Linux Mint is now an OIN licensee. This basically means that we agree not to use any of our present or future patents against other OIN licensees and against Linux systems in general, and in exchange other OIN licensees do the same for us. OIN also owns a collection of patents which we can use for free, and which they would use against any company who would threaten an OIN member.

In other words we’re joining forces with other OIN licensees in a reciprocal agreement not to use our patents against each others and we’re also getting some level of protection from the OIN itself against potential external patent threats.

People know where I sit when it comes to intellectual property and especially when it comes to exclusivity and patents. When I first received an email from the OIN, with the word “patent” in it, I wasn’t too enthusiastic about it, to say the least. But as I read about the OIN, their purpose and their achievements, I got convinced that this was a good thing.

The same way the FSF is using copyright to protect copyleft, the OIN is using patents as some sort of dissuasive weapon to protect the Linux community.

Founder members of the OIN include:

• Red Hat
• Novell
• IBM
• Philips
• Sony
• NEC

Other Licensees of the OIN include:

• Google
• Canonical
• Oracle

Of course we do not own any patents and we don’t intend to file any in the future. We gain protection against other members and licensees patents though (Philips owns the patents on the MP3 codecs for instance) and we associate our name with an honorable initiative which purpose is to protect community like ours and open-source developers.

Questions about this are welcome. It took me some time to get over my initial repulsion for patents and to see the good in this, so please don’t hesitate if you need some clarification.

This is very good news for us and for Linux in general.

For more information about the OIN: http://www.openinventionnetwork.com

Clem

Daryna was officially released. If you haven’t downloaded it already please use the torrents. I you have don’t forget to seed for others to be able to get faster download speeds.  Enjoy the latest version of Linux Mint.

The following community editions are to follow:

• KDE/miniKDE
• XFCE
• Fluxbox
• E17

Then we’ll probably release alpha experiments of:

• 64bit
• Debian-Testing Based Edition
• Fedora 8 Based Edition

The next mint tool being developed should be a tool that lets the user upgrade from one release to another.

There should not be any Linux Mint 4.1. Time should be invested in strengthening our structures, our documentation and in experimenting in different editions before we get to the much anticipated Linux Mint 5.0.

With Linux Mint 5.0 we’ll start addressing the enterprise market as well.

Clem

As we started using Cafepress.com to sell Linux Mint merchandising I bought a few items to see about their quality:

• a large mug
• a khaki cap
• a golf shirt
• a fitted t-shirt
• a ringer T
• a dark t-shirt
• a mousepad

I’ll go straight to the point: The logo doesn’t render well on textiles and I found the t-shirts themselves to be of poor quality. The Ringer-T (which comes with the penguin in the front) is the only piece of clothing which looks nice, I would recommend only that one.

So the Ringer-T looks good.

The logo on the khaki cap doesn’t render well either but it gives the cap a vintage look. Some people might like it.

The t-shirts and the golf shirt are of bad quality and the logo doesn’t look good on them. Avoid these items.

Now, to end up on a positive piece of news: the mug and the mousepad look fantastic.

The logo is bright and shiny on them and  both the mug and the mousepad are of good quality.

So in brief: Get the mug and the mousepad, they’re definitely worth it. Eventually get the Ringer-T and the cap. Avoid everything else.

Link to the cafepress linux mint shop: http://www.cafepress.com/linuxmint 

Clem.