New partnership with Mattel and Microsoft

We are happy to announce that Linux Mint entered in a joined partnership with Mattel and Microsoft. This partnership will result in Linux Mint being pre-installed  on a new range of computers sold throughout the World and in a number of toys and games distributors.

The partnership will introduce the following changes for our distribution:

  • All included components will be based on Mono. Technologies not using Mono will be rewritten or replaced by Mono alternatives.
  • All present editions will be discontinued. New editions will replace them, namely a “Masters of the Universe Edition” for boys, a “Barbie Edition” for girls, and a generic “Microsoft Professional Edition” for small to medium companies.
  • The default browser will be replaced by an emulation of Internet Explorer.
  • All editions will come without an office suite but with full compatibility with Microsoft Office.
  • Linux Mint won’t be available for download anymore, only through the purchase of one of these computers.
  • The system will protect users against central software sources, such as the getdeb website, APT repositories and the download of .deb formatted files.
  • APT and the .deb compatibility will be replaced with a new software manager including the latest offers from Microsoft. Users will be able to pay online for DLC without having to go to the shop to buy their favorite software.

On behalf of the team, I would like to say that I’m very excited about this. I have no doubt the community will be overjoyed by the news and I can’t wait for you all to finally see Linux Mint near you, in a retail store.

Oh… wait, it’s not going to be called Linux Mint anymore. It’s going to be called…. “April Foo OS” 😉

248 comments

  1. The trick was more effective before you put up the picture! 🙂 With the picture you don’t even have to start reading the text before you realise it’s a joke. It’s a wonderfully silly picture, though!

  2. eph man, eph! I was in shock for seconds, then remembered the date!!

    i was shocked till the barby thingie for girls, Don’t you ever do that again!!!

    lol

  3. You had me until the “All included components will be based on mono” thingy. The controversy of even having one mono based component makes me believe no distro will ever create a fully mono based desktop.

    By the way, the lines in which you still had me didn’t sound too bad, it would be neat to convince pc manufacturers to pre-install mint instead of MS Windows. Of course it would be even nicer if it didn’t require a deal with Microsoft.

    P.s. What’s Mattel?

  4. Wow, you got me! I got to the point where it said “Internet Explorer,” and I was like, “what?! Is this some kind of sick joke?”

    . . . and then I realized what day it was.

  5. Yeah, for a moment…..(whew!). Joke though it is, it was a wakeup call to remind me just how important open source is to all of us, and how valuable Linux Mint is to me. I’ll be making a donation when I upgrade my current LTS (Mint 5) to the next Mint LTS. Freedom is worth paying for, and Linux Mint has become an indispensable part of my business. Thank you all for your efforts and commitment – and for the wakeup call!

  6. That was… truly frightening…

    But actually, the details about Internet explorer and all that made sense. nasty Microsoft. Exactly what they’d do.

    Someone asked what Mattel is, it’s the Toy company that owns Barbie.

  7. Good one!
    It will be interesting to find out if the software manager provides you with Genuine (dis)Advantage.
    It’s a must to protect your computer against those pesky and unreliable central software sources.
    One can bet that it will take at least another year (1 april 2011) to try out the first CR!

  8. For a moment, reading the headlines, I thought not another OS…!!! Was thinking of finding alternatives to mint…, but after reading few more lines realized this could be joke… and thank goodness, it is.

  9. when i was reading this i was like omftwfbbq nooo it cannot be then when i read the last line i was like phew i thought its real

  10. I like linux Mint but M$crosoft parther… i dont like and IE for browser i wate that… finaly i understand is a joke… good 1 april

  11. Linux mint is AWESOME!!! This joke SUCKS!!! LOL!!! I was so busy working when I read this I took it seriously for a moment!

  12. That’s a great joke! However, I doubt that you could emulate Explorer, I mean, how do you add all those bugs & required reboots? 🙂

  13. …its a joke? :'(
    There was me getting my Grey Skull figurines ready for
    killing Barbie… *sigh*

    lol kidding, fair play Clem 😀

  14. That’s great news! It’s good to see Linux improving to a point where it becomes actually usable. 😉

  15. good one 😉
    i imagine how people are crying while reading their worst nightmares come true.. oh, i mean come april fool’s joke

  16. I am sure the new Mint line of Barbie will be a big success. Since they are not accustomed to a good OS you need MS to supply the bugs. Alternatively they can switch to Linux Pink!

