Clement Lefebvre had the pleasure of announcing a few hours ago, November 15, 2013, that the Release Candidate version of both the Cinnamon and MATE editions of the upcoming Linux Mint 16 operating systems are now available for download, and testing, from mirrors worldwide.
Dubbed Petra, Linux Mint 16 will be the conclusion of six months of hard work, bringing users the latest and greatest open source Linux technologies, such as the customizable and powerful Cinnamon 2.0 desktop environment, as well as the lightweight, old-school MATE 1.8 desktop environment.
This Release Candidate version is intended for testing purposes only, giving users a taste of what's coming in the final release, which should be out by the end of November, 2013. However, we are a bit shocked to see that the MATE version used in this release is still 1.6 and not 1.8 as expected.
Being based on Ubuntu 13.10 and powered by Linux kernel 3.11, Linux Mint 16 RC comes with Cinnamon 2.0, MATE 1.6, MDM (Mint Display Manager) 1.4, new USB Stick Formatter tool, better EFI support, faster startup times, better support for Steam, Software Manager improvements, out-of-the-box support for iOS devices, Update Manager improvements, and safer kernel updates.