Clem Lefebvre, head of the Linux Mint project, has announced that the Linux Mint 22.2 “Zara” beta will be released at the end of July or early August. As always, it’s a notable upgrade, bringing with it an updated Hardware Enablement (HWE) kernel, which means it’ll have better support for newer hardware like CPUs, GPUs, and wireless cards.
As a beta, it’ll be pretty stable, but it’s not recommended for production machines. It won’t take long for the stable update to follow, so just wait for that or do an in-place upgrade if you’re already running Mint.
It’s not just new hardware support that’s arriving in Linux Mint 22.2, it’ll also add a new XApp called Fingwit, which provides built-in support for fingerprint login, screensaver unlock, and sudo authentication. If it needs to, the app will fall back to password entry.
Additionally, Linux Mint 22.2 brings an update to the Mint-Y theme, which is getting a subtle blue tint for a more modern and metallic look. It’ll also be getting improved libAdwaita compatibility, allowing Flatpak apps to better match your GTK theme and accent colors.
The Cinnamon desktop is also seeing more Wayland development, but the full transition isn’t happening just yet.
Lefebvre announced that after Linux Mint 22.2’s stable release, the focus will shift to LMDE 7 “Gigi”, which is expected around September. This version will be based on Debian 13, rather than Ubuntu 24.04 LTS like the mainline Mint uses. One of the big new features to expect in LMDE 7 is official OEM installation support, making it easier for manufacturers to pre-install this version of Linux Mint.
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