  17. OMG i was like “whyyyyy would yo do that???? MONEY??” then i read the last line and felt very stupid lol. thank god!

  18. Very good, though it doesn’t seem to have got as many people as last year. Pity I was expecting it this time.

  19. Seriously, why are so many april fools in the Linux-world involving Microsoft? Fedora’s Newbie edition, this… Um, I suppose that’s not very many… But openSUSE’s Beego was pretty cute, I have to admit. Oh well. *Relurking*

  20. If you ever made an agreement with Microsoft (or apple frankly), I would be “unsettled” Just look at the fate of all who did such a foolish thing. Xandros, Linspire, Novell all made deals with MS and all have suffered.

  21. OMG I had just woken up and for a minute u fooled me again.I almost had my ubuntu disk in hand to change systems…..just kidding af.hahahaha.

  22. Don’t get too attached to that new desktop theme Clem!

    You had me going there for a while! Very funny… He He He!

    I’m sure my nephew and niece would love those editions though…Ha Ha Ha!

  23. Ehi guys!
    Do you want break my heart?
    For 4-5 minutes i don’t believed to my eyes!
    Microsoft? What… What…
    You’re crazy?!

    First april… 🙂

  24. I wouldn’t mind if all apps were in Mono, as I find C# to be the best programming language currently available.

  25. I still think we should go ahead with the “barbie edition” and the “masters of the universe edition” and all new releases of Linux Mint.

  26. oh guys,,,,,, i almost had a heart attack
    and im not even a heart patient
    great joke guys
    really a good one
    u had me going for until the last line
    I was thinking of how to make pirated copies of mint
    omg lol

  27. Oh C`mon Clem. That wasnt even remotely believable. Nice to see the Mint team atleast has a sense of humor tho.

  28. Yaaaaaaaakkkkkkk!
    Or am I living a nightmare or you want me to suicide …
    Barbie …?
    Where is my katana?
    I’d rather commit seppuku!

  29. I read the headline and thought ‘what the….!!! Then I noticed the date. Dont even joke about things like that.. it’s just too scary to contemplate. Just one criticism though – the Barbie edition is just not pink enough!
    April Fools everyone!

  30. Damn, i am one of those fools that allways, and i mean allways fall for these kind april first jokes…….hahahaha

  31. I was all ready to unloaded on Mint! And call them names. Not nice ones mind you. Then, duh! Good one indeed. You got me hook line and sinker!

    Neil M

  32. Funny… verrry funny.

    Actually, this was the one April’s Fool joke that got a laugh out of me today. Kudos.

  33. Not fooled for a minute. Tipoffs: author is Clem, it’s April 1. That said, wouldn’t it be just a great idea if the folks in Redmond rewrote the entire code base of Linux in object-oriented C++ for outstanding security and project management? Uh…I’m not a developer, but I read Coding Horror…

  34. I wonder if April Fools Day is just an American thing or a world wide thing. Imagine people in other countries taking this seriously and getting rid of Linux Mint. BTW you almost had me punked too.

  35. My God… I felt my heart rise to my throat as I read this. When I saw the “Linux mint won’t be availble for download anymore,I truly panicked. I quickly started wondering which distro I should use. Then I looked at the time in my tray and I saw the date. 😀

    Good one guys. You really had me going!!

    P.S. Don’t EVER really do that. 😀

  36. I tell u what^$&*^%^%&^%. you better be glad you went around me while I was reading that…. scared the crap out of me. At 1st I was like oh good they are going to get more money then it was WTF.. I could not finish it I had to scroll down and read what folks where saying about it… lmao

    U got me!!! well it looks like u got us all…

    I am so glad I am with a community that has a since of humour!!! 😛

  37. Could somebody pick up my jaw and eyeballs? I think I lost them!

    But really, you should try that!

