14 DAY TRIAL // Clement Lefebvre, the leader of the Linux Mint project, has announced that the Linux Mint 17.1 OEM ISO images have been made available and they are now ready for download.
The Linux Mint 17.1 "Rebecca" release was made a couple of weeks ago and it was a complete success. The team did a really good job and the new version is really head and shoulders above the previous one, although the 17.0 branch was also excellent.
The devs have made a ton of changes and improvements, for both the Cinnamon and MATE releases, and users have been advised to upgrade as soon as possible.
The OEM images are not really for regular users, although everyone is welcome to download them. If you want to set up a system with this Linux distro so that its user doesn't have to go through the installation process, but enjoy the OS nonetheless (a gift for someone, for example), then you might find some utility for the OEM edition. In any case, setting up a system with this type of "pre-installation" is not all that difficult.
Linux Mint 17.1 OEMs are not different
The OEM editions, for both flavors of Linux Mint, are always made available a couple of weeks after the official launch, so this arrives right on schedule. For more information about the Cinnamon and MATE versions, you should check our initial report on each of those versions.
"OEM images are for computer vendors and manufacturers. They allow Linux Mint to be 'pre-installed' on a machine which is then used by another person than the one who performed the installation. After an OEM installation, the computer is set in such a way that the next reboot features a small setup screen where the new user/customer has the ability to choose his/her username, password, keyboard layout and locale. Note: 'No-codecs' ISOs are also available for magazines and distributors," wrote Clement Lefebvre on the official blog.
In case you missed it, the Linux Mint devs also explained how users can upgrade from one version to another, although they made it very clear that they really have to. Both Cinnamon and MATE flavors bring some very important modifications and not everyone will want those features. Some of the changes will most likely get rejected by a number of users, so they won't have to upgrade.
You can download the Linux Mint 17.1 "Rebecca" OEM images from Softpedia.
