge.com
• $10, Stitz Computers, LLC (USA) – http://stitzcomputers.com
• $10, Rechtsberatung, Steuerberatung, Internetrecht (Tim) – http://www.rechtsundsteuerberatung.de
• $10 Gustav Holm (Sweden) – http://gustavholm.com
• $10, Brandon P.
• $7, Unixmen – http://www.unixmen.com/
• $7, Panagiotis Papasaikas (Greece) - http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/ppapasai/
• $7, Jesse Burroughs (JpBя – USA)
• $5, linuxmint-fr.org (ludal – France) - http://www.linuxmint-fr.org
• $5, linuxmint-italia.org (Pietro Martino / prior123 – Italy) - http://www.linuxmint-italia.org
• $5, Sohier C.
  
• $5, Christopher D.
• $5, DLX Company (USA) – http://www.dlxcompany.com/
• $5, Stuart C.
• $5, Paul S.
• $3.5, Ian Egland (Echolynx – USA)
• $2, Joerg Dreckmann (Germany)
• $2, Funkelectric (Spain) – http://www.funkelectric.com/
• $2, NVISN TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS AND CONSULTING (USA) – http://www.nvisn.com/
• $2, Ryan Lewon (vt102) – http://vt102.com/
• $2, Scott M.
• $1.5, Farbyte (UK) – http://farbyte.com
• $1, very-clever.com - http://www.very-clever.com
• $1, Busybits - http://www.busybits.com
• $1, linboo.com - http://www.linboo.com
• $1, Expert Bookings - http://www.expert-bookings.com
• $1, Cyprus Property (Cyprus) – http://www.leptosestates.com/
• $1, Недвижимость на Кипре (Cyprus) – http://www.leptos-estates.ru/
• $1, Cyprus Resale (Cyprus) – http://www.cyprusresaleproperties.com/
• $1, Prasad S.R. (India) – http://saysprasad.wordpress.com/
• $1, Surf in Peace (UK) – http://www.surfinpeace.co.uk/
• $1 Jakub Jasiulewicz (Poland) – http://jasiulewicz.pl
• $1, Erin G.
• $1, Greg Flynn (South Africa)
• $1, Liquidvps.net – http://www.liquidvps.net
• $0.9, Michael K.
  
• $0.5, Martijn van Loon (aapiethaaap – Netherlands)
• $0.5, Nottingham web design (UK) – http://www.drawmyattention.co.uk/

Money raised in August:

* Donations: $2951 (105 donors)
* Sponsors: $481.9 (46 sponsors)

http://www.linuxmint.com/donors.php
http://www.linuxmint.com/sponsors.php

User Stats:

Repartition of Linux Mint users across releases:

• Linux Mint 7 Gloria: 78% (+3%)
  
• Linux Mint 6 Felicia: 14% (-1%)
  
• Linux Mint 5 Elyssa LTS: 6% (-1%)
  
• Linux Mint 4.0 Daryna: 3% (-0%)
  

Web Stats:

• Visits: 1,981,352 (+6%)
  
• Pageviews: 3,409,953 (+2%)
• Page impressions: 1,363,287
• Search queries: 4,423,092
• Forum users: 21,397
• Forum posts: 184,959

Rankings:

• Distrowatch (popularity ranking): 1304 (3rd)
• Distrowatch (traffic share): 4.1% (2nd)
• Alexa (website ranking): 27,745th

Events:

• Linux Mint 7 Gloria XFCE was released: http://www.linuxmint.com/blog/?p=1026
• mintCast released 2 episodes of their podcast: http://mintcast.org/

Summary:

• September 2009 was the (7th consecutive) best month ever since the creation of Linux Mint.
• The overall income is up 10%.
• Our user base is the second largest in the desktop Linux market.
• The community support is outstanding: 105 people donated last month for a total of $2951 and our sponsors raised $481.9.

I’d like to thank all the people who sent us feedback during the recent development of mintInstall. We’re still happy to receive ideas and suggestions at this stage, but we’re also getting close to a usable product. Because the number of changes was so great and because I know many of you are interested in running this newer version, I decided to publish DEB packages for this beta of mintInstall.

Here’s how the interface looks:

To install this application, you first need to install a DEB package called “mintinstall-data”, and then another DEB package called “mintinstall”. Both packages can be downloaded at this address:

http://github.com/linuxmint/mintinstall/downloads

Give us your feedback, don’t hesitate to report malfunctions or ideas for further improvements.

This is already the 3rd blog post about mintInstall so we’ll move to something else after that. If we have the time, we might go down the same feedback/dev_iterations process for mintUpdate.

To tell you the truth, I had plans to work on the OEM installation and on mintBackup at this stage of the release cycle (I’m still hoping to work on these before the release of Mint 8). I thought I was done with mintInstall and I was quite happy with the improvements made so far. But the feedback I got from my initial post was good, constructive and I just couldn’t ignore it.

So I decided to make the jump and to give mintInstall the ability to install multiple applications at a time. There’s also going to be a “View” menu with the ability to choose the visible columns, and I’m also planning to make changes in the application view, but the main thing here, is the fact that you can now see what’s installed, and click apply after a series of additions/removals. The GUI is dramatically changed because of this.

So here it is:

As you can see, the little colored squares indicate the status of the application. They tend to follow the aptitude classification (”i” for installed, “p” for available). Because of the nature of the Mint files, some rare ones are “special”, which means that when you install/remove them, the change is done immediately, not when you click apply.

I’m happy with the overall look but I’m aware of the fact that certain elements can be confusing, so I’m asking for feedback once again and hopefully with your bright ideas we won’t only get these great features, but also an intuitive and elegant interface to go with it.

We have a new logo for the KDE edition of Linux Mint:

The SVG source is available on the Linux Mint Artwork Portal.

Congratulations to the artist, Henrique Perticarati, for the fantastic work he’s done on this logo.