As you probably know the release of Linux Mint 6 is coming very soon. In fact the ISO itself is ready and some of you may have already found it in one of our mirrors. Be patient and bear with me for a few extra days. Although the ISO is ready, a few other things remain to be done before we can officially release Mint 6 Felicia.

I’m currently working on the Universal Edition (which replaces the “Light Edition”, comes with a text-based grub for improved compatibility, removes codecs from the Main Edition and adds language packs on a live DVD media). The reason it’s taking time is because I still don’t have broadband… and the size of some of the language packs makes it difficult for me to perform this ridiculously simple task 🙂

I just finished editing the Linux Mint 6 User Guide. If you want to help please read it and report any typos/mistake you may find in it:

http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/linuxmint.com/stable/6/user-guide/english.pdf

The Software Portal is ready but one thing is missing: Your ratings and reviews. The new Software Manager (mintInstall 5) is a great tool but it relies on YOU to know which apps are popular and which apps are not. So PLEASE log in the Software Portal and start rating and reviewing the applications for Mint 6:

http://linuxmint.com/software/?sec=categories&release=4

To be realistic we’ll probably be fully ready and announcing the officialy release of Linux Mint 6 early next week. That leaves you a few days to review the user guide and the rate applications in the software portal.

Sorry again for the delay. Thanks for being patient and thanks to all of you who contribute and help Linux Mint get better all the time.

Charles Olsen and the mintCast team published the second episode of their podcast. Happy listening everyone!

In Episode 2:

  • Fedora 10 released
  • Wine 1.1.10 Released
  • Backing up your PC: mintBackup, FlyBack, Jungle Disk
  • Microsoft segment – Preview of Internet Explorer 8 (by Adam Hainstock)
  • Listener feedback

To subscribe to this podcast use the following address: http://mintcast.org/podcasts-only/rss2.aspx

For more information about this podcast please visit http://mintcast.org/

If you want to contribute to the podcast or join their mailing list, please visit https://launchpad.net/~linuxmint-podcast-project

Note: mintCast is looking for a new logo. If you think you can help don’t hesitate to contact them.

A little bit more than 8% of you are currently running Linux Mint 6 RC1 and you’re probably wondering how “stable” it is and how to upgrade it to the upcoming stable version. Well here’s some good news, it’s very stable and you can upgrade it with only two commands.

How stable is RC1?

RC1 is fit for usage. If you’ve got it installed, you don’t need to wait for the final release, you can already consider your system stable.

What’s missing in RC1 is the new Windows installer “mint4win” which only makes a difference for the liveCD, and a few bug fixes which you can get by “upgrading to stable”.

How to upgrade from RC1 to stable?

Install the following package:

  • gtk2-engines-ubuntulooks

Upgrade the following packages to their latest version:

  • mint-artwork-gnome
  • mintassistant
  • mintbackup
  • mintdesktop
  • mintinstall
  • mintmenu
  • mintnanny
  • mintupdate
  • mintupload

This can be achieved by running the following command in a terminal:

apt update; apt install gtk2-engines-ubuntulooks mint-artwork-gnome mintassistant mintbackup mintdesktop mintinstall mintmenu mintnanny mintupdate mintupload

Eventually restart X and you’re all set.