  38. Where can we get this PC?? I love this edition of Linux Mint and my daugther want’s it installed on her computer (and mine too) 😉

  39. Damn!! Took me till 1/2 way through to wake up!!! Hahaha

    Well done you buggers!!

    Phew. Don’t give me a fright like that!!! Wahahaha

  40. Screw you!! I was almost blowing up in rage for a second!!! We are going to have to use IE???????????

    Then I saw the April fools day. Ugh, thank goodness its ending in a few hours.

    On a positive note, this joke beats Google’s name change.

  41. Had me until “Masters of the Universe” but my blood pressure was already soaring and “No… nooooooo!” was screaming in my head.
    Great gag.

  42. good joke!! Was just started to think about, how to replace Mint…
    but then realized the date 😉 Well done guys!!

  43. Ya got me. Read this and choked on my breakfast… It’s 10:00 P.M. Best fools day joke today. I gagged and am so happy it’s a joke. Very nicely done! Ha Ha Ha! Thanks

  44. I actually forgot what day it was @_@

    I was about to email a friend who also uses Mint.

    Though..the Masters of the Universe theme does have an appeal for me..since I grew up watching the show. Is there a chance of possibly seeing the creation of said theme?

  45. I was about to respond with “I’m outta here”, but halfway through reading that, I just happened to remember what day it was. LOL

    BTW, I played a little prank on my wife’s Windows XP laptop while she was at work but before I had to be at work. I downloaded the following, set it as her screensaver, and set the delay for 1 minute: http://jacenplace.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!95AC329D9A1B5184!354.entry

    What this does is it simulates the blue screen of death so perfectly that it’s even been known to fool I.T. professionals. She called me at work and asked me what I did to the laptop. I denied everything for a minute or two until I started giggling and finally told her “April Fool!” She was like “I’m gonna beat you!” LOL

    She demanded to know how to get it off of there, so I told her, and peace and order was restored (and I made sure it was before getting off the phone with her). But I was laughing so hard when she called that I cried, I thought it was so funny! LOL

  46. Microsoft and Mattel, in a joint partnership for Linux Mint ?
    No way!!!

    Worst of all, “an emulated version of IE”.

    I’d rather pour acid in my eyes, and be hung, drawn and quartered than to see this sad day come to fruition.

    You really had me going, I almost believed this article till I remembered what day it was. You got me, big time.

  47. I read the title and I might have thrown up a bit in my mouth..people gotta quit messing with me today..on DeviantArt, everyone’s avatars are from Twilight (eek) and all the signatures are messed up.

  48. I am a few hours ahead because of timezone difference so you got me really upset… when I read this after April 1. This is a good one. Cheers!

  49. maan this really got me. i was like f microsft the greedy pple, they have come to destroy mint. i never realised how much i liked mint and despised microsoft until i read this. when i got to the last line i was like few i still got my mint

  50. I personally think of Linux community as freedom fighters, and I was really shocked for a moment thinking they had given up. Thanks God it was April the first. Love Mint, Keep it up!!!!!!!!!!!!

  51. One thing Clem, for complete compatibility you will need the new OS take over a day to install (including applications) and it will have to take up at least 30GB of the hard disk space just like Vista!

    LOL thanks!

  52. Clem ! scared and fooled me. If there was no last line tag “April Foo OS” I was going to pull down/off babe Helena.

  53. Scared the crap out of me. I remember when Novell made their little deal with Microsoft and Myself and many others switched. It didnt help that KDE 4.0,4.1, and 4.2 were such bug ridden dogs at the time either. Linux Mint is the best.

    Also the Barbie theme isnt too far fetched. My 12yo sister uses linux mint extensively without any problems and she has her desktop setup similiar to that. Well minus the barbie background. Instead she has like some girly background with frilly stuff but still.

  54. Man! Here I am fixing to leave a post stating that I’m a total convert to Linux Mint from Ubuntu and that Linux Mint might be the greatest operating system that ever lived….and I got wrapped up in your jaw dropping announcement that had me yelling at my computer at the top of my lungs. April fools. Well, I guess I’m the fool.

