In Linux Mint 12, DuckDuckGo is now the default search engine. Similar to Linux, it comes with a learning curve. You can use it easily, but you’ll need to go through a bit of reading to understand its power and how to make the most of it. Of course, if you’d rather use what you’re familiar with, we made it easy for you to switch away and add other search engines in Linux Mint.

As we announced it a few weeks ago, Linux Mint is entering the search market. Our product is free and our focus is dedicated on improving the Linux desktop. Almost all our competitors either charge for their product (Microsoft, Apple) or engage in commercial activities (almost all commercial Linux distributions). Our business model needs to fund Linux Mint and give us the ability to focus entirely on the desktop to guarantee we can continue to innovate and enjoy sharing our work for free. We’re community-driven, we’re financed by our community and by its activity on the web and its interaction with advertisers. The first search engine to share with us the income generated by Linux Mint users is DuckDuckGo, and as it happens, it’s one of the most interesting engines out there.