A release candidate (RC) for version 13 of Linux Mint has been made available for testing. Code-named "Maya", the RC is based on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and offers a choice of Cinnamon 1.4 or MATE 1.2 (a fork of the older 2.x branch of GNOME) as the default desktop environment.

The distribution includes a new display manager (MDM) based on version 2.20 of the GNOME Display Manager that, its developers say, "comes with more features than any other Display Manager currently available". Support for GTK3 has also been improved, and the Mint-X and Mint-Z themes have been updated.



Linux Mint 13 running the Cinnamon desktop environment Version 13 of Linux Mint sees the default search engine for a number of countries – including the UK, US, Germany, France and Spain – switch to Yahoo! as part of an income-raising partnership, providing revenue for development and hosting. The project had previously partnered with search engine company DuckDuckGo in Linux Mint 12; DuckDuckGo is still available as an alternative search provider.

Like Ubuntu 12.04, Linux Mint 13 is an LTS (Long Term Support) release and will be supported with updates until April 2017. A date for the final Maya release has yet to be announced; however, if it follows the timeline for Linux Mint 12, it is likely to arrive in the next two weeks.

A full list of changes and new features can be found in the release notes and on the New features in Linux Mint 13 page. The release candidate for Linux Mint 13 is available to download as a 32- or 64-bit DVD ISO image with either the Cinnamon or MATE desktop. The current stable release is Linux Mint 12 "Lisa" from November 2011.

See also:

(crve)