    So back to my original intent: I’m going to shout it from the mountain tops, let it echo through the valleys! I love Linux Mint! It truly is elegance!

    Thanks guys and keep up the good work (and the jokes!)

    HJ :O)

  55. When I saw this I was having my morning cup of Joe and was like: WTF!!! No Fing way! Y’all almost caused this old fart to have a heart attack!

    Froggy

  56. HOLY CRAP! You had me for a second. I saw MONO on the first item and my heart sank. I was seriously going to format my hard drive and never look back. Then I read the next few and realized April Fools Day FOO’! Man, good one though.

  57. My wife ordered me to take Mint off her PC when she heard this.

    I knew it was a joke, but played her up a bit.

    Good one!!

  58. Great joke guyss…got me fooled n dat too even one day after april fool’s day.

    Well dont delete this post…let da world (n Microsoft, ofcourse) see how much we love linux mint.

    BTW how abt “G I JOE” edition for linux mint!!:)

  59. Excellent! Thanks, Clem, I needed that. I’m just glad I waited until after I’d been punked a dozen times already to read it. Much easier on the old ticker…

  60. Dang! I was already searching for Gparted to wipe the HD when I finally got to the April fooools. You should not treat an old man so lightly; my heart is still racing; I better take a nitro.

  61. When I saw the headline I thinked : “HOLY SH#¤%T”
    I read this on 2 april so I didnt realize that it was a joke @ first.

  62. Almost fainted. Put my jaw back where it belongs. My heart is also running again.

    Realized after reading a few lines that this was a joke. But reading about a joint venture of $soft and Mint was extremely disturbing at first.

    Don’t scare the hell out of me again, guys… ;o)

    Phew…

  63. GOSH!! I was munching something. I held my breath, stopped chewing, with wide eyes and absolute hopelessness was reading your post. and in my mind : “OH NO! OH NO! OH NO!”

    and a big breath in, a smile and thankful sigh of relief!

    heheheh good one clem.

    We love you and thank you for this wonderful gift in our lives.

    Cheers and best wishes from India

    Omkar Nisal
    Director,
    OTS Private Limited

  64. You know my first reaction when I saw the prelude to the merger news on the home page was to repartition my hard drive and reinstall Red-Hat but then I decided to read the rest of the story.
    After I thought about it for a while I realised that maybe Clem was going in the right direction.
    Think of all the kids who don’t know anything about computers.
    And for Clem to do it with Mattel is pure GENIUS!!
    But I think Clem left out the MOST IMPORTANT pieces of hardware that even supercedes whatever computer you might want and that is the KEYBOARD!!
    Here is a link to the perfect keyboard designed just for Barbie. Check it out at the following link.
    http://www.keyboardforblondes.com/keyboard_bigger.html

  65. Ok… holy… wow… breathe… the funny is starting to kick in… barely. I was starting to freak out for a second there; honestly I was to busy panicking from the headline to wrap my mind around it being the 1st of April yesterday or notice the picture at all… you got me good you (bleep).. Great joke, evil but great. Luv you brother.
    Now excuse me, I have to go clean the dookie out of my shorts.

  66. I’m downloading the new LM 8 xfce right now …thinking “glad I’m getting this before it goes away” & then saw the punch line…got me good.

    As Larry the Cable guy would say, “I don’t care where you’re from that’s funny”… Thanks for the good laugh!!

  67. I gasped and my mind was reeling with such thoughts as “you can’t do this” and “I can’t believe this”.

    Then I finished reading everything.

    You are BAD, BAD, BAD! LOL!!! Ya trickster! LOL!!

    (I’m sure glad it was a joke!)

  68. When I saw this i was omgwtf???
    ffffuuuuuuuu

    Then i saw the final line and burst onto laughter. Very good joke.
    I liked the Barbie mint menu, you could upload it and show it how to put it onto the Mint Menu. I’d love to install that to my little sister.

  69. Again… for a second or two… I forgot about April 1 and was sidetracked by the ‘Microsoft’ word. Not funny! Then again… very!

