There is a tendency for icons to be either 'traditional' (the padlock, the levi's pocket, the CD) or completely non-intuitively abstract (the 'stack of pancakes' for options, the 'pepper shaker' for apps)...
Intuitive is very helpful on learning curves, especially those that depend on GUIs.
New icons are needed; and sadly, the only way to keep winaptel from just swiping them is to make them open source in the first place.
The European style road sign is a very good set of examples to follow. (I've seen some brilliant & even hilarious ones for men/women's toilets, for example.)
Linux in general and Mint in particular are the perfect places to inaugurate modern icons, with the variety and experimental nature of the desktop. Before I forget there's another factor, relating to phones; actually scaling- the Mint logo itself doesn't scale down too well, judging by the Firefox toolbar above..
