Monthly Stats – January 2012

Donations & Sponsorships:

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

Donors:

  • $200, Neil S.
  • $125.88, Tero H.
  • $123.57, http://societyofcontrol.com
  • $120 (10th donation), Andreas S. aka “Unforgiving67
  • $101, Shiv M.
  • $100 (4th donation), Drazen P.
  • $100 (4th donation), Ronald S.
  • $100 (2nd donation), Nick H.
  • $100, Sean C.
  • $100, Donald B. D. S. aka “rockstar1942”
  • $100, Robert B.
  • $100, Eivind O.
  • $100, Robert W.
  • $100, Gary M.
  • $76.56 (2nd donation), Lukas V.
  • $74.78, Ralph H.
  • $63.8, Nicholas B.
  • $62.94 (3rd donation), Lyudmyla H.
  • $62.94 (2nd donation), Kimmo K.
  • $62.94, Miguel D. D. M.
  • $61.78 (2nd donation), Matthias M.
  • $50 (28th donation), Slavoljub aka “slw”
  • $50 (22nd donation), Matthew M.
  • $50 (12th donation), Tsuguo S.
  • $50 (9th donation), Robert D B.
  • $50 (5th donation), Ronald W.
  • $50 (3rd donation), Sigbjorn S.
  • $50 (3rd donation), Ivan Komarov aka “Komarik
  • $50 (2nd donation), George M.
  • $50 (2nd donation), Gary B.
  • $50, Tad W.
  • $50, Matthew C.
  • $50, Stephen M.
  • $50, Martin S.
  • $50, Douglas J.
  • $50, Brett H.
  • $50, Keith R.
  • $50, Carlos H. G. C.
  • $50, Tyrone P.
  • $50, Peter W.
  • $50, Mark M.
  • $40 (2nd donation), Bill
  • $40, Cinnamon is a great idea
  • $40, Cezar M.
  • $37.77, Simon W.
  • $37.07 (10th donation), Pasi K.
  • $37.07, Juan F. A. R.
  • $37.07, RJGR aka “nzc3”
  • $31.47 (3rd donation), Peter Schallmoser-Schlogl
  • $31.47, Uwe H.
  • $31.47, Frank D. aka “highlandham”
  • $30 (8th donation), Jay Stewart aka “jag1182”
  • $30, William R.
  • $30, Alan Y.
  • $30, David F.
  • $30, Mike S.
  • $27.18, Kerick S.
  • $25.52, Laurent P.
  • $25.52, Marcin Sedzikowski aka “KotFryc
  • $25.52, Gaja S. P.
  • $25.18 (23rd donation), Olli K.
  • $25.18 (10th donation), Laurent P.
  • $25.18, Massimo L.
  • $25.18, Bruno Z.
  • $25 (6th donation), Adam D.
  • $25 (5th donation), Anthony F H.
  • $25 (2nd donation), Bruno D.
  • $25, Niels N.
  • $25, Jerry B.
  • $25, G W.
  • $25, Bill E.
  • $25, Domingo P. V.
  • $25, John N.
  • $25, Caroline C.
  • $25, Jeffrey F.
  • $25, Bruno D.
  • $25, Andrew C.
  • $25, Colin B.
  • $24.71, Frederik S.
  • $24.71, Fabio R. aka “Eldwist”
  • $24.71, Wilhelm H.
  • $24.59 (3rd donation), Hendrik G.
  • $23.68 (5th donation), Matt R. aka “kiswa”
  • $20.12 (4th donation), Rashed aka “SaudiBoy
  • $20 (5th donation), Eugene C.
  • $20 (3rd donation), Alex V. aka “Karashata
  • $20 (3rd donation), James Day
  • $20 (2nd donation), Michael E. aka “West”
  • $20 (2nd donation), Benoit Frigon
  • $20 (2nd donation), John H.
  • $20, Silk Trees
  • $20, Emil K.
  • $20, Patrick Latour
  • $20, Linas A.
  • $20, Harold W. D.
  • $20, Ronald M.
  • $20, William B.
  • $20, James C. S.
  • $20, Laurence D.
  • $20, Andreas K.
  • $20, Mark D. H.
  • $20, John H.
  • $20, The Ethrg Project
  • $20, Dedalo G.
  • $20, Peter C.
  • $20, Michael P.
  • $20, Sharmarke A.
  • $20, Joseph Ziff aka “Sindegra”
  • $20, Bradley F.
  • $20, Kevin S.
  • $20, Jill E. M.
  • $19.77, Alexander R.
  • $19.14, Hans-joachim U. K.
  • $19.14, Daniel A.
  • $18.88, Salvatore M.
