Monthly News – April 2013

Sponsorships:

Linux Mint is proudly sponsored by:

Platinum Sponsors:
Blue Systems - Netrunner
Gold Sponsors:
Opera
VMware Cloud Hosting
Silver Sponsors:
Idera (formerly R1Soft)
Nothing in Particular Blog
ThinkPenguin.com
Bronze Sponsors:
Vault Networks *
AYKsolutions Server & Cloud Hosting
7L Networks Toronto Colocation *
Gutscheindrache.de Coupons
Community Sponsors:

To become a sponsor or to see the full list of Linux Mint sponsors, please visit: http://www.linuxmint.com/sponsors.php

Donations:

A total of $4,667 was raised thanks to the generous contributions of 210 donors:

  • $500 (10th donation), Mohammed A.
  • $200, Karl F.
  • $125.23, Frederic L. aka “”nofrog””
  • $100, Marc H.
  • $100, Stacy D.
  • $100, Frédéric S.
  • $100, anonymous
  • $90, John S.
  • $75 (10th donation), Ralph Siegler aka “ziggy
  • $63.24, Nicholas L.
  • $63.24, Walter P.
  • $63.24, Stuart H.
  • $63.24, Mathieu L. aka “Matlo”
  • $62.61, Dr. R. M.
  • $51 (2nd donation), Mike M.
  • $50.09, Jean-claude R.
  • $50 (37th donation), Matthew M.
  • $50 (4th donation), JMB
  • $50 (4th donation), stuart
  • $50 (3rd donation), Jonathan L.
  • $50, Howard S.
  • $50, Jerry S.
  • $50, 2001 Refrigeration & HVAC, Inc.
  • $50, Johan R.
  • $50, Peter G.
  • $44.27, Julian S.
  • $40 (4th donation), Alex Dolhescu
  • $37.94, Alfred R.
  • $37.94, Baroukh M.
  • $37.57 (38th donation), Olli K.
  • $37.57, Raimo M.
  • $31.62 (2nd donation), Christian P.
  • $31.31, Malcolm C.
  • $30, Jerrick D.
  • $30, Rene K.
  • $30, Jean-pierre R.
  • $26 (2nd donation), Robert F.
  • $25.3, Tamas S.
  • $25.3, Hans E.
  • $25.05, Jukka K.
  • $25.05, Damien G.
  • $25 (19th donation), Ronald W.
  • $25 (11th donation), Adam D.
  • $25 (2nd donation), Michael P.
  • $25, Rhyss E.
  • $25, Douglas L.
  • $25, Peter P.
  • $25, Dianna H.
  • $25, Renquan C.
  • $25, Galileo M.
  • $25, Robert M.
  • $25, Craig C.
  • $25, David E.
  • $20 (43th donation), Slavoljub aka “slw”
  • $20 (25th donation), Tsuguo S.
  • $20 (2nd donation), Gabriel D.
  • $20 (2nd donation), iMarketing Solutions LLC aka “iMarketing
  • $20 (2nd donation), Nicholas T.
  • $20 (2nd donation), Utah B.
  • $20 (2nd donation), Tom T.
  • $20, Stephen J.
  • $20, Web M.
  • $20, Mike T.
  • $20, Moacir I. C. J.
  • $20, Shestakov V.
  • $20, John R.
  • $20, Singing F.
  • $20, Petr V.
  • $20, Brent S.
  • $20, Alex M.
  • $20, Victor W.
  • $20, Daniel B.
  • $20, Evandro M. L. J.
  • $20, Uncle Geek
  • $20, Philip M.
  • $20, Terri C. aka “Austin’s Mom”
  • $18.97 (4th donation), Knut E. E. aka “Animoy”
  • $18.78 (18th donation), Jarkko K.
  • $18.78 (3rd donation), Antonio M. M. aka “zantaz
  • $18.78 (2nd donation), Antonio M. M. aka “zantaz
  • $18.78, Eoin E.
  • $18.78, Antonios P.
  • $18.78, Jeroen W.
  • $18.78, Loris A. aka “lorisangele
  • $18 (6th donation), Dominik K. aka “doke
  • $16, Terry I.
  • $15 (3rd donation), Steve T.
  • $15 (3rd donation), Robert E.
  • $15 (2nd donation), Dani Kupak
  • $15 (2nd donation), Daniel H. aka “Semper Fidelis
  • $15, Seth E.
  • $15, George P.
  • $15, Edward S.
  • $13.91, Guillermo O. A.
  • $12.65 (2nd donation), Andreas S.
  • $12.65, Hugo L. R.
  • $12.65, Daniel W.
  • $12.65, Jose M. R.
  • $12.65, Thorsten S.
  • $12.65, Meiko M.
  • $12.65, Ulrich H.
  • $12.65, Simo M.
