Now a retrospect on Linux MintMint was born because Ubuntu screwed the pooch really big time in running off after an Apple/MS look & feel and also by chasing some very modern Gnome versions of systems stuff that quite simply were not yet quite ready for prime time.
Originally, Mint just used last year's Ubuntu Gnome and then simply stayed back one-two year levels in Gnome space in general, yes just one-two years back in time going back to when everything worked seamlessly and well. Then Clem and the boys added back in all the current proprietary drivers and good stuff that their users wanted, and they carefully blended the new stuff right into the distro itself, not just tacked on at the end the way Ubuntu did it.
Then Mint got the idea of STAYING on the most recent best most stable Ubuntu Gnome LTS Release and using it as their core for the next 3 years running before picking the next best of the best of the "current Ubuntu LTS crop" all over again. This acted to buffer out all the wild direction swings coming out of Shuttleworth's egomanical gyrations over at Ubuntu Central.
This has continued for on 10 years now with Mint staying focused on what their users wanted and adding entire levels of polish to the very best stuff that Ubuntu had put out.
Thus Mint became "the most popular distro" for over 5 years running by doing this very simple customer based "polish the best of the best" focus .....Ubuntu folks as a group weren't stupid, and Mark Shuttleworth got point blank told by his own people to stop with all his "dictator for life" egotistical crap and to crank up a ruling council of all the sub-distros that ran off of Ubuntu and
to only do those things that the whole council wanted done.
Thus, all the sub-distros were used as a functional handbrake on Shuttleworth's egomaniac direction swings.
In the last 3 years, this council has lead Ubuntu as a mass group in some very correct directions and Ubuntu has improved to the point that arguably Mint is no longer as direly needed a thing like it used to be.
Then Mark Shuttleworth's egomania got loose again just recently and he went and got into bed with Microsoft in a big big way, so now Linux Mint is feeling needed all over again.
Microsoft and Intel have a Clear Linux of their very own now and it is becoming evident that MS has realized Windows 10 using MS code is going to be "too broken to survive" for too much longer. Clear Linux offers Wintel a path forward that allows them to ditch all the Windows Legacy crap that has been such a burden on MS these past 10 years or so.
Shuttleworth and Ubuntu are key elements in the Wintel boys plans for future world dominance, so you can watch that situation unfold over the next 5 years or so ......
Wintel intends to sell you a free FOSS software that they have tweeked so it gives somewhat better test results --- and then they want to charge you a yearly fee to "keep it running well".Meanwhile, any MS tweek worth the effort to take has already been incorporated into the Linux Kernel by Linus and his boys --- yep, all the goody has already gone off into everybody's Linux stuff already. Plus, by incorporating Linux code into Clear Linux, Linus and his boys now have legal access to all the various parts of Clear Linux that have been locked up by secrecy until now. (put FOSS code into your stuff and your old stuff legally becomes FOSS code from then on).
As old style Intel and MS (Wintel) slowly winds down you will see things begin to shift in new ways, with ARM processors becoming more predominant with mainstream users ....... with RISC-V chipsets then rising up to be the new "upstart threats" to the new old school boys.
Linux is simply better stuff that works better at this point in time ...... as such Linux will become more and more predominant over time, with Intel and Microsoft using Mark Shuttleworth as their "pet mouthpiece" simply because Mark Shuttleworth needs his ego stroked continually by somebody ...... and Wintel desperately needs the Linux community and all their various better running software simply to continue to survive for the next 10 years.