In its January 2026 update, the Linux Mint team reported a record of community support, with $47,312 in donations from 1,393 contributors in December, the highest monthly donor count to date. This funding coincided with the release of Linux Mint 22.3, which followed an extended beta cycle.
What lies ahead from here? Development continues to improve keyboard layout handling with input methods. Upcoming changes will let users associate specific keyboard layouts with individual input methods, addressing multilingual workflows where logical and physical layouts differ.
Regarding apps, user administration is being updated. In the next release, the mintsysadm tool will manage user and account administration in editions where desktop-level tools are hidden. The tool will support common administrative tasks and allow new users to finalize their accounts independently.
Additionally, home directory encryption, previously only available during installation, will be supported during user creation. Webcam integration for profile pictures and full HiDPI avatar support are also included.
Wayland support remains experimental, but development is ongoing. The current Cinnamon screensaver operates only under X11 as a standalone GTK application. To address this, the team is creating a new screensaver rendered by Cinnamon’s compositor, designed to work on both X11 and Wayland.
According to devs, this will provide smoother lock-screen transitions, improved visual integration, and fulfill the final requirement for full Wayland compatibility in Cinnamon.
Last but not least, the project is considering a longer development cycle. Devs say that with releases every six months alongside LMDE, much development time is spent on testing and release management. The next Mint version, based on the upcoming Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, may provide an opportