The team behind Linux Mint have given a sneak peek into their next release, 21.2 "Victoria", due to arrive in June of this year. As with previous versions, it will support Cinnamon, MATE, and Xfce desktop environments, providing an easy-to-use and customizable operating system based on Ubuntu.



The upcoming release includes various bug fixes, performance improvements, and new features, such as enhanced login screens, Pix rebase, HEIF and AVIF image formats support, color picker, and more. The developers have also confirmed that they will not be migrating to Wayland for now, but will continue to support it like any new technology. Linux Mint, which has been around since 2006, is a popular, community-driven Linux operating system.

Linux Mint 21.2 "Victoria" will offer support for high-efficiency image files, HEIF and AVIF, and Xreader will now properly support Adobe Illustrator dоcuments. Additionally, users can expect a more intuitive default configuration, dark-mode options, and the ability to set Xapps favorites. The upcoming release is planned for the end of June 2023 and will support Cinnamon, MATE, and Xfce desktop environments, with the Xfce edition featuring the latest Xfce 4.18.

The Linux Mint developer team has also shared that following the release of Linux Mint 21.1, they received donations from 721 donors in a single month, and are currently supported by 614 patrons who donate $2,676 per month. Linux Mint is a free and open-source operating system, considered lightweight compared to many enterprise-focused distributions, making it a good choice for older computers. It can be installed on a virtual machine or run from a USB stick, and is actively supported by a strong community.

The Linux Mint team is actively developing the upcoming Cinnamon 5.8 desktop environment, which will come pre-installed with Linux Mint 21.2. Cinnamon 5.8 is set to support multithreaded thumbnails in Nemo file manager, allowing for the creation of multiple thumbnails in parallel to speed up directory loading, particularly when working with large numbers of media files.

Additionally, the team is planning to rebase the Cinnamon Javascript interpreter and strengthen Warpinator application security. Linux Mint 21.2 is due for release in June 2023 and will feature numerous updates such as the latest Xfce 4.18 desktop environment, improved touchpad and keyboard navigation support, and full HEIF and AVIF image support.

Under the hood, it will be based on Canonical Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) series and run on the Linux 5.15 LTS kernel. More details about upcoming features are available in the monthly Linux Mint newsletter.