Donations & Sponsorships:

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

Donors:

• $214.5 (5th donation), Antonio M. aka “Rob Brill’s book-keeper”
• $150 (2nd donation), funkajja
• $129 (3rd donation), Orlando M. M.
• $100 (3rd donation), Anonymous
• $100 (3rd donation), Jordan S.
• $100 (2nd donation), Roland Stohler
• $100, Steve E.
• $100, Connie E.
• $100, Douglas G.
• $100, Michelle F. P.
• $100, Marc J.
• $65, Branko B.
• $65, Stephen C. E.
• $64.5, Andreas S.
• $64.5, Shaun H.
• $64.36, Matthias M.
• $53.53 (5th donation), Antonio M. aka “Rob Brill’s book-keeper”
• $50 (3rd donation), Richard H.
• $50 (2nd donation), Michael L. aka “ddavid123”
• $50 (2nd donation), G. Sheffield
• $50 (2nd donation), Henry Dubb aka “Henry“
• $50 (2nd donation), Darrel Norstrom aka “Darrel”
• $50, Spencer S.
• $50, Tom B.
• $50, Michael M.
• $50, F. D.
• $50, Jeff R. aka “jlr1701”
• $50, Christian H.
• $50, Garry R.
• $50, Michael T.
• $50, Edgar B. C.
• $40 (13th donation), Pete Molina aka “pmolina”
• $40, Jason M.
• $39 (3rd donation), Laurent P.
• $35 (18th donation), slw
• $32.5, Volker M.
• $32.25, Robbert M.
• $30 (8th donation), Philippe W.
• $30, Clifton Redmon
• $30, Michel S.
• $30, Steven S.
• $30, Torben C.
• $30, Gordon W.
• $30, Douglas W.
• $26 (4th donation), DB. aka “Dick”
• $26 (2nd donation), Carlo C.
• $26, Ioannis P.
• $26, Peter M.
• $26, Hans-Rudolf R.
• $25.8 (10th donation), Olli K.
• $25.74, Eugen S.
• $25 (6th donation), John M.
• $25 (4th donation), Kenny Hendrick aka “NprComputers“
• $25 (3rd donation), Bob Donnelly aka “rdonnelly”
• $25 (3rd donation), Paul Bary
• $25 (3rd donation), DLX Company
• $25 (2nd donation), Anthony F H.
• $25 (2nd donation), Dale R.
• $25, Shwan O.
• $25, Fu Y. C.
• $25, Stuart S.
• $25, James P.
• $25, Gregory T.
• $25, Michael V.
• $25, Stephen S.
• $25, Russell S.
• $23, Todd B.
• $20 (9th donation), Matthew M.
• $20 (5th donation), Ludovic G. aka “Lewdsquirrel”
• $20 (5th donation), Brian G.
• $20 (4th donation), Anonymous
• $20 (4th donation), Anonymous
• $20 (3rd donation), Security Camera
• $20 (3rd donation), Scott H.
• $20 (3rd donation), Eugene C.
• $20 (2nd donation), Bruce D. aka “travtek”
• $20 (2nd donation), Charles E.
• $20 (2nd donation), Charles E.
• $20, Steve Q.
• $20, Vinay M.
• $20, David O.
• $20, Gavin Heverly-Coulson aka “gavinhc”
• $20, Divine P. I.
• $20, Charlie B.
• $20, RVStore.com aka “WSiaB“
• $20, Michael G.
• $20, Invisible Books
• $20, Linda P.
• $20, Richard J.
• $20, Avery W.
• $20, Joshua N.
• $19.5, Ángel M. S. R.
• $19.5, Lucien G.
• $17.06 (2nd donation), Jacob B.
• $15 (5th donation), Antonio M. aka “Rob Brill’s book-keeper”
• $15 (4th donation), Michael C.
• $15 (3rd donation), Raphael C.
• $15 (3rd donation), Jun Q.
• $15 (3rd donation), John P.
• $15, Danie V. D. M.
• $15, Gerald C.
• $15, Klaus K.
• $15, Andrew O.
• $14 (3rd donation), Tiaan Steynberg aka “Jesica“
• $13, Daniel V.
• $13, Mirko Z. aka “zanzi75”
• $12.9 (2nd donation), Jacques aka “germanix”
• $12.9, Juan G.
• $12.9, John G.
• $12.87 (14th donation), Emil Pavlov aka “emil_pavlov”
• $12.87 (2nd donation), Crefelean Nicolae aka “kneekoo“
• $12.87, Marcus S.
• $12.87, Philip E.
• $12.87, Segundo -zenairenet-
• $12.87, Hugh O.
• $10 (3rd donation), Nobutoshi K. aka “founcid”
• $10 (3rd donation), Peter Portin
• $10 (3rd donation), David M.
• $10 (2nd donation), P. S. B. aka “fixpcpaul“
• $10, Oscar L.
• $10, Adelmo B. D. O.
• $10, Minh T.
• $10, Paul M.
• $10, Jana S.
• $10, Adriano R. aka “drr00t”
• $10, Marc Y.
• $10, Mike L.
• $10, Robert S.
• $10, David E.
• $10, Garry M.
• $10, Jonathan K.
• $10, Saravanan S
• $7.74 (4th donation), Kevin Dermott
• $7 (3rd donation), Debra R.
• $6.5, Regis P.
• $6.5, Dimitrios S.
• $6.5, Juan D. D. A. B. aka “JUANDE”
• $6.5, Jean-noel C.
• $6.45, Tobias P.
• $6.45, Harri Mulari
• $5 (4th donation), Paul B. aka “Dude”
• $5 (3rd donation), Miljenko D.
• $5 (2nd donation), Rosen (samcro) Raynov aka “samcro“
• $5 (2nd donation), Guillermo Vives
• $5, Andri Y. M.
• $5, Andre T.
• $5, Александр И.
• $5, Dieter H.
• $4 (3rd donation), Romeo C. D. aka “Yupy“
• $3 (2nd donation), Chew Chean Hoe
• $3 (2nd donation), Rosen (samcro) Raynov aka “samcro“
• $3 (2nd donation), András N.
• $2.45, Dustin K.
• $2.15, Tammy and Sid aka “we love you!!“
• $2, Ubozhenko A. aka “Aleksdem“
• $1.4 (3rd donation), Romeo C. D. aka “Yupy“
• $1.29, Luis Chavarria aka “Alex”
• $1 (8th donation), Kay Pee Jewelers
• $1 (2nd donation), Printer Forums
• $1, ocean
• $1, Harnesses for horses
• $1, Kolektory słoneczne aka “Kolektory słoneczne“
• $1, Slagle J.
• $1, Jonas K.
• $1, Chris D.

