started Mint review

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+The Linux Mint project has released Mint 18, a major upgrade not only for Mint's dueling desktops -- Cinnamon and MATE -- but for all the underlying systems. With Mint 18, Linux Mint has moved its base software system from Ubuntu 14.04 to the recently released Ubuntu 16.04.
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+The move to the latest long term support release of Ubuntu means that, as with the Mint 17.x release series, the Mint 18.x release cycle is now locked to its base for the next two years. 
+Rather than tracking Ubuntu, Mint 18.1 and all subsequent release will stick with Ubuntu 16.04. That doesn't necessarily mean Mint will get as out of date as Ubuntu LTS releases tend to by the end of their two year cycle, but it does mean that nothing major is going to change at the low level for quite a while.
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+If the Mint 17.x release series is anything to judge by, that's a good thing and allows Mint to focus on its own projects rather than spending development time creating patches for every Ubuntu update. That should be especially good news for the 18.x series since Ubuntu plans to make some major changes in the next two years, including moving to a new display server (Mir) and updating its own Unity desktop to Unity 8, which will also mean updating many components that will affect downstream users like Mint.
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+If you're looking for an Ubuntu-like system, but don't want to be Canonical's lab rat for the transition to Mir and Unity 8, Mint 18.x make a familiar, but stable Linux environment.
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+In some ways Mint has become what Ubuntu once was -- a stable, new-user-friendly gateway to Linux. Installation is simpler than upgrading to Windows 10 -- though there is one additional headache with this release, more on that below -- and once it's installed both the Cinnamon and MATE desktops will be familiar to anyone switching from Windows. 
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+While Ubuntu's Unity and GNOME's 3.x series opt for sometimes radical changes, Cinnamon and MATE have taken a slower, more progressive path. Mint has elected to evolve rather than "revolutionize", making it a far more comfortable choice for newcomers who aren't likely to enjoy have the rug pulled out from under them every time they upgrade. 
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+Mint's slower, more evolutionary path seems to be serving it well, enabling it to play tortoise to Ubuntu's revolutionary hare. These days Mint is possibly the most popular desktop Linux distro around, at least according to Distrowatch (which should be taken more as a rough guess rather than rock solid stats).
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+# What's New in Mint 18
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+Mint 18.x is well poised to continue to drive Mint's popularity. It's a solid release with some big changes (most of which won't cause the average user any problems), but both Cinnamon and MATE look and behave more or less as they always have, with a number of incremental improvements.
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+Mint 18 has a lot of updates under the hood, most of which the average desktop user can safely ignore, though there is one change that will mean an extra installation step for many users. Mint 18 is the first Mint release to ship without patent-encumbered codecs and plugins. The change is a result of legal and copyright issues in some countries, particularly the United States.
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+To help out with the install there's a new GUI app dedicated to installing multimedia codecs. It's prominently listed in the start menu on both Cinnamon and MATE, making it fairly obvious for new users, though nowhere near as simple as having it just work from the start. There is a new command line tool that will allow you to package up the codecs from the install disk (without having to have an internet connection). It's nice to see Mint is aware that not everyone who uses it necessarily has constant high speed internet connections. Too many Linux distros seem blissfully unaware that many of their users don't have always-on, high speed access (or worse, they just don't care). It's an especially nice touch since not shipping with codecs in the first place is really to appease the legal restrictions of U.S. users, while potentially dumping the bandwidth problem on those who could have had the codecs bundled legally.
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+Interestingly, if you happen to use the Chrome web browser (not installed by default) and VLC for videos (also not installed by default) you might not even need most of the codecs since both apps bundle the necessary codecs and plugins themselves. That really just leaves the MP3 codecs to install.
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+## Cinnamon
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+Straight out of the box Linux Mint 18.1's Cinnamon desktop looks just like its predecssor. The theme is still the "Mint X" theme that's been the default for Cinnamon for years now. There is, however, change on its way. You can preview what will likely soon byt he new default Cinnamon theme in Mint 17 by heading to Settings >> Appearance and switching to the new theme, Mint Y. 
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+As you would expect from Mint,it's not radically different. It's a bit flatter, buttons are less 3D, gradients have been toned down and window bars blend into toolbars a bit like the did in versions of GNOME 3 back when toolbars and windows bars were still seperate things.
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+Mint Y is, in other words, an nice evolution of Mint x with a nod to the current trend of "flat" user interface design. It looks similar to GNOME, KDE, OS X 10.11 and Windows 10. 
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 First of all I would like to mention that Linux Mint 18, this is the first release in which the media codecs, flash-plugin for the Internet browser and codecs for common audio and video files) are not installed by default. This is due to legal or copyright in some countries, such as USA. The user himself must do the installation in the second step, the software, noting this item:
 
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