After the release of the final version of Linux Mint 6, codename Felicia, back in December, the development team behind this operating system has switched focus to the x64 version and have now been able to release the first release candidate (RC1) of the OS to testers and Linux Mint fans.

Lead Developer of Linux Mint, Clem Lefebvre explains: “The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 6 x64 RC1. This x64 edition of Linux Mint 6 is almost identical to the Main Edition but compiled for 64 bit processors (Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Core 2 Quad, AMD Athlon X2 64 and all x86-64 compliant processors). It comes with all the improvements featured in Linux Mint 6 Main Edition.”

There are just two differences between Linux Mint 6 and Linux Mint x64 RC1, and they are as follows: there is no openoffice.org-base; Java does not use sun, it uses openjdk.

If you have an x64 processor machine and would like to put Linux Mint 6 x64 onto your machine, then you must be made ware of the system requirements you need to meet in order to do so. As usual, the system requirements are quite modest: at least 512MB of RAM for the installation process and 256MB of RAM to run the OS and 2.5GB of free HDD space.

Please keep in mind that this is not the final version of Linux Mint 6 x64; the Release Candidate (RC1) tag means that the OS may prove to be troublesome. Clem Lefebvre again: “As an RC (Release Candidate) this release is targeted at developers and beta-testers who want to help Linux Mint find and correct bugs before the stable release. Please do not use this release as your main desktop. The testing will last for 2 weeks. Please report any bug you may find via the Linux Mint 6 x64 RC1 Bug Thread and give us your feedback on this release by posting a comment right here on the blog ."

If you would like to get Linux Mint 6 x64, a HTTP download location is available here.
If you would like to get Linux Mint 6 x64, a torrent download location is available here.