Linux Mint XFCE Released and Linux Mint F.A.Q.!

News

Linux Mint has just released their XFCE edition. This edition has now been moved from being based on Ubuntu and is now based on Debian Testing via Linux Mint Debian Edition.

The recent popularity and growth of Linux Mint Debian Edition as well as the migration and planned migration of some of the alternate desktop environment based editions (Fluxbox and XFCE so far) has strummed up questions about the future of the main Linux Mint edition which is based on Ubuntu and Gnome.

To help answer these growing questions, Linux Mint’s founder and project lead, Clement Lefebvre has created an easy to miss F.A.Q. nestled at the end of the Linux Mint XFCE announcement.

Some of the provided answers in the F.A.Q. include how to quickly distinguish Debian Testing based versus Ubuntu based Linux Mint editions. Ubuntu based editions are fixed and thus have a version number (Linux Mint 10, Linux Mint 10 LXDE). Debian Testing based editions are rolling releases and have no such version number (Linux Mint Debian Edition, Linux Mint XFCE).

The big news is that the Main edition will continue to be based on Gnome (without Gnome Shell) and Ubuntu and will continue to be the flagship edition for the Linux Mint project. With Ubuntu switching from Gnome to Unity, and eventually pushing for Wayland over X, as well as the Gnome project’s releasing of Gnome Shell, Linux Mint will have some definite hurdles to overcome in the future. However, it seems to be their intention to maintain a consistent Gnome and Ubuntu based platform as their main edition unless some insurmountable circumstance comes about.

With that said, Linux Mint is a community based edition. The Linux Mint team recently polled their user base with a large survey and as a direct result of the data they collected through that, the decision to switch XFCE to a Debian Testing basis was made. If you have questions or concerns about the future of Linux Mint, be sure to follow the Linux Mint Blog (RSS) to keep apprised of any future surveys or other opportunities to provide feedback to the project leaders!


Posted: April 7th, 2011
at 6:45pm by daemox

Tagged with


Categories: News

Comments: 2 comments


  • rijnsma

    I love the way Mint does things and it is running so smooth, Gnome, Gnome LMDE, Xfce, Lxde.
    They could be number one over Ubuntu, because Ubuntu is doing experiments over the back of users. That makes LXKUbuntu not very popular.

  • Anonymous

    Hey rijnsma,

    Thanks for the comment! I can definitely appreciate having an annoyance with the fast rate at which Ubuntu makes changes. However, I don’t feel that they’re making these changes to spite its user base. On the contrary, if we look back to 10.04 LTS or 8.04 LTS, I feel like these changes are being made (whether we, at the time, realize it or not) to drive the GNU/Linux desktop forward in terms of ease of use and accessibility to a more general and mainstream audience.

    We can argue about whether or not this is desirable, but if we want to see more third-party adoption of our preferred OS then I think we do want this overall (personally, I really want to see mainstream commercial gaming come to Ubuntu and GNU/Linux!).

    We’re bound to see some growing pains, but for the most part and, looking back again to previous inter LTS cycles, I think we’re on track to see some great things either post 12.04 or (more likely) post 14.04.

    With that said, after 14.04 I really hope Ubuntu will essentially be done with is major changes between LTS releases (after they bring in Wayland essentially) so we, and any people we might suggest Ubuntu to, can have a much more consistent (albeit not stagnant!) experience with our desktop, laptop, netbook, or tablet.

    Thanks again for the comment and take care!

    


Highslide for Wordpress Plugin