LMDE 201204
I’d like to thank all the people who tested the RC release and sent us feedback. We identified 68 bugs in this release and we’re currently down to 19 bugs left.
Amongst the bugs that were fixed, some affected the way we build our ISO images and the ability for the CD or USB stick to properly boot on computers which mount order changes during the boot sequence. Consequently, the final release of LMDE 201204 and future releases of Linux Mint should work on more configurations and systems where they previously failed to boot.
GDM3 also went under review during this RC release. Its lack of configuration and the fact that users couldn’t select their language were identified as important regressions. A discussion is ongoing within the MATE project at the moment to decide whether GDM2 should be forked by MATE or simply re-packaged within Linux Mint, and whether the codebase for it should be version 2.20 (which is feature-rich, graphically configurable and theme-able) or 2.32 (which provides a better interface). We’re also considering replacing GDM3 in LMDE and Linux Mint 13.
Linux Mint 13
Linux Mint 13 will be named “Maya” and should be available at the end of May 2012.
The codename was chosen a long time ago, after my daughter’s name who was named Maya in reference to:
- The Maya civilization
- The fictional Maya Toitovna
- Maya the Bee
In India, people might also know “Maya” as the “Illusion“.
Note: The choice for this codename has nothing to do with the Mayan Calendar or the notorious cataclysmic interpretations for 2012 (by then we’ll be looking at Linux Mint 14 and a different codename).
Linux Mint 13 should feature separate editions for MATE and Cinnamon. Whether one of these and which of these two editions will be considered the “default” wasn’t decided yet.
Upcoming partnerships
CompuLab
Since December 2011, we’ve been working on a close partnership with CompuLab.
The manufacturer produces a unique computer unit called the fitPC3, which comes pre-installed with a custom-made version of Linux Mint 12 featuring MATE 1.2 and XBMC.
Linux Mint and CompuLab are working together on improving this system and providing the unit with a great operating system. CompuLab also help Linux Mint by sharing a margin of their sales on an upcoming model called the “mintBox” (which will be a branded version of the FitPC3 with a Linux Mint logo) and by providing our development team with computer units and equipment.
We’re delighted with our relationship with CompuLab and with the units they produce. We’ll post a review of the “mintBox” and announce it as soon as it becomes available.
Yahoo
Yahoo is joining the list of search engines installed by default and participating in sharing revenue with Linux Mint, after an agreement was signed with DDC for the following regions: USA, Canada, Germany, UK, Ireland, France, Spain and Italy.
The Yahoo search engine will be the default engine in LMDE and could become the default in Linux Mint 13 (depending on ongoing talks with Google).
The partnership with DuckDuckGo will continue going forward and both search engines will be installed by default.
Other partnerships
Partnerships are also being discussed with Google and ThinkPenguin at the moment.
Linux Mint 10 reached “End Of Life”
Linux Mint 10 reached “end of life”. The release is likely to continue to work for a few years, but it isn’t officially supported anymore and won’t receive any more updates.
Linux Mint 11 will be supported until October 2012.
Linux Mint 9 and Linux Mint 12 will be supported until April 2013.
The upcoming Linux Mint 13 will be supported until April 2017.
oh.. Good news! I found out that Maya is the name of the Linux Mint 13 but did not know where you’ve chosen. Best chose.
Sounds great, I can’t wait for Mint 13 đ
awesome news! I worked on a pc with linux mint 10 last night and tonight i will be upgrading it to linux mint 12 and i look forward to all the new cool stuff you are working on! great job as always =)
Please, please, please, let’s go back to GDM 2.20! It was awesome, themeable, configurable! Nowadays you cannot change anything…
Super! Keep up the good work…
nice name! in greek also “maya”, means “spells” đ
sounds great
@clem – is there any plans to make cinnamon compatible with compiz/emerald? is this
1-totally undoable
2- unlikely
3- something that might happen
4- something that might be considered
5-something that you are keen to achieve,but not likely in the near future
6-something that we will try to make happen in the not too distant future
thanks đ
Edit by Clem: It would require a lot of work and is likely not to happen. It wouldn’t be my priority (note that MATE works great with Compiz) and I wouldn’t be involved in working on it, but if somebody did it, I would be interested and I would consider it of course.
maya is perfect đ
Dang it! Maya is the name of my murderous ex-wife! That it’d be an LTS release makes it even worse!
Great news, thanks.
About LMDE, are there any plans to keep it more up to date and justify the ‘rolling release’ principle? Last time I installed it, a couple of months ago, I was stuck with Firefox 7 and a whole bunch of bugs that should have been simple to sort out.
Thanks, and keep up the good work!
are there plans to remove the 64bit-encrypted-home-install bug ?
Very good news, thank you for all you effort to make of LM the best Linux Distribution.
In a side topic I want to share my experience with LM12+KDE, it is just amazing. I hadn’t used KDE since 2005 (with Fedora Core 3)… I installed it this weekend and it is simply awesome. Thank you for it too.
As much as I tried to like Duck Duck Go, I found myself going back to google. DDG just doesn’t search the way I need it too. Perhaps if they were a anon google front end sort of thing. I have put a google shortcut button in firefox right under the default DDG search window. I never use DDG anymore.
For the record not crazy about yahoo being the default either, people still use yahoo? As much as I am starting to dislike google I have to say there search is the best.
very good news. i hope mint maya will be a good release.
I’m using Ubuntu 12.04 with Cinnamon and it’s working great. That would be my choice for default, especially if it has a 2d mode or supports a lot more graphics cards. While I like MATE, it has a lot of problems with compiz and it seems slightly too unstable to be default for an LTS. Also, I prefer LightDM to both GDM 3 and 2. I’m looking forward to the final lmde iso images. Finally, I like the name Maya.
I was waiting eagerly for Mint13 as i knew Julia is almost reaching the end-of-life. So, i’ll be jumping from Julia to Maya as soon as it’s gonna release. And I’ll probably go with MATE or Cinnamon đ
Thanks for the great work Mint team.
Wow! That is a lot of exciting news. I’ve been considering FitPC3 (I have an older model running OpenBSD), and will look forward to the unveiling of mintBox. I will of course have to go branded đ
BTW link to fitPC3 is misspelled as fitCP3.
Edit by Clem: Thanks Vincent, I’ll correct the typo. I’ve got two units here sent by CompuLab, one is the fitPC 3 “basic” and the other is the mintBox “pro”. The mintBox will come in two models, basically the same as the fitPC3 “basic” and “pro” models and for the same price. The main difference will be the logo at the front (it’s a green retro-lit Mint logo) and the fact that we’ll get a commission on each sale. I’ll review both units.
when will you fully support for nvidia optimus graphics cards? i know there is bumblebee project but it does not work well!!!
i think all linux community is stupid…if u dont like windows or apple why dont u work together?there are too much linux distros but all distros have too many problems…i got bored from windows but when i try to use linux nothing is stable or easy to use…i started to pray to the android os to make a distro for pc’s.
Very exciting times indeed, can’t wait for LM 13!
Good to hear that MATE and Cinnamon will be in separate editions đ
wow,i cant wait for linux mint 13.. and yes in india maya means illusion.!!! nice name….! :
till date i have converted my whole class(80 students) to use linux mint instead of windows for our projects! it rocks,,,
looking forward for 13
congrats Clem and team!
Good news about the Yahoo partnership. I’ve been using it as my default search engine for several years now and it works quite well. Only image searching Google does better. I try to avoid Google because they’ve become too monopolistic to my taste.
I’m still not sure if I’ll go with Mate / Cinnamon for my next Mint cycle, or switch to KDE. That will mostly depend on how well their settings- and hardware management tools work.
I would also be eagerly waiting for LM-13. Great name ‘Maya’ and good and accurate research on it. Being Indian I could say that you are absolutely correct about Maya – Illusion.
Since I started using Linux Mint or Gnome from LM-9 and it was based on GDM 2.3 and till date it is the best release. So I would say to go with GDM 2.3. But as I did not use the earlier versions of GDM, so can’nt say anything about GDM 2.20. Other users may be able to tell the difference correctly.
I could not understand your line “Weâre also considering replacing GDM3 in LMDE and Linux Mint 13”. Replacing GDM3 with what? Gnome 2.20, 2.3 or 3.4.
Good luck for the rest of the releases. Always ready to test LM releases.
And for the lighter side. According to Mayan Calendar world is going to end in 2012. I don’nt know about the world, but really wish if Gnome-3 could be ended and Gnome-2 could be revived.
@bobby: actually, it’s not according to Mayan calendar, but according to the process described in this comic: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1174 đ
Good news! thanks linuxmint-dev, thanks community linux-mint
Amid all of the fuss and confusion over trying to sort out how to deal with the GNOME3 mess, how best to work around it, how to modify it, scratchbuilding new DEs to replace it, the longterm future of the MATE fork, deciding which version of GDM dumps the fewest regressions on us, etc. â Personally I really think it is time to give more attention back to KDE. The early experience with KDE4 turned away a lot of users, including myself, but I am running 4.8 (installed through Kubuntu Backports) on top of Mint 12, and it really has settled down nicely. The desktop can be set up to work pretty much the same as GNOME2. I’m not getting any of the random Plasma crashes that I always associated with KDE. It looks nice. Dolphin is a great file manager. I personally like most of the KDE applications more than their GNOME counterparts, though I’m glad I can run both. Minor drawbacks are that I wish I had the MintMenu, and GTK applications don’t look as nice. Others’ mileage may vary of course, but at this point my KDE experience is working better for me than any of the efforts to fix GNOME.
