Just because Mint is based on Ubuntu and released a month later does not
make it more stable. It takes time for bugs to be worked out, but the
current release of Mint would be based on an early version of Ubuntu rather
than the latest. As such, it may not be more stable.

It takes time to put together a distribution, even if you are counting on
Canonical to do most of the heavy lifting.Your premise is based on the false
assumption that Mint does not test its own release and that it can churn it
out at the last minute based on Ubuntu that has been tested by Ubuntu users.


If you want stability then stick with Ubuntu LTS releases. The six month
release cycle of Ubuntu (and therefore Mint) does not provide the stability
that most people who crave stability need.

The only difference between Mint and Ubuntu is that Mint is later, has a
different theme and it has some extras that most people can install in a
couple of minutes. It is no more stable and may be less so. The reason that
it may be less stable is that many Mint users begin to delude themselves
that it is Ubuntu and are building on a different framework where dependency
problems can occur. When you start with Ubuntu and stay with the
repositories you get consistency. A hybrid is never as stable IMO.