  • $18.88, Amico C.
  • $18.53, Dean F.
  • $18.53, Brian E.
  • $15.99, Sean O.
  • $15, Gregory S.
  • $15, Robert L.
  • $13.37 (2nd donation), Josef Steppan
  • $12.76, Taziri Y. H. A.
  • $12.76, Gianmario F.
  • $12.76, Alain B.
  • $12.76, Massimiliano A.
  • $12.76, Kaznowski &. A. -. A. J. S.
  • $12.76, SilFox
  • $12.59 (13th donation), Ulf S. aka “MonteDrago”
  • $12.59 (2nd donation), Vytautas S.
  • $12.59, imeehow
  • $12.59, Miro R.
  • $12.59, Paolo G.
  • $12.59, Erminio M.
  • $12.59, Frank K. aka “Bronko”
  • $12.59, Heinrich S.
  • $12.59, Imanuel S.
  • $12.36 (7th donation), Jarkko K.
  • $12.36 (2nd donation), Anita P.
  • $12.36, Andrey K.
  • $12.36, Andreas T.
  • $12.36, Iord K.
  • $12.36, Francesco G.
  • $12.36, Michael M.
  • $11 (4th donation), John A.
  • $11, Hal E.
  • $10 (11th donation), Tony C. aka “S. LaRocca”
  • $10 (6th donation), SamVimes
  • $10 (4th donation), Hawk Computer
  • $10 (4th donation), James R.
  • $10 (4th donation), Frank Martin aka “”kitanis””
  • $10 (4th donation), Raphael C.
  • $10 (2nd donation), Greg Freeman
  • $10, Joseph C.
  • $10, en)usa
  • $10, Keith Smith aka “Keifur”
  • $10, Nancy S.
  • $10, Stacy H.
  • $10, Geir G.
  • $10, Adewale G.
  • $10, Stephan B.
  • $10, Soonkoo L.
  • $10, Gisle V.
  • $10, Benson F. aka “Direxion”
  • $10, Leonid G.
  • $10, Richard L.
  • $10, Tigran Z.
  • $10, William T.
  • $10, Emanuel S.
  • $10, Daniel C.
  • $9.23 (3rd donation), Stefan W. aka “querwurzelt”
  • $7 (6th donation), Antonina K. aka “Tonya”
  • $6.38, Stéphane R.
  • $6.38, Rolf P.
  • $6.29 (2nd donation), Peter C.
  • $6.29 (2nd donation), tete
  • $6.29, Mattia D. B.
  • $6.29, Rinaldo C.
  • $6.18 (3rd donation), Piermario R.
  • $5 (6th donation), Sinisa Majstorovic
  • $5 (5th donation), Wilson de Carvalho Jr. aka “24horasonline
  • $5 (4th donation), Y.K. aka “Market Analysis
  • $5 (3rd donation), David E. aka “DubiousAlliance”
  • $5 (3rd donation), CouponCodeSwap.com
  • $5 (2nd donation), Kjell O. B. aka “kob”
  • $5, Donna B.
  • $5, Cliff’s C. C.
  • $5, Dimitri A.
  • $5, Joshua P.
  • $5, Magnus T.
  • $5, Piotr W.
  • $5, Pharmacie en ligne
  • $5, Auto Repair Culver City
  • $5, Kamil S. aka “tuva”
  • $5, Tom D.
  • $5, Handojo Goenadi
  • $5, Roman K.
  • $5, Free Photo Hosting
  • $5, Aung K. K. O.
  • $5, David I.
  • $5, Nayyar B.
  • $3.9, Juan Villegas aka “juankvillegas
  • $3.83, NextProducers™
  • $3.78 (2nd donation), Juhani K.
  • $3.78, Antonio M.
  • $3.76 (3rd donation), Josef Steppan
  • $3, Scott V.
  • $2.52 (3rd donation), Jose A.H.
  • $2.47, Angelo L.
  • $2.47, Arnaud D.
  • $2 (10th donation), mold detector
  • $2 (2nd donation), Danilo S.
  • $2, José L. C. R.
  • $1.34 (2nd donation), free domain name list
  • $1.28 (2nd donation), Yannick G. aka “Uggy”
  • $1.26 (2nd donation), Vaclav P.
  • $1.22, Hilmi bin Hamidi
  • $1.09 (5th donation), Rusli P. Tandiabang
  • $1 (4th donation), Sylvestre Burgos aka “sylvestre
  • $1 (3rd donation), cialis
  • $1 (3rd donation), Vitamini
  • $1 (2nd donation), Albert J. P.
  • $1 (2nd donation), iPhone News
  • $1, Jedimus
  • $1, Joe D.
  • $0.5 (2nd donation), Javier Bassi
  • $0.45 (4th donation), Jurek W.