Keep up the innovation.
@Monsta : That’s a good one.
@JoeInMN — I think KDE is getting more attention than ever, to be honest, with the sponsorship from BlueSystems and so on, and that can only be a good thing. I have to say though, though I’ve tried it several times, I personally have absolutely no interest in it whatsoever. And what’s more, it seems clear I’m very much in the majority on that score.
Waiting for Maya đ
Maya on May couldn’t ask for a better birthday gift! I love the cinnamon shell, hope you take it to great heights. đ
I also prefer two separated editions. Both will be great!
Cleam and Mint Team,
Thanks a lot!
You have been doing an outstanding job.
Would it not be better to make DuckDuckGo the default as opposed to Yahoo? After all, DDG is (partly) open-source – for an open-source OS this is an important thing to stress. I know Mint isn’t strict with the openness of things (to some extent obviously), but making Yahoo the default just seems like a bad idea to me.
Linux Mint ROCKS! any chances for linux mint main edition to become a debian based distro? I use lmde and it is just as good as main edition đ
Can’t wait. Would prefer LightDM to GDM.
Waiting for it. Lets see how you guys come with something Bug free đ
Sound great and perfect, in Malaysia “Maya” mean “Virtual” – Alam Maya (Virtual world)
when will you fully support for nvidia optimus graphics cards? i know there is bumblebee project but it does not work well!!!
i think all linux community is stupidâŠif u dont like windows or apple why dont u work together?there are too much linux distros but all distros have too many problemsâŠi got bored from windows but when i try to use linux nothing is stable or easy to useâŠi started to pray to the android os to make a distro for pcâs.
@koray: when will u laern to type !!!?
NVidia Optimus support is Dependant on documentation from Nvidia and our dear driver devs – wherever they lurk. We of the distro devs _don’t_ have the time or the specialists to code drivers for yet another graphics card – which is why we either recommend you grab the driver from the manufacturer or from a community website.
LINUX != WINDOWS
(Linux is not Windows, for those of you who didn’t take Math)
Linux is not a single cohesive product developed by a monolithically monopolist corporation – it’s a family of products developed by hobbyists, consumers, communities and corporations.
Linux is stable. Rock stable – at least if you go with Debian. Since we extensively test the products, it can lag behind bleeding-edge on the hardware development side. Not as if _MOST_ use bleeding-edge stuff anyways. And when we don’t have stable drivers, we leave support out until somebody has working drivers released.
I/O Errors
(Ignorant Operator errors)
The high number of machine accidents is due to operator issues – and this also occurs in the software world. If the computer doesn’t _just work_, the problem is probably between the chair and keyboard.
*sigh*
If you’re trolling, please take it and shove it, preferably in some UI designer’s ear (hint: Microsoft could use something to block off the UI designers from the consumers after Metro hits Windows 8). If you haven’t read the freaking manual yet, please do so.
“Go ahead, make my day.”
Thank you for making my day. Oh,wait – it wasn’t satire. Oh well.
We made several installs of LM12 of computers and laptops, at people with lot of experience and some with almost no (like my father, who already retired).
Usually, the first thing I removed was the bottom panel.
Didn’t make sense, everyone got used in the corner touch with the mouse…
Another thing that is unfortunately always an issue is the printer support: definately better, but still an open construction site.
Also the webcam support at skype (but this is a completely different story).
Anyway: thx !
Congratulations Clem and the Linux Mint team.
I’m glad to see these partnerships! They just confirm what everyone knows: Mint is the most polished Linux distro available.
Yes, it sounds like Maya will finally be the Mint release capable to replace the lovely Mint 10 Julia. But until Mint 13 proofs its capabilities i will keep my well-performing (up-hotted) Julia.
You are doing a fantastic job, Clem and the team. Mint is going to have a great impact in history of the Linux success! I am proud and happy. Thank You very much.
đ
Is there any (at least theoretical) possibilities of Maya Fluxbox to be shown some day?
Clem,
Please be kind to consider releasing LMDE ISOs for Update Pack 3 (say, “LMDE 201204 Legacy Edition”) together with ISOs for Update Pack 4 (LMDE 201204).
Here are the reasons.
1) Gnome 2 is definitely less resourse-hungry and so is better suited for legacy / low-performance hardware (like netbooks) with single-core CPUs.
2. Gnome 2 is still more stable which is important for “zero support” usage scenarios. For example, I have LMDE installed on my mother-in-law’s netbook for about a year, and I haven’t received a single complaint other than “it’s not Windows like everyone has”.
3. Updating from 201109 takes lots of time when you have low bandwitdth.
In the event you decide to release separate ISOs with Update Pack 3, please include the repositories from your own blog post (http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1944).
With best regards,
Happy Mint User.
is there any possibility upgrade from previous version? so my system is always on current version
I would like to second the motion by xlation re: LMDE Legacy Edition based on UP3. I like the look of Cinnamon, but it crashes and restarts quite frequently for me. LMDE at UP3 has been rock solid, and I would love to have an ISO that would not require many hours of updates.
My requests for mint 13:
1. Update mintInstall. It was awesome with mint 9, but 2 years and 4 releases later it is starting to seem slow and bloated, and not more functional or better looking than alternatives like the deepin software manager and the ubuntu software center.
2. Please include an XFCE edition of the ubuntu based mint 13 (preferably directly based on xubuntu. Xubuntu 12.04 is really good, and I’d love to see a mint version of it. I know that the XFCE edition switched to LMDE, but it would make sense to release an ubuntu based edition on LTS releases because they will be supported for very long periods of time.
3. After Mint 13 (possibly for the Mint 14 release cycle) switch all of the editions to LMDE except for LTS releases, with both an Ubuntu and Debian release.
4. Try to bring the Mint 13 updates to LMDE faster than with the Mint 13 updates (which came with UP 4, so a few weeks ago). I know that for Mint 12 you were waiting for gnome 3.2 to enter testing, so hopefully this time around it won’t take as long for you to release (unless you have to wait for gnome 3.4 to enter testing, which will take a very long while if it doesn’t make it in before the code freeze).
5. Update Mint 13 with the Ubuntu releases like 12.04.1 and 12.04.2.
6. Have a new theme for Cinnamon. The current one is very bland. My personal preference would be a theme very similar to the mint 10/11 one, a theme similar to the mint 9 one, or minty.
7. Look at the various Cinnamon applets, extensions, and themes and include them by default in mint 13 (and presumably the next cinnamon release). Things that I’m thinking about specifically are the classic menu applet and the alt tab coverflow extension.
8. Have a much easier way to install extensions than the cinnamon website, unless features very similar to the extensions.gnome.org website are added (meaning the installation is automated).
9. For Mint 14 or 15 more likely than 13, but the long discussed qt front ends to mint tools.
I know that this is a lot to ask for and not all of this will go into mint 12 (if any of it), but these are my requests/suggestions to make mint 13 a stellar release. Regardless of whether these are implemented, I’m sure that mint 13 will be a stellar release.
One question that’s been bugging me for a while: What happened to Boo and Kendall?
Edit by Clem: Thanks for this. About Boo and Kendall (and Merlwiz), they just got busy with other aspects of their lives. Remember, they’re volunteers and they can’t always afford to spend time on a project like this one. We get in touch now and then but they aren’t as active as they were before within the project. The person who’s been maintaining all these editions and giving me a huge amount of help this year is “Fred”, you might have seen his name pop up on the testing section of the community site. He’s a full-time staff member and working on Mint is his job, so it’s quite different and he’s obviously more available. We secured enough funding in 2012 to take on another person and this helped us a lot.
Boo came and scared Kendall away…
I must say, the Mars trilogy was one of my favorite book series some years ago. Now you got me wanting to go back and read them again.
I hope this Maya doesn’t suffer from the ‘personality disorders’ of the fictitious character. đ
I am looking forward to updating my systems from LM9 to LM13 as soon as the finals are released. Love the look of Cinnamon, but some of my older systems just can’t handle it and will have to default to MATE. (Not a problem, as MATE is really nice too.)
My LMDE desktop computer has to use MATE because Cinnamon crashes too often and there seems to be a lot of screen tearing when closing programs.
Clem, thanks for the news. Maya is a splendid name. LM 12 KDE changed my mind about KDE, and now I am a devoted fan of this polished, professional, and almost infinitely customizable DE. I hope to see it in LM 13 LTS KDE. It would also be great if you decided to produce a KDE version of LMDE, which is my new favorite of all distros.
In recent tests of some 12 distros and several DEs, I have settled on LMDE KDE (KDE installed from the Xfce version) as the best. LMDE was the only distro that was able to run satisfactorily my molecular modeling software, YASARA-Structure. Overall, LMDE was faster and more responsive than all other distros, starting with the installer and going all the way through day to day operations. I am considering living a bit on the edge and using it on my production workstation.
Keep up the superior work!
I have high hopes for Mint 13. I tried LM12 for a short period and found it to be unusable with a ridiculous layout, I immediately went back to 9. I’m hoping the wait for Maya will be worth it.
Please make sure you include instructions for upgrading from LM10 to LM13 without data loss or major reconfiguring beyond what was necessary to go from Gnome2 to MATE. My server wants updates, but not data loss.
My impression with LMDE was that Cinnamon was less release-ready than MATE. But Cinnamon is the flagship Linux Mint technology, and MATE is for those who want the legacy GNOME 2. Quite a conundrum.
“3. After Mint 13 (possibly for the Mint 14 release cycle) switch all of the editions to LMDE except for LTS releases, with both an Ubuntu and Debian release.”
