Linux Mint 10 is dead, but the later versions are among the best transition systems for former windows users. It's also been rated #1 at Distrowatch dot com, a clearing house for all linux. Is Linux Mint suitable for companies? Linux Mint provides Long-Term Support (LTS) releases which are supported for a duration of 5 years. Does Linux Mint include proprietary drivers? Michael jackson dangerous video live. Proprietary drivers such as the ATI or nVidia drivers are easy to install but not installed by default. What about proprietary software? Linux Mint does.

Advertisement Linux users have a wealth of open-source software at their fingertips. But sometimes, proprietary software is required. It might be something like Your PC runs Linux. How on earth are you going to install Microsoft Office, and use it without running into problems?

— which is a bit unnecessary LibreOffice is the king of free office suites. It's unlikely to replace Microsoft Office in a business environment, but it's an excellent alternative for casual users. Here's what's new in LibreOffice 5.1. — or it could be a proprietary driver. 99% of your hardware will run with open-source drivers, but graphics drivers are another story.

Diehard Linux users will accuse you of sacrilege for even thinking about running proprietary drivers. However, if you’re keen on Linux gaming, then they are pretty much required. Why Do You Need Proprietary Graphics Drivers? Almost all Linux distributions ship with open-source drivers. These are provided so that your hardware works out of the box. Install Linux, and use your PC’s hardware as you always had. When it comes to graphics drivers, however, the situation is somewhat different.

Open-source graphics drivers will (in most cases) let you run the operating system and perform basic tasks, but when it comes to gaming (and perhaps image/video editing and other heavy lifting) failure can occur. Image credit:. The result is that AMD and Nvidia graphics systems can run at a reasonable level with open-source drivers, but need proprietary drivers — those produced by AMD and Nvidia, respectively — to enjoy the power the brands promise. (Intel graphics drivers are already open-source and included with the Linux kernel). Getting proprietary drivers, also known as “restricted” driver, used to be tricky or fiddly, but these days it’s straightforward. Here, we look at installing proprietary graphics drivers on three popular distros: Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and Fedora.

(Proprietary drivers for other hardware devices — such as wireless network interface cards — are also often available.) Pre-Installing Proprietary Graphics Drivers Installing proprietary graphics drivers has become far simpler in recent years. Previously, you may have had to run some specialist software or go looking for the drivers and install them manually. Happily, you can now simply install them as you install your Linux operating system (a feature available in most popular distros). To do this, just work your way through the installation process, paying close attention to the boxes that pop up.

Towards the end of installation, you’ll find a dialogue box concerning graphics drivers. This box requires your action, and gives you the choice of installing proprietary graphics drivers or open-source drivers. Choosing the proprietary drivers option will save you the bother of installing them later. Fortunately, this isn’t too tricky.

Ubuntu To find proprietary drivers in Ubuntu, open the menu, type “drivers,” and select Additional Drivers. Upon opening, the system will run a quick scan. This will find out if your system has hardware that would benefit from having proprietary drivers installed. It is here that you will find proprietary drivers. It can be tricky to make the right decision as to which drivers to choose, so opt for the defaults (usually the most recent). This method is far more straightforward than using the command line, which can result in problems. Rather than risk system stability (and even your graphics card itself), it is safer to use the Additional Drivers utility. Although you may not be instructed to, it’s often useful to restart your computer after installing a graphics driver.

Once rebooted, your Linux system should be ready to offer an enhanced graphics experience! Fedora If you’re running a Fedora system with an Nvidia video card, things are a little trickier. This is because the default repositories for Fedora only list open-source software. You’ll need to begin by checking your video card details.

Lspci grep -i VGA If you see details for an Nvidia card, head to the and install the free and nonfree packages for your version of Fedora. This should be done via the Firefox browser, using PackageKit to install the packages. It’s also possible to use the command line to install these packages with a single command: sudo dnf install -E%fedora).noarch.rpm -E%fedora).noarch.rpm Once installed, these packages will add repository information that you can use to search and install the drivers for your card. For Nvidia cards, search for kmod-nvidia. Remember to reboot your PC after this. Have an AMD card?