by ·132 Comments

Linux Mint is currently negotiating and establishing partnerships with some of the major actors on the search market. Our purpose is to bring the best search experience to you and the technology you enjoy while participating in the income you generate while browsing the Web.

As part of this process, we’re running a test to establish the number of Opera users within the Linux Mint community.

A custom Linux Mint build of Opera 11.52 is now available in the repositories for Linux Mint 11, LMDE, Linux Mint 10 and Linux Mint 9.

If you’re using Opera, please upgrade to version 11.52-1100-1linuxmint using the Update Manager, Synaptic or APT.

Alternatively you can download the package directly:

Note about privacy: This build doesn’t track or share more information than the default Opera build. As part of the browser checking for an update with the Opera servers, it simply indicates that you’re using Linux Mint.

by ·110 Comments

Donations & Sponsorships:

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

Donors:

  • $100 (6th donation), Andreas S. aka “Unforgiving67“
  • $100 (5th donation), Gregor M.
  • $100 (3rd donation), J.-Yves Lortie aka “amadeus128”
  • $100 (3rd donation), Roland Stohler aka “ro@st”
  • $100 (2nd donation), Robert Pilgrim aka “robfuscate”
  • $100, Warren A.
  • $100, Mohee J.
  • $100, David B.
  • $100, Jeff S.
  • $100, Stephan T.
  • $81.8 (8th donation), Laurent P.
  • $75, David G.
  • $70, Martin O.
  • $69.4 (2nd donation), Vincent V.
  • $69.4, Alan H.
  • $68.17, Robert S. aka “Franzisskuss”
  • $55.5 (6th donation), Pasi K.
  • $50 (5th donation), Tsuguo S.
  • $50 (4th donation), Tsuguo S.
  • $50 (3rd donation), Tsuguo S.
  • $50 (3rd donation), Carlos H. G.
  • $50 (3rd donation), G. Sheffield
  • $50 (2nd donation), Lockert P.
  • $50 (2nd donation), Tsuguo S.
  • $50, Arend Rietkerk aka “fliteshare”
  • $50, Robert F. C.
  • $50, Gary B.
  • $40.9, Giuseppe Ficara
  • $40, Rich H.
  • $35 (24th donation), Slavoljub aka “slw”
  • $34.7, Daniel H.
  • $34.7, Andreas S. aka “Schoni”
  • $32.38, Ron D.
  • $30 (2nd donation), Alex Dolhescu aka “alex894”
  • $30, Shaun I.
  • $30, Gregory C.
  • $27.8 (19th donation), Olli K.
  • $27.27, Jean-Yves Z.
  • $26.75, Jeroen F.
  • $26.75, Neil O.
  • $26.51 (24th donation), Manuel F.
  • $26.16, Alfredo V. V.
  • $25.9, Marcus L.
  • $25 (9th donation), John M.
  • $25 (4th donation), Happy Nerds Workshop aka “linuxdevman (scotts)“
  • $25 (3rd donation), Peter T.
  • $25 (3rd donation), Joshua B.
  • $25 (2nd donation), Adam D.
  • $25 (2nd donation), Gene C.
  • $25 (2nd donation), Kent K.
  • $25, Marinko Tarlac
  • $25, Pierre G.
  • $25, rjdsc
  • $25, Daniel S.
  • $25, Axel H. A.
  • $25, Rodney S.
  • $22, Galen T.
  • $21.21 (2nd donation), Tobias A.
  • $20.93 (2nd donation), Ashley S.
  • $20.82, Magnus K.
  • $20.45, Sven A. aka “Sven”
  • $20 (15th donation), Antonio M. aka “Rob Brill’s book-keeper”
  • $20 (6th donation), Anders B.
  • $20 (6th donation), Ian M.
  • $20 (2nd donation), Frank J.
  • $20 (2nd donation), Vincent P.
  • $20, Samue I.
  • $20, Константин Д.
  • $20, Drew Salmons. aka “Geronimo”
  • $20, Guilherme R.
  • $20, John F.
