Linux Mint 22 (aka Wilma), now in beta and available for testing, has plenty to offer for those who've waited patiently after the release of Ubuntu 24.04. 

The big ticket item for this release is a retooled Software Manager that opens the main window immediately while content loads in the background. There's also a new warning if a Flatpak image is unverified, a welcome change given that installing unverified Flatpak images can lead to security issues.

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Another big change is around language support. With Linux installations, a lot of distributions ship with language packs included (so you have numerous options to choose from for the installation language, and so they don't have to be downloaded first). The idea is to then remove the language packs once the installation is complete. On previous Mint releases, language packs that were no longer needed (after the installation of the OS) were not removed. Now they will be. Language packs can take up considerable drive space, so this should be a boon to those installing Linux Mint on smaller devices with fewer resources. 

According to the official release notes, "Preinstalled packages for languages other than English and the one you select are removed at the end of the installation. This was not optimized in previous Linux Mint releases. The removal of these packages in Linux Mint 22 saves a significant amount of disk space post-installation."

Linux Mint 22 is based on Ubuntu 24.04 and ships with kernel 6.8. All subsequent point releases will follow the Hardware Enablement (HWE) kernel series, which improves support for newer devices.

Other changes include:

• Pipewire is now the default sound server.
• Software repository sources now support the Debian DEB822 format.
  
• Themes now support GTK4.
  
• Several HiDPI improvements were made.
  
• Nemo (Cinnamon file manager) includes a new Layout Editor.
  
• Wayland support is improved.
  
• Thunderbird continues to be available as a native .deb app.
  

Because several GNOME applications moved to libAdwaita, the development team removed the GNOME Font Viewer and downgraded several apps to GTK3. Going forward, all apps shipped with a release must support the system theme.

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To learn more about the new release, check out the official "What's New" announcement. If you'd like to kick the tires of Linux Mint 22, you can download your version of choice from the following links:

• Cinnamon
• MATE
  
• Xfce
  

Remember that this is beta software, so there will likely be problems. Don't install this version on your production machines.

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• The best Linux distros for beginners
• My 5 favorite Linux text editors (and why you should be using one)