Linux Mint Forums

I am currently running LM11 GNOME, and saw the blog post today announcing that LM11 has reached it's end-of-life. I have been wanted to upgrade and try Cinammon for awhile now, but was planning on holding out until LM14. However, I saw in the "Monthly Stats – September 2012" post (original) the following note and was wondering if someone would help clarify what the key differences between LM13 and LM14 will be and help me decide if I should upgrade to LM13 for LTS, or wait for LM14.

As an LTS release, Linux Mint 13 will receive backports and follow most of the changes coming in Linux Mint 14.

Aside from the obvious difference that LM13 is a LTS release, what could I expect to gain by waiting for LM14 over LM13? I generally don't like upgrading all that often (which is why I'm still running LM11), so would you recommend I install LM13 for long-term support? Or are there some advantages I would expect to gain by waiting for and installing LM14?

Thanks!

Zach

If you don't want to upgrade that often, be advised that LM 14 will only have 18 months until end of life, April 2014. LM 13 is projected to be supported until April 2017.

If you're running Mint 13, then you will eventually get most things from Mint 14. Cinnamon 1.6.x, which will (most likely) be the Cinnamon version for Mint 14 is already available for Mint 13. You won't get the wallpapers and certain software updates, but most Mint stuff will be backported. You won't be able to use MATE 1.4 (or 1.6 when its released) in Mint 13 without getting it from outside of the Mint repos. We have to wait for a comprehensive list of the improvements from Mint 13, but my guess is most of the improvements will go into Mint 13 eventually, although it could take some time. One of the features that is expected of Mint 14 is Software Center improvements, although they seem to be smaller but important things, so no massive improvements or UI refreshes (which IMO it kind of needs). I think the improvements involve entering your password at startup rather than every time you install an app and support for apt (or dpkg or whatever) asks you questions like "do you want to overwrite this config file?" or "do you accept this license?" Anyway, I'd suggest sticking with Mint 13 at least until the improvements stop getting backported.

Thanks cwwgateway. That was very helpful. I think I'll use LM13 as you suggested. If I see something in the LM14 release notes that I find really attractive, I guess I can always upgrade again.

Also, even though this isn't really a tech support thread, should I mark this thread as <SOLVED> to comply with forum rules? Or is that really not necessary/appropriate for this kind of thread?

I'm glad I could help . I don't think marking it as solved is necessary because this thread is as much a discussion as anything - as we get closer to the release we can discuss the possible advantages and disadvantages to each.

zpellman wrote: I generally don't like upgrading all that often (which is why I'm still running LM11), so would you recommend I install LM13 for long-term support? Or are there some advantages I would expect to gain by waiting for and installing LM14?

Thanks!

Zach

Zach....You answered your own question,Like you, I don't like upgrading.I go with the LTS.