Clem Lefebvre, head of the Linux Mint venture, has introduced that the Linux Mint 22.2 “Zara” beta will likely be launched on the finish of July or early August. As at all times, it’s a notable improve, bringing with it an up to date {Hardware} Enablement (HWE) kernel, which suggests it’ll have higher assist for newer {hardware} like CPUs, GPUs, and wi-fi playing cards.

As a beta, it’ll be fairly secure, however it’s not really helpful for manufacturing machines. It gained’t take lengthy for the secure replace to comply with, so simply look ahead to that or do an in-place improve should you’re already operating Mint.

It’s not simply new {hardware} assist that’s arriving in Linux Mint 22.2, it’ll additionally add a brand new XApp known as Fingwit, which offers built-in assist for fingerprint login, screensaver unlock, and sudo authentication. If it must, the app will fall again to password entry.

Moreover, Linux Mint 22.2 brings an replace to the Mint-Y theme, which is getting a delicate blue tint for a extra trendy and metallic look. It’ll even be getting improved libAdwaita compatibility, permitting Flatpak apps to higher match your GTK theme and accent colours.

The Cinnamon desktop can also be seeing extra Wayland growth, however the full transition isn’t taking place simply but.

Lefebvre introduced that after Linux Mint 22.2’s secure launch, the main focus will shift to LMDE 7 “Gigi”, which is predicted round September. This model will likely be based mostly on Debian 13, fairly than Ubuntu 24.04 LTS just like the mainline Mint makes use of. One of many huge new options to count on in LMDE 7 is official OEM set up assist, making it simpler for producers to pre-install this model of Linux Mint.