Sponsors:

• $231, R1Soft
• $106, SEOMoves
• $75, John Ritchie aka “Aging Technogeek”
• $25, American Broadband Family of Companies
• $25, Blayne B.
• $20, Az Van aka “newW2”
• $20, CEPTOR Datentechnik oHG
• $20, Scott P.
• $15, Atomidata
• $13, Unixmen.com
• $12, Thomas S. aka “Thom aus Breuberg”
• $12, Tim W.
• $11, Promotional Mouse Mats
• $11, Roman P.
• $10, Advermedia
• $10, Angel M. D.
• $10, Anthony Gallon
• $10, Barry’s Tickets
• $10, Dan Jackson
• $10, Donald C.
• $10, Jack H.
• $10, Jeff R.
• $10, Jeramy R.
• $10, JimQ
• $10, Mugs Promotional
• $10, Real Estate Centers
• $10, Rob S.
• $10, SEM Visibility
• $10, TaoWoods Village
• $10, Website Auditor
• $10, William C. Mitchell aka “onewing”
• $10, worldsrealestate.net
• $9, Promotional Items
• $8, Attila Vecsei
• $8, Printed Clothing
• $7, Jesse Burroughs aka “JpBя”
• $7, Personalised Clothing
• $7, Promotional Mug
• $6, Clothing Promotional
• $6, Martin Senftleben aka “DrMartinus“
• $5, Dimitris C.
• $5, Don Brubaker
• $5, Flemming D. Joergensen aka “DcyMatrix“
• $5, Gregory T.
• $5, Jeffrey S.
• $5, Joe H. aka “JoeFootball”
• $5, Kevin D.
• $5, Lee K.
• $5, Matthew N.
• $5, Matthew Y.
• $5, Parental Control Software
• $5, Printed Clothing
• $5, Printed Mug
• $5, Private Jets Charter
• $5, Promotional Gifts
• $5, Scott Y.
• $5, Sohier C.
• $5, Steve Burdine aka “Highfructose327“
• $5, Thomas Howson
• $5, Torstein Sornes aka “todda7”
• $5, Turin
• $4, Baby shower favors
• $4, Chile travel
• $4, Ian E. aka “EchoLynx “
• $4, Shannon D.
• $3, CreationsByRichie – Animated Banners & Graphical Designs
• $3, Josef K.
• $3, Sebastian Posch
• $2, Caravan Awnings
• $2, Douglas T.
• $2, Joerg Dreckmann
• $2, Manuel V.
• $2, PapayaMedia.com aka “juankvillegas“
• $2, SPAC Information and News
• $2, VeganQuébec
• $1.5, Farbyte
• $1, Недвижимость на Кипре
• $1, недвижимость в греции
• $1, Cyprus Resale
• $1, Cyprus Weather
• $1, Ethoseo Internet Marketing Bellingham, WA
• $1, External Hard Drive Reviews
• $1, Frank S.
• $1, giochi gratis
• $1, Greg Flynn
• $1, iPad News
• $1, Online Pokerraum aka “donegon“
• $1, Pokerschule
• $1, Property In Greece
• $1, redfoa
• $1, redfoa
• $1, Renelou Esperanzate
• $1, Seth Forrestier
• $1, surfinpeace.co.uk
• $1, very-clever.com
• $0.5, Simple and Powerful music player for Linux

