If you’ve upgraded to Firefox 2.0.0.12 you probably noticed some changes in the results brought by searches from the top-right corner Google search plugin.

Basically:

– The result page shows a Linux Mint logo instead of a Google one.
– The layout of the page is a bit different (ads are on top instead of being on the right).
– There is no access to advanced Google features (account, cached links, similar pages..etc).

The reason it is different is because instead of using the default plugin we now distribute our own and take advantage of a Google Custom Search Engine. The reason it it is different from the default Google search is because Google doesn’t offer the same features to Custom search engines as it does when searching directly from google.com. The reason we changed from default google to a custom engine is because it generates a lot of revenue and this single plugin could potentially make Linux Mint into a company which actually hires full-time employees.

The highest single source of revenue for Linux Mint isn’t the donations, it isn’t ads on the website, it is the default start page in Firefox. This simple search plugin is estimated to generated from 2 to 40 times more money than the start page itself. If this proves to be the case we’ll be in a position to grow and to achieve things we never dreamed off before. At the moment Linux Mint is maintained by me on a 2.5 hours / day basis with the help of a team of volunteers who are paid nothing. The income is similar to a single small salary. With this plugin, and although you may not enjoy the same level of comfort as when searching with the default Google layout, you contribute to making Linux Mint grow and we should soon see the day where our distribution gets maintained by a team of people working full-time on it.

For most distributions the business model is to sell associated products (Powerpack, Enterprise Desktops, Server offers) or services (Professional Support..etc). Although this allows the distributions to hire full staff employees it also takes a lot of resources and most employees end up working on these associated services/products instead of focusing on the distribution itself. If we find a way to finance ourselves by clever little changes like this one we can grow into a medium sized company with full time employees working ONLY on the distribution itself. As you can see this is a very interesting perspective.

For people used to using Google Images we included a second search engine so that they could achieve the same things as before. For people used to cached links and used to access their google account there is a workaround and it is possible to revert to the default Firefox plugin. Of course this is a pity and we don’t encourage you to do that (since this is the best way you can contribute to Mint and it costs you nothing) but it’s your desktop, not ours, and we always believed you should have a choice. So if you really want to revert back to the default plugin, follow the steps below:

Go to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3682
Install the addon and restart Firefox
Go to google http://www.google.com
Right click in google search bar and select “add to search bar”
Left-click arrow at left side of firefox search combo
Select “manage search engine”
You should find google at the bottom of the list
Move it to the top

By doing so your search results will use the original Google layout again (cached links, etc..) but hey everytime you make a search you could have made us grow at the same time.

It’s good to have a choice and it’s good to know why you’re going one direction or another. I’m sorry we rolled out this as an update without informing people. Hopefully this blog post will make things clearer and if you’ve been surprised by this new plugin you’ll now be able to understand how and why you want to keep it or change it back to the original plugin.

I’ll talk about Mint, as a Republic of Ireland registered company, in a separate blog post.

Clem.

What is the difference between a Community Edition and the Main Edition? And if a Community Edition isn’t somehow as official as the Main Edition then what’s the difference between Community Editions and derivative distros? Hopefully after this blog post things will become a little clearer for everyone.

Linux Mint’s purpose is to make an elegant and efficient desktop operating system. As you can see the project is extremely focused on its main purpose and only supports one architecture (x86), one desktop (Gnome) and basically one edition, the Main Edition. Of course the community has other needs and the projects, without loosing focus on its core purpose also wants to address these needs. So the system in place for this is a “best-effort” strategy which consists in appointing a maintainer from the community to work on what we call a “Community Edition”.

Let’s take the KDE Community Edition for instance. Jamie Boo Birse, from Australia, is the man who develops, maintains and is responsible for making a variation of Linux Mint using KDE instead of Gnome. His ISO is part of the Mint family, it’s tested and released in exactly the same way as the Main Edition but he does all the work, the team doesn’t. Now of course, he is himself part of the team but only working on this in his spare time.

