14 DAY TRIAL // Linux Mint project leader Clement Lefebvre has just published May's installation of the "Monthly News" newsletter to inform the community about the latest developments in Linux Mint 18.
Last month, we had some major announcements regarding the development of the upcoming Linux Mint 18 "Sarah" computer operating system, and we learned that it would share the same GNU/Linux technologies as the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) operating system, such as Linux kernel 4.4 LTS.
Also, we know that Linux Mint 18 will ship with the usual Cinnamon and MATE editions, both upgraded to the latest Cinnamon 3.0 and MATE 1.14 desktop environments, respectively. And on top of that, there will be a fresh look and feel based on the popular Arc GTK theme and the Moka icon set, but not enabled by default.
Linux Mint 18 Beta coming very soon
What we don't know, at least not at the moment of writing this article, is the release date of the final Linux Mint 18 "Sarah" operating system, nor the forthcoming Beta release, which, according to Mr. Lefebvre, should be seeded to public beta testers as soon as next week.
"Thank you all for your donations and for your support. We’ve received a lot of help in preparation for the next release," said Clement Lefebvre. "The ISO images are getting close to passing QA (quality testing) so we could see a Beta release early this month. Linux Mint 18 is just around the corner. I hope you’ll enjoy it."
Therefore, next week or, if we're lucky, sometime at the end of this week, we might be able to get our hands on the Linux Mint 18 Beta ISO images, for both Cinnamon and MATE editions. And as usual, the Linux Mint team relies on the community to help them find bugs and polish the operating system before the final release gets out.