Clem, please do not follow this advice. Some of us hate debian. Ugh
Will it be possible to run M13 with both MATE and Cinnamon? While I am enjoying the trajectory of Cinnamon it still has a ways to go to replace the Gnome2 functionality I am looking for.
With my latest install of M12 I found myself falling back to MATE after constant Cinnamon hiccups. I was very relaxing just like good old G2. If compositing had been working I might have left it instead of reinstalling M9 to wait for M13.
One of the biggest frustration with M12 (besides the instability which seemed to pick up in M11) is how “Control Center” seems to (one again) been scattered all over the place and some functionality just can’t be found, like “groups” control button no longer available in “Users” control. I can’t find it anywhere.
It is these kinds of regressions to basic essential functionality that really hurt.
And honestly simple networking in *all* Linux needs serious work. Window boxes always seem to be able to find everything (they can’t seem to hold onto it đ on the network out of the box, Linux boxes… not so much.
All that being said I am a dedicated Mint user for several years and love the effort and direction you put into it Clem and team.
I really want M13 to get past these G3 growing pains and be as great a pleasure as M9&10 have always been.
Good luck and thanks.
Edit by Clem: Yes, you can have both installed on the same system, like we’re doing now with LMDE. But it’s a bit like having KDE and Gnome installed.. you’ll get duplicated tools in the menus, conflicting bluetooth packages etc etc… it works, but you’ll have to tidy your system a bit and pick the components which work best for you.
I’m very reluctant to give up on Julia. It’ll be a while before I can say my goodbyes to her. For now, we shall enjoy our last moments together.
Right now i am using the KDE edition of Mint 12. It works flawlessly, it is very fast and configurable. No missing features or waiting for them to be implemented in the future. And, in my personal opinion, by far the best DE out there today.
But still, for some reason, it is treated as a step child. It would be nice if it got a bit more attention.
A quick follow-up on GDM. Version 2.20 was forked and is now called MDM. Both “mdm” and “mint-mdm-themes” were added to the LMDE repositories.
This is what the Mint theme looks like: http://imagebin.org/208865
We also talked about this within the MATE team. MDM will eventually become a MATE sub-project and be integrated in MATE before release 1.4.
Long-term it should also gain a keyboard selector.
Thanks for the great update. I really appreciate it when you guys let us know about this stuff. My opinion would be to use Cinnamon as the main edition. My experience with Cinnamon has been very positive. If it continues to evolve like it has in the last few months it should be ready by then.
Although I have not tried Mate in the last few versions. Perhaps it has gotten tougher in the last versions. I can see where this could be a tough decision.
Having said that I feel that Cinnamon is really the direction that Mint Maya needs to go for the main edition. New technology meets old school comfortable interface. This seems to be exactly what Linux Mint is about.
Thank you for creating such a great, free, operating system with a great community and wonderful support. It really shows that you are in this for the love of the trade.
Glaaaaaad to see the efforts from Clem & The Team!!
Looking forward to the new LMDE ISOs.
MDM simply looks *cool*! Thank you very much!
I am using Xfce desktop and it is completely eaze.
good job guys
LM dev team,
Please keep your eye on LightDM as a longer term replacement for MDM / GDM. Recently I started to install GDM (forget which non-Gnome distro) and it wanted to suck down >100MB of packages – yikes! IMHO the only important functionality LightDM is missing right now is ‘switch-user’. Oh yeah, DITCH the hard-to-read Unity greeter.
@XFCE fans, hang in there. Debian Wheezy will be ‘frozen’ this June and will include v4.8. LM13 LTS also should be a great base for XFCE.
I’ll say it again – I hate to see the LM devs forking and maintaining more old code.
In the Philippines, the name Maya is a kind of bird, a Philippine rice sparrow. This species of sparrow is ubiquitous over the rice fields. For a while it was the national bird of the Philippines (replaced by the Philippine eagle in 1995) due to its being found everywhere.
I believe the choice of Maya is ominous. It means this version of Linux Mint will soon be found everywhere you look, just like the rice sparrow in the Philippines.
I would like to see a choice of DE in M13 just like with LMDE if possible.
Also, may I suggest “Nina” for M14? đ
Ok, when I try to install mdm on LMDE MATE/Cinnamon 64-bit, which I just installed and applied updates to, I get this error:
E: /var/cache/apt/archives/mdm_1.0.0_amd64.deb: trying to overwrite ‘/usr/share/pixmaps/nohost.png’, which is also in package gdm3 3.0.4-4
The screenshot looks really good, though.
Edit by Clem: Thanks for the feedback on this. Note that you can remove GDM3 before installing MDM in the meantime (you only need one DM after all).
@Clem : I have the same problem as @Chris-65 described above.
I tried this on two fresh installs of the MATE/Cinnamon, one 32-bit and one 64-bit. Both have the error.
That MDM screenshot looks great đ
Hmm, maybe it would be useful to create a thread about MDM in the forums.
Maya – the best name so far! I’m eagerly waiting for it.
“3. After Mint 13 (possibly for the Mint 14 release cycle) switch all of the editions to LMDE except for LTS releases, with both an Ubuntu and Debian release.”
I don’t agree with this. The Ubuntu edition of Mint will not improve if it is only done every four releases of Ubuntu.
Just set the mdm package in its control file such that it “replaces” gdm so common files will be allowed.
Edit by Clem: Yes, I thought that was done already, I’ll check the control file.
That is great news for all of us LM users.
I, myself, am a LM 12 KDE user. And a very satisfied one at that. đ
Keep up the good work Clem and the LM Team.
@Manmath Sahu-70 : Have you tried LM-12 KDE its quite good. I Know its not rolling like yours, but its better in speed and and stability.
Please, please, please, make the default desktop MATE.
Kimiko: Yahoo search is powered by Bing since 2009. You think Google is more monopolistic than Microsoft?
As ever, enlightening news, many thanks to Clem and the team !
LMDE’s number of outstanding bugs reduction is a great indicator of its growing maturity as an alternative to a Ubuntu base, but LM13 could be interesting after we’ve seen what Ubuntu Precise does and doesn’t achieve, although Precise’s already planned further releases doesn’t inspire confidence, so LMDE could be LinuxMint’s salvation ?
(My own main challenge is to wrestle with GRUB1.99 now that GRUB0.97 has effectively been abandoned.)
And one more thing.
I won’t be using any OS willfully associated with Microsoft.
Edit by Clem: Our long-term goal is to include all the major search engines. The fact that Google and Microsoft are behind some of these engines isn’t an issue for us. It makes sense for us to include them and for users to have them installed by default. Of course you can remove them with a simple click, or as you opted, you can decide not to use Linux Mint for that reason.
We identified 68 bugs in this release and weâre currently down to 19 bugs left. – that is Great work. all fans of LMDE appreciate thy efforts i’m sure.
maya, great name.. ksr’s mars trilogy, AWESOME series, time for me to read it again. coyote is an interesting character, as is hiroko. the co-operative system of exchange developed during the revolution continues to inspire me.
yahoo, sure why not. google is monolithic and not quite open enough to ease anyone’s mind.
compuLab? congrats on having mint installed as default OS! you and your team are building a wonderful thing. i would love to buy a minto computer. However i REFUSE to have that purchase benefit israel, compuLab is an israeli company. israel, home of the largest open-air prison in the world – GAZA. what israel continues to do in the West Bank, israel’s continued construction of settlements while the Palestinians strive for negotiation. israel = H U G E american military base.. please reconsider associating linuxmint with israel..
for a crash course on life on the other side of the Wall watch the doc Occupation101
Edit by Clem: Politics isn’t welcome on this blog and usually gets moderated. I understand where you’re coming from, as I had the same initial reaction a couple of years ago. I think many people remember my silly outburst about Israel and if I learnt two things about this: 1. We have nothing to do with politics, we’re here for a reason and it’s our passion for technology… so especially when we share a common thing like this, we shouldn’t let borders divide us, 2. that conflict is much more complicated than it seems, there’s a huge amount of propaganda on both sides of the fence and it’s extremely hard for an outsider to make an objective opinion. I received a lot of info and comments after my reaction, and I have to say… I just don’t know what to think or who to believe on this anymore. The only thing I know, is that the people at CompuLab are dedicated, passionate and extremely nice people, and that what is going on between the two factions over there has nothing to do with either them or us.
The meaning of maya in India is more deeper. It has to do with philosophy. To some extent it means that nothing is real but as we experience it, everything seems real; that the world has been created by the god and is not real but we experience it through maya of god.
delving deeper into meaning of may in hindu mythology is very interesting, if you get some time from this delicious distro i.e Linuxmint.
Very nice going, indeed!
As do others, I really appreciate your telling us of plans and providing important background information. It’s really impressive how much you’re accomplishing with just a relatively few people.
My father was a Theosophist; “maya” was a word we were familiar with.
I like the choice of name! As well, I’m not worried about overflow in the Long Count. (Manvantaras, anyone?)
My best to all,
[nb]
going to have a look at Compulab, right now.
Ans to post 76 (Have you tried LM-12 KDE its quite good. I Know its not rolling like yours, but its better in speed and and stability.)
Yes, I tried it, it’s quite good. I mean it’s highly usable and stable. But I’m unfortunate with it owing to my weird hardware. For sometime now I’m fighting to put Linux (mint, mepis, pclos, fedora, debian and arch) on the latest amd platforms. Every time there’s some trouble related to graphics, power management or the hotkeys.