So what’s the difference between his edition and the Main one for instance…? Well, it’s labelled “Linux Mint”, it bears the Linux Mint branding and the quality of its releases directly affect the image of Linux Mint as a whole. It’s tested and released in exactly the same way as the Main Edition…. basically it’s almost the same as if it was an official edition. The only reason it’s called a “Community” edition is because it’s maintained by Jamie Boo Birse, in his spare time, and because Jamie doesn’t get paid or compensated in any way for what he does. So the difference between the Main Edition and Community Editions doesn’t have to do with quality, or level of testing, it simply has to do with dedication and focus.

If tomorrow Jamie Boo was hired by Linux Mint and became a full time employee, the main difference wouldn’t have to do with quality or testing. The quality is already very high and we demand as much testing on Community Editions than we do on the Main one. The main difference would be that the KDE Edition would be something we could commit as much as we do with the Main one. Tomorrow we would be in a position to say, this KDE Edition will be released as fast and as frequently as the Main one. In fact the Main one wouldn’t the main one anymore, but probably a Gnome one.. if we started focusing and committing as much on the KDE edition.

So in brief, a Community Edition is of high quality (same as the Main one), very well tested (exactly as the main one), released in exactly the same way as the Main Edition and the only real difference is that we can’t demand as much in terms of work, delays and schedule on Community Editions because their maintainers do not get compensated for it. It’s a best-effort kind of thing but only gets released when its quality is as high as expected.

Now when we look at a derivative distribution it’s a complete different story. We don’t communicate with the maintainer, we don’t test, and we’re not responsible for the release. Basically we have no control over what is done in a derivated distribution and we can’t guarantee its quality. For this reason it is extremely important to us that derivative distributions do not associate themselves with us by using our branding our confusing their users by telling them they’re a “Linux Mint Community Edition”.

We’ve had trouble by the past with two derivative distributions:

– Ultumix started as an independent project but for some reason they thought it would be a good idea to call themselves “Linux Mint Ultumix Edition”. Since we never agreed to that, and we never participated in the making of it, it obviously isn’t an edition, since it’s got nothing to do with Linux Mint, only the technical fact that it’s based on it.

– Maryan Linux started as the Linux Mint E17 Edition. Maty was appointed as its maintainer and it was agreed we’d have a Daryna E17 CE (Community Edition). The problem was that Maty never submitted any ISO to the team, no tests were ever run on this edition and at the same time he was communicating release dates to the public and planning to release it himself. If we can’t test an ISO and take control on its release strategy we can’t guarantee its quality and for that reason it can’t be called “Linux Mint”. The edition was discontinued and Maty rebranded it as a separate distribution called Maryan Linux.

Both Community Editions and derivative distributions are good for Linux Mint. Editions allow us to offer a wider range of desktops without much efforts, derivative distributions all us to see new ideas implemented based on the technology we develop and outside of our control. The important thing of course for anybody interested in making his/her own variation of Linux Mint is to know what he/she wants to achieve, not in term of technique, but in term of organization. Does the maintainer want to make an edition (ie. another Mint desktop) or does he/she want to start maintaining his own project (new organization, new way of working, independance from the Linux Mint project..etc).

We always welcome new editions/distributions, the important thing is to clearly distinguish between the two. I hope Ultumix will sort out their branding issues and that we’ll be able to commit more in to delivering and maintaining some important community editions maybe to move them back to official editions and give them the same level of priority as the Main edition gets once Linux Mint starts growing.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Say hello to the new mintInstall, version 3.4. A few little adjustments, some work on HIG and localization and this will hit the Romeo repositories. You can expect a release this week and in the meantime I’ll let you look at the screenshots and guess what the new features are.

With mintMenu now uninstalling applications, mintUpdate updating them and mintInstall supporting not only .mint but also apt and getdeb (and in the future maybe also CNR) chances are you won’t play as much with synaptics anymore 🙂