Linux Mint 7 Gloria to reach end of life

Linux Mint 7 Gloria will reach end of life on October 23, 2010. This release was based on Ubuntu 9.04 which is planned to reach end-of-life at the same date.

Repositories will remain open for another while but no more updates or security fixes will be made available. Users of Linux Mint 7 Gloria are asked to migrate to Linux Mint 9 LTS Isadora (Long Term Release which will be supported until April 2013).

Announcement from Ubuntu: “As with the earlier releases, Ubuntu committed to ongoing security and critical fixes for a period of 18 months. The support period is now nearing its end and Ubuntu 9.04 will reach end of life  on Friday, October 23, 2010. At that time, Ubuntu Security Notices will no longer include information or updated packages for Ubuntu 9.04.

Note: Linux Mint follows the Ubuntu release cycle with a new release every 6 months, a lifespan of about 1.5 years per release and 3 years per LTS release. LTS stands for Long Term Support. Linux Mint 9 is both an LTS and our latest release.

Additional note: Many of our users started to use Linux Mint with Gloria. Number 7 was among our most popular releases and is currently run by 15% of our user base. It introduced Mint to a black and green Shiki theme which was kept in Linux Mint 8 and 9, and to numerous improvements to the desktop. Mint 10 Julia, which is to be released in November 2010, will bring a new theme to Linux Mint, and improvements in the same areas as Mint 7, in particular in the menu, and in the update, software and upload managers.

Upgrade instructions: To upgrade to a newer version of Linux Mint, please use this tutorial.

46 comments

  1. I tried updating my Mint 7 (dual boot with Vista) system to Mint 9 recently, but had an issue with GRUB. I had to reinstall Mint 7 to make the system usable again. Is there a way to update to Mint 9 and retain the GRUB from my Mint 7 install?

  2. Mint 7 is the olny version that was able to use my mobile broadband dongle sussessfully, a Huawei E220 on Vodafone contract. Has anyone had any luck getting this to work on newer versions, either 32 or 64-bit?

  3. BTW shouldn’t there be a GUI for updating to Mint 9? Those who decided to install Mint 7 did so when such a tool was available…

  4. Damn. Gloria was and is my favorite. Since 8, there have been several problems, either with internet access, GRUB or compiz.

  5. Pretty Gloria has grown old. 🙂 What a wonderful release.

    I just updated from Gloria to Helena last week and then from Helena to Isadora. Upgrading from Mint 7 to Mint 8 was very bumpy. The current packages are no longer safe to install unless people have experience with APT. After I upgraded from Mint 8 to Mint 9 the system simply got unusable with any of the provided kernels because the mouse and the keyboard could not be used at all. I fixed the newly upgraded system by choosing safe mode, continuing the upgrade progress from where it crashed. However, I didn’t like how the system behaved so I installed a fresh Mint 9, which works just great. My advice to you and everyone interested in migrating to Linux Mint 9 is to backup the home directory then perform a fresh install and restore the saved data. It’s easier, safer and much better regarding performance and stability. It’s worth the effort.

  6. I did the apt upgrade (as linked to by #5 – Jeffrey), and the only problem I encountered so far is that all of my desktop functions seem to be missing (ie – no desktop icons, and right clicking does not bring up the menu for things like changing the desktop background.) If anyone has any suggestions how to restore these functions, please advise.

  7. Peter, you could try just running Mint 9 off the live disk to check if you’re modem will work before you install to your harddisk.

  8. Thom > that’s actually a very common problem. It’s quite easy to solve though…simply delete the hidden “.gconf” folder in your Home directory (i.e. open up your Home folder, press CTRL + H to show all hidden files and folders, and delete .gconf). Logout, and log back in.

    Keep in mind that this will reset your background, icon sets, panels, themes, etc. back to default, as well as any settings you tweaked via gconf-editor, so you may want to back them up before deleting .gconf.

  9. When is Julia’s release going to be? Because it’d be nice if it was released before Gloria reaches end of life that way so those using Gloria will only need one update to be up to date when it comes out.

  10. I became a Mint user first with Gloria and it did get me hooked on Mint even if I quickly upgraded to Helena, switched to KDE and on Isadora now.

    From my experience, it is best to backup your /home (or have it on separate partition) and do a clean install of Mint 9. Although I did the upgrade path for Helena, the clean install overall worked much better. Yes it took a little bit longer, but I was happier with the results.

  11. Now that I just asked when Julia is going to be released I saw that it’s in November. I still stand by what I say that it should be released before Gloria gets end of life, even if that means pushing end of life to a later date.

  12. @awshidahak: I think what you don’t understand is that since Linux Mint is based off of Ubuntu, the Ubuntu developers get to determine the end of lifes for the Linux Mints.

    And an update to Linux Mint 9 is probably the most favorable, since it will be supported since 2013, while 10 will loose support in 2012.

    If people are still using Mint 7, then they probably won’t mind not having the bleeding features of 10 anyway, 9 will be more what they’re used to.

  13. I first became a user of Mint while “Elyssa” was the LTS. Sad to see Elyssa and Gloria go, but we now have Isadora, the next LTS. The releases just keep getting better and better – thanks to the wonderful Mint Development Team.