  70. Good one, I almost went and drowned myself is a C of Wine….

    I pulled one at work – put a notice up in the restroom:
    “Warning! Surveillance Camera In Use”
    Got a few reactions and a few giggles.

  71. Panic, disbelief was ready preparing insults, clem would have been a traitor, but wondered why distrowatch wasn’t announcing such bad news.

  72. Really funny!
    I didn’t realize it was a joke until I read
    “Internet Explorer emulator”. That is a perversion!!!
    Well done guys

  73. Oh god. I didn’t even see this until today (fail me >.>), but it scared me half to death until I got to the bottom!

  74. that scared me! yeah, that should be taken off the homepage soon, because it looks real- and its april 2.

  75. Wow. That was disturbing. I’m like, F***ing MS trying to buy out the little fish so they don’t have the competition. Yeah, I switched to Mint from Ubuntu, going back to 5.04 install cds. “Not available for dl?” Ok, something was up. My first thought afterwards was switching back to Ubuntu, or googling a new distro, or even WTF, make my own. I realize now the level of panic I experienced, the aspect of losing my favorite OS to date. I’ve gotten alot of people weaned off MS, thank Vista for that, and everyone I’ve weaned are definate fans as well. Kudos for messing with my head. 🙂

  76. Wow. I’m surprised so many got fooled by this. I read the headline and as soon as I saw Micro$oft I knew it was a joke. Didn’t even have to check the date of the post.

    But it was a good read anyway. And Clem, you have to do a Masters Of The Universe edition now or you’ll never hear the end of it. 😉

  77. Reading it April 3rd I had my shields down – omg! I had to double check the date! But than again, I’d love the “Masters…” theme. Greetings!

  78. DAMN! It was truly scary reading this especially when you didn’t notice the post date and had no idea what company Mattel was. I was thinking of switching back to Ubuntu for a minute…

    Well played, well played indeed! LOL

  79. DAMN!! man..u almost gave me a heart attack…i just switched from MS windows to Linux Mint…
    I was thinking of reinstalling using another linux distribution..LOL

  80. OMG!! I was about to throw up for a second there. That was cruel, funny, but cruel. Good job! =)

  81. I was actually shaking with anger until I saw the last line! That was so mean, it would’ve been more funny with just Mattel but the Microsoft thing just scared me! April fools -.-‘

  82. Cara, por um instante quase resolvi apertar seu pescoço com as duas mãos! O trabalho de vocês é maravilhoso. Sou fã do linux mint…. vamos deixar a ms no ramo dela, não é? Abraços a todos e aguardo ansioso pela 9 versão!

  83. # twinturbo Says:
    April 1st, 2010 at 8:42 pm

    seriously i would pay to have a “masters of the universe edition”
    this one alone is great.

    is it going to be available on the next edition ? commong guys that great

  84. You scared the .. out of me!
    I read it now, not realised that it was written before three days, and though “OMFG, they really wanna sell their souls to MS?” until i realised that it just was the Aprils fool at the last line 😀

    Good one, though.

  85. I was halfway through a fresh UBUNTU download by the time I got to the end of the article – not funny…

  86. HMG DON’T do that! That was mean! Here it is Easter morning and now I have to clean all the coffee off my key board, that I spit up!!!

  87. look at some of the reactions. Some did not even read the whole article and they comment they like the idea.. lol lol

  88. Fuck… Hell! My skin has turned to white. I thought: “Which fucking bastards!”. They sold their soul! I have believed it until you have
    written:
    “Oh… wait, it’s not going to be called Linux Mint anymore. It’s going to be called…. April Foo OS”

    Very good joke :-)))

  89. I read it now, and I was in real panic.
    You got me, seriously bad..
    I was totally Oh my Gosh!
    My heart jumped so high that I was really scared.

  90. u ever read something so crazy your brain tells u its B.S. but ur just not 100% sure. like the rest of us i was like “W.T.&^%$$%%%” lol good one

  91. i was stoned for a while… then i red the date..
    great joke.. but
    The barbie theme is not too bad, imagine with marvel comics…..amazing

  92. I am here thinking if you guys had gone mad! I was all confused; you almost blew my mind. You had me thinking what distribution will I convert to — perhaps ubuntu. Anyway, good one..but that’s not nice. You could end up giving someone a hart attack.

