The Linux Mint team has announced the availability of Linux Mint KDE 12. The version is running KDE 4.7 which is a bit older as KDE 4.8 was recently release. However, considering the close release dates it was not possible for the Linux Mint team to packages KDE 4.8. That's not a big problem as you can easily upgrade to KDE 4.8 [we will be publishing a how to soon].

Linux Mint KDE is a perfect OS for someone planning to migrate from Windows or wants to retain the old look and feel of Gnome 2 with all the modern technology. KDE is extremely polished and comes with great ease of use for newbies and all the advanced features for daredevils. KDE has maintained different versions for netbooks, desktops and touch-based devices so you won't lose functionality. You get the bottom panel where you get to pin your apps and you can also add the top panel. You can use all the 3D effects (cube desktop and so on under KDE).

In this version Linux Mint is offering hybrid ISO images. You can simply use the "dd" command or a graphical frontend to make a bootable USB stick with no efforts which acts exactly like a liveDVD.

Linux Mint comes with DuckDuckGo search engine which has improved a lot in the last few months. That doesn't mean you are locked into DuckDuckGo. You can easily change the seach engine. But before doing that do remember that Linux Mint is a small project which relies on the revenue from DuckDuckGo. So, if you are a Linux Mint user and want to change the search engine, do help the project and donate so that the team can continue to offer the great product.

Donate to Linux Mint.

We will soon be publishing a detailed review of Linux Mint KDE 12. In the meantime go ahead and download and install the latest version from here[32 bit, 64 bit].