Money raised in December:

* Donations: $4499.59 (165 donors)
* Sponsors: $999 (96 sponsors)

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

User Stats:

Repartition of Linux Mint users across releases:

• Linux Mint 10 Julia: 39.18%
• Linux Mint 9 Isadora LTS: 32.66%
• Linux Mint 7 Gloria: 9.58%
• Linux Mint 8 Helena: 7.93%
• LMDE: 6.26%
  
• Linux Mint 4.0 Daryna: 1.88%
• Linux Mint 6 Felicia: 1.65%
• Linux Mint 5 Elyssa LTS: 0.86%
  

Web Stats:

• Visits: 2,852,279
• Unique views:3,640,435
• Pageviews: 4,664,378
• Page impressions: 2,309,471
• Search queries: 7,205,201
• Forum users: 41,541
  
• Forum posts: 349,050
  

Rankings:

• Distrowatch (popularity ranking): 1493 (2nd)
  
• Distrowatch (traffic share): 4.9% (2nd)
  
• Alexa (website ranking): 15,359th
  

Events:

• Release: Linux Mint Debian 201012
• A live interview was recorded with The Linux Link Tech Show
• mintCast released 2 episodes: http://mintcast.org/

Summary:

• December 2010 was a frustrating yet really exciting month for Linux Mint. The project went through its worst infrastructure problems as the servers, the team, and the overall scale of the project weren’t adapting quickly enough to cope with the growth and success of the Linux Mint desktop. The teams were re-organised with Oscar799 and Justin stepping up to take the lead of, respectively, the forums and the IRC. Personal incidents and server shortages lead to delays, and no efficient way to follow our testing process. The KDE edition which was supposed to get an RC in December was postponed, and LMDE was only released late in the month with an issue on its 32-bit ISO which called for a re-spin early in January. The forums, in the meantime, were down almost every day… So, new servers were bought, tests were done, teams were changed and money, for the first time, was introduced within some of the teams. Radical changes were made and though we’re still halfway through and there’s still a lot more to be done to adequately scale the project, by the end of the month, we were much better prepared.
• Despite its need for a 32-bit re-spin, LMDE got extremely popular. With support for 64-bit, features on-par with the latest Linux Mint 10, and a second release showing the team’s commitment to maintaining it, LMDE doubled its user base and now represents more than 6% of all Linux Mint users.
• Sponsors are at an all-time high, and a lot of money was received from donations. It’s hard to explain the feelings you can get from receiving such a large amount of support. Imagine being in a room with 165 people, who all came to help… This month, a Brazilian gentleman helped us for the 5th time, to donate more than $200. And then there’s companies behind and the sponsors, R1Soft for instance who sends us $231/month and Vault Networks, SevenL, Goscomb Technologies and Nutime who provide us with free dedicated servers. This is extremely motivating, it constantly reminds me of the passion we all have in what we’re doing and the one we manage to inspire. Things were tough this month so I’m a little more talkative than usual about this, but I just wanted to talk about this a little, as it really helps and I’m extremely grateful for this. Our November stats were a month late as we prioritized the releases and the infrastructure problems, and I’d like to apologize for this. December 2010 represented a financial growth of over 3% and the 2nd “best month since the start of the project in 2006” in a row.
  
• With the success of Linux Mint 10 and LMDE, our user base continues to grow. I touched on some of the challenges this caused for our project. A successful distribution is much more than just a good desktop, it’s a community, a project, a team and all that comes with it to give people a pleasant experience and efficient ways of communicating among themselves. Some of this has been below-standard lately and in clear contrast with the expectations we gave to people when it came to quality. In January 2011, we’re hoping to bring an RC and a stable release of Linux Mint 10 KDE, but first and foremost to scale our project and to implement long-lasting solutions to our infrastructure problems.
• In 2010 most of our focus was on the desktop itself. In 2011 we’re scaling our project to meet the demand of a much larger audience, we’re looking at possible system changes in APT, upcoming changes in Gnome and  important upstream challenges. We’re not quite sure what’s going to happen, but we’ve a very precise vision of where we’d like to be. We had a great year, and 2011 promises to be equally as fun and exciting! Thanks to everyone involved, from the team members, to donors, people who help others, spread the word or even simply to people who appreciate and like what we’re doing. There’s nothing better than giving and making people happy, and with support from so many people and companies. It’s a real honour to be able to do this. There’s a lot of passion for technology and a deep admiration for what Open Source and (without getting political) Free Software represent, but the level of support and the close relationship we have with you, as a community, it’s simply fantastic! If anything, that’s what makes it so easy. Here’s to another great year, to you all, to users, to the team, to all the contributors, translators and people involved in the project. Happy New Year everyone!