Linux Mint 22 "Wilma" is out now with Linux 6.8 and GTK4 themes

The Linux Mint team has just announced the availability of Linux Mint 22 "Wilma", alongside the official release notes. While it has just been announced, some users downloaded it a few days early while it was still propagating out to Linux Mint's extensive list of mirrors.

The headline feature in the release notes is better language support. When you install Linux Mint 22 now, only the languages you chose, and English, will remain at the end of the installation, saving you a significant amount of space. You may not have realized it, but this was not optimized in older versions.

While we are on the topic of languages, the installation media now includes English, German, Spanish, French, Russian, Portuguese, Dutch, and Italian for offline installations. Other languages will require that you have an internet connection.

In terms of new technology, here's what's relevant to this version:

• Linux Mint 22 ships with modern components and the new Ubuntu 24.04 package base.
• To guarantee better compatibility with modern hardware, the kernel is version 6.8 and Linux Mint 22.x point releases will follow the HWE series.
• The default sound server switched to Pipewire.
• The Software Sources received support for the new Debian DEB822 format.
• Themes were updated to support GTK4.
• JXL support was added to Pix and a new thumbnailer was implemented for it.
• All software using libsoup2 was migrated to libsoup3.
• HiDPI support improvements were made in the boot sequence, in Plymouth and Slick-Greeter.

Another nice improvement in Linux Mint 22 is the work that has gone into the mintinstall Software Manager. It now loads faster than before with the main window appearing instantly. It also includes improved multi-threading, a new preferences page, and a banner slideshow.

We've spoken about it previously but the new Software Manager now disables unverified Flatpaks by default to improve the security of your system and verified Flatpaks now show their maintainer name for added trust. If you enable unverified Flatpaks, they will be clearly marked.

Finally, Linux Mint 22 comes with the Cinnamon 6.2 desktop. Here's what's new:

• Less printer added notifications (silenced for 2 hours)
• Wayland support: Clutter polkit agent
• Spices: keybindings support
• Better avatar support in polkit agent and user applet
• Workspace switcher: middle click removes the workspace being hovered
• Keybindings: ability to search by binding
• Cornerbar applet: shift+click action added
• Applets: improved precision in reporting VPN and battery states

If you are running the Linux Mint 22 Beta, you don't need to do an upgrade to jump to Stable, just open the Update Manager and apply available updates. If you're on Linux Mint 21.3, upgrade instructions will be issued in the coming days, though, if it's anything like previous releases you'll get an update to the Update Manager and then an upgrade option will be available from within the Update Manager's menus.

If you want to install Linux Mint 22 as a clean install then you just need to grab your favorite edition from the downloads page. You can choose between Cinnamon, Xfce, and Mate.

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