Autumn Harvest Brings Linux Mint 5 x64
Clem Lefebvre, lead developer of Linux Mint, has just announced that the x64 version of Linux Mint is available to the general public. This is great news for all the users currently running AMD64 or other x64 processors on their systems.
Linux Mint 5 for 64 bit processors is affectionately called Elyssa, and it hit the market four months laster than the 32 bit version. Clement Lefebvre says that Elyssa is unlike any other Linux version. “all the features and improvements introduced into Linux Mint since the start of the project were re-implemented on top of a modern Ubuntu Hardy base. Our packages were recompiled to support the X86_64 architecture, media codecs were added and plugins were coupled with a 64 bit version of Firefox 3,” he says. Apart from Mozilla Firefox 3, Elyssa also comes with XChat, OpenJDK, and Adobe Flash Player 9 (which you should update to v. 10).
The Linux team have stated that from now on, the Main, Light, and x64 versions of Linux will be released simultaneously. This means you will readily get to choose the version you want to run on your system, unlike the current situation when we had to wait four months to get Linux Mint 5 x64.
There is one issue in regard to the installation process. Although only 256MB of RAM are required to run Elyssa, in order to install the software you need 512MB. This could be a problem for those of you running a rather modest configuration. Trying to install Elyssa with only 256MB of RAM can lead to installation failure due to the fact that the whole process requires handling the 2.5GB of data which is compressed on a 700MB CD. Unless you meet the 512MB requirement, you may end up having to repeat the installation process several times.
Linux Mint 5 for 64 bit processors is affectionately called Elyssa, and it hit the market four months laster than the 32 bit version. Clement Lefebvre says that Elyssa is unlike any other Linux version. “all the features and improvements introduced into Linux Mint since the start of the project were re-implemented on top of a modern Ubuntu Hardy base. Our packages were recompiled to support the X86_64 architecture, media codecs were added and plugins were coupled with a 64 bit version of Firefox 3,” he says. Apart from Mozilla Firefox 3, Elyssa also comes with XChat, OpenJDK, and Adobe Flash Player 9 (which you should update to v. 10).
The Linux team have stated that from now on, the Main, Light, and x64 versions of Linux will be released simultaneously. This means you will readily get to choose the version you want to run on your system, unlike the current situation when we had to wait four months to get Linux Mint 5 x64.
There is one issue in regard to the installation process. Although only 256MB of RAM are required to run Elyssa, in order to install the software you need 512MB. This could be a problem for those of you running a rather modest configuration. Trying to install Elyssa with only 256MB of RAM can lead to installation failure due to the fact that the whole process requires handling the 2.5GB of data which is compressed on a 700MB CD. Unless you meet the 512MB requirement, you may end up having to repeat the installation process several times.
