{"id":3953,"date":"2020-07-31T16:37:13","date_gmt":"2020-07-31T15:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.linuxmint.com\/?p=3953"},"modified":"2020-08-01T16:36:38","modified_gmt":"2020-08-01T15:36:38","slug":"monthly-news-july-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.linuxmint.com\/?p=3953","title":{"rendered":"Monthly News – July 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’d like to thank you all for your support. Donations are usually quite high after a release and Linux Mint 20 is no exception. We received 924 donations in a single month! That’s quite an impressive number and it makes us feel really proud, both as a project and a community.<\/p>\n

Linux Mint 20 was well received but it introduced new challenges, both as a release and an upgrade. We’ll be focused on tackling these challenges for the next two years as well as implementing exciting refinements and new features in the upcoming point releases. Some of these are already listed on our Trello boards and roadmaps. I’d rather talk about them once they’re implemented and ready to be shipped though. Hopefully this time next month we’ll be able to give you a preview of some of them.<\/p>\n

In last month’s feedback we noted some users would like Linux Mint to package Chromium. We also observed confusion and lack of empowerment when it comes to dealing with foreign packages during the upgrade. These are two areas we’re looking into at the moment.<\/p>\n

LMDE 4 received many updates lately, including the new features from Linux Mint 20 and Cinnamon 4.6.<\/p>\n

A study on the popularity of Linux Mint releases showed some interested results and comforted some of the perception we had of our user base. <\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The newest release attracts many users and grows faster than any other but it does not yet represent the largest percentage. As we can see on the chart, more than half of Linux Mint users use Linux Mint 19.x. The older Mint 18.x and the brand new Mint 20 both represent about 20% of the user base.<\/p>\n

Linux Mint 17.x despite reaching EOL still represents 6% and LMDE represents about 1%.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

If we look at the top 15 releases we notice that the last point releases (i.e. the “.3” releases, marked with * on the chart) are the most popular in their respective series. This is a great thing because new features aside, the .3 point releases represent the most mature versions of each package base.<\/p>\n

Of course, that data has to be taken with a pinch of salt. It is generated from traffic statistics and relies only on the default browser start page (which many users can and do change).<\/p>\n

LMDE is small but that’s not particularly relevant. It doesn’t get point-releases, it’s not promoted or given the same exposure, and its purpose isn’t to compete with Linux Mint or to attract new users. It’s developed as a plan B in case we need to switch package base one day. It could be seen as a costly investment but it’s strategically important to our project. It tells us exactly how much we rely on Ubuntu, how well we can do without it, and how much work would be involved if we had to stop using it. It also helps us with our development, when tracking new issues in our tools and projects, even though we do get a lot of feedback downstream from Arch and Fedora, it’s nice to be able to quickly compare between the Ubuntu and Debian package bases and identify what is specific to Linux Mint and what isn’t. The real number of LMDE users is likely higher than 1% (the lack of point-releases, the lack of exposure to temporary users, the upgrade process and the fact that LMDE users are usually more experienced could lead to a higher ratio of users modifying their start page than in Linux Mint), but again that’s not very relevant. As long as LMDE doesn’t cost too much, is of high quality and we learn from it in terms of strategy and development, it is a successful project.<\/p>\n

The popularity of older series and .3 point releases indicates a conservative part of the user base which might be more interested in the maturity of the distribution and the lack of bugs than the introduction of new features. That’s a good thing and it reflects the decisions we made in the past to stick to LTS, to develop incrementally and to focus on quality rather than range of products. Of course the audience we have is also the result of the decisions we make, so again we need to learn from this but not be blinded by it.<\/p>\n

One thing appears clearly. I think we underestimated how many people used the .3 releases. We can do better and consider this a little bit more when it comes to backporting fixes and solutions as we develop new releases. Focusing on the same package (as opposed to 6 months, prior to Mint 17) for a whole 2 years was a great decision. Keeping an eye on the last one and continuing to improve it as we move forward with the new one might be something we need to do a little more.<\/p>\n

Sponsorships:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Linux Mint is proudly sponsored by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gold Sponsors:
\"Linux<\/a>
Silver Sponsors:
\"Sucuri\"<\/a>
\"ThinkPenguin:<\/a>
\"Tibor<\/a>
Bronze Sponsors:
\"Vault<\/a>
\"AYKsolutions<\/a>
\"hSo\"<\/a>
\"BGASoft<\/a>
\"David<\/a>

<\/p>\n

\"Feathercoin\"<\/a>
\"HamoniKR\"<\/a>
\"Michael<\/a>
\"Synapse<\/a>
\"Uwe<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

Community Sponsors:

<\/p>\n