MDM is the default Linux Mint display manager, forked from GDM 2.20, which means it supports the old GDM themes. Linux Mint 15 will ship with MDM 1.2.5 which has received support for HTML greeters (supports HTML5, CSS, Javascript and WebGL) and if you want to install it in Ubuntu, you can use a PPA to install both MDM 1.2.5 as well as the default MDM themes.

Since the previous stable release, MDM has also received many under-the-hood improvements and bug fixes. For a complete feature list and more info on MDM, see its GitHub page.

MDM is a fork of GDM 2.20 and supports themes; the latest 1.0.6 version is fully compatible with the old GDM themes available on websites such as gnome-look.org.

Here are a few of the MDM themes that are available by default in Linux Mint 14 (and in our PPA):

A few days ago, we've posted an article on how to install MDM (Mint Display Manager) in Ubuntu, and according to the comments, some Linux Mint users don't like MDM and further more, there's a bug and MDM crashes for some users, so here's the reverse too: how to use LightDM instead of MDM in Linux Mint.

Before proceeding with the installation, here are some screenshots of GDM themes used with MDM: