
If you are interested in giving Linux Mint a try on your current computer without running any risk, please check out our Guide: Running Linux From a USB Drive As a Virtual Machine or Bootable Disk. Thanks to a conservative approach to software updates, a unique Update Manager and the robustness of its Linux architecture, Linux Mint requires very little maintenance (no regressions, no antivirus, no anti-spyware.etc).
Based on Debian and Ubuntu, it provides about 30,000 packages and one of the best software managers. Users are encouraged to send feedback to the project so that their ideas can be used to improve Linux Mint. It's both free of cost and open source. It works out of the box, with full multimedia support and is extremely easy to use. Some of the reasons for the success of Linux Mint are: Started in 2006, Linux Mint is now the 4th most widely used home operating system behind Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS and Canonical's Ubuntu.