Linux Mint is a Linux-based computer operating system designed for usability and ease of installation, particularly for users with no previous Linux experience. It is available in several editions with different codebases, nearly all of which are based on Ubuntu, which is itself based on Debian.

Linux Mint uses primarily free and open source software (FOSS), making exceptions for some proprietary hardware drivers, non-free firmware in the kernel and some other widely used software, such as the proprietary Adobe Flash plugin and RAR compression/decompression utilities. Unlike many other Linux distributions, Linux Mint does not strive to commit itself to software freedom.^{[citation needed]}

Linux Mint started in 2006 with a beta release called 1.0 "Ada". The project wasn't well known at the time and this version was never released as stable. With the release of 2.0 "Barbara" a few months later, the distribution caught the attention of many people within the Linux community and started to build an audience. Using the feedback given from its new community, the distribution released a quick succession of releases between 2006 and 2008. 5 versions were released as follows: 2.1 "Bea", 2.2 "Bianca", 3.0 "Cassandra", 3.1 "Celena" and 4.0 "Daryna".