Linux Mint 22.2 'Zara' now available, here's everything that's new

Linux Mint 22.2, codename "Zara", is now officially available with lots of improvements including native fingerprint authentication and theming enhancements.

Screenshot of Linux Mint 222 — *Image via Linux Mint*

Linux Mint is a particularly popular distribution, and one that is often highly recommended for Windows users who want to get a taste of Linux. In May, we learned that Linux Mint 22.1 Xia's successor is going to be called Linux Mint 22.2 Zara. Subsequent beta releases brought support for native fingerprint login, better themes, Wayland fixes, and a more "comfortable" desktop. Now, Linux Mint 22.2 Zara is generally available.

As expected, Linux Mint 22.2 is a long-term support (LTS) release and is supported until 2029. There are tons of improvements in this release, such as the rounded corners in Sticky notes, now compatible with Wayland and an Android companion app called StyncyNotes. The login screen has support for user avatars and a blur effect in the panel and dialog box. In addition, the IPTV streaming application Hypnotix boasts a new Theater Mode and a Borderless Mode, along with performance improvements and behavior changes for the sound volume slider.

As mentioned previously, native fingerprint login support is now available through the Fingwit XApp. Furthermore, libAdwaita has been patched to work with themes. The gnome-calendar, simple-scan, and baobab apps have been upgraded to their respective libAdwaita versions, while XDG Desktop Portal XApp supports accent colors.

Software Manager in Linux Mint 222 Zara — *Image via Linux Mint*

There are numerous other enhancements available for other XApps, theme, the presence of the blue color in themes, artwork, and more. The Software Manager welcome screen has been revamped too, and app pages now contain an "info" button that explains the difference between a Flatpak and system packages.

There are several known issues in this release too, but you can check out available workarounds in the release notes here. Keep in mind that Linux Mint 22.2 leverages Linux kernel 6.14 and an Ubuntu Noble package base. The developers will continue working on this base until 2026, which means that any future releases of Mint up until that point should be very easy to upgrade too. Finally, it is important to remember that security updates for Linux Mint 22.2 Zara will be delivered until 2029, since it is an LTS release.