Linux Mint 18.1 Serena Beta Has Released, Which will be supported until 2021

Linux Mint 18.1 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2021. It comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make your desktop even more comfortable to use.

Linux Mint is an open source project that provides users with a completely free and easy to use operating system based on one of the most popular free distributions of Linux, Ubuntu. It includes a plethora of applications for common daily tasks.

The best way to describe the Linux Mint operating system is to image a virtual container where we can install one of the Cinnamon or MATE desktop environments on top of a stable base of Ubuntu, and then add some tweaks and in-house built applications.

Linux Mint is known for being a very user-friendly distribution of Linux used by hundreds of thousands of people, especially those who hate the Unity user interface of Canonical’s Ubuntu operating system.

Distributed as 32-bit and 64-bit Live DVDs with Cinnamon and MATE editions

The project is distributed as separate Cinnamon and MATE editions, each one being available for download as Live DVD ISO images that can be deployed on both 64-bit and 32-bit architectures. Users can write the ISO images to USB sticks or blank DVD discs and boot the live environment from either one instead of installing it.

The boot medium has been engineered to boot automatically in 10 seconds, but advanced users can press any key to access the boot menu, which enables them to run a memory test or start an existing operating system from the local disk drive.

The same bootsplash software that is implemented in Ubuntu is also used in Linux Mint, but customized with the distribution’s logo. It is very important to mention here that both Cinnamon and MATE desktop environments are created by the Linux Mint developers.

New features:

This new version of Linux Mint contains many improvements.
For an overview of the new features please visit:
“What’s new in Linux Mint 18.1 MATE“.

Important info:

The release notes provide important information about known issues, as well as explanations, workarounds and solutions.
To read the release notes, please visit:
“Release Notes for Linux Mint 18.1 MATE”

System requirements:

512MB RAM (1GB recommended for a comfortable usage).
9GB of disk space (20GB recommended).
Graphics card capable of 800×600 resolution (1024×768 recommended).
DVD drive or USB port.

Notes:

The 64-bit ISO can boot with BIOS or UEFI.
The 32-bit ISO can only boot with BIOS.
The 64-bit ISO is recommend for all modern computers (Almost all computers sold in the last 10 years are equipped with 64-bit processors).

Upgrade instructions:

This BETA release might contain critical bugs, please only use it for testing purposes and to help the Linux Mint team fix issues prior to the stable release.
It will be possible to upgrade from this BETA to the stable release.
It will also be possible to upgrade from Linux Mint 18. Upgrade instructions will be published next month after the stable release of Linux Mint 18.1.

These and other changes can be found in the release announcements for each edition (Cinnamon, MATE), in the What's New pages (Cinnamon, MATE) and in the release notes (Cinnamon, MATE).

Download (pkglist):

linuxmint-18.1-cinnamon-64bit-beta.iso(1,703MB, SHA256, signature, torrent)

linuxmint-18.1-mate-64bit-beta.iso (1,783MB, SHA256, signature, torrent).