Purpose
The purpose of Linux Mint is to produce a modern, elegant and comfortable operating system which is both powerful and easy to use.
Some of the reasons for the success of Linux Mint are:
- It works out of the box, with full multimedia support and is extremely easy to use.
- It's both free of cost and open source.
- It's community-driven. Users are encouraged to send feedback to the project so that their ideas can be used to improve Linux Mint.
- Based on Debian and Ubuntu, it provides about 30,000 packages and one of the best software managers.
- It's safe and reliable—thanks to conservative software updates, a unique Update Manager, and its robust Linux architecture.
- Linux Mint requires very little maintenance (no regressions, no antivirus, no anti-spyware...etc).
History
In 2021 Linux Mint celebrated its 15th anniversary. Let's take a look back at how it all started and some of the events which have helped shape what it is today.
Articles & reviews
Clement Lefebvre, a French developer now commonly known as "Clem", was writing reviews and tutorials for various Linux sites. To host his own articles he started a website called "Linux Mint".
Early releases
After a time, he began to get a flavour for what the community wanted out of a distribution and started implementing solutions to common problems. In August of 2006, Linux Mint 1.0 “Ada”, based on Kubuntu 6.06 was released. In November 2006, he switched to a GNOME desktop with Linux Mint 2.0 “Barbara”, based on Ubuntu 6.10.
A new ambition
The project is extremely popular and grows rapidly. A team is formed, forums chat rooms and a website are open. By the time Linux Mint 3.0 "Cassandra" is released the project has a new logo, its own identity and the ambition to rival Windows and Mac OS.
