I don’t really know how to say this. Our friend and fellow team member Mats Geier passed away. Some of us have been working with him for 3 years now. Husse and I were in contact almost every day and I find it really hard to cope with his loss. I’m sure many people in the community will be deeply touched.

Many of you knew him as “Husse”. He was everywhere, especially on the forums, making sure everyone was welcome and that every question was answered. I remember he used to keep an eye on the “unanswered threads” list and would even reply to some of my team announcements with “replied” just to make sure it wasn’t getting in the way of him supporting everybody that might need it. He was also taking care of the weekly newsletter and he was starting to triage bugs on Launchpad. Husse was also helping with the testing of the ISOs as much as he could and he was a very important member of our team. When the community grew, he filled the gap between the users and the developers and he was the one bringing important things to our attention, and keeping us close to you all. He was passionate, he was extremely friendly and he’ll be missed tremendously.

With him gone we’ve lost our ears, our eyes and what made us close to our community. We’ve also lost a friend and that’s going to be really hard to get over. We’re going to need all of you to help each others more than before, to welcome each others and to make up for all the little things Husse used to accomplish on his own. There’s no question that Linux Mint wouldn’t be what it is today if it wasn’t for Husse and that without him our community just isn’t going to work as well. If there’s one thing we can do in his memory it is to keep up the quality he’s set and to continue to make it enjoyable for people to join and interact within our community.

As for me, I don’t feel very well to say the least. We’ll wait until next week to make any announcements about Linux Mint. You can find things out by yourself in the mirrors and on the community website but I just can’t bring you positive news with a smile right now.

Husse: If you hear us, we’re going to miss you a lot.

My condolences to friends and family and to all who knew and cared for Mats. Let’s each take the time we need to think of him and to remember him.

The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 8 “Helena” Xfce Community Edition RC1.

Quick steps:

Introduction to Linux Mint 8 Xfce:

Based on Xubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala, Linux 2.6.31, Xfce 4.6.1 and Xorg 7.4, Linux Mint 8 “Helena” Xfce CE features a lot of improvements and the latest software from the Open Source World.

Featured improvements in this release: OEM installation, possibility to ignore updates, configurable menu places, multiple selection in the Software Manager, new system tray File Uploader with support for drag and drop and mutiple files uploads.

For a detailed overview of the new features and improvements included in Linux Mint 8 Xfce, please read “What’s new in Helena Xfce?“.

System requirements:

  • x86 processor
  • 256 MB of system memory (RAM)
  • 3 GB of disk space for installation
  • GA graphics card capable of 800×600 resolution
  • CD-ROM drive or USB port

Important information and known issues:

As an RC (Release Candidate) this release is targeted at developers and beta-testers who want to help Linux Mint find and correct bugs before the stable release. Please do not use this release as your main desktop. For a complete list of known issues read the Release Notes.

Feedback and bug reports:

Please report any bug you may find via the Linux Mint 8 Xfce RC1 Bug Thread and give us your feedback on this release by posting a comment right here on the blog.

Download Linux Mint 8 Xfce RC1:

You can download Linux Mint 8 Xfce RC1 via torrent or via HTTP:

Size: 695MB LiveCD
MD5Sum:  15a37a56b27c1c840ba50c2bc5fe77a3

Torrent download: http://www.linuxmint.com/torrent/LinuxMint-8-Xfce-RC1.iso.torrent
HTTP download: http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=50

Africa:

Asia:

Europe:

Northern America:

Oceania:

Enjoy!

Have a lot of fun testing this release candidate and let’s all hope it will help us make a great stable release.

* News about Mint

Some news in the blog – a LXDE edition is on its way as well as the Helena XFCE edition Development started on Mint 9, a new menu and a completely new software manager are to be introduced

A new Software module in the Community website is based on the new software manager

Monthly Stats – February 2010 The overall income is up again, by 3% in February

mintCast, the Mint podcast, is  found here

* News about Linux

3D support on nouveau

Plasma Javascript Jam Session Contest

If you have Adobe Reader 9.3 and earlier Adobe advices you to upgrade for security reasons

A Fresh Look for Ubuntu

Ubuntu single sign on service launched – you have noticed it already if you log in to Launchpad

Ubuntu One Music Store

Zemlin’s blog – Microsoft/Amazon Deal: Nothing to See Here

The latest news about the kernel is always found here

* News about Open Source

Open letter to Google: free VP8, and use it on YouTube

Microsoft open-sources clever U-Prove identity framework

* News about IT

US government rescinds ‘leave internet alone’ policy – this could be serious

Echelon computers can’t cope with bad lines

According to Mcafee in the last quarter of 2009 135.5 billion spam mail were sent every day

Microsoft’s ‘Operation b49’ chokes Waledac botnet

Mariposa botnet busted by Spanish police

Google donates $2 million to Wikimedia

Google gets US approval to buy and sell energy

EU Commission Investigates – How Anti-Competitive Is Google?

Google wins patent for location-based advertising

Europe’s new front in the browser battle

‘Kneber’ Botnet Attacks PCs Worldwide

Comcast.net hacker who redirected Web traffic pleads guilty

*Hardware news

* Other news

New flaws in chip and pin system revealed – the researchers blog post – not quite easy to use as you must have some gadget between the card and the card reader

* Comic of the week


Credit goes to xkcd

* More about Linux Mint

How to donate

Home page

Blog The planet Wiki Forum Twitter Mintcast community.linuxmint.com

* Editors comment

As always – if you find something I’ve missed in the newsletter please tell me – you can post a comment.

Enjoy life

Husse