The development process of Linux Mint 7 for 64-bit processor machines has reached another milestone with Linux Mint 7 x64 Release Candidate 1 (RC1) having become available for download. The thing to keep in mind with this RC is that it isn't that different from Linux Mint 7 x86 (32-bit processor), despite the fact that the latter has moved past the Release Candidate stage and is available for download as a stable version.

Lead Developer of Linux Mint, Clem Lefebvre, comments: "The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 7 x64 Gloria RC1. This x64 edition of Linux Mint 7 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 7 Gloria Main Edition. 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 upgrade path from Linux Mint 6 x64 will be finalized for the stable release."

Linux Mint 7 x64 highlights:
- Based on Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope
- Linux kernel 2.6.28, X.Org 7.4, GNOME 2.26
- New artwork and new mintWelcome.
- Improved everything: boot speed, mintMenu, mintInstall, mintUpload, mintUpdate
- RTFM is now a command line, a proper one.
- apt version command line; new Inxi command line.
- Xchat instead of Xchat-Gnome.
- mint-info virtual package.
- Firefox comes with Silverlight 1.x support and Moonlight plugin.
- All Mint tools can be launched from the command line; all Mint tools with an “About” dialog show their version number.
- Signed repositories.
- Simplified mintDesktop.

Linux Mint 7, codename Gloria, provides support for a total of 37 languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Swedish, Danish, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese/Br, Portuguese/Pt, Arabic, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Galician, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Norwegian, Japanese, Ukrainian, Romanian, Slovenian, Catalan, Greek, Czech, Slovak, Marathi, Norwegian [nynorsk], Croatian, Bulgarian, Turkish, Hindi, Finnish, Hebrew, Serbian and Belarusian. Basque and Bosnian support is only partial.

If you would like to get Linux Mint 7 x64 RC1, a download location is available here.