Sponsors:

Money raised in January:

* Donations: $5737.16 (227 donors)
* Sponsors: $8104.92 (162 sponsors)

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

Rankings:

  • Distrowatch (popularity ranking): 3485 (1st)
  • Alexa (website ranking): 6,593rd

Events:

News and summary:

  • Linux Mint 12 KDE was approved for a stable release and should come out either today or tomorrow.
  • Our new partnership with Blue Systems improved the quality of the Linux Mint KDE edition as well as the Netrunner distribution and brought in a significant and predictable source of income, allowing us to welcome an extra full-time developer.
  • Following the feedback we gathered on Gnome Shell after the release of Linux Mint 12, it was clear that despite our efforts with MATE and MGSE, we still didn’t manage to reach our goals and to offer Gnome 2 a valid alternative. Some people were enthusiastic about the new alternatives, others were disappointed. For this reason and in an effort to please a wider portion of our user base, we decided to continue to support MATE and to develop a new desktop called Cinnamon. MATE 1.2 should be out soon. Cinnamon 1.2 is already out and available to Linux Mint 12 users via the repositories.
  • Update Pack 4 should hit the “incoming” LMDE repository in the coming weeks and provide MATE, Cinnamon, GNOME 3 and Gnome Shell to LMDE users.
  • Finally, on behalf of Linux Mint I would like to thank all the people who help us. Whether it’s financially (like the people listed above who donated or sponsored us) or by other means. At the end of last year we lost our main source of income, and since Gnome 3 we lost our main desktop, a vital upstream component… it was tough to get back on our feet but we did it, we’re now as healthy and stronger than before and with MATE and Cinnamon we’re not relying on other projects and inadequate solutions, we now have the technology and resources to take matters into our own hands and to build the components we need to reach our goals and provide you with better releases after each cycle. It’s extremely tough, but even though we’re only half-way there we’re confident and your support, your feedback, and the trust so many of you have in us is extremely motivating. Reaching the #1 spot in the media and the press was also an important milestone, along with commercial agreements and upcoming partnerships (I’ll detail them one by one as they get finalized), we’re getting closer, every day, to a situation where we’re empowered to take on anything we need, and so when something doesn’t properly fit in with our vision of the desktop or doesn’t provide us with a solution to satisfy your needs based on your feedback, replacing it with something that does now gets easier and easier. These are tough times and a lot of really hard work is required, but the challenges ahead are also very exciting, we know exactly what we want to achieve and the support from the community and the media attention we’re getting right now are catalyzing our efforts and making it easier for us to achieve our goals. To all the people who are part of this, I’d like to send a big thank you.

25 comments

  1. Thank you Clem. Yes, it has been a very painful period, brought on by the actions of others, (who should have known better), and outside of our control in the Linux Mint Community. Your actions and hard work by the Development Team have been a wonder to behold and shows how strong and reactive the Open Source Community can be at its best.

    If this had been a proprietary operating system we would have been stuck with what we had been given, take it or leave it. But no, the bright shining light of the Open Source world is striving to give the humble users what they need, not what others think they need.

    WELL DONE, ALL OF YOU.

  2. Despite loosing “our main source of income, and…our main desktop,” Linux Mint reaches “the #1 spot.”

    Wow. 🙂

    I am genuinely surprised (and delighted) by the leaps and bounds of recent events, notably Cinnamon and the pending KDE release. I echo your thanks to our vibrant, dynamic and vital community and extend those thanks to the leadership and development: Clem & Team. Keep up the great work.

  3. Yeah…really a dream becoming true! Thanks to Clem and team and a beautiful community. I am running LM 12 KDE (64 bits) already and it’s definetly a beauty. Keep up the good work!

  4. I’m one of those who was disappointed with MGSE… Cinnamon delivers on the promise though! LM12 Cinnamon is one-by-one replacing my LM11 GNOME 2 installations.

    Cinnamon & MATE as the way forward for the sensible desktop, I say “Yes!”

    Thanks for all the work done!

  5. I think mint should continue to focus only on desktop unlike ubuntu which is trying to expand to more media screens. With that, it is loosing it’s focus and spreading itself thin.

    As a long time mint user I am very happy how mint is progressing.

    Thank you to all the team. Keep up the good work.

  6. Thanks Clem & the team for all the tremendous work you’ve put in, and happy you now consider the corner turned and the future bright. Looking forward to Mint 13 LTS.

  7. Many Thanks Clem.

    Can you clarify that MGSE will NOT feature on Linux Mint Debian Update Pack 4 or Mint 13 LTS please as I feel this is of some importance to the Mint userbase.

    Seeing as you are making very positive progress with Cinnamon in providing the traditional Mint Desktop I find it puzzling you are to continue wasting time on MATE as it will never be true Gnome 2.

