Linux Mint 12 to Introduce Customizable GNOME 3

Things are looking good for Linux Mint, the popular distro based off of Ubuntu. Often referred to as “Ubuntu Done Right”, Linux Mint has enjoyed a recent surge of new users – many of who feel alienated by their current distro of choice, be it Ubuntu with its Unity interface or any distro using GNOME 3. Neither are traditional desktops and can be difficult to adapt to – hence the reason many are looking for more familiar options.

Clement Lefebvre, Linux Mint’s founder and project lead, stated in a recent blog post that with the release of both Unity and GNOME 3, his distro experienced a staggering 40% user increase in the span of a single month. That’s impressive.

In this week’s edition of DistroWatch Weekly, Ladislav Bodnar reported that Linux Mint has just become the new number one distro in the site’s page-hit ranking statistics. I believe this system measures the page hits to the respective distro pages on the site, so it’s not foolproof. But it is interesting that the distro managed to outperform the distro it derived from.

Linux Mint 12 Preview

I am not uber-familiar with Linux Mint, though I have used it to some degree in the past. What is it about the distro that resulted in its loyal following? Part of it might be the fact that the developers behind the distro don’t bow to pressure when it comes to updating software. With Linux Mint 11, which came out around the time of both Unity and GNOME 3, the distro stuck with the tried and true GNOME 2 – rather than alienate many of its users as Ubuntu and GNOME 3-based distros had.

But, holding out on an update forever is not possible. GNOME 2 is no longer supported, and it’s currently difficult to use its fork, MATE, at the same time as GNOME 3. As a result, it’s difficult to bundle both together and let people decide which to use, but the developers have another solution.

That solution is called “MGSE” (Mint GNOME Shell Extensions). It’s a software package that modifies GNOME 3 to a large enough degree where the desktop actually becomes familiar. It’s not a clone of GNOME 2, but it has a simple menu, is designed for multi-tasking and is generally easier to use overall. Best of all, it still contains all of what makes GNOME 3 a quality desktop. You could say that the annoyances have just been removed.

Going further, MGSE is going to allow users to customize the extent that GNOME 3 will be modified, so if you happen to like a stock GNOME 3, you don’t need to use any of the available tweaks.

The developers are not announcing a release date, instead sticking to the 3DRealm’s rule of “when it’s done”. I am looking forward to checking it out once it’s released, though, because it really does look like it’s shaping up to be the perfect modern Linux desktop.

Update: According to a new blog post, the release candidate for Linux Mint 12 should release in a couple of days.