Linux Mint vs. Ubuntu

Company / developer	Linux Mint Linux Mint project	Ubuntu Canonical Ltd. / Ubuntu Foundation
Initial release	27th August 2006	20th October 2004
Default user interface	MATE (fork of Gnome 2) or Cinnamon (fork of Gnome Shell). KDE and Xfce variants also available.	Unity
Latest stable release	Mint 15 July 12 2013	14.04 Trusty Tahr, 16th April 2014
Website	linuxmint.com	www.ubuntu.com
Security	no viruses	No real threats
Available language(s)	Multillingual (more than 55)	Multilingual (more than 55)
Software used	Debian based (uses .deb files and apt-get)	Debian based (uses .deb files and apt-get), sometimes non-GPL compliant
What is it?	A user friendly distro based on Ubuntu.	A popular flavor of Linux (free operating system based on Linux)
Distribution Based on	Ubuntu. Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) is also available that is based on Debian Testing.	Debian
Developed and supported by	Linux Mint community	Canonical Ltd.