The Linux Mint Team has released the first release candidate of Linux Mint 9 Xfce, codenamed "Isadora". It is based on Xubuntu 10.04 and features Linux 2.6.32, Xfce 4.6.1 and Xorg 7.4.

Linux Mint 9 Xfce features a number of new features. It has a new software manager, rewritten from scratch. The new software manager now gives uses access to more than 30,000 packages rather than the 300 in the previous version. The new software manager now features a new review system. The software are sorted by scores from reviews by other users. Review can also be given directly from the new software manager.

There s also a new backup tool. With this new tool users can upgrade to new versions of Linux Mint by performing fresh installations from the CD and still end up with a clean system containing the user data, preferences and even the software previously installed. It also allows for incremental backup and compression.

Another new addition to this release is mint4win. It is based on wubi of Ubuntu and provides an easy way to install Linux Mint from Windows.

This version is a release candidate and is meant for testing and not for use on production machines. Here are the download links:

Linux Mint 9 Xfce RC for i386

Linux Mint 9 Xfce RC for amd64

[via: The Linux Mint Blog]