  93. o,0.

    i ate it, the whole section, really dindt look too much at the picure, i was just abuot to get really sick when i read the line abuot discontinueing the present line, and the chills, eww,”emulated internet explore” ew, Good one, you really made me shit my pants there :D. Sneaky micro soft A holes.

  94. Oh? Too bad I didn’t finish reading it earlier — already had several friends and myself switch to a different distribution since Linux Mint’s death was announced in this.

  95. Whoa! You got me all the way till the last line! Gotta hand it to you, this is better than all those April Fool’s jokes google posts every year

  96. damn clem xD, you got me.
    i was going to install ubuntu again, then i realised it was an april fool joke lolololol
    keep up with the great job with the distro.

    sorry if i have bad english xD

    greetings from nicaragua!

  97. WTF!!!

    You got me… Well, in Spain we don’t celebrate this day in April 1st, but in December 28th… So at first I had no idea of what were you talking about…

  98. Brilliant just come to Linux mint from ms and i think it is great, My heart sank. April fools day started in the United kingdom. Mint would be even better if i could get sound ?? keep up the good work.

  99. And of course, in the image Iexplorer have crashed, like a real Windows 8D.

    For me is not a problem an association with Mattel an MS, we can always get together to create another great Linux (Lemonmint?) with all the sources that the sale of Linuxmint have provided

  100. The days after 1st of abril
    Things left behind:
    Who is gonna be the the Linux Mint forum administrator?
    Who is gonna be in charge of making the Linux Mint newsletters?
    Who will replace Husse in command?

    Of course i am no candidate…

  101. por un momento me puse triste…pero gracias a Dios sòlo fue una gran broma !! saludos y mantengan el excelente trabajo.

  102. OMG, even after looking at the picture and only when i got to the bottom line i thought it was true! I for one would be going to another distro if it were ever to happen…. on the other hand i have only just read it so probably if I had read it on April 1st I would have clicked straight away :-S lmao.

  103. Hadn’t been to the site in a while and bam…I see this horrible headline about partnering with MS…I nearly spilled my coffee. It’s a good thing I read the article, and then read it all the way to the end. I was already wondering what distro I was going to install next.

    An IE emulation…the only thing in this world that could be worse than IE itself. I’m still laughing at how I fell for the joke. I literally felt my heart rate jump as I thought, “Great, another XandrOS…what’s the point of that?”

    Best and scariest April Fool’s joke I’ve encountered in years!

  104. It was a shivering moment, when I red the “news” about Microsoft, and Mattel.. sheeeesh…. I tought: what’s next? Debian-Microsoft-Apple-Fujitsu-Siemens?

  105. You are exited of the hand out you are going to get for ditching your principles. Microsoft is cutting the in to so called well educated people who cann’t ride up on by hand out.

    Red Hat, then came Suse, and …. and now our poor Little Mint gone top SLAVERY.

    Good luck guys.

    Lemon

  106. Linux Mint is simply GREAT. You will see people moving from Mac and Windows the day it works with Microsoft Office, Adobe Proffesional and Samba optmized as Mac has.

    Meanwhile keep yourself laughing and Mint in a VirtualBox.

  107. Hell wot??? I thought it was real. I got a downloading going(lxde) just about to stop it in torrents as I saw the name of microsoft…..

  108. I thought you sold your soul to the devil for a second. Got me. What is that oh my heart has just started back up.

  109. IS this really?? Then i cancell my download of Mint now! And go find other linux. Mints is buyed by microsoft! Buuu! You are the worst!

  110. Guys, I was late to the game and I just read that and today is April 7 and I thought OMFG and I had a heart attack and I lost all hope and I thought life was not worth living anymore and…

    …I looked at the date of the post.

    Boy, that was cruel! 🙂

    Seriously, keep up the excellent work and thank you.

  111. WTF… I thought – and then realized that it was a joke 😉

    Btw my 5 year old daughter would love that background – could you put it somewhere on your site – she uses Linux Mint – Yes!!

