Linux Mint has confirmed it is switching to a longer development cycle, in order to give the team more time to ‘fix bugs and improve the desktop’.
As a result, the Linux Mint 23 release is now slated to launch in December 2026. It will, among other planned changes, use the same installer as LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) as this offers better OEM install, SecureBoot and LVM/LUKS support.
Project lead Clement Lefebvre intimated that upending the distro’s standard twice-yearly release model was needed in February, noting that “…one of our strengths is that we’re doing things incrementally and changing things slowly”.
While the overall release strategy is still be dialled in, i.e., how often new releases arrive, the status of point releases and whether to introduce alpha releases to catch issues sooner via earlier testing.
But broad strokes are in place as, as Clem notes:
“The Linux landscape is evolving rapidly, however, and we often need to adapt to new challenges. We need a release strategy which gives us the flexibility to adapt and the empowerment to be ambitious in our development.”
“We’re already starting to feel the benefits of the longer cycle. We have time on our hands to do things well and nothing feels off-limits”, he adds.
Is Linux Mint getting a new versioning scheme?
Another change is coming to Linux Mint – a new naming scheme, as January’s Linux Mint 22.3 ‘Zena’ release saw the distro reach the end of alphabetical female forenames. For now, the release is being given the codename ‘alfa’ (as in Alpha).
Why use a temporary codename at all yet?
Like Ubuntu, Linux Mint’s package infrastructure relies on repositories to push and pull packages from, and those repo address needs words (they could use numbers but words are more distinct and intelligible, i.e., /xena vs /223).
Plus, Clem says he’s not yet decided if Linux Mint 23 will be version ’23’. A new versioning scheme may be used in light of the other changes – Clem says he knows not what either will be yet, so it’s Mint 23 Alfa for now.
Linux Mint 23 (or whatever it becomes) will be based on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, ship with a new version of the Cinnamon desktop (with its new Wayland lock screen), and the aforementioned switch to LMDE’s live-installer in place of Ubiquity.