Linux Mint

Linux Mint is a Linux-based computer operating system best known for its usability and ease of installation, particularly for users with no previous GNU/Linux experience. It is available in severaleditions with different codebases, nearly all of which are based on Ubuntu, which is itself based onDebian.

Linux Mint is composed of many software packages, of which the vast majority are distributed under a free software license. The main license used is the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) which, along with the GNU Lesser General Public License (GNU LGPL), explicitly declares that users are free to run, copy, distribute, study, change, develop and improve the software. Linux Mint also includes proprietary software, such as Adobe Flash Player, and uses a Linux kernel that contains non-free binary blobs. Linux Mint is funded by its community of users. Individual users and companies using the operating system act as donors, sponsors and partners of the distribution

Origin and development process

Linux Mint uses primarily free and open source software (FOSS), making exceptions for some proprietary hardware drivers, non-free firmware in the kernel and some other widely used software, such as the proprietary Adobe's Flash plugin and RAR compression/decompression utilities. Unlike many other Linux distributions, Linux Mint does not strive to commit itself to software freedom.

Linux Mint started in 2006 with a beta release called 1.0 "Ada". The project wasn't well known at the time and this version was never released as stable. With the release of 2.0 "Barbara" a few months later, the distribution caught the attention of many people within the Linux community and started to build an audience. Using the feedback given from its new community, the distribution released a quick succession of releases between 2006 and 2008. 5 versions were released as follows: 2.1 "Bea", 2.2 "Bianca", 3.0 "Cassandra", 3.1 "Celena" and 4.0 "Daryna".

Version 2.0 "Barbara" was based on Ubuntu 6.10, using its package repositories and using it as acodebase. From there, Linux Mint followed its own codebase, building each release from its previous one but it continued to use the package repositories from the latest Ubuntu release. As such the distribution never really forked. This resulted in making the base between the two systems almost identical and it guaranteed full compatibility between the two operating systems.

In 2008, Linux Mint adopted the same release cycle as Ubuntu and dropped its minor version number before releasing version 5 "Elyssa". The same year, in an effort to increase the compatibility between the two systems, Linux Mint decided to abandon its code-base and changed the way it built its releases. Starting with version 6 "Felicia" each release was now completely based on the latest Ubuntu release, built directly from it, timed for approximately one month after the corresponding Ubuntu release (i.e. usually in May and November).

In 2010 Linux Mint released a Debian Edition Unlike the other Ubuntu-based editions, this is based directly on Debian, and hence is not tied to Ubuntu packages or release schedule.

Features

Linux Mint focuses on usability. The Ubiquity installer allows Linux Mint to be installed to the hard disk from within the Live CD environment, without the need for restarting the computer prior to installation. Linux Mint also emphasizes accessibility and internationalization to reach as many people as possible. UTF-8 is the default character encoding and allows for support of a variety of non-Roman scripts. As a security feature, the sudo tool is used to assign temporary privileges for performing administrative tasks, allowing users to administer the system without using the root account.

Linux Mint comes installed with a wide range of software that includes LibreOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird, XChat, Pidgin, Transmission and GIMP. Additional software that is not installed by default can be downloaded using the package manager. Linux Mint allows networking ports to be closed using its firewall, with customized port selection available. GNOME 3 (the current default desktop) offers support for more than 46 languages. Linux Mint can also run many programs designed for Microsoft Windows (such as Microsoft Office), through Wine or using a Virtual Machine (such as VMware Workstation or VirtualBox).

Releases

There are two Linux Mint releases per year. Each release is given a version number and a code name, using a female first name starting with the letter whose alphabetical index corresponds to the version number and ending with the letter "a" (e.g., "Elyssa" for version 5, "Felicia" for version 6).

Releases are timed to be approximately one month after Ubuntu releases (which in turn are about one month after GNOME releases and two months after X.org releases). Consequently, every Linux Mint release comes with an updated version of both GNOME and X and features some of the improvements brought in the latest Ubuntu release. Selected releases (such as Linux Mint 5 and Linux Mint 9) are labeled as Long Term Support (LTS) versions, indicating that they are supported (with updates) for three years, as compared to the 18-month support period for other releases.

The current release is Linux Mint 12 "Lisa", released on 26 November 2011.

Version	Code name	Release date
1.0	Ada	2006-08-27
2.0	Barbara	2006-11-13
2.1	Bea	2006-12-20
2.2	Bianca	2007-02-20
3.0	Cassandra	2007-05-30
3.1	Celena	2007-09-24
4.0	Daryna	2007-10-15
5	Elyssa	2008-06-08
6	Felicia	2008-12-15
7	Gloria	2009-05-26
8	Helena	2009-11-28
9	Isadora	2010-05-18
10	Julia	2010-11-12
11	Katya	2011-05-26
12	Lisa	2011-11-26

System requirements

Linux Mint currently supports the Intel x86 and AMD64 architectures.

	Minimum	Recommended
Processor (x86)	600 MHz	1 GHz
Memory	256 MB	512 MB
Hard Drive (free space)	5 GB	10 GB
Monitor Resolution	800×600	1024×768

Note: If visual effects are desired, a supported GPU is required.

Installation does not support LVM or disk encryption.