Update: The Linux Mint 21.2 Beta ISOs have been approved so we should hear more soon.
If you are waiting to try out the Linux Mint 21.2 Beta, your wait will soon be over. Last week the Linux Mint project announced that the development cycle for the release had closed and Neowin predicted that the Beta ISOs should be available soon.
Before every new ISO release of Linux Mint, the project publishes on its Community website that ISOs have been approved, are being tested, or have been rejected. This is an indicator that the release of the ISOs is just a few days out and right now we can see that testing has begun on Linux Mint 21.2 Beta ISOs.
Actually, there’s nothing in the ISO name that indicates that it’s a beta at all but we can take an educated guess that it will be marked as a Beta ISO on release because all Linux Mint versions are preceded by a Beta release to allow for about two weeks of last-minute testing.
While the Beta ISOs that get approved should be pretty stable, it’s still not recommended that you install them on production machines in case of any data-destroying bugs that could exist. If anything is found in the way of bugs, the team has a few weeks to fix the issues before the new version is pushed out for public consumption.
If you are already running Linux Mint 21.0 or 21.1, you are best off waiting until the upgrade path opens up to Linux Mint 21.2. You should get notified about the update through the update manager.
All three of the Linux Mint versions are based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and will be supported until 2027 so if you don’t like some of the changes in the upcoming version, you can opt not to upgrade your system.
Linux Mint 21.2 promises to be a big upgrade for end users because it will introduce Cinnamon styles that let you combine hint colours and mixed, dark, or light themes allowing for greater customizability.