Clem Lefebvre, head of the Linux Mint project, has announced that Linux Mint 20 will carry the codename Ulyana and that 32-bit ISOs will be dropped. This will see some aging computers lose support. While the 32-bit ISO will be dropped, 32-bit packages, where necessary, will still be available to those with a 64-bit install.
If you still need a 32-bit Linux Mint ISO, you’ll either have to stay with Linux Mint 19.3 until it loses support in 2023, or you can switch to the newly released LMDE 4 which will receive the latest Linux Mint software such as Cinnamon. The decision to drop 32-bit ISOs in Linux Mint 20 was first revealed last summer when Canonical decided to remove support from Ubuntu 19.10. As Linux Mint uses Ubuntu as a base, it makes sense for Linux Mint 20 to follow suit in dropping support.
On the LMDE-front, Lefebvre revealed that LMDE 3 will reach its end of life on July 1st, 2020. While the repositories will continue to work, the operating system will no longer receive important bug fixes and security updates from Linux Mint; therefore, it’s prudent to begin investigating the upgrade procedure to jump to LMDE 4.
Providing an update on the development progress of Linux Mint 20, Clem said that the Nemo file manager has received a performance boost due to the way it handles thumbnails. The local network file transfer tool, currently called Warpinator, is nearly ready for prime time, and more work has been done on the Mint-Y themes.