Linux Mint 22 Beta is Available for Testing

Linux Mint, the popular Linux Distribution, announced version 22 Beta release this Monday!

The new release is based on Ubuntu 24.04, features Cinnamon Desktop 6.2, and supports until 2029.

Thanks to the upstream changes, the release now is powered by Linux Kernel 6.8 with updated drivers and modern hardware support. The default PulseAudio is replaced by the low latency Pipewire sound server. JPEG-XL (.jxl) is supported out-of-the-box with the default Pix image viewer. The boot splash and login screen have better HiDPI support.

Themes are updated to support GTK4. Software Sources now supports for the new Debian DEB822 (.sources) format, though it still uses .list by default when adding PPA with both the GUI and CLI tools.

As you may know, Linux Mint deprecates and blocks SNAP package. Since Thunderbird in Ubuntu 24.04 repository is a Snap package runs in sandbox, Linux Mint 22 takes the job building the email client in .deb format.

Cinnamon 6.2

The Cinnamon Desktop in the release has been updated to version 6.2. Nemo actions, the context menu options for file manager and desktop, is more customizable.

By going to Settings -> Actions -> Layout or file manager menu Preferences -> Plugin -> Edit Layout, user can re-arrange menu options, add sub-menu, separator, change the labels and icons.

As Hexchat IRC client has discontinued, Linux Mint 22 moved to the Matrix chat network and preinstalled Web App for the modern user interface.

Software Manager in the release now loads faster. Due to security reason, it by default does NOT show Flatpak packages that are NOT verified. Though, user can re-enabled it in the Preferences dialog.

Other changes in Linux Mint 22 Beta include:

All software using libsoup2 migrated to libsoup3.
New XApp for online accounts support, since the libgoa/libgoa-backend moved to GTK4, and does no longer work for GTK3.
Experimental Wayland support.
Keybindings support for the Spices.
Command line support for Sticky notes app.
New artworks.

See the release note for more details.