If you want to make a distribution based on Mint

[Husse]

Please feel welcome to make a distribution based on Mint
The more the word is spread about Linux the better, and it may be a rewarding experience
BUT
It is not permitted to use Mint branding without the permission of Clem or me
It is not permitted to release an edition under the Mint name without the permission of Clem
This is to be sure that what ever is released as Mint meets our standards
It is permitted to use Mint as a base and release your own version, but then all Mint branding must be removed
So no Mint logos or Mint artwork with the Mint name in it and the Mint tools may not be called mintInstall, mintUpdate and so on
Our releases hold a high standard and are rigorously tested before release - if something is called Mint and does not live up to these standards it would hurt our reputation
If you think you surpass our standards and want your edition to be a part of the Mint family contact us
The best is to send a forum PM to me (Husse)

[ESM]

This is to be sure that what ever is released as Mint meats our standards

Tasty

[Husse]

Thanks - typo corrected

[exploder]

Very well written, Husse.

[clem]

Hi,

Just a precision on the tools and the general philosophy behind this.

What we do is freely re-distributable and we encourage people to share our technology. We're responsible for its quality and our name guarantees that what we release meet our own standards. For this reason and this reason only, we ask you to rename and re-brand our technologies if and only if you make changes to them.

So for instance, you can burn Linux Mint on a CD, write "Linux Mint" on the CD and distribute it.. that's OK. But if you start adding packages, changing configuration files..etc.. then we ask you to write "Something else" on the CD.

Similarly, if you maintain "Vanilla Linux" and it uses mintInstall (for instance).. that's OK. You don't need to rename mintInstall (you can if you want, but you don't need to). But if you make changes to mintInstall, if you modify its source code or its default behaviour, then we ask you to re-brand it.

In the end, it comes down to us being able to control our image.

Clem.

[kneekoo]

I'm only asking hypothetically.

Is it wrong if I add 2-3 of my much needed software and write on the CD: "Linux Mint + Deluge + Firefox extensions + updates 7/july/09"?

[Husse]

@ kneekoo - that would be a large CD
The above is only if you distribute it - of course not for your own use
@ Clem - thanks for making it clearer

[kneekoo]

For redistributing Mint I would rather come up to you and ask for a custom Mint disk (and I might) rather than risking doing anything wrong then have people come back to me with answer I would die crawling Google at a faster pace Googlebot crawls Mint's website.

But why can't I update Mint and repackage it on one CD? At least apt-get autoclean && apt-get clean && rm -f /tmp/* should do the heaviest part of the cleaning, right? I don't know... I never tried to make an updated Mint disk. I do use Mint to boot on many people's computers and perform various tasks but having a monthly updated Mint would be nicer I guess. I'm just not sure it's worth the effort - the official disks have rarely been useless and most of the times it happened that either my CD was scratched of the drive was unable to read it properly. At least I asked. Thank you for answering.


Actually, I wanted to comment on your first post, about this:

Our releases hold a high standard and are rigorously tested before release - if something is called Mint and does not live up to these standards it would hurt our reputation

Your statement almost made Mint sound perfect, and "perfect" is something I rule out by default in any man-made project. However, I understand what you meant.

[Fred]

kneekoo,

I think Clem made it clear that his concern was maintaining control of and not diluting the Mint name. This is a valid concern. Can you imagine the mess that you would have if everybody and his brother was releasing their own versions of Mint? You would never know what you were getting when downloading and installing Mint.

From a legal standpoint of view, Clem has an obligation to enforce his trademarks in order to keep them, at least in the US. If he were to allow any and every one to use the Mint name he would loose his legal right to it. It would no longer be his trademark, and he wouldn't have any control over its' use. I suspect that is the case in many other countries too but I know it is in the US.

Fred

[kneekoo]

Fred, I made my point in my first phrase. Please read my post throughly. I was not talking about redistributing Mint but rather updated disks for my own usage on various PCs I have to deal with.

The "Why can't I update & repackage" question was addressed to Husse, who said "that would be a large CD". It was a normal question considering Mint anyway gets updated from a release to another and it still fits one CD. Any way, I think it will be clear enough when you will re-read my previous post.

[Husse]

@ kneeko
I see that you are not going to redistribute Mint but rather install an updated Mint in your friends computers - that's a different story And unless you use Remastersys or something similar not even a "new" ISO
Go ahead - spread the word.
What I meant with the comment about a large CD was that the Mint ISO almost fills a CD so there is little room for anything else

[kneekoo]

Yes, but on the other hand I can also remove a few applications I don't frequently use. I'm not sure if it will help Mint - maybe become more popular among people who like to fiddle around - but I would love to see a short (if possible) guide to creating your own Mint CD, based on whatever version we want to start from. The only Linux distro I played with - this way - was Kurumin Linux, a mini-cd distro I loved to play with about 5 years ago.

That distribution was packed with software and only had somewhere around 200 MB, to fit small CDs. No OOo, obviously, but it was so pretty and useful that it stood out against many top distros. Kurumin is no longer maintained and it wasn't perfect at all - being based on Debian unstable - but it certainly proved how much Linux can go. Its strength was the custom built control panel based on Kommander scripts that made software installations easy and allowed people to dial-up or get online through PPPoE, use VPN and many other stuff. That script madness also inspired me into writing my own F-Prot GUI, a TinghtVNC custom GUI for my office and other small stuff.

This is actually what I hope Mint will follow - a custom control panel that enables the users to do things easy and certain things that are painful in the majority of distros. Then again, offering people a small "safe" guide to add a personal touch to their Mint CDs would be very nice. Maybe something for Mint 10 or 11 but I would certainly "bake" my own Mint on a miniCE or even strip down a Gnome one to handle my rescue sessions faster and with all the necessary software already on disk.

[MintyCat]

Why trying to make another distribution if we already got the best with Linux Mint?

But I'm just wondering, shouldn't this be on the F.A.Q. at the main page? It would guarantee a better access for everyone

Just my 2 cents.

And Clem, I'm glad we can actually use mintTools in another distros, I'm currently using mintInstall on my Vanilla Ubuntu. Is there any place that refers to this?

[gnu2nix]

after I catch up on some work I am going to do exactly this. My quick question is is there a howto on how to remove all mention of mint? I will give it props on boot and in help ... but I don't want it confused either.

[exploder]

The Mint tools are no longer branded so there shouldn't be too much work involved now. You would want to use your own, xsplash, gdm theme, wallpaper, etc anyway. We have made things pretty easy for anyone wanting to build a distro based on Mint.

[brucewagner]

Please pardon my ignorance, but how does one, "...use your own, xsplash, gdm theme wallpaper, etc." ....?

Is there a How To?

Is it really that easy?

[Husse]

It's possible and not that difficult (well maybe gdm)
I doubt there is a how to, that's knowledge you accumulate and should have before venturing into "distro making"

[exploder]

I saw a tool posted for changing the image the gdm uses. The rest is just a matter of locating the images you want to change and changing or replacing them with your own. Husse is right though, you should investigate this type of thing before trying to build a distro. I have played around with the artwork on various distributions and usually with a couple of google searches you can have all of the artwork changed in a few hours.

[Kendall]

Keep in mind that some things are deeper than just the artwork. For instace, all the isolinux information will say Linux Mint and all the release information will say either "8" or "Helena". Not that this stuff is hard to change either, but it's there and needs to be addressed.

[Aevum]

Thanks for letting us know, guys!
Cheers!

- Max