It's a done deal. They decided. last month And they continue with the idea: Linux Mint It will only have a new version every twelve months. In short, this will allow them to focus on new features and ensure they arrive in better condition. The core functionality remains the same, and new features will arrive a little later, but there is a problem with the new schedule: devices with newer hardware may not be supported.
There are Linux ISOs called HWE (Hardware Enablement). What are they for? Linux Torvalds releases a new kernel version approximately every two months, and each release adds support for new hardware, among other things. Linux Mint 22.3 It was released in January 2026 with Linux 6.14, and it's a fairly old kernel considering we're already on version 7.0. Anything released after 6.14 might work, but it's also likely it won't work well.
Linux Mint will release HWE ISOs periodically
For that reason, yesterday, April 30th HWE ISOs were published with the same Linux Mint 22.3, but with the Linux 6.17 kernel. As Clem promises in his May noteThey will release an ISO of this type whenever there is a new kernel in the package base. Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, so they will release another HWE ISO when Linux 7.0 is available.
ISO HWEs are available in this link.
Furthermore, they are considering an Alpha phase for the new release cycle. This would allow users to test what's coming and also report bugs that the Linux Mint developers could fix before the stable release. The beta version should continue to exist as before.
Finally, they explain that they have fixed a bug where, after waking the computer (usually after closing and opening the laptop lid), the session would be visible for a moment. This has been corrected in Cinnamon version 6.6.4.
The next version of the operating system will arrive in December with all the new features that were not released this summer due to the new development cycle.