  • $12.52 (2nd donation), Nicolas B.
  • $12.52, Giorgio B.
  • $12.52, Mario R.
  • $12.52, Peter Mc Aulay
  • $12.52, Pierre S.
  • $12.52, Rune J.
  • $12.52, Joachim T.
  • $12 (25th donation), John A.
  • $12, Aylen B.
  • $10 (26th donation), Tony C. aka “S. LaRocca”
  • $10 (7th donation), Jerry Jones
  • $10 (4th donation), Antonio M. M. aka “zantaz
  • $10 (3rd donation), iPhone & iPad apps
  • $10 (3rd donation), Kirk P.
  • $10 (2nd donation), Charles P.
  • $10 (2nd donation), Eduardo R.
  • $10 (2nd donation), Stephen B. aka “Fio”
  • $10 (2nd donation), Brian T.
  • $10, Christopher H.
  • $10, Alain M.
  • $10, Alfredo A.
  • $10, Neil B.
  • $10, Brandon C.
  • $10, Bretislav W.
  • $10, Michael Dowden
  • $10, Roberto B. O.
  • $10, Beom J. S.
  • $10, Matthew L.
  • $10, Howard P.
  • $10, George W.
  • $10, Charles P.
  • $10, Paul P.
  • $10, Garre B.
  • $10, Carlos W.
  • $10, Brian B.
  • $10, Richard A.
  • $10, Jerry H.
  • $10, Dmitry F.
  • $10, William Wynn
  • $9 (26th donation), John A.
  • $8.77, Nelson T. Silva
  • $7.99 (4th donation), Stephan J.
  • $7.84 (5th donation), Librestickers.com
  • $7 (2nd donation), Grigore R.
  • $6.32 (16th donation), Marco aka “Dictionary-Maker
  • $6.32 (6th donation), Yannick G. aka “Uggy”
  • $6.32 (2nd donation), Vrettos M.
  • $6.32, Giovanni B.
  • $6.32, Frank B.
  • $6.32, Judith S.
  • $6.32, Manfred G.
  • $6.32, David R. G.
  • $6.32, Antonio T.
  • $6.32, Adam K. aka “Dakiro”
  • $6.26 (18th donation), Marco R.
  • $6.26 (15th donation), Marco aka “Dictionary-Maker
  • $6.26 (8th donation), SilFox
  • $6.26 (6th donation), Mark W.
  • $6.26 (3rd donation), Patrick R.
  • $6.26, Stephane F.
  • $6.26, Tobias K.
  • $6.26, Juan A. B. M.
  • $6.26, Umberto B.
  • $6.26, Jens P. F.
  • $6, Andy Chung
  • $5.69, Mihai A.
  • $5.3, Christopher L.
  • $5 (11th donation), Michael Gstettenbauer
  • $5 (4th donation), Roman Nikolaevitch aka “rv82”
  • $5 (3rd donation), Jose M. D. A.
  • $5 (2nd donation), Christopher D.
  • $5 (2nd donation), Redsandro
  • $5, Justin S.
  • $5, Alexander P.
  • $5, Hendrik C.
  • $5, Jacob G.
  • $5, Rodrigo H. M.
  • $5, Wei-ju Wu
  • $5, Jerod F.
  • $5, Roofing Grand Rapids
  • $5, Marco C.
  • $5, Donald K.
  • $5, Matthew S.
  • $5, Larry F.
  • $5, Freddy Shen
  • $5, Luong B.
  • $5, Alhakim
  • $5, Andrew P.
  • $4.25, Ivan I.
  • $3, Matthew Brener aka “akkatracker
  • $2.53 (2nd donation), Athales.com Nantes
  • $2.53, Stefano V.
  • $2.53, Andrea F.
  • $2.26, Dean W.
  • $14.03 from 14 smaller donations

If you want to help Linux Mint with a donation, please visit http://www.linuxmint.com/donors.php

Rankings:

  • Distrowatch (popularity ranking): 3876 (1st)
  • Alexa (website ranking): 6,745th

Events:

Latest development:

Development is a lot of fun and it doesn’t take much to get started. If you’re tempted to join the team, don’t hesitate to follow our development on http://github.com/linuxmint and come and chat with the developers at #linuxmint-dev (irc.spotchat.org).

Last months we talked about “mintSources” and the fact that it was going to replace “software-properties-gtk”. One of the features handled by software-properties-gtk and which isn’t handled by mintSources is the installation of proprietary drivers. In Linux Mint 15, this is handled by a tool called “mintDrivers”.

