You can upgrade your Linux Mint to 17.3 “Rosa” now

Here is great news for all Linux Mint users. The upgrade to Linux Mint "Rosa" 17.3 has become available for everyone. There are some important notes about this release, so those of you who're interested or getting started with Linux Mint should read this article.

It is possible to upgrade the Cinnamon and MATE editions of Linux Mint, versions 17, 17.1 and 17.2 to version 17.3.

The Linux Mint project published the details of the upgrade procedure on their blog. Read it here.

Linux Mint 17.3 features plenty of interesting improvements and new features. However, their developers don't force you to upgrade. Contrary to Microsoft, who use all possible ways to get you to run Windows 10, developers of Linux Mint say the following:

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
You might want to upgrade to 17.3 because some bugs that annoy you are fixed or because you want to get some of the new features. In any case, you should know why you're upgrading.

As excited as we are about 17.3, upgrading blindly for the sake of running the latest version does not make much sense, especially if you’re already happy and everything is working perfectly.

This indicates their intention to give you a good experience.

For the notable changes in this version, refer to the following article: Linux Mint 17.3 is out

Note that Linux Mint 17.3 features a newer kernel. While it brings improved hardware support, it can cause issues with some hardware. For instance, my wife's laptop has a built-in Radeon graphics chip. Proprietary Radeon drivers are infamous for poor support of new kernel versions. Make sure that all of your devices are compatible with new kernel before upgrading.

The upgrade is not yet available for Xfce and KDE editions. They will be released later.