Edition

Cinnamon

Mint's own desktop. The default, and the one that gets the new work.

Applets and a window list on one bottom panel.

What it is

Built by the Mint team on GNOME technologies, with Muffin handling windows. It's the most complete of the three: applets and desklets, editable panels, window effects, and the defaults that need the least adjusting.

It's also the heaviest — which on any machine from the last decade means almost nothing in practice.

On Wayland: the Wayland session lives here first. It is being finished now, with both sessions supported side by side as the goal.

Choose it if

this is your first Mint install
you want the finished version of the Mint desktop
your hardware is from roughly the last ten years
you want the Wayland session when it's ready

Look elsewhere if

the machine has 2 GB of RAM or less
you want the GNOME 2 layout exactly
you want the lightest thing Mint ships

The same in every edition

Same Ubuntu 24.04 LTS base. Same Update Manager, Timeshift, Driver Manager and Software Manager. Same repositories, same apt, same installer, same security updates until April 2029. The desktop is the only thing that changes — and you can install another one later without reinstalling the system.