    Edit by Clem: It would make no sense to ignore MATE. The fact that other major distributions are making that mistake doesn’t change the fact that it’s the closest thing to GNOME 2 and that GNOME 2 is by far the most popular Linux desktop. Whether it’s Shell, Cinnamon, Unity, none of these new desktops have come close to being as popular yet. It would be foolish to bet on one of them and to think that everybody out there is just going to agree with our choice. Whether it’s a matter of taste, of compatibility, of coherence, comfort, familiarity or even just the fact that some people don’t want to do without Compiz or don’t want their desktop to be accelerated… it’s pretty clear to me MATE will have a significant audience. I personally think both Cinnamon and MATE will outgrow all other DEs in popularity, and together they could represent a selection of quality alternatives that can please most GNOME 2 users out there by the time Mint 13 comes out. As for MGSE, I can clarify, it won’t be maintained in the future.

  8. Hi Clem,
    Happy to see linuxmint to go to such strengths!
    I’d like to request google +1 button on your blog posts. It will become easier for me to share the announcements.

    Cheers 😉

  9. Thanks for keeping MATE. GNOME2 is great, and the existence of GNOME3 does not change that. (just as GNOME3 does not make fluxbox obsolete). Its a shame that the GNOME devs made so much effort to destroy GNOME2, for example making all the names clash (compared to the Python devs have taken the effort to make python2 and 3 coexists).

  10. Hi and thanks Clem and Mint team.
    I was wondering if you know when ‘mutter’ will be fixed to allow ‘separate x screens’ or is there another solution ?
    This is the only thing holding me back from using LM12. I have a TV (HDMI) and monitor (DVI) connected to my Nvidia card.
    If it can’t be fixed, looking forward to LM 12/13 lxde

    Cheers Rick

  11. Thanks for being committed to MATE, Clem. Gnome2 was the most elegant and functional DE around, which means that MATE is the best DE active today IMHO. Linux Mint’s support of MATE is one of the main things that makes Mint stand out, and is definitely what caused me to choose it over others when I dumped FUBARuntu and needed a new distro.

  12. nani Says:
    February 3rd, 2012 at 12:11 pm
    I think mint should continue to focus only on desktop unlike ubuntu which is trying to expand to more media screens.

    Completely agree. Looking for new adventures sometimes cause unwanted results — as in Ubuntu case.

  13. Congratulations on recovering from last year’s financial crisis and being able to hire more amazing developers. I look forward to the enhancements and improvements to both the MATE and Cinnamon Desktops. I am also looking forward to a more integrated experience within the Mint Desktop such as further gnome application integration similar to that of KDE.

  14. As a rank but inspired Linux beginner, my birthday anniv. #94 just past, I devour your comments and everything I can find about this great System – OS – open source –the whole 9 yards. My goal is to become a helper in Linux development. What I see ahead is a struggle in a number of directions, but that’s the game. From my personal perspective I see a dearth of writing/books/articles/comments etc fitting newbies like me, attracted, committed, but not easily finding an ascending path into learning-by-use. Replies to this comment, hopefully, will lead me to open doors into study, application, and eventually comprehensive adoption of Linux and abandonment of whatever is presently obstinate in my work station hard- and software.

  15. As a rank but inspired Linux beginner, my birthday anniv. #94 just past, I devour your comments and everything I can find about this great System – OS – open source –the whole 9 yards. My goal is to become a helper in Linux development. What I see ahead is a struggle in a number of directions, but that’s the game. From my personal perspective I see a dearth of writing/books/articles/comments etc fitting newbies like me, attracted, committed, but not easily finding an ascending path into learning-by-use. Replies to this comment, hopefully, will lead me to open doors into study, application, and eventually comprehensive adoption of Linux and abandonment of whatever is presently obstinate in my work station hard- and software.

  16. > Update Pack 4 should hit the “incoming” LMDE repository..

    While at it, you may consider packing some stable version of wine as well. 🙂

  17. I use MATE from the release now and it is perfect and great now.
    It does all what it has to do: be simple, handy and stable with text, files, disks, sound, video, desktops, remaster, backup etc. etc..
    Thanks a lot for the salvation…! :bigsmile:

    By the way, Gnome3 plus MGSE is right and so Cinnamon will be I expect. I didn’t try Cinnamon yet.

    [In the meantime I see an awful lot of smartphones and tablets everywhere around me, also on the www and in magazines. I’m very curious about the future of the Linux(Mint)-desktops (also the fast Xfce, Lxde and the very nice LMDE, here on partitions and as clone-backup). I hope and pray for the PC. And I’m curious about MS Secure Boot thing concerning Linux. Very uncertain times.. ]

    Thanks a lot Clem and crew!

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