If you’ve been wondering what’s behind Linux Mint 8’s fabulous OEM install, here’s the deal: Mint won’t boot into a desktop from the live cd, but straight into the installation routine.

Installation itself works as usual, however a default user called “oem” is created which you can later rename to your liking be editing & replacing “oem” in the following files:

/etc/passwd

/etc/shadow

/etc/gshadow

/etc/group

Summary: “OEM installation” is a quick, painless way to install Linux Mint 8 without having the live environment (GNOME and friends) taking up precious RAM that could otherwise serve as i/o buffer cache, speeding up disk / stick /cdrom access, generally speeding up the installation process.