Softpedia is the first to announce that Clement Lefebvre, father of the Linux Mint project, unleashed a couple of minutes ago, November 23rd, the new and highly anticipated Linux Mint 12 operating system, dubbed Lisa.

There's no official announcement on the Linux Mint website, yet the ISO images for Linux Mint 12 (Lisa) are aready available on the official Linux Mint mirrors.

We've talked to Clement Lefebvre and he told us that these are the final ISO builds of Linux Mint 12. "Yes, but it's not official yet :) Regards, Clement Lefebvre".

Linux Mint 12 (Lisa) is based on the recently released Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) operating system and is powered by Linux kernel 3.0, X.Org 7.6 and GNOME 3.2.

This release of Linux Mint is very special, as it contains a new user interface built on top of the GNOME 3 desktop environment, which gives users a classic two-panel style, making the GNOME 3 migration more enjoyable for everyone.

Linux Mint 12 also includes the MATE desktop interface for all GNOME 2 fans, available at the login prompt. Without further ado, will let you review the highlights and screenshots now!

Highlights of Linux Mint 12:

· Based on Ubuntu 11.10; · Linux kernel 3.0; · No Unity shell; · GNOME 3.2; · MGSE (Mint Gnome Shell Extensions); · MATE interface (fork of GNOME 2); · Mozilla Firefox 7.0; · Mozilla Thunderbird 7.0; · One-click installer for multimedia codecs and extra apps; · New desktop theme, called Mint-Z; · A new set of wallpapers; · LightDM login manager; · LibreOffice 3.4 office suite; · Black screen boot splash; · Lots of bug fixes and improvements.

About Linux Mint

Linux Mint is and will always be an elegant, easy-to-use, up-to-date, 100% free and comfortable Linux operating system based on the very popular Ubuntu OS. 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 12 right now from Softpedia.