Linux Mint 13, the Maya release, is an impressive upgrade that builds on the progress found in version 12. It contains few additional innovations to the operating system. But it updates numerous core elements and provides more solid performance from the two new desktop interfaces introduced in Mint 12. Linux Mint 13 offers one of the best alternatives available to the controversial changes that GNOME developers made to the GNOME 3 environment last year. It also avoids the radical changes with the Unity desktop that Canonical brought to Ubuntu since the version 11.04 upgrade. 
