Eager to get your hands on the next Linux Mint release? You can, as a beta build is now available to download.
Linux Mint 21.3 beta isn’t production ready (it’s a beta) so in theory you shouldn’t be installing this as your main OS. However, chances are some of you will, and as this beta is still based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, a mature code base, and the stable Linux Mint 21.3 release is due in a few weeks…
As the third major update in the Linux Mint 21.x series, this edition includes a couple of headline-grabbing capabilities, plus some smaller, thoughtful touches that buff and already-excellent desktop Linux experience.
New features in Cinnamon 6.0, the default desktop of Linux Mint 21.3 (though MATE and Xfce versions are available too), include:
- New Cinnamon Spices: ‘Actions’ for Nemo file manager context menu
- Experimental Wayland support in Cinnamon 6.0 desktop
- Option for 75% interface scaling re-added
- Stylus buttons can be disabled
- Ability to choose which monitor is used for notifications
- New desktop zoom action gesture
- Sound applet supports shift-middle click action
- Grouped window list lets you hide hover tooltips
- New wallpapers
Elsewhere:
- Hypnotix now supports custom channels, favouriting, yt-dlp update
- Warpinator lets you connect to a device manually (IP or QR code)
- Sticky now supports dbus commands
- Bulky now shows thumbnails, supports drag and drop
- Pix auto-rotates videos (where needed)
- Mint Backup now features uses a header bar
- Colour picker added to the Xapp XDG Desktop Portal
- Slick Greeter login box is now configurable
An assortment of bug fixes, stability improvements, and performance tweaks (naturally) also feature, but otherwise, those are the key new features in Linux Mint 21.3.
As said, Linux Mint 21.3 is based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and uses the Linux 5.15 kernel. It’s supported until 2027.
This beta release is intended for testing, but if you install it you will be able to “upgrade” to the final, stable version (just keep installing updates as they come). You can find links to download in this post which has a list of mirrors, as well as a torrent link.
Once the final release arrives users of Linux Mint 21.1 and 21.2 will be able upgrade to Linux Mint 21.3.
