The Beta version of Linux Mint 22 "Wilma" has just been released complete with a summary of the new features. Despite a long wait since Ubuntu 24.04 LTS was released in April, Linux Mint 22 doesn't really include too many changes that users will notice.
Before we get onto an overview of what's new, here are the download links for the Cinnamon, MATE, and Xfce editions of Linux Mint 22 Beta:
The main addition in this update that people will notice is the new Software Manager, changes have been made so that the main window opens instantly, even before the content has loaded. The Software Manager has also been updated to include a warning that a flatpak package is unverified - the Mint team recommends against installing those.
One of the best background changes in this update is the language support, before this release, things were a little hackish because, at the end of an installation, preinstalled languages that were no longer needed were not removed from the system as expected. In this version, this has been rectified and unused languages will be removed at the end of installation to help save a "significant amount of disk space post-installation."
Further, these ISOs come with English, German, Spanish, French, Russian, Portuguese, Dutch, and Italian language packs so you can use these languages during an offline installation. If you have internet, other language packs can be used.
Here are some new technologies shipping with this update:
- Linux Mint 22 ships with modern components and the new Ubuntu 24.04 package base.
- To guarantee better compatibility with modern hardware, the kernel is version 6.8 and Linux Mint 22.x point releases will follow the HWE series.
- The default sound server switched to Pipewire.
- The Software Sources received support for the new Debian DEB822 format.
- Themes were updated to support GTK4.
- JXL support was added to Pix and a new thumbnailer was implemented for it.
- All software using libsoup2 was migrated to libsoup3.
- HiDPI support improvements were made in the boot sequence, in Plymouth and Slick-Greeter.
While these are some nice changes, this release doesn't come without a few issues. The main one is that a number of GNOME applications have moved to libAdwaita and stopped supporting the system theme. Rather than fixing the issue, the team decided to remove the GNOME Font Viewer and downgrade the following apps back to their GTK3 versions: Celluloid, GNOME Calculator, Simple Scan, Baobab, System Monitor, GNOME Calendar, File Roller, and Zenity.
The team didn't say what their long-term plan was in regard to these programs but continuing to use old versions is not going to be sustainable because new features won't be added and bugs could be found. It's possible that we see the Mint team fork them and add them to its Xapps collection.
If you use the Cinnamon edition, you'll get the new Cinnamon 6.2, here are the release notes for that:
Nemo actions can be organized neatly thanks to a new Layout Editor.
Separators and submenus can be added.
Labels and icons can be overridden to tune actions to your liking in your context menu.
Cinnamon 6.2 also features many bug fixes, performance improvements and the following changes:
- Less printer added notifications (silenced for 2 hours)
- Wayland support: Clutter polkit agent
- Spices: keybindings support
- Better avatar support in polkit agent and user applet
- Workspace switcher: middle click removes the workspace being hovered
- Keybindings: ability to search by binding
- Cornerbar applet: shift+click action added
- Applets: improved precision in reporting VPN and battery states
Finally, you can see some thumbnails of the new artworks. If you want to use them, why not give Linux Mint 22 Beta a spin? You can find the wallpapers in /usr/share/backgrounds/ if you want to copy them and take them to your preferred operating system.
With the Beta FINALLY out of the door, the Beta period should last for about two weeks and then we will get the final release. As Mint is based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, it will get security updates until 2029. It comes with Linux 6.8 which was released in March and it will follow the hardware enablement series at point releases to ensure newer hardware is supported over time.
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