However, I found Mint 12 KDE a wonderful experience on my all Intel PCs – a g31 dualcore and an H61 Core i3 machines.
Thanks for commenting.
@Nicholas Bodley : Its great to hear that your father was a Theosophist. Being a little on spiritual side I am also familiar with Theosophist and “Maya” and the Great Madam “Helena Blavatsky”. But my knowledge regarding Theosophist and Maya is limited to reading only. I know I am little off topic, but thats the good part of LM Forums, at least up till now. We can say hello to each other and sometime go little off topic as well. Regards.
Re CompuLab and fitPC:
Surely, worth a look. There are 2 or 3 that have Mint installed. These are about 6 inches/16 cm square, and an inch thick. They look a bit like black pillows đ and have die-cast housings (“cases”). The AMD (G-series) version combines a dual-core CPU and graphics. They put a lot of up-to-date functions into a small box, and power drain is very modest (7..15 W, for the basic version). Expansion (just about sure) has a separate box, with published design help.
The company apparently has lots of experience with embedded computers; surely looks as though they know how to make very good ones, imho.
@rufong (#76): Your comments were noted; I’m also quite distressed, but won’t comment more, here. Nevertheless, imho, some Israeli companies are second to none worldwide in their technology, for one thing.
Regards,
[nb]
Taxes are the membership fee in a civilized society.
To input the user name in login screen is just too much work for me! I vaguely remember that there was a gdm 2.20 theme which allowed selecting the user by clicking on their photos just like gdm 2.32. I may be wrong though.
Otherwise, thanks for discarding 2.32, I disliked it so much that I felt sick every time I used it.
@post35. blard on search engine choice
“Would it not be better to make Duck Duck Go the default as opposed to Yahoo?”
I totally agree. I rarely use Google now or Yahoo because of their tracking mentality.
Yes, agreed to that Maya is a lovely name. May she live long and prosper.
By the way, I find another problem in Mate with LMDE is the lack of usb-related functions. In Mint Gnome or Debian the user could right click on a usb icon on the Desktop and re-format the drive in preparation to accept a new iso file. This is not possible in Mate. There is no format function.Also the fact that Unetbootin, perhaps the most popular usb application for iso files, does not work with Mate and the usb creator that you suggested in a previous forum, I couldn’t get to work, are points that could be looked at, if anyone on the team has the time. Thanks for all your efforts.
I suggest Linux Mint 14 be code-named ‘Nicole’ – in memory of the great mind Nikola Tesla.
Keep going Minters – you’re doing an excellent job!
LM 10 Julia works so nicely on my PC, I can’t see no reason why I should change. I’ve tried LM 12 and I think it’s worse than LM 10. Fancy what LM 13 will be like…
For how long would it be safe and secure to use a distro that has reached “end of life”???
@ JoeInMN : i fully concur, with the incoming LTS we are reaching the equilibrium point.
I look forward to install the Mint KDE 13 as i chose it as my favourite D.E for my desktop machine. Kde has evolved and is providing a better experience than Gnome 2 now (with the same stability)
The good thing is that the distro will be up to date for a very long and i would be able to test the progress on Cinnamon/Mate.
That was my initial plan with LMDE but sadly it still lacks several features of the Ubuntu family (i.e jockey, installer doesnt support install on several disks…).
I think, all those partnerships with “big” names, will be the end of the “Mint” we all love so much. Are we flying too high ?
Hi Clem!
MDM is recommending to install mdm-themes. However it should be mint-mdm-themes right?
Congratulations! Looking forward to seeing Mint 13 with Cinnamon. Will use it on my work place hopefully.
Echoing earlier comments, I had tried lightdm with latest (201204) lmde xfce, as it was in the repository already, after having trying slim (slim has become broken for consolekit again alas…). Lightdm worked very well and provided an immediate huge drop in used memory over gdm3 on an otherwise default install. I also suggest dropping gdm entirely in favor of lightdm, with, I guess, a mintified theme.
Clem,
In reference to your edit in post 81, I appreciate the respectful way that you chose to respond to rufong on politics. Your candid expression about your personal experience was quite admirable. In a world with so much to develop opinions on, including politics, it’s very easy to lose focus. While I’m sure more than a few people on this blog would agree or disagree with rufong’s viewpoint, or have no viewpoint at all, it’s far more productive to the LM vision if we are able to factor out of the equation even mildly off-topic subject matter, let alone ginormous controversies like politics.
tracyanne@77
Technically speaking, I suppose it would be nice if we could each have our default desktop of choice, be it Mate, Cinnamon, or what have you. However, to me it’s quite obvious that Clem is actually focusing his resources on things that have a much greater impact, one being that we have as many choices as possible right away. True, there may be some minor inconveniences depending on what we like, but they are indeed minor. With just a few short steps, we can generally have what best suits us up and running if not by default. If your experience has not been that easy, then please accept my apology, as I realize that that was somewhat of a generalization. But also rest assured that Clem is doing all he can right now to make it as smooth as possible for as many of us as possible–all as quickly as possible.
Settling on a default desktop of any flavor at this juncture would serve to critically bottleneck so much of what Clem is trying to accomplish. Remember, there is still much dust yet to settle as Clem moves forward with development, and these are core issues that Clem is still juggling, rather than comparatively simple ones such as what default desktop is packaged in. Don’t get me wrong, your desire indeed has relevance, but at this stage, there are much bigger fish to fry.
In the MATE edition of Mint 13, will Compiz (and consequently Compiz Enhanced Desktop Zoom) be installed by default? This is a very important detail to know for visually impaired users.
Edit by Clem: Yes, but probably not enabled by default.
@Clem: Thank you for making MATE the default desktop for LMDE. After Gnome 3/shell started creeping into LMDE/Debian Testing I began a search for a replacement. Initially, MATE didn’t impress as it came across as very immature and buggy. With the 201204 release of LMDE, MATE has reached the state of being “ready for prime time”. Except for the naming conventions, I can’t tell the difference between MATE and Gnome 2.x. We all owe a debt of gratitude to you and the other Devs.
Edit by Clem: I think we got there in terms of experience when it comes to the most common use cases…. it’s particular things such as sharing files over samba, bluetooth, sound recorder… these don’t work well yet, but the MATE team is tackling them one by one.
Clem:
Again in reference to visually impaired users, can Tobias Quinn’s excellent Gnome Shell Mousewheel Zoom be included in the Mint 13 Cinnamon build? It provides Compiz Enhanced Desktop Zoom mousewheel features to Gnome3 and the author upgraded it to be compatible with Cinnamon a while back.
The link is here:
https://github.com/tobiasquinn
Given that Gnome3’s default zoom capability is quite inadequate for visually impaired users in comparison to a mouse-driven desktop zoom, I do hope that this utility can be considered.
I’m very excited about Mint’s partnership with CompuLab, specifically the upcoming “mintBox”! And a big thanks to Clem and the Mint team for their innovation, vision and dedication to providing user-centric solutions.
@Clem
Very good comments on politics, thank you.
Concerning the minor problem of search engines: https://www.ixquick.com/ or https://startpage.com/ (don’t really know the difference) provide non-IP-recording/non-tracking-cookies/ssl-enhanced searches near Google style. I use them for a while now and usually find what I’m looking for. Perhaps you give them a private (and later minty) try.
Keep up the quality and userfriendly work!
It would be very wonderful to have a 100% free software Linux Mint version, agreed by the FSF, like Trisquel Linux.
Installed RC in my Atlhon X2 64 3,8GHz dual core 1Go RAM. Seems really heavy and lagging under MATE or Cinnamon when it flies really fast under Mint 11. There is really a big performance issue between Mint 11 and new versions like Mint 12 and new LMDE. Even KDE works flawlessly !
Wonder where the problem is…
@Martial
It’s likely because those two interfaces (MATE and especially Cinnamon) are harder on the GPU than the previous versions. A 3D rendering engine has a price…
@Roj
yes i notice that !
So Compiz seems a way more optimized !
Sad day. Mint 10 is the best Mint yet. 11 was very buggy. 12 was just horrifying and lacking in too many areas. LMDE, while pretty good, always seems a bit too rough and lacking in the niceties that Ubuntu provides. I hope 13 is up to snuff. I’ll be testing it out, but I’m keeping 10 as my main OS until I know I can be happy with newer Mints again. Dropping back down from 11 to 10 was the first time since I started using Mint that I didn’t stick with the newest Mint available. I’m really not wanting to do the install-reinstall dance again. I really don’t want to install anything until it’s something I know I can be happy with for a while.
So, is it feasible to keep Mint 10 somewhat alive by switching its repos down to Mint 9/Ubuntu 10.04 repos? I know it’s not a good idea to mix versions, but perhaps this mixture will work ok. Mostly, I just want the up-to-date repos for the programs I interact with the most (LibreOffice, Chromium, Thundebird, MuseScore, etc).
en español es mejor https://www.ixquick.com/ que duck duck go consideralo. yahoo es bueno tambien me gusta mas que google en mi opinion google parece monopolio.
@Mike Freeman:
I’ve long since done that from the point of view of adding PPAs for apps I wanted updated (Firefox, Thunderbird, SABNzbd, Transmission, Deadbeef, Puddletag, Cairo-Dock, DockbarX). Everything has run perfectly for the last five months or so.
I’ll let go Mint 10 when a new Mint that gives me Enhanced Desktop Zoom functionality via the mousewheel, DockBarX functionality and more customizability of screen elements like taskbar width and a proper GUI for theming comes along.
nice news but please add google chrome navigation internet
I’m working now on this version Linux mint 12 lxde.
I’m new user on this system. iâ„ LINUX is awesome :).
I agree with another comments. LightDM is fast, theme-able, and very configurable.
There is a bug in MATE: It can’t show the weather at mate-panel (beside the watch).
@Roj: After testing Mint 12 this week with Cinnamon and Gnome3 on my ancient Athlon64 3200, nForce4 motherboard, and an ATI All-In-Wonder 2006 (based on the x1300) using the free radeon driver, you’ve hit the nail on the head: those two DEs are GPU heavy. At idle, my CPU usage hovered between 5% to 8% and RAM usage at 161MBs, yet the desktop felt a bit sluggish. Furthermore, rebooting in Mint 11 took 3 seconds compared to Mint 12 where a reboot takes a good 8 to 10 seconds. So its definitely a case where GPUs made before 2008 are in for a good thrashing, and as a result add an overall performance hit on the underlying hardware (i.e. single or multi-core).
MATE on the other hand should be far more stable in comparison on older hardware and GPUs — at least as stable as Gnome2 had been for many years across the Debian/Ubuntu distro salad. Nevertheless, the days of maintaining stability with old hardware + new Gnome3/Cinnamon Mint releases are numbered, leaving XFCE or Fluxbox the only options besides Puppy Linux or the landfill.
I have a comment about LMDE 201404 RC MATE. ‘Power Management’ is missing from the Control Center. What’s up with that? The only way I can get to Power Management is through the Screensaver. Other than that, I think LMDE 201404 RC MATE is Great! Thanks.
A little improvement for Cinnamon: It should follow GNOME HIG ( http://developer.gnome.org/hig-book/ ).
I’ve been using LMDE since the new images came out last week. There’s no doubt Cinnamon should be set to default in ALL future LM Editions! So much so, that I attempted to completely purge Mate from my system. I must have missed a few things since it seems to rebuild a little more, with each new update over the past couple days. MATE was a bad idea to be included as default. I had mentioned in the forums a couple weeks ago, that in the wake of the angst caused by Gnome Shell, LM was to quick to jump the gun on MATE. Forked or not, it’s a new environment that at the time, could not have even made it out of alpha, before it’s inclusion to Mint, and on the next cycle it moves to maybe default? And in fact is on LMDE, bad move in my opinion. And now for the stoning. Gnome2 is dead people. I’ve was resistant to this change too, so much so that I used BT5 for awhile after the initial Gnome3 release. Gnome3 is usable, that upper right hot corner becomes instinctive after 15 minutes, a plus for Cinnamon since it’s included in it’s shell. It’s the easiest way to switch desktops outside of compiz, barring the panel app. Gnome3 may not be the best foot forward while usable, it lacks in productivity, and makes your PC look like a tablet or phone.Cinnamon on the other hand has the classic desktop feel with a well polished shell on top. One thing about Cinnamon. You should be able to enable Wobbly windows. One thing that makes a DE seem visually fluid in addition to minimizing and maximizing effects is wobbly windows.Cinnamon is fluid in a visually appealing way, right until the point I grab my window and move it to workspace right. It’s a stiff movement while all other window movements flow seemlessly within the DE. Just my opinion
And one more thing.
I wonât be using any OS willfully associated with Microsoft.
Edit by Clem: Our long-term goal is to include all the major search engines. The fact that Google and Microsoft are behind some of these engines isnât an issue for us. It makes sense for us to include them and for users to have them installed by default. Of course you can remove them with a simple click, or as you opted, you can decide not to use Linux Mint for that reason.
To be clear,
Every OS needs to _install_ those search engines by default, it’s a matter of usability. Not every OS needs to _use_ a MS based search engine by default. Whatever the easiness in changing that setting, MS knows, and you know, the default comes with a higher degree of adoption and that’s why they wrestle for that spot. Surrendering it in exchange for money is tantamount to supporting MS in my book, and that I avoid whenever I can afford to.
Edit by Clem: That’s fine. We’re in competition with Windows on the desktop market, other than that we’ve nothing against Microsoft themselves. You seem to assume we agree with you on this and only do this for money… we’re delighted to sign another engine, we’re very happy with the implementation and if it helps Microsoft indirectly (or even directly), that’s not something we’re worried about. It’s yet another engine for people to choose from, it helps us a lot in bringing this OS to people for free, and if it frustrates people engaged in a crusade against “evil MS”, that’s something we’re not too concerned about. To make it clear how things work here… I wouldn’t use Windows for anything else than gaming… I don’t like it much… when I have some spare time I play the Xbox, yes, the Microsoft console, and I find it to be pretty good. I work really hard and so does everyone in the team, and those that do it full time have donors, sponsors, search engines and partners to thank. If you understand how the search market works, and what our business model is, you know we don’t want to shift our focus away from the development and engage in commercial activities. We’ll be partnering with probably all search engines out there, and all of them will contribute to funding our project by sharing the revenue we generate with them. Microsoft/Bing hasn’t yet agreed, Google is about to, Yahoo/DDC did already.
Clem, really loving this approach: if something doesn’t fit our standards or our needs we fork or create something new!!
mdm is just the last in an impressive list of examples đ
as for the naming, i think we can have a problem here (it conflicts with the Middleman System)
http://packages.debian.org/wheezy/mdm
apt policy mdm
mdm:
Installed: 1.0.0
Candidate: 1.0.0
Version table:
*** 1.0.0 0
500 http://packages.linuxmint.com/ debian/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
0.1.3-2 0
500 http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ testing/main amd64 Packages
Edit by Clem: Thanks zerozero.
Clems Response to 111
Thanks Clem, never surrender !
Why not shift focus to KDE?
I would love to see you guys release Mint 13, with a Mint theme and icons in KDE. It is really mature with 4.8: a traditional desktop environment, extremely powerful. With Icon tasks, the dolphin file manager is much better than Nautilus, etc, etc.
OKEE, I’m now very excited. There’s now a full-featured DockBarX clone for Cinnamon with grouping, etc., just like Windows 7. If Tobias Quinn’s Alt-Mousewheel-Zoom utility continues to work on Cinnamon, I’m almost there vis a vis my criteria above!
Just need the ability to change the width of the Cinnamon bar and decent themeing a la Gnome2 both via the Cinnamon GUI and I’ve got my upgrade path.
Way to go, Clem and Co.!
For the record everyone…The Mayans NEVER say the world will end on dec 21, 2012. Dec, 21, 2012 is the end of their calendar and the start of what they call a new era…BTW there are many new era’s in their calendar. Media hype has turned it into something it is not.
Also Yahoo search uses Bing now so that’s what you’ll be using pretty much.
@Clem
I was surprised to download the bundle, Mate with Cinnamon. I had a nearly perfect brand new LMDE64 install of Cinnamon without hardly a problem. What was the use of Mate for me?
Some days later, however, I realized that Gnome3 crashed unrecoverably when opening any PDF file. I was then happy to realize that Mate was immune to this strange illness.
This story, just to prove you right: Mate is a kind of backbone for Linux Mint and we’ll probably need it at least for this year.
Could someone please fix Shotwell, it’s the only bug I’ve got on the
last update.
Sorry; I’m lagging — haven’t tested these recent releases, yet. Will probably wait for the forthcoming .iso’s.
I do hope that new releases will permit off-loading images and videos from digital cameras. In Katya, when I connect my camera via USB, it auto-mounts, and gphoto is ready to transfer images. A desktop icon (illustration of a camera) appears to show that it’s connected, mounted, and ready to offload. Beautifully done, and about as non-technical as it could be.
Skipping details, I was very impressed when I navigated to the file system in the camera’s memory card (using Nautilus with a mouse), and called up a terminal via the right-click menu. The working directory was
~/.gvfs/gphoto2 mount on usb%3A001,002/DCIM
That’s not exactly typical of most paths! (DCIM is the top level inside the camera’s user memory.)
One reason I cite this is to point out that connecting a camera, and having it auto-mount successfully, more than likely involves some rather unusual internal actions.
[gvfs] is an oddball beast, but good to have. Ordinary user access via mouse or keyboard just doesn’t happen, it seems, even when logged in as root.
In a Mint news (september or october 2011, I think), it was said that KDE would be available only as a LMDE version. But LM12 had a KDE version, which is GREAT ! as my LM10 Gnome2 reached end of life and my graphic card is a disaster with Cinnamon (although Cinnamon is full of good omens).
So… I think it would be a good idea to keep a KDE version for LM standard editions – if it’s not too much work for the Mint team, of course.
Anyway, THANKS for the good and clever choices you make and the great work you do for average end users like me !
I’ve been using – and very happy with – Mint (in various flavors) since 7. And LMDE since Mint started that distro spin – which made me even happier.
At the moment though, I find that LMDE with Mate/Cinnamon just isn’t usable for me – so I’ll be switching to LMDE with XFCE.
I /really/ need a screensaver. I’ve been putzing around with the Gnome-screensaver and xscreensaver for awhile now, and they simply don’t work.
I really //MUCH// prefer the old-fashioned (Gnome/XFCE-style) menu.
I’m completely agnostic about the stuff I can control – like search engines. But Cinnamon is lacking in control of some things I /do/ care about.
*shrug* There still isn’t a better distro overall than Mint – and as soon as you start accepting Bitcoin, I’ll throw a $50 donation your way. đ
Exciting news about Mint đ I like the idea of two separate releases for Mint 13 desktops. There are already small issues with having both desktops on LMDE RC such as no notifier for MATE, and if you install the mate-notifier-daemon it uninstalls the default notifier which I’m guessing is used by Cinnamon. My suggestion would be to use MATE as the default for Mint 13 because MATE has more features and is easy to configure, even though Cinnamon is nice, plus 13 is LTS and MATE seems to make sense for a long term release.