  • $20, Geoffrey G.
  • $20, Perry B. aka “uga_boy”
  • $20, Mitchell C.
  • $20, Mark S.
  • $20, Pedro E.
  • $20, Brian S.
  • $20, Brian B.
  • $20, Jon D.
  • $20, Michael M.
  • $19.62, Detlef K.
  • $17, William C.
  • $16.36, Ashley S.
  • $15 (4th donation), Sinisa Majstorovic
  • $15 (3rd donation), Andras Porga aka “GodmaNZ”
  • $15 (2nd donation), Stefan W. aka “querwurzelt”
  • $15, Laurence G. aka “The_Gooze!”
  • $15, Thomas E.
  • $15, Pat C.
  • $15, Caboodle C.
  • $15, Miki K.
  • $14.7 (3rd donation), D. Manoj Prabhu aka “Munna”
  • $14 (2nd donation), Matt R. aka “kiswa”
  • $13.9, Esben M.
  • $13.9, Eric B. aka “ProudPaw“
  • $13.9, Moritz K.
  • $13.63 (15th donation), Paco C.C. aka “kannabix”
  • $13.63, Patrick S. aka “pAt”
  • $13.63, Bryan T.
  • $13.63, Mario G. B.
  • $13.37, Daniel F.
  • $13.37, LIXC Software
  • $13.37, Are J.
  • $13.37, Michael S.
  • $13.37, Armin K.
  • $13.25, Antonio H. O. aka “Azkanel”
  • $12.95 (4th donation), Peter Portin
  • $12.95, Eneko M. E.
  • $12.95, Daragh Moriarty aka “dazmoriarty@rocketmail.com“
  • $12, Keith W.
  • $11.11, Amy W.
  • $10 (7th donation), Tony C. aka “S. LaRocca”
  • $10 (5th donation), Geschenkideen
  • $10 (4th donation), Astap A.
  • $10 (3rd donation), Jarkko K.
  • $10 (3rd donation), Robert T.
  • $10 (3rd donation), Costas Krallis aka “sv1xv“
  • $10 (2nd donation), Piermario R.
  • $10 (2nd donation), Andrew Simpson
  • $10, Joseph E.
  • $10, Peter Larson
  • $10, Marcin W.
  • $10, Suleyman Y.
  • $10, Tim W.
  • $10, George B.
  • $10, Anze S.
  • $10, Sergey N.
  • $10, HawkinzWeb Designs
  • $10, David E.
  • $10, Ricardo P.
  • $10, Zetay Lee aka “zetay“
  • $10, Milosav P.
  • $10, Sattam Alharbi aka “SattamJH”
  • $10, Robert J. H.
  • $10, Jan P.
  • $10, Paul G.
  • $10, Mehmet B. Y.
  • $10, Nikolas K.
  • $9.68, Martin P.
  • $7.77, Balasi B.
  • $7 (2nd donation), Antonina K. aka “Tonya”
  • $7, Arnold Bechtoldt aka “arnoldB“
  • $6.82 (6th donation), Ronald T.
  • $6.82, Albert J. P.
  • $6.8 (10th donation), Ulf S. aka “MonteDrago”
  • $6.7 (2nd donation), Jurek W.
  • $6.48, Jan V. P.
  • $5 (7th donation), Michael Gstettenbauer
  • $5 (3rd donation), Leon
  • $5 (2nd donation), Ruben C. M.
  • $5, Stephen P. C.
  • $5, Joel P.
  • $5, My Caring Connection
  • $5, Jerry M.
  • $5, Robert K. aka “Hamm“
  • $5, Steven P.
  • $5, Kristian B.
  • $5, Pawan Kumar aka “PK”
  • $5, David E. aka “DubiousAlliance”
  • $5, John F.
  • $5, Andrew K.
  • $4, Edoardo G.
  • $3.88, Csilla F.
  • $3.5 (2nd donation), Ron Panduwana
  • $3.33, Pradini P.
  • $3, David Y.
  • $2.8, Jose M. M. aka “Vacceo”
  • $2 (6th donation), mold test kits
  • $2 (2nd donation), Luca M. B.
  • $2 (2nd donation), Philip Patrick Butkiewicz aka “bagnz0r“
  • $2, Jithin J.
  • $2, Samuel L.
  • $1.94, Ilja Lebedev
  • $1.4, Anton W.
  • $1.34, Christiaan L.
  • $1.11, Rain C.
  • $1 (4th donation), Gonzalo C. aka “gcosta“
  • $1 (3rd donation), Snoring Solutions
  • $1, Justin V.
  • $1, Vladimir D.
  • $1, Kyle Nokes aka “Nokes”
  • $1, Rye Printing Inc.
  • $1, Sam J.
  • $1, Cuneyt Hayrullah aka “Linux Mint Turkey“
  • $1, Jonathan C. C.
  • $0.5, Philip Patrick Butkiewicz aka “bagnz0r“

