Linux Mint 20.3 Beta Is Now Available for Download

Linux Mint 20.3 Beta

The beta version of the upcoming Linux Mint 20.3 “Una” operating system is now available to download for anyone who wants to give it a try and send feedback to developers.

Linux Mint 20.3 was unveiled in early October 2021 and it’s scheduled for release near the Christmas holidays. The Linux Mint team already shared some of the new features coming to this update in the Linux Mint 20 series, which is based on the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) operating system series and supported for 5 years.

Based on the Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS release, Linux Mint 20.3 beta sticks to the Linux 5.4 LTS kernel to minimize any failures that may occur during upgrades from Linux Mint 20.2 “Uma” or a previous version.

One of the major highlights of the upcoming Linux Mint release is the latest Cinnamon 5.2 desktop environment for the flagship Cinnamon edition. This brings some neat changes and enhancements for users of the Cinnamon desktop, so check out my article linked above for more details on that.

Another interesting change in this release is a brand-new app called Thingy (Library), which is an XApp that can be used as a one-stop place to quickly access recent and favorite documents. The good news is that the app is not Linux Mint exclusive and it can be installed on any other GNU/Linux distribution.

Thingy
Thingy app

For all supported editions (Cinnamon, Xfce, and MATE), Linux Mint 20.3 promises some interesting visual changes, namely dark mode support for the Celluloid, GNOME Terminal, Hypnotix, Pix, and XViewer apps (the latter two won’t support dark mode on the Xfce edition) even when you’re using a light theme.

Linux Mint’s default theme Mint-Y received a bunch of improvements as well, including rounder titlebars with bigger buttons, as well as the replacement of accent colors with tinted greys. Due to these visual changes, the Mint-Y-Darker theme will now be available from the repo by installing the mint-themes-legacy package.

The Xfce edition comes with the Xfce 4.16 desktop environment, while the MATE edition features the MATE 1.26 desktop environment.

If you want to give Linux Mint 20.3 a try before its official release this Christmas, you can download the Cinnamon, Xfce or MATE editions right now. However, please keep in mind that this is a pre-release version, not suitable for use as a daily driver or in a production environment.

Last updated 2 years ago

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