KBD47
im so impressed with lmde xfce đ im a newbie to the lmde and so far been able to keep it going with no problems at all. the speed and looks of it are just perfect for me. i don’t miss gnome 2 at all now.
thanks! đ
Great Work Guys!
LMDE is where it’s at!
hi, i like lmde and ubuntu based mint editions. doesn’t matter which one i can use. which editions do you suggest for up to dateness, security, support (will be lmde future? ) and etc. ?
[These are some purely STRATEGIC considerations regarding MATE/Cinnamon DE default. I have no PERSONAL bias for/against either as I have no preference yet.]
From an end-user standpoint, separate DE flavors may be most preferable (as the baggage of dual DEs is significant … especially for resource-constrained platforms). However, if that proves impractical from a distro-flavor publishing/maintenance standpoint, I would argue against a Cinnamon/Gnome3-only default (favoring either the current single-with-both or a single-with-MATE option):
1. Cinnamon and it’s Gnome3 underpinnings represent a less mature, proven, and widespread codebase/userbase than MATE/Gnome2.
2. MATE/Gnome2 [reportedly] requires less resources, giving it a larger hardware pool as well.
3. Having Mint become known as the best/only haven distro for Gnome2 fans (/ Gnome3/Unity/etc. eschewers) could prove a great differentiator and strategic boon.
I submit that Mint has soared past Ubuntu et al to the current TOP RANK ON DISTROWATCH (kudos all around) due in large part to it’s comfortable/conservative philosophy. How much of that recent Mint surge stems from the distaste of Ubuntu ramming Gnome3/Unity down users throats? Mint isn’t the distro that foists unbidden change upon users; it’s the distro that lets users remain comfortable with what works for them until THEY CHOOSE to change. (Witness About page, choice NOT to default Gnome3/Unity when others did, choice to back MATE, etc.)
If KDE4, Gnome3/Shell, and Unity have taught anything, it’s that many users don’t like FORCED change — ESPECIALLY new UI paradigms/metaphors — regardless of claimed (or even actual) merit. Cinnamon — both actually and perceptually — is “new”, wheres MATE is “good-ol’/familiar/comfortable”. The conservative approach is to let new software prove itself superior and earn its way to the top by popular choice/assent. Let MATE reign as default or at least be on equal footing until such time as it is surpassed by Cinnamon or some other DE competitor.
I yield the remainder of my time to the distinguished typist from the Interwebs.
I have been using Cinnamon since it came out and am very impressed with it. It is very stable and a best of both worlds mentality in my opinion. I do not miss gnome 2 at all and with the addition of the desktop effects, I don’t miss compiz like I thought I would. All in all, excellent work Clem. I really am looking forward to Mint 13 đ
Here’s hoping to having MATE as the default desktop.
I will admit, that MATE has a few embarrassing flaws, in which it doesn’t integrate with “proper” GNOME applications. For example, if you set an image as your desktop wallpaper while in Eye-of-GNOME, it will set your GNOME 3 background, but not your MATE background! These types of issues need to have workarounds, or else MATE will appear to have lot some cohesiveness.
LMDE has developed continually. It’s running quite good. One function i still miss is the possibility to install languages, i.e. Asian languages. Thanks!
Thanks Clem and team for bringing us a great distro with so many great features. I’ve been a Windows user for many years and with Maya, I’m hoping to finally let go off my dual partition and move to Linux Mint as my sole operating system. Of course I’m a little apprehensive about the learning curve, but I’ll get used to it thanks to the great forums here. Thanks and good luck!
“Simon says…I think KDE is getting more attention than ever, to be honest, with the sponsorship from BlueSystems and so on, and that can only be a good thing. I have to say though, though Iâve tried it several times, I personally have absolutely no interest in it whatsoever. And whatâs more, it seems clear Iâm very much in the majority on that score.”
@Simon, if it wasn’t for KDE I would have kissed Linux good bye for good. You can pretend Gnome 3 is the best thing since toasted bread and life in that illusion, this is your choice like the majority in here.
Thanks God I’m in the minority and enjoying Linux again like never before. Thanks KDE!
Cheers to all of you!
can somebody fix the bluetooth issues in lmde. i am unable to find anything to enable personal file sharing in the bluetooth preferences and no OBEX service seem to help?
im unable to bluetooth from mobile phone to laptop and vise versa.
works a charm in win 7 and mint10….
As a mainly Windows 7 user I really like LMDE but as I have a laptop I tend to use Xubuntu because it does 2 things that LMDE can’t do at the moment: in Xubuntu you can enable auto-login and you can use the Jupiter Applet to prolong battery life…unfortunately there isn’t a debian version of Jupiter and LMDE doesn’t provide auto-login otherwise it would definitely be my first choice Linux distro…
So far so good ! We can finally benefit from the modernity of Gnome 3, the ease of use of Gnome 2, the robustness & lightness of Debian, the flexibility of a rolling-release distro, (almost) the ease of use of an Ubuntu.
Way to go ! I miss some advanced KDE features but we cannot have everything !
Just a minor complaint : the Mint menu takes a little time to open there. It’s not instant and is a little annoying IMHO. I guess it could be a little more optimized đ ALso, it would be super cool if the default G2 menu like “applications / places / system” could be supplied as an applet, even if it’s not selected by default.
Well, way to go, thanks Clem, and also thanks to the Gnome 3 team, the Debian team etc etc.
@ibm450 — if you’re using Cinnamon, try removing all the MATE-related bluetooth packages. That solved my bluetooth woes. It works fine under MATE now, too.
I thought you’d be gratified to hear the LM-XFCE rc ISO booted all the way up on my wife’s old Pentium 4 Gateway after it incurred an mb failure that XP-Pro-SP3 couldn’t get past. A hard memory failure has been demonstrated to be associated with the mb and not the DIMMs and despite numerous I/O failures with the hard drive and the ISO’s USB that I expect will prove to be the mb and not the media, the full GUI and networking infrastructure become available.
I still can’t use any recents mint’s distros (but may be a general issues) without fglrx drivers. My screen go at “Out of range” just after grub.
I need to use vga cable, install fglrx, configure and reboot.
But with olders distros all works fine…
@The N One: Don’t use Eye of GNOME with MATE. It will only work completely with Gnome. Use Eye of MATE instead.
@T_U 139 – Good old apps/places/system menu applet is available for Cinnamon here : http://cinnamon-spices.linuxmint.com/applets/view/51
@T_U 139 : look here for a classicla gnome menu bar : http://cinnamon-spices.linuxmint.com/applets/view/51
@Martial : yep, that’s pretty good ! There’s still a slight delay when opening those menus, I don’t know why, I’ll wait for those to be optimized a little đ
@m_h_n : yeah i noticed this issue. Same pb with mint menu and a slight lag in general use. I thik this is a performance issue. This is the last thing that let me stick with Gnome 2 for now
Great Lmde-Mate, my pc has 8GB memory, please iso-Lmde-Mate Mint for this pc, sorry English, I am Brazilian.
I have tried the latest LMDE RC both using the live DVD and using Virtualbox. Despite the fact that I prefer using y own version of gnome shell (heavily tweaked) rather than Mate and Cinnamon, I must admit I have enjoyed using LMDE. However I found several bugs (ie the huawei E-156 modem USB doesn’t work properly (actually it does not work at all), LMDE it is a top battery consuming system (I will try and install “jupiter” applet to fix this), and , as it happens with all the distros I have tried,there is a problem with the use of ATI graphic cards both 4*** and 5*** (I have not found a controller to improve these graphic card’s performance)
@ Bobby (#85): Sorry I missed seeing your reply, until now. I believe we reincarnate (as humans), as does much of the world. My father was born N. Bessaraboff; was first translator of Ouspensky’s T.O.
[Meta]
It would be lovely if this forum’s software could, automatically, and with decent security, permit exchanging e-ddresses of two contributors
by mutual agreement. Mint and WordPress would have to be exempted from any adverse legal consequences of such a transaction, unfortunately.
Best regards!
[nb]
@Roj : I just tried compiz today and noticed that your super + mouse scrolling is working in LMDE MATE. So,have you started using it.
Quick second thought: Might me have a spin-off forum/blog under Mint’s wing for off-topic posts? One browser company did that for its alpha testers; was a success. A mailing list sometimes had some passionate and provocative replies; one of its principal contributors started a new mailing list for discussing potentially-inflammatory topics. That spinoff list has been quiet for some periods, but not dead.
We’re /seriously/ international, and have many interesting people posting here, some (bless their souls!) struggling with English, and usually being understood.
(As if Clem didn’t have enough “irons in the fire”, already!)
Clem
I have just downloaded the latest OmniBoot distribution It’s mind blowing what this guy has turned out on this release, 13 operating systems on one 4.4 gig dvd, that can be booted into from within his live operating system, in fact I have booted into Mint 12 from OmniBoot operating system, and writing this comment with it. on the live dvd
You could download it and look how he has done it, then for Mint 13 you could distribute all Mint versions on one DVD, so that who ever downloads can jump from one mint release to the next. Which would save downloading every release it’s Just a thought.
By the way I am one that as dumped Linux Mint It went down hill from 10, which I was sorry about, any why Clem I wish you and the team well for the future, Take my advice and look at OmniBoot’s latest release it puts Mint 11 and 12 to shame.
