Linux Mint 22.3 ‘Zena’ is readying a beta release for testing, with the distro’s developers aiming to have it out in the first half of December.
If it feels a bit “soon” for a new version of Linux Mint to be coming it’s because the release of Linux Mint 22.2 arrived much later than usual.
As the distro’s developers don’t want their standard release schedule to slip, and many of the bigger changes planned have been in gestation for a while, there’s no reason to hold back for the sake of it.
Amongst changes coming in Linux Mint 22.3 are a redesigned Cinnamon menu, new System Info and admin apps, improved on-screen keyboard, a switch to new XApp symbolic icons, and new options added across various panel applets.
Linux Mint’s file manager Nemo adds regular expression filename matching, file transfer pause/resume, templates plugin integration, and a variety of improvements to Nemo Actions including showing custom icons when Actions are installed from Spices.
Elsewhere the Timeshift backup tool supports pause/resume during snapshots; Warpinator can send text messages (and work over IPV6); Hypnotix hides cursor during full-screen playback; and package handler Captain can install multiple packages from apt urls.
Cinnamon 6.6 also features further work to flesh out Wayland support.
Linux Mint 22.3 ‘Zena’ continues to be built on top of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and inherits all of the foundational benefits, including newer HWE kernel and GPU driver, and security patches, updates and fixes in the underlying package set..
Obviously, there’s more to look for besides just that. I will be post a full rundown of what’s new in Linux Mint 22.3 a little closer to the beta appearing, so subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed, newsletter or adding the Chrome Extension to be notified.
For now, if you’re a Mint fan who doesn’t mind rolling their sleeves up to test out beta builds, this is something to look forward before Christmas season kicks into gear.