by xenopeek on Sun Nov 25, 2012 11:26 am
Ah, another user just let me know that linuxmint-201204-mate-cinnamon-dvd-32bit is in fact LMDE. So if you wanted that version, then yes that is the latest version of LMDE. Once you install it you can get update pack 5, which was released in September. Update pack 6 would be available in December probably, or January. Also at that time there will be a new ISO released for LMDE, with this update pack 6 included.
If you want to use Linux Mint Main Edition, the one based on Ubuntu, then figuring from the above you would probably download the 32 bit version of Cinnamon or MATE. (Edit: so "Cinnamon (32-bit)" or "MATE (32-bit)".) Cinnamon is the desktop environment being developed by the Linux Mint developers. It uses modern technology (GNOME 3) but offers a classical desktop, with a ordered menu, a taskbar with list of open windows, and so on. MATE on the other hand is a fork of GNOME 2; very stable but looking perhaps not as modern. It's a personal choice, hard to tell you which you should use. Try them from their installation ISOs.

Linux Mint 14 Nadia / 64-bit / Cinnamon