Fwiw: http://cinnamon-spices.linuxmint.com/ is the site of a 16-year-old fellow! More power to him.
Bug, not necessarily in the OS: A few times a day, a mouse click or Enter keystroke causes an instant black screen, and takes me back to bootup login after a few seconds. However, data may not be lost; most of my previous post’s text was restored! It’s a credit, I’d say, to Mint’s robustness. Hoping a permanent LMDE installation will fix it. Not asking for help (yet); will go to the forums if I have to.
Best, nb.
Wondering about a Mint version for Raspberry Pi:
(Do read the FAQ, btw.)
Very low cost ($25 US)
Amazing graphics
ARM architecture
SD card holds the OS
Not suggesting that Clem take on another activity, though!
Regards,
nb
Too much off-topic stuff…
Here is what it can do,
In Version 0.4 a lot of components have been updated, new modules are a Tor-Router, CDLinux, m0n0wall, Porteus and RIP-Linux – all of them in their live-version.
The highlight of this release is the included PXE-server-function. You can boot OmniBoot on one (possibly diskless) PC in a LAN, chose this OmniBoot-PXE-Server from the netboot-menu in main-menu and on another connected client in this LAN that has the ability to netboot you are again offered to boot OmniBoot and one of its many components. Only 3 larger modules (Mint, PC-Linux-OS and Porteus) are not yet booting over PXE, everything else does.
Features
multiboot live meta distro
various live distros with great desktops
various special live distros for dedicated purposes
sysadmin’s toolbox
many languages/keyboards supported
booting from: cd/dvd (iso9660)- usb, hdd (fat, ext) – network(pxe)
live pxe server out of the box
access non-booting systems, repair boot information
reset forgotten passwords. and more
Sorry; URL got lost when posting. www {dot} raspberrypi {dot} org.
I’ve been stuck with Mint 9 at home but have installed Mint 12 with KDE on a machine at work. I added Cario-Dock and tweaked the desktop to my liking a bit (moved the menubar to the top with the dock on the bottom). For some reason the top bit of all windows got shifted to the right and the close/resize buttons disappeared (the ‘hot spots’ were there just invisible). I don’t remember what I did to fix that but there was some setting I modified to correct the issue. It’s great! I hope that KDE makes it into Mint 13 LTS so I can upgrade my home machine. I was a long time KDE user back in the version 2 and 3 days but went to Gnome for awhile when Ubuntu made it ‘cool’. I have a computer with enough horsepower (PhenomII-x4 @ 3.5ghz/12GB) so the desktop doesn’t get in the way.
Hello, I would like to give here a feedback about the Mint 12 lisa, which is for me the best release of linux. Only one problem I have found on my laptop(sony yb1/s1e – amd fusion) when it suspends and I want to return to desktop, screen starts flashing.This a very strange thing but on ubuntu doesn’t happens something like this… so something happens with default drivers of Mint. Sorry for the big text. Thank you
When will you post updates about the donors/sponsors, Clement? is it so much work you don’t have time for? I believe it is important to give credit to donors, not only because I have always enjoyed reading the updates and seeing how more and more people donates more and more cash every month. This has to be posted regularly to have the desired efect. I believe there are folks who have significant motivation to donate if they see that every month you thank them and list their names/websites. I believed that you took this what i said for granted and that’s why you posted every month about it. You don’t do that anymore. Why? Don’t you think you will get less cash when you stop posting updates with the list of people who donated? I believe you will. Start writing regular updates again.
Edit by Clem: You’re right and we’ll get it done. It’s important to do it, not only to thank people who help us but also as an encouragement for others to do the same. We prioritized the development lately and struggled to focus on other things, and communication has suffered as a consequence. The reason we get funding in the first place is precisely to be able to focus on development, so the situation could be worse đ Still, we’ll find some time to do this after the release is out (hopefully sometime today) and we’ll try not to get such delays in the future. Thanks for your feedback on this.
Hi guys!
Great news!!!! I been using Lisa from few months and i love it gnome 3! I removed MATE ( boot 10-15 seconds faster without) and gnome 3 is fantastic and should be default environment forever!!!! MATE and cinnamon yes but as a option from repo if somebody want to install!
@Adam-155
I don’t think that gnome shell will be the default. Cinnamon is developed by Clem and team so it is going to at least have an edition, and MATE is the default in LMDE so it will also have an edition. Clem said that either Cinnamon or MATE will be the default, not gnome shell. Gnome-shell will still be a package that you can install, but it won’t be the default and I don’t think that it’ll even have an edition.
What’s the recommended minimum system specs for LMDE?
I just hope that the final ISO takes into account Debian bugs #653076 and #657109, or IPv6-ready users will have a bad surprise especially in wireless networking đ
I’m very unhappy because after install LMDE I don’t have touchpad and don’t have mouse, so I can’t log, but the live works fine.
Computer:
Acer Extensa 5620
Afriza N. Arief asked (#163):
Whatâs the recommended minimum system specs for LMDE?
Indeed, I’d love to know, as well. A friend said that some minimum specs seem to tell what’s necessary to boot the OS, without running any applications. I don’t think Mint would do that. Perhaps a representative suite of applications would be defined, because this is in some ways like benchmarking.
Several messages here mention successes on machines older than mine, so I have high hopes. (Here: 2.1GHz Athlon, single core; about 890 MB of RAM (1GB total, shared with video); NVidia GeForce 6100 on motherboard.)
Best regards,
[nb]
Looks like LMDE 201204 final release is available for download already. đ
@Afriza N. Arief
(@Nicholas Bodley, et al)
That’s a pretty loaded question, as it depends on various factors/choices (e.g. Desktop Environment). But, if you’re concerned about resource constraints, LMDE is a great distro, giving comparable (though not identical) app availability as Ubuntu-based distros, with less cruft and better performance. … And for those concerned about a “rolling” distro just turn off and/or don’t track/perform updates, and you’ll be as comfortably static as the slowest release cycle.
For reference, I’m currently running LMDE UP3 (one before UP4/201204) with Gnome2 DE on an old Pentium4 3GHz with 1GB memory (shared onboard graphics, no GPU). Memory footprint (clean Gnome2 session) is under 170MB with minimal “tuning” (just turning off a few of the less-useful services/startups … I forget what it was “stock” … maybe around 20MB-50MB more). It runs standard desktop apps (Chromium/Firefox, Thunderbird, GIMP, LibreOffice) just fine at good speed. Even runs Flash decent, though proc-hogging games slow down as sprite density increases (still, that’s not LMDE’s fault but rather the single-core [physical] processor). Slowdown can also come if memory fills up enough for swapping (like opening a bunch of browser tabs/windows, or large image editing in GIMP) — but again that’s the fault of 1GB, not LMDE (and LMDE gives more breathing room before that point is reached). I also run it on an Atom-based tablet (Atom is about the same as old Pentium4), with predictably similar performance. In terms of HD footprint, 4GB gets most of the “good stuff” … 2GB if you can live without heavyweight editors like LibreOffice/GIMP/etc. (e.g. netbook). … And that’s ext4; btrfs + compression is even roomier. (While I’m at it, unless your booting from SSD, readahead [package] can help cut boot time noticeably.)
Reminder: That was “minus one” generation UP3 with Gnome2. Theoretically, new UP4/201204 with MATE should come close (though Cinnamon reportedly has Gnome3 underpinnings, so some deinstallation might be required to get HD footprint down). When final ISOs are out, I’ll probably be installing them on same limited hardware. If there’s interest (and I remember to check), I’ll post updated stats.
hi people,
I also just read, that LinuxMint 13 vis just 4 Weeks away!! Super, super, super!! I can’t also wait to have it!! đ
What referrs to Mate, I also would suggest, to fork it and to use GDM2 for this fork!! Because GDM3 is really a Nogo. It is by far not themeable. Only the background-Wallpaper can be changed. But that’s it. And for me I don’t need MATE, because Cinnamon is the better MATE.
But what I would really wish is: please please give us back Gnome-Shell!! Gnome-Shell is by far the best and most stable DE at this time!! Webupd8 has so nice and stable extensions, so that I switched off LMGe and switched over to the ones from Webupd8.
For me, MATE can be removed from the standard iso and it should be made a separate iso only featuring MATE for older machines. Or the other alternative to MATE would be Xfce-Desktop. So: who really needs MATE??
Let’s take Xfce for older machines, Cinnamon and Gnome-Shell for the future-machines and current machines like mine!! I love LinuxMint and I am really badly waiting for LinuxMint 13!!
@167: Is it really the final one? Anyone has the torrent hash for download?
One request for Mint (LMDE) and well, any Linux distro – MAKE IT EASIER TO INSTALL DRIVERS FOR FAX AND SCANNERS!!
Seriously, why is it so hard to install the scanner for my Brother MFC-9450CDN? I’ve followed the official installation from Brother and Sane sees it connected, then errors out on both network and USB connections, and it still isn’t working correctly. Why aren’t drivers for scanners installed automatically like printers? Why are they installed in different home folders for every major distro?
Maya? Well, my dog will be pleased. Nice dog.
@Clem – Thanks for response, great to know you do realize important matters. I’m staggered that no one before me gave you feedback on the issue of not posting the donor/sponsor list regularly.
Best of luck and keep going! The world needs your work!
Major improvements over the RC, good work!
Now Live USB works! thanks for that
Deskto Settings works! thanks again
but No Language support… that will be a big issue, it needs to be fixed promptly
no auto login option… and user names are not listed either
a comment about the installer: no option to format \home
default packages I would like to see:
Disk Utility
Startup Manager
Am clapping it hardcore nux4geeks on âMayaâ 13…. the MINT world…..
