Linux Mint is an operating system for personal computers, focusing on elegance. While Mint is mostly based on (and compatible with) Ubuntu, the design of the user interface is considerably different. 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.).
- 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.
Branches
Like many other Linux distributions, Linux Mint is available in different test versions or "branches". The branch with the newest features, or "unstable branch" of Linux Mint, 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
- Main Edition: The Main Edition of Linux Mint provides a GNOME desktop with multimedia codecs which fit on a single CD.
- x64 Edition: A 64-bit edition designed with the goal of being as close to the Main Edition as possible.
- Universal Edition: Some of the codecs in the Main Edition are not freely redistributable in some parts of the world. For this reason, users who live in countries where the legislation doesn't allow them to use or distribute the Main Edition have access to a Universal Edition of Linux Mint. The Universal Edition is a copy of the Main Edition without any patented or proprietary component.
- KDE Community Edition: Linux Mint also provides a KDE Edition (mostly for individual users). The Gnome desktop is replaced with KDE. The default selection of applications is different and this edition usually comes with more software. The KDE edition doesn't necessarily fit on a CD and can be available as a DVD download.
- XFCE Community Edition: An attempt to create a version easier on system requirements. The GNOME desktop is replaced with Xfce as the default desktop environment.
- Mini Community Edition: Linux Mint using GNOME and Openbox to provide a lightweight, fast, and small mint environment.
- Fluxbox Community Edition: An extremely light and fast alternative to GNOME using Fluxbox as the window manager. It can be used on a Live USB as a bootable environment.
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, based on Wubi for Ubuntu.
Releases
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.
| Color | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Red | Old release; not supported |
| Yellow | Old release; still supported |
| Green | Current release |
| Purple | Test release |
| Blue | Future release |
Fluxbox
| Version | Codename | Edition | Code Base | APT Base | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.0 | Daryna BETA 028 | Fluxbox CE | Daryna 4.0 | Gutsy | 3 Jan 2008 |
| 5 | Elyssa | Fluxbox CE | Ubuntu Hardy | Hardy | 21 Oct 2008 |
GNOME
| Version | Codename | Edition | Code Base | APT Base | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.0 | Barbara | Main | Ubuntu Edgy | Edgy | 13 Nov 2006 |
| 2.1 | Bea | Main | Ubuntu Edgy | Edgy | 20 Dec 2006 |
| 2.2 | Bianca | Main | Ubuntu Edgy | Edgy | 20 Feb 2007 |
| 2.2 | Bianca | Light | Ubuntu Edgy | Edgy | 29 Mar 2007 |
| 3.0 | Cassandra | Main | Bianca 2.2 | Feisty | 30 May 2007 |
| 3.0 | Cassandra | Light | Bianca 2.2 | Feisty | 15 Jun 2007 |
| 3.1 | Celena | Main | Bianca 2.2 | Feisty | 24 Sep 2007 |
| 3.1 | Celena | Light | Bianca 2.2 | Feisty | 01 Oct 2007 |
| 4.0 | Daryna | Main | Celena 3.1 | Gutsy | 15 Oct 2007 |
| 4.0 | Daryna | Light | Celena 3.1 | Gutsy | 15 Oct 2007 |
| Test | Debian ALPHA 023 | Debian | Debian | Testing | 3 Jan 2008 |
| 5 | Elyssa | Main | Daryna 4.0 | Hardy | 8 June 2008 |
| 5 | Elyssa | Light | Daryna 4.0 | Hardy | 8 June 2008 |
| 5 | Elyssa | x64 | Ubuntu Hardy | Hardy | 18 Oct 2008 |
| 6 | Felicia | Main | Ubuntu Intrepid | Intrepid | 15 Dec 2008 |
| 6 | Felicia | Universal (Light) | Ubuntu Intrepid | Intrepid | 15 Dec 2008 |
| 6 | Felicia | x64 | Ubuntu Intrepid | Intrepid | TBA (RC1 Released 9 Jan 2009) |
| 7 | Gloria | Main | Ubuntu Jaunty | Jaunty | April 23, 2009 |
| 7 | Gloria | Universal (Light) | Ubuntu Jaunty | Jaunty | April 23, 2009 |
| 7 | Gloria | x64 | Ubuntu Jaunty | Jaunty | TBA |
KDE
| Version | Codename | Edition | Code Base | APT Base | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | Ada | Main | Kubuntu Dapper | Dapper | 27 Aug 2006 |
| 2.2 | Bianca | KDE CE | Kubuntu Edgy | Edgy | 20 Apr 2007 |
| 3.0 | Cassandra | KDE CE | Bianca 2.2 | Feisty | 14 Aug 2007 |
| 3.0 | Cassandra | MiniKDE CE | Bianca 2.2 | Feisty | 14 Aug 2007 |
| 4.0 | Daryna | KDE CE | Cassandra 3.0 | Gutsy | 03 Mar 2008 |
| 5 | Elyssa | KDE CE | Daryna 4.0 | Hardy | 15 Sep 2008 |
| 6 | Felicia | KDE CE | Elyssa 5 | Intrepid | TBA |
XFCE
| Version | Codename | Edition | Code Base | APT Base | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.0 | Cassandra | Xfce CE | Cassandra 3.0 | Feisty | 07 Aug 2007 |
| 4.0 | Daryna BETA 008 | Xfce CE | Cassandra 3.0 | Gutsy | 2 Nov 2007 |
| 5 | Elyssa | XFCE CE | Daryna 4.0 | Hardy | 8 Sep 2008 |
| 6 | Felicia | XFCE CE | Xubuntu Intrepid | Intrepid | TBA (RC1 Released 19 Jan 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.
- 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." Also note that the ISO acts as a "non-installable" live CD.
- The next version of Linux Mint will be codenamed 'Gloria' and will be based on Ubuntu 9.04 'Jaunty Jackalope'.
MintTools
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. 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.
- 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
- 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 1GB of storage space and files stay on the server for 7 days (rather than 2 days).
- 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
- 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.
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. This makes them more compatible with their Ubuntu parents than before.
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 is installed by default in Linux Mint. Ubuntu, and many other free GNU/Linux distributions, do not distribute these codecs with the initial install media due to patent encumberment issues.
While Ubuntu has a vastly larger support community than Linux Mint, the majority of Ubuntu help and advice is also applicable to Linux Mint. Ubuntu supports more languages from the Live CD, and comes with better localization.
Popularity
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 January 2009, Linux Mint was ranked 3rd.
External links
- Official Linux Mint Web Site
- Official Linux Mint Wiki
- Official Linux Mint Blog
- Official Linux Mint Forum
- Linux Mint on Distrowatch
| OS family | Debian GNU/Linux (Ubuntu) |
|---|---|
| Working state | Current |
| Source model | Open source |
| Latest stable release | Linux Mint 6.0 ("Felicia") / 15 December 2008 |
| Available language(s) | Multilingual |
| Update method | APT |
| Package manager | dpkg |
| Supported platforms | x86, x86-64 |
| Kernel type | Monolithic |
| Default user interface | GNOME |
| License | Various |
| Website | www.linuxmint.com |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
