Linux Mint is a Linux distribution for desktop computers, based on either Ubuntu or Debian. Linux Mint is aimed at being a "modern, elegant and comfortable operating system which is both powerful and easy to use." Mint provides full out-of-the-box multimedia support by including some proprietary software such as Adobe Flash. Mint's motto is "from freedom came elegance"
New versions of Linux Mint are released every six months. The first release, named "Ada", was released in 2006. As of January 2014, its latest and 16th release is "Petra"
History
Linux Mint started in 2006 with a beta release of version 1.0, codenamed "Ada", based on Kubuntu. Following its release, version 2.0 was the first version to use Ubuntu as its codebase. Mint had few users from these early versions until the release of 3.0, "Cassandra."Version 2.0 "Barbara" was based on Ubuntu 6.10, using its package repositories and using it as a codebase. From there, Linux Mint followed its own codebase, building each release from its previous one but it continued to use the package repositories from the latest Ubuntu release. As such the distribution never really forked.This resulted in making the base between the two systems almost identical and it guaranteed full compatibility between the two operating systems.
In 2008, Linux Mint adopted the same release cycle as Ubuntu and dropped its minor version number before releasing version 5 "Elyssa". The same year, in an effort to increase the compatibility between the two systems, Linux Mint decided to abandon its code-base and changed the way it built its releases. Starting with version 6 "Felicia" each release was now completely based on the latest Ubuntu release, built directly from it, timed for approximately one month after the corresponding Ubuntu release (i.e. usually in May and November).
In 2010 Linux Mint released Linux Mint Debian Edition. Unlike the other Ubuntu-based editions, it is a rolling release based directly on Debian GNU/Linux and is not tied to Ubuntu packages or its release schedule.
Releases
Main article: List of Linux Mint releases
There are two Linux Mint releases per year, generally timed one month after Ubuntu releases. Each version of Linux Mint is given an integer version number and is codenamed with a female first name, based on a letter of the alphabet that increases with every iteration.Linux Mint does not communicate specific release dates, as new versions are published "when ready", meaning that they can be released early when the distribution is ahead of schedule or late when critical bugs are found.The current major release is Linux Mint 16 "Petra", released on 30 November 2013
