Linux Mint 11 (Katya)

Like Ubuntu 11.04, Linux Minth 11 RC is based on GNOME 2.32. However, Linux Mint 11 does not use Unity and has the classic GNOME desktop instead. According to Linux Mint lead developer, Clement Lefebvre, they decided to stick with GNOME 2 because GNOME 3 still has compatibility issues, regression and missing features. Linux Mint 11 RC uses Linux 2.6.38 and Xorg 7.6.
New features in Linux Mint 11 includes the following:

• Software Manager – The Software Manager in Linux Mint 11 RC has been made more polished and the main screen features bigger icons and new categories. The application screen has also been vastly improved and like the Software Manager in Ubuntu 11.04, it now supports rating and reviews.
  
• Update Manager – The Update Manager has had some refactoring and code changes. Because of the changes, the Update Manager now checks for only package updates, making it much faster. The new Update Manager also handles dependencies now.

Linux Mint 11 also has some system improvements such as apt-download, which is used for downloading .deb packages with dependencies and storing them locally. An interesting feature in Linux Mint 11 is that users of the 32-bit build can install both the stable build and the unstable build and then switch between them easily.
The default applications that are included in Linux Mint 11 has also been changed slightly from that of Linux Mint 10. Gwibber is no longer installed by default. Like in Ubuntu 11.04, Rhythmbox has been removed to make way for Banshee and LibreOffice has been included in place of OpenOffice.org.
Currently, Release Candidate has a few known problems such as GNOME theme failing to load, problems with adding PPAs etc. These will be sorted out before the final release which is expected before the end of this month.
You can go through the release note and the mirrors for download from here or here
Goes To Open Source.