  14. awshidahak > That’s simply not possible. Ubuntu is the one calling all the shots here; they’re the ones that are cutting support for Jaunty (and thus Gloria), and since all security patches, bug fixes, and other miscellaneous updates all come from upstream Ubuntu, once Ubuntu stops sending out updates for Ubuntu Jaunty, Gloria will effectively reach “end of life”. The Mint team is simply too small to handle these tasks by themselves, and they’re busy enough preparing Mint 10 Julia as it is. I’d personally rather see the devs prioritize Mint 10 and keep on improving it, then have them focus on an old release (Gloria) that they won’t be able to maintain by themselves anyways.

  15. Sad. I still think Gloria had the nicest design and I’m still using it.
    And “end of life” does not mean that one can’t use it until November. It just means no more updates.

  16. I have old laptop they should jeep old ones alive as the old laptop probaly won’t run 9 or 10 and it diddent run 8 really well.

  17. Gloria, I felt sad when I left you because I was installing Helena
    and later, I had another girl in my life, Isadora, but as I am very
    fickle i am waiting for Julia. The only thing i can promise these
    Mint’s girls is their immortality as cute codenames for the editions
    of Linux Mint as well as excellent versions of operating systems.
    This is a virtual world. A world of computers where today is tomorrow
    and tomorrow is after tomorrow. Gloria is the past and we must accept it.

    Isadora is a LTS edition and a strong reason why users can stick with it longer.
    Like I said before I’m too fickle and have already started to wish
    Julia, lol…lol

  18. “# Peter Handley Says:
    September 28th, 2010 at 4:32 pm

    Mint 7 is the only version that was able to use my mobile broadband dongle successfully, a Huawei E220 on Vodafone contract. Has anyone had any luck getting this to work on newer versions, either 32 or 64-bit?

    I started with Gloria and it too supports the mobile dongle on my friend’s pc – I tried with version 8 and it did not work – I hope version 10 has built in support for these mobile dongles at least from vodafone for they are quite popular now.

  19. Mint is the best distro ever!! I am looking forward to Mint 10 and yes I do a fresh install every 6 months, and keep all my stuff on flash drive makes life soo easy.

  20. Id just go ahead and create a separate home partition, dont waste a lot of space on your root partition (no more than 20-30 gb) cause home partition is where most of your good stuff is at.

  21. My yesterday post was moderated and i don’t know the reason why?
    It did not contain any offensive or malicious content.
    It is very strange! Maybe out of context or anything else?

    Thanks
    Gloria was a very nice edition but it makes part of my past.
    Using Isadora (very good) and looking forward to Julia.

    Cheers
    Roberto

  22. I hope the new UI theme will be an improvement not an ugly step back like Ubuntu seem to have taken with successive releases. I do love Mints current theme and I dont get why Linux distros feel the need to keep changing the theme when there are more pressing issues to be addresses like lack of support for cameras and MP3 players

  23. I’m not sure that a policy of issuing a new version every six months is sound. Surely the purpose of issuing a new version should be to add SIGNIFICANT improvements not just a cosmetic facelift.

    I have a number of machines to upgrade but since they are all mine I don’t get a system admin’s salary to do it. In addition I use the machines to do real work so the prospect of reinstalling the peculiar combination of applications I require doesn’t fill me with enthusiasm.

    Like many, my first experience of MINT was Gloria and it was so successful that I installed it on every machine I operate (7 in total)
    Having all the machines run the same reliable, flexible OS is a big advantage. Do I want to spend a large proportion of my working life upgrading to the latest gizmos. Not really! What drives this continuous turnover. MS makes money out of it but what does the Linux community gain?

    I am a supporter of Linux and all things open source but an operating system is a means to an end. For me anyway, it isn’t an end in it’s own right.

  24. Will sadly miss Gloria because of no further updates 🙁 – she was rock solid, worked well, and looked great. Looking to the future, so I am in the process of updating my systems to Mint Debian.

  25. Gloria always installed on my various machines far easier than the 2 following versions. Need to install Mint Debian when it’s a little more mature

  26. Hi, I tried to install ‘Isadora’ as a Windows aplication, but the link to download the archives through Mint4win seems don’t work, simply no signal that some server is there, I hope you could correct for mint Lucid, thanks and keep up the good work

  27. I don’t know why my comment was deleted but I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed using Gloria and a big thanks to the Mint team.

  28. I used Linux for the first time with Gloria distribution – great!
    No problems, great layout, easy to install and rock solid.

    Lets see what the new distribution brings.

  29. I started w/ Gloria 32 bit and I must say it fascinated me. It was such a great introduction into the Linux world. I did move on from Gloria to upgrade each Mint release on the same PC (switching over to 64 bit). I think Gloria 32 bit offered the most compatibility for the PC I currently have of all the versions I’ve tried.

  30. Gloria is the distro that I entered Linux world with, after some dissapointments with earlier Ubuntu releases. I really love this distro and definitely it will always be one of my favourite distros since I joined Linux world. To me it was incredibly stable, and really eye appearing, even more than Mint 9 for example. There is always be that DVD box on my table, with Mint 7 gloria packed in…

  31. Gloria was my first foray into the Linux world and quickly converted me as it worked straight up. While I have since moved on to Isadora Gloria will always hold a special place for me, may she rest in peace.

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