14 DAY TRIAL // After announcing the final release of the highly anticipated Linux Mint 18.1 "Serena" operating system, which shipped with Cinnamon and MATE editions, project leader Clement Lefebvre published an in-depth tutorial on how to upgrade from Linux Mint 18.
As expected, the release of Linux Mint 18.1 also opened the upgrade path for those who are currently using the Linux Mint 18 "Sarah" operating system on their personal computer, allowing them to upgrade to the latest release without too much hassle. But first, the developer urges users to think twice before attempting an upgrade.
"You might want to upgrade to 18.1 because some bug that annoys you is 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 18.1, upgrading blindly for the sake of running the latest version does not make much sense," said Clement Lefebvre in the announcement.
Here's how to upgrade from Linux Mint 18 to Linux Mint 18.1
If you've decided that it's time to upgrade your old Linux Mint 18 "Sarah" installation to the new Linux Mint 18.1 "Serena" release, you can do it right now by opening the Update Manager tool, clicking on the "Refresh" button to check for new versions of the in-house built mint-upgrade-info and mintupdate utilities.
Apply those updates on your Linux Mint 18 OS, then launch the System Upgrade utility by clicking on the "Upgrade to Linux Mint 18.1 Serena" entry under the Edit menu of the Update Manager tool. Follow the instructions displayed on the screen to upgrade your system to Linux Mint 18.1, an operation that should take a few good minutes to finish.
When everything is complete, reboot your computer. That's it, you're now using Linux Mint 18.1 "Serena." Users are being informed to make a backup of all of their important files before upgrading the Linux OS. Also, please note that the kernel packages won't be replaced by the upgrade operation, only if you choose to do so.