Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the final version of Linux Mint 8 has been released a few minutes ago by Clement Lefebvre and the wonderful Linux Mint community. Dubbed Helena, the new Linux Mint 8 operating system is based on the recently released Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) and is powered by Linux kernel 2.6.31, X.org 7.4 and GNOME 2.28.1. Above all that, the 8th release of Linux Mint includes brand-new artwork, updated applications and many, many other amazing features for all its fans out there!

"The 8th release of Linux Mint comes with numerous bug fixes and a lot of improvements. In particular Linux Mint 8 comes with support for OEM installs, a brand new Upload Manager, the menu now allows you to configure custom places, the update manager now lets you define packages for which you don’t want to receive updates,the software manager now features multiple installation/removal of software and many of the tools’ graphical interfaces were enhanced." - Clement Lefebvre said in the official release announcement.

Highlights of Linux Mint 8:

· Based on Ubuntu 9.10;
· Linux kernel 2.6.31;
· EXT4 filesystem;
· X.Org 7.4;
· GNOME 2.28.1;
· Improvements to the Menu;
· Improvements to the software manager;
· Improvements to the update manager;
· New Upload manager tool;
· Lots of bugs fixed.


On top of that, the Linux Mint team is proud to present the third edition of the Linux Mint Universal Edition, a customized version of Helena, available as a Live DVD. The Universal Edition contains the following features:

· Available as a Live DVD only;
· Has no proprietary packages (audio/video codecs, Flash, Java, etc);
· Support for English, Spanish, French, German, Swedish, Italian, Danish, Korean, Chinese, Portuguese/Pt, Portuguese/Br, Arabic, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Galician, Russian, Dutch, Polish, Japanese, Norwegian, Ukrainian, Slovenian, Romanian, Catalan, Czech, Greek, Slovak, Norwegian, Marathi, Croatian, Turkish, Bulgarian, Hindi, Hebrew, Finnish, Serbian, Belarussian, Bosnian and Basque languages;
· Automatic installer for missing audio and video codecs.

Recommended system requirements:

· A 32-bit processor;
· 512 MB of RAM;
· 2.5 GB free hard disk space (for installation);
· VGA video card capable of at least 800x600 resolution;
· A CD-ROM drive.

What is Linux Mint? Linux Mint is an elegant, easy-to-use, up-to-date, 100% free and comfortable Linux desktop distribution based on the very popular Ubuntu operating system. It offers paid commercial support to companies and individuals. Also, free community support is available from the forums and the IRC channel.

Download Linux Mint 8 right now from Softpedia.