  112. That was mean, not funny at all. kind of reminds me of the time someone put a vote for palin sticker on my car.

  113. All included components will be based on Mono. Technologies not using Mono will be rewritten or replaced by Mono alternatives.

    I think my face did go Linux Mint’s green after reading that, hahahahahahahaha

  114. All games and other PC programms should run with linux system.
    It would be nice from the other microsoftpartners, that 5 years old and older games would run on linux. Sim city, civilisition ,stronghold and allthese “traditional” games should be available in a Linux version.

  115. As I was reading I went “HRRNNGG”,then I saw the ‘linux mint will not be available for download anymore’ and went “Wait a minute… WHAT’S THE DATE ON THIS ARTICLE… Darn it, got me.”

  116. Oh ! I too was shocked while reading the first few lines. For a few seconds, I thought “OK ! then LinuxMint is dead.”. Good God. I am saved. I can’t just let my desktop without Mint.

  117. Got me good. I read the first few lines and reached for my Ubuntu LiveCD to began wiping LM and loading Ubuntu. Decided to read those unbelievable words again and saw the last line. Thought I had been SCO’ed….

    One of me biggest fears is that M$ would find some way to get it’s grips on Linux one way or the other…thought the time had finally come…
    Off to go and spend the next few days downloading the latest linux distros and OS app source code, just in case something like this really happens…

    Reminded me how much I have enjoyed open source for the last 18 years…

    I am finally enjoying a good laugh now…

  118. i was already going to send an e-mail to the guy that convinced me to install linux mint instead of ubuntu… to tell him the ‘bad news’.
    it’s good I read the whole article
    ” It’s going to be called…. “April Foo OS” “

  119. I’m currently sourcing myself a newer more modern distro and as a first impression I gotta tell you I was authentically disturbed if not disgusted… I loved it.

    Your sense of humor sold me on at least giving Mint a spin.

  120. just seeing the name Microsoft anywhere near Linux Mint was enough to give me a bloody a coronary. Oh by the end ye olde blog post, I had gotten up out of my chair and was getting ready to stomp around and go back into PayPal and reverse my donation.

    Pretty damn good post! Clem – you deserve mighty big props.

    I think I am gonna go send you some more money.

  121. don’t do that!!!!!! i’ve been looking for a linux i could love, finally thought i found it, and then april roles around. Foo my @$$$$$. 🙂 good one though. just don’t ever do that for real. got to much control from other sources without handing the towel over to bill. thanks for a great OS.

  122. HS! I was like…WTF! Was getting madder by the second, continued reading and just when I was about ready to start my Flame Response…caught the fact that I had just been punked! lol

    Good one! You guys got me! That would have been my confirmation that the Apocalypse was truly at hand! ;o) Now, I have to go and take a Zanax…just to calm down. lol

    J

  123. I hadn’t been by the News page for a couple of weeks, so I was scrolling down, catching headlines…oh, this might be interesting…*click* Aw, no!

    Even though it has been almost two weeks since April Fool’s Day, this still has the great shock value for the unsuspecting! You got me good!

    And does Barbie look a bit – er- plump? Guess being a princess takes it toll…

  124. OK, I am very late for the joke, but it certainly worked on me. As my heart was sinking, sinking, sinking, I finally got to the punch line. Very funny! One of my worst nightmares almost came true.

  125. you had me for several seconds. It was like waking up from a nightmare, wow. It was wonderful having LinuxMint back as it is! A really successful joke!

  126. I’m running 3 versions of Linux. I got on Mint this morning and for a second there I thought I was going to have to reformat that drive.
    Good joke, MS sucks, Linux RULES!!!

  127. I almost yanked out my copy of gparted to wipe my laptop with! Good one guys although a bit distasteful to include the dreaded m/$ moniker. 😉 I’m with Kit…m/$ sucks…Linux rules!

  128. What the hell are u doing..? Then change the name also as “Microsoft Mint” .You are not eligible to use the name Linux . Surely , i will uninstall mint from my office, my home and and everywhere i see mint..

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