Linux Mint 21.3, the next major release of the popular Ubuntu-based Linux distro, will include experimental Wayland support for the Cinnamon desktop.
Wayland is (as I’m sure you know) a modern display server protocol designed to solve the shortcomings in Xorg, a decades old tech. Wayland is more efficient and more secure than X and is now used by many leading Linux distros, including Ubuntu and Fedora.
Linux Mint won’t be left behind as it’s announced Cinnamon 6.0 will feature Wayland support as an experimental session, though caution that this “won’t be as stable as the default one […] will lack features and it will come with its own limitations”.
Users can try it in the Linux Mint 21.3 release, due to be released in December, by selecting the Wayland session from the login screen.
Their feedback will help Mint devs identify areas that need work or prioritising, increasing the likelihood of Wayland being made the default display server in a future release — though Mint says its doesn’t think Wayland support needs to be ready “before 2026 (Mint 23.x)”.
Those interested in keeping tabs on the progress of Cinnamon Wayland support can bookmark a Trello board the distro’s developers have made public.
Despite the experimental nature, Wayland support in Linux Mint 21.3 is a big deal for the distro and its users. Linux tech is trending that way, and other modern desktop tech, such as PipeWire and Flatpak, are able to provide additional functionality when used under Wayland.
So yeah, something to look out for!