The next version of Linux Mint is very close to its stable release according to project head, Clement Lefebvre. Two weeks ago, the project released beta ISOs of Linux Mint 19.2 ‘Tina’ so that users could test the upcoming release and report any last-minute bugs; Lefebvre said that “many bugs” were identified and fixed, meaning other users are less likely to encounter problems when Mint 19.2 is finally released.
The developers behind Linux Mint are now in the quality analysis (QA) phase and began testing final release ISOs yesterday. Lefebvre thinks that the stable release of Linux Mint 19.2 should be ready and available for download by the end of the week, so it would be a good time now to make backups if you want to do a clean install this weekend.
If you’re already running Mint 19 or 19.1, there will be an upgrade path for those who don’t want to perform a clean install. The upgrade path will be opened and announced by the weekend which is a considerably shorter wait than past releases where users have had to wait up to several weeks before they could upgrade.
If you’d like to follow the progress of the ISO testing, check out this status page which shows approved and rejected ISOs. Once they’re all approved and ready to go we should soon see an announcement on the Linux Mint blog regarding their availability.