MintDrivers, the “Driver Manager”,  relies on the same Ubuntu backend as software-properties-gtk. The main difference is that “Driver Manager” isn’t just a tab in some other tool but its very own independent application.

That makes it easier to discover for novice users and we took the opportunity to improve its user interface a little bit as well:

  • Drivers are no longer listed by description but by package name.
  • Versions are clearly stated (in the case of the nVidia drivers you can therefore choose according to a particular version instead of wondering what “current” or “updates” really mean)
  • The recommended choice is clearly stated
  • Devices from popular brands (nVidia, ATI, Broadom, Samsung…etc) are now illustrated with an icon

News and summary:

  • Many thanks to our sponsors, partners, donors and all the people who supported us this month and who allowed us to work on Linux Mint. As always you’ve been really generous and this is helping us a lot.
  • In addition to EUR and USD, Linux Mint now accepts Bitcoins. Users of the P2P currency can donate to Linux Mint using the following address: 1PQCrkzWweCw4huVLcDXttAZbSrrLbJ92L
  • A new blog called Segfault was created, targeted at enthusiasts and people interested in upcoming technology, technique and development. Articles are written by developers and team members at a rough pace of 1 post per day. If you want more in-depth news from us, more often, and you’re not afraid of getting too much details.. go and check it out.
  • Cinnamon 1.8 should be out in a matter of days, this week-end or early next week. Only one bug left is considered a release blocker.
  • Linux Mint 15 is just around the corner. The MATE and the Cinnamon editions will come out first, with an RC mid-may and a stable release at the end of the month.

41 comments

  1. Mint 15 is going to be big, with new Cinnamon and MATE versions and new Mint tools. The only fly in the ointment is that Canonical cut down the support period to 9 months for non-LTS versions…

  2. That Driver Manager looks great. 🙂 I’m still on Mint 13 on my desktop so I’m eagerly waiting for Mint 15 to pop up. 😀 Woohoo!

  3. Thanks for updates. Great job. Have a question around Nvidia drivers.

    I have a Nvidia Optimus Graphics card (540M) working well with bumbleee setup and am quite happy with performance. I saw many new users experiencing critical issues such as black screen at logon, etc. in many forums such as Steam Community, Ubunutu and Mint forums as well.

    Can Mint alert or warn users that Optimus is not offically supported in Linux yet and bumblee could be tried?

    I see this is as a critical issue because not all are aware that Optimus is not supported and installing Nvidia drivers without bumblebee can actually break the system. Corrupted xorg files, low resolution, etc are common issues that’re encountered by users.

    Unfortunately, even some of the existing tutorials have no mention of bumblebee as a pre-requisite before installing proprietary Nvidia drivers with Optimus and an integrated graphics cars

    lspci | grep VGA -> will possibly help in identyfying Optimus if there are two graphics cards? Unsure. More discussions in forum below
    http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=126021

  4. Congratulations to the Linux Mint Team, I’m sure that Linux Mint 15 is a great version. Hoping to see their news anxiously and waiting it’s four editions Mate, Cinnamon, KDE and XFCE. Greetings and Congratulations Linux Mint Team !!!!

  5. I forgot to ask you a question: Linux Mint 15 will be supported for 18 months, or to change the support for 9 Months how in Ubuntu-based editions? Thank you Linux Mint Team.

  6. @José Manuel: well, I guess it’s hard to continue supporting a derivative distro after the upstream repositories simply stop updating.

  7. oh, you’re accepting bitcoin now. so theres no execuse for me left to not donate. damn it.. xd

  8. I am using Linux 14 Cinnamon. When 15 is released, will I be able to use the update manager to upgrade?

    Thanks

    Edit by Clem: Yes, you can upgrade Mint to a newer release with apt/dpkg, although we always recommend a fresh installation (faster, uses less bandwidth and you can try the new release before installing it).

  9. Yay for bitcoin donations. I just sent 0.52 that I had left in a purse.

    Keep up the good work…. I cannot wait for Mint 15 KDE which seems to be the most solid desktop around currently, but I think I’ll give Cinnamon another try as well.

    Edit by Clem: Ah great! I was wondering who sent it 🙂 Many thanks for this donation Kobus!

  10. there was even one who donated a whole bitcoin! currently worth about 85 euro. which is much for me at least xd

  11. Linux Mint is sponsored by Cialis? 😉 Thank you, for your hard work. New DM looks great and so is new Cinnamon. Can’t wait to try them out.

  12. Glad to read about Mint 15. Hopeful that there will be an Xfce version (after Mate and Cinnamon, of course) for those of us with one of the many older computers in the world. In any event, appreciative of everything you have already done for us.

  13. Thank you for continuing to support MATE. I can’t be bothered with any other DE, and your continued support of the most stable/easy DE is one of the reasons I install Mint every place I go! Keep up the great work team!

  14. Hey guys, love the great work. I have some issues in cinnamon with mint 14, as the performance seems to be not as good as it was in the backported cinnamon with mint 13 or in KDE. I think Mint and KDE make the absolute best combo, however I also love cinnamon. I simply installed mint 14 again with cinnamon after I broke my system messing with drivers to get a lite coin miner working better. I wanted to try it out again. The proprietary drivers for my mobile amd card are a must. I am running a pretty low to mid range samsung, but the card is more than enough to handle the desktop. I really do not understand the performance issues I get in this release, nor am I complaining as there is KDE if I need it, but I really want to try cinnamon out for a while longer and I know 15 really seems to pack a punch as a release. No worried though guys keep up the great work. I would like to specify that I have the HD 6480 M which is not at all too shabby for a laptop, and KDE 4.10 4.9 and the current cinnamon ran great under it, but mint 14 seems to have some graphical errors sometimes, while KDE never game me a minuets trouble and was a bit faster for my laptop, but this is still the best distro around in my book.

  15. forgot to ask, when will the first rc be released???????
    like to run on cutting edge

  16. atm running Mint14 Cinnamon and I like it a lot.
    Playing (windows based)games like World of Tanks with/thru PlayonLinux.
    So I would upgrade to Mint 15 (when it is clear to me that it indeed is a viable upgrade) rather than do a clean install again.
    But…
    Anywhere a location where I can see the differences between these two releases and hopefully also LMDE 201303.?

  17. Why is there in Linux Mint 13 Maya Repositories still OpenOffice 3.5.7?
    But latest versino is 4.0.3.
    And Mint 13 is LTS – maintaned until april 2015.

  18. what on earth is taking so long for 15???? I’m going nuts checking distrowatch and linuxmint.com three times a day…lol

  19. I tried installing Debian 7 on an old 32 bit laptop, but it didn’t work. Then I tried Linux Mint 14 and that didn’t work either. So, I tried Linux Mint 13 and Success! It turns out that the laptop has a Pentium M processor which doesn’t support a PAE kernel. The Pentium M processor is i585 architecture rather than i686. So, I guess that’s why it didn’t work. Just wanted to pass that on in case anyone else has this problem. No more support for these older processors? Yikes!

  20. Will the RC and the Final stable version support dual-boot installs on newer computers? Specificly pre-installed win8 x64 processors with UEFI boot.

    1. Yes but you’ll probably need to disable secureBoot (Linux Mint didn’t get signed by Microsoft).

  21. Bonjour,
    D’abord merci.
    Je voudrai savoir ce que que veux dire ceci “support for installation on multiple HDD” parce qu’à l’installation je ne vois vraiment pas comment utiliser plusieurs disk ( ce que permet Debian Wheezy ! ).
    Pas moyen de trouver une explication sur le net, ce serait bien de mettre quelque chose sur le site de LinuxMint.

    Merci.

  22. Now that the talk of boot is going on. Just sharing my experience. Since the UEFI support is added in grub2 and if I am dual booting grub2 with windows7 (normal boot) grub2 did not boot into the windows partition, like the earlier grub2 used to do it. It shows the windows entry in grub2 start menu, but on selecting it, it says “disk read error” press ctrl alt delete. All this is started from Mint 14, if I install Mint 13, it works perfectly. This problem I have seen in all the distros, in which grub2 UEFI support is enabled. Don’nt know what the problem – os-prober, gpt, msdos or UEFI. Anyway, one has to make a manual entry in grub2 – 40_custom, only then dual boot works. Don’nt know if others also facing this problem. Just sharing, if perhaps, in Mint 15 this problem can be looked into. Otherwise manual entry is always there, or may be some script for customized grub entry can be made to work in Mint 15. Just my thought

  23. I’ve just seen the ISOs for Olivia Cinnamon and Mate approved for RC and it’s so exciting to think it’s just a matter of hours before we can try out the newest version of what for me is the best distro out there these days!

  24. I’m practically checking this website and Segfault on a daily basis now just to see if there is any news. I do hope the RC will be close to the actual release. I remember the last time I tried a Ubuntu RC… Didn’t go well.

  25. Hello,
    Thanks for all, LMDE it’s great but documentation it’s poor :o(
    Where can we find how to install LMDE into multiple HDD ?
    I didn’t find anything about anywhere !
    Thanks a lot.

    Best regards.

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