Linux Mint 18 beta ISO images will be released this month

According to a new announcement on the Linux Mint blog, ISO images of the beta version of the upcoming Linux Mint 18 operating system will be released in June 2016. Interested users will be able to try all the new features and changes which Linux Mint 18 is expected to bring.

Linux Mint 18 "Sarah" will be based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. It will be a huge jump from Mint 17, which is based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.

Along with updated software versions, Linux Mint 18 is expected to add new themes and icons, which will be disabled by default. Users who want to get a refined appearance will need to select these new themes in the Control Center. So, when installed, by default, Linux Mint 18 will have a familiar look as the good old Mint-X icons and themes will still be included.

The icon theme is named Mint-Y and is based on the icon set "Moka" which contains flat icons.

The GTK+ theme is also named Mint-Y. It is based on the popular high quality theme "Arc", which utilizes the benefits of GTK+ 3 and has a nice, modern look. See this article for details: Here is how Linux Mint 18 will look (icons and themes).

Another interesting change is the inclusion of new apps. Mint developers are aiming to have a single set of apps between multiple Desktop Environments that Linux Mint ships with. Right now, every DE has its own editor, own viewer and so on. New apps are forked from existing ones and not coded from scratch. These new apps will include:

• A media player based on totem, called xplayer.
• A text editor based on pluma (MATE's default editor app), called xed.
• A picture viewer based on eog, called xviewer.
• A document reader based on atril, called xreader.

By releasing ISOs of the beta version, Mint developers are expecting to collect feedback from users and improve the operating system before the final version is released. There will be an upgrade path for existing Mint 17 users to allow them to migrate to Linux Mint 18 smoothly. Source: Linux Mint.