Sponsors:

Money raised in September:

* Donations: $4185.33 (186 donors)
* Sponsors: $1414.03 (130 sponsors)

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

Rankings:

  • Distrowatch (popularity ranking): 2079 (2nd)
  • Alexa (website ranking): 11,784th

Events:

News and summary:

  • This is the busiest period of the year, and with no advertising income generated this month we’re relying solely on your donations and sponsorships. With that in mind, I’d like to express my deepest gratitude to the 186 donors and the 130 sponsors who supported us financially. We’ve been lucky and successful since the start of this project, and this is probably the most difficult time since then, but you’ve been here for us, a fantastic community and a great network of partners, which meant we could carry on and afford to continue even without our main sources of income.
  • Although we’re in a difficult situation financially, the future looks extremely bright. Our last recorded growth was a staggering 40%. With millions of Internet users Linux Mint is the 4th most popular operating system in the world, and we’re growing much faster than our competitors. Our business model consists in applying all our focus on the product itself, on distributing it for free and on monetizing the traffic and activity you generate on the Web. It’s the same business model used by TV channels and Radio stations, the wider the audience, the more successful it is. We’re currently in the process of choosing our business partners for the search market. Which browser and search engine will be the default in Linux Mint, how much funding will they generate for us and our partners? What default experience will you get out of it? This is all being decided at the moment. The solution we previously had in place needed to evolve, both from a user and business point of view. Going forward we’ll hopefully provide you with a better experience while generating additional funding in the process.
  • Linux Mint 12 “Lisa” will be released in November this year with continued support for Gnome 2 but also with the introduction of Gnome 3. The radical changes introduced by the Gnome project split the community. At the time of releasing Linux Mint 11 we decided it was too early to adopt Gnome 3. This time around, the decision isn’t as simple. Gnome 3.2 is more mature and we can see the potential of this new desktop and use it to implement something that can look and behave better than anything based on Gnome 2. Of course, we’re starting from scratch and this process will take time and span across multiple releases. Until then, it’s important we continue to support the traditional Gnome 2 desktop. We’re likely to release two separate editions, one for Gnome 2.32 and one for Gnome 3.2. We’re also working in cooperation with the MATE project (which is a fork of Gnome 2) at the moment to see if we can make both desktops compatible in an effort to let you run both Gnome 2 (or MATE) and Gnome 3 on the same system, either in Linux Mint 12, or for the future. 

    by ·22 Comments

    If you’re a Linux Mint donor or a Linux Mint sponsor, you can now change your details and follow your contributions thanks to a brand new interface.

    The interface also shows you exactly how you appear on our website:

    And we now also generate a cool new image, which you can use as a forum user-bar, as an email signature, or even as a Web badge. Be proud of the help you’re giving us and show people you’re part of the reason Linux Mint is what is today.

    Whether you’re a Linux Mint Donor:

    Or a Linux Mint Sponsor:

    Donations and sponsorships are extremely important to us. Every month, we receive the financial support of hundreds of people and it was about time we gave a little something back.

    I hope you’ll enjoy this new interface and these new signatures, and I look forward to receiving your feedback.

    If you’re a Linux Mint donor or sponsor, you access this new interface using the credentials you received by emails.

    If you need a new access code, you can visit the following address: http://www.linuxmint.com/dashboard

    Last but not least, I’d like to take the opportunity to thank all the people who help us by other means. Financial support and associated income is what pays the bills and guarantees we can work on Linux Mint instead of looking for a job, but there are many people out there who help us in various ways. They make our job easier, our community and desktop better and they allow us to focus on what really matters. If you’re promoting Linux Mint, helping with the developement, welcoming and helping other users, creating artwork…. etc… if you feel in any way responsible and helpful within our community, we’d like to thank you as well.

    I’m sure you can think of more signatures than we could ever design so here’s an image that can be used as a template:

    Feel free to design your own signatures, to add text and additional artwork to them, to place them wherever you want and to make them link to the sites of your choice. Whether it’s on your website linking to us, or on our forums linking to you, be proud of your contribution within our community and encourage others to be as active.

    A big thank you to everyone involved.