[quote]
And one more thing.
I wonât be using any OS willfully associated with Microsoft.
Edit by Clem: Our long-term goal is to include all the major search engines. The fact that Google and Microsoft are behind some of these engines isnât an issue for us. It makes sense for us to include them and for users to have them installed by default. Of course you can remove them with a simple click, or as you opted, you can decide not to use Linux Mint for that reason.
To be clear,
Every OS needs to _install_ those search engines by default, itâs a matter of usability. Not every OS needs to _use_ a MS based search engine by default. Whatever the easiness in changing that setting, MS knows, and you know, the default comes with a higher degree of adoption and thatâs why they wrestle for that spot. Surrendering it in exchange for money is tantamount to supporting MS in my book, and that I avoid whenever I can afford to.
Edit by Clem: Thatâs fine. Weâre in competition with Windows on the desktop market, other than that weâve nothing against Microsoft themselves. You seem to assume we agree with you on this and only do this for money⊠weâre delighted to sign another engine, weâre very happy with the implementation and if it helps Microsoft indirectly (or even directly), thatâs not something weâre worried about. Itâs yet another engine for people to choose from, it helps us a lot in bringing this OS to people for free, and if it frustrates people engaged in a crusade against âevil MSâ, thatâs something weâre not too concerned about. To make it clear how things work here⊠I wouldnât use Windows for anything else than gaming⊠I donât like it much⊠when I have some spare time I play the Xbox, yes, the Microsoft console, and I find it to be pretty good. I work really hard and so does everyone in the team, and those that do it full time have donors, sponsors, search engines and partners to thank. If you understand how the search market works, and what our business model is, you know we donât want to shift our focus away from the development and engage in commercial activities. Weâll be partnering with probably all search engines out there, and all of them will contribute to funding our project by sharing the revenue we generate with them. Microsoft/Bing hasnât yet agreed, Google is about to, Yahoo/DDC did already.
[/quote]
Clem: It’s the second time you try twisting my argument.
[quote]
Yahoo is joining the list of search engines installed by default and participating in sharing revenue with Linux Mint, after an agreement was signed with DDC for the following regions: USA, Canada, Germany, UK, Ireland, France, Spain and Italy.
[/quote]
I don’t have a problem with this.
[quote]
The Yahoo search engine will be the default engine in LMDE and could become the default in Linux Mint 13 (depending on ongoing talks with Google).
[/quote]
I have a problem with this.
You keep making it sound like I don’t like Yahoo installed by default. I don’t like it _being_ the default.
I’ll be the first to admit the occasional inconvenience of following one’s principles in the real world. Everyone has MS products at work, no one is going to quit their job for it. Everyone who has kids, will make the case for the purchase of a Xbox. And there are many other situations that will force our hand. My hand has been forced plenty of times, I don’t judge those who go through the same. I make my choices according my conscience when I can afford to, like I said already. Apparently this is the extremist way of thinking of a ‘crusader’ now.
You make no excuses though, your hand was not forced, you have nothing against Microsoft. This is good to know.
I’m very disappointed with your comment, for your commercially correct neutral feelings towards Microsoft, but also for twisting my argument and labeling me a ‘crusader’, that was just rude.
Edit by Clem: When an idea, a product or a service is good, it’s important we consider it, no matter where it comes from and who produced it. Just because we’re competing with Microsoft, Apple and to a lesser extent with other distributions doesn’t mean we can’t work with them or use the services they provide. Because you hold something against Microsoft and decided for some reason that you wouldn’t use anything that is associated with them, you made it sound like it was immoral for us to switch to Yahoo. Some people dislike, boycott or campaign against Apple, Google or other large companies. That’s ok and we respect that, as long as it remains personal and these people understand that we don’t echo their position on this. About my replies, I’m sorry I offended you. Please accept my apologies for using “crusades” and other pejorative terms.
Amazing!!
DuckDuckGo ?? Cool I’m Using this search engine and is very Secure and Great
I Hope this version fix the nasty battery usage
@Clem – Your positions on many controversial issues show an uncommon maturity. While I never saw your previous political comments, it is clear that the resulting conversations brought a level of clarity that some others here lack.
Linux Mint has made things possible for me that I would never have been able to do, and it has never demanded anything of me in return. I for one do not mind if you earn a living by forming partnerships with other companies.
@176 I have no idea what says Clem and what original author says. Who is saying what? Oh well, comments system@worpdress is not the most effective way how to communicate with the world…
” In India, people might also know âMayaâ as the âIllusionâ. ”
I’m from India. Here, “Maya” may also mean love (as in self-less devotion to someone, like a mother to a child). Actually, whenever a girl here is named “Maya”, it is referred to the ‘love’ meaning, not the ‘illusion’ one.
maya means love in nepal
Looking forward to Maya!
Thanks for the hard work guys!
but EVERY distro is better than windows đ
THE BEST DISTRO IS 9
BACK TO THE ROOTS MINT 9 LXDE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I use Linux Mint 10 pc, and frankly I wish it can hold at least 3-4 years. I hope not to be forced to change it!
@xor
“I wonât be using any OS willfully associated with Microsoft.”
I salute your conviction!
I can imagine how difficult it must be not using a computer from any mainstream vendors that “willfully associates with Microsoft” by OEMing Windows.
…Or cellphones from HTC, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Palm, or Samsung (as these vendors license Windows Phone OS).
…Or Apple products (as they license M$ tech, e.g. ActiveSync on iPhone).
…Or drive a Ford with SYNC.
…Or use components from Intel, nVidia, etc.
It shames me to admit it, but my conviction isn’t as strong as yours. Every now and then, I buy products, patronize businesses, or (sigh) even use free software from organizations that license M$ tech, use M$ products in their operations, accept money from M$, or advertise on Bing. But your courageous example has inspired me to try harder.
…And don’t be so modest, for in my eyes, you truly are a “crusader”. Keep up the good fight!
@Clem
Don’t even try any slick rationalizations like M$ money is funding a free and open product that directly competes against (and takes market share from) their flagship. Why, if you didn’t lead with grace and aplomb the effort that produces the best Linux distro around, I’d have no respect for you at all!
Edit by Clem: Slick rationalizations? You mean justifications for not sharing some manicheist vision of black vs white, good vs evil?? I don’t see the World like that. For some reason, you decided to restrict your choice and boycott a lot of companies and products: Good for you. Enjoy agreeing with other boycotters and giving each others the respect you don’t give to others. I don’t know where you get that hate or anger or whatever it is, but I don’t feel bad for not feeling it.
Hai I’m new to this open world, And I’d done changed my friends too, to do their projects in linux environment; They feel better use this environment. The only problem I’d faced is that some of the printer’s are not working under either both cups as well as foo2print (not exact with the name). Can you tell me how to connect with that printer??
1. Canon LBP2900B LaserJet
2. HP 1020 Plus LaserJet
and similarly I’ve some model’s which are by default doesn’t support. Can you help me plz????…
@Clem
Read #187 again. It’s all “tongue-in-cheek”, meant to illustrate the absurdity (and impracticality) of extending ideology to the micromanagement of product purchasing decisions (or mere use, given LMDE is free). In my experience, most idealogues really aren’t. Few are committed enough to stick to their ideological guns; rather, they cherry-pick a few token protests of lesser significance/impact so they can profess their stand. Apparently, xor’s “conviction” extends right up to the point of making self-righteous pronouncements (âI wonât be using any OS willfully associated with Microsoft.â), but not much farther. Witness:
@xor: “Iâll be the first to admit the occasional inconvenience of following oneâs principles in the real world.”
[So: Believes and espouses doctrine, but _occasionally_ fails to follow it.]
@xor: “My hand has been forced plenty of times….”
[OK: Believes and espouses doctrine, but _frequently_ fails to follow it.]
@xor: “I make my choices according [to] my conscience >when I can afford to<…."
[Ahhh: Believes and espouses doctrine, but follows it only when it's really convenient and there's no major downside.]
@xor: "Iâm very disappointed … [with you for] labeling me a âcrusaderâ…."
[Quite right. A crusader actually practices what they preach. No, there are other terms for those with such conditionally selective conviction. 'Hypocrite' seems a bit harsh. Perhaps a Simpson quote captures it quite nicely: "We might have an opening at the 'Poser' level."]
@xor (addressing directly)
Dude (or dudette), c'mon! You wade into the discussion brandishing anti-monopolistic-Microsoft creds JUST AS AN ANTI-MS 'CRUSADER' WOULD. You then go to great pains to clarify how you object to Clem's selection of Bing-backed Yahoo as default search engine JUST AS AN ANTI-MS 'CRUSADER' WOULD. You express disappointment at Clem's "neutral feelings towards Microsoft" JUST AS AN ANTI-MS 'CRUSADER' WOULD. BUT THEN, you profess (or feign) surprise and alarm when Clem construes you as … oh, I don't know … some kind of ANTI-MS 'CRUSADER'?! Needless to say, it strains credulity. Nonetheless, if you truly are NOT (or merely wish to portray yourself as not) an anti-MS crusader, you might consider using a bit less anti-MS rhetoric (just a thought).
@Clem
Apologies on the artlessness of my attempted satire. I should have realized that in this day and age, such vociferous hyperbole is all too commonplace and not so easily dismissed as obvious silliness. The only serious sentiment was that you do indeed "lead with grace and aplomb the effort that produces the best Linux distro around".