At the end of May, it was reported that Linux Mint 20.2 would see a beta release in mid-June. We’ve reached mid-June and it looks as though the team is running last-minute tests on the beta ISOs before making them available to the public. Following the ISOs’ release, the beta period should run for about two weeks before the stable release is made with upgrade paths opened up.
The Cinnamon, MATE, and Xfce images were tested about 7 hours ago and all failed, the Xfce image was tried again several hours later and failed again, now the Xfce image is being tested a third time along with the MATE edition. Users don’t have to worry about these tests, only, the longer they take to pass, the longer you’ll all be waiting to try out the beta.
Linux Mint 20.2 has been given the codename Uma and is an iterative upgrade in the 20.x series which began in the first half of last year. As with the other versions in the Linux Mint 20.x series, this update will be supported until April or May 2025. Once security updates stop, you can continue to use it but you won’t be safe especially if you connect to the internet with the device.
Linux Mint 20.2 will come with a new XApp called Bulky that allows you to rename files in bulk, the Nemo 5.0 file manager will be present in the Cinnamon edition, and the local file sharing tool Warpinator will now give you the option to compress files that are sent to reduce the transfer time.
Update: Since the publication of this article, beta builds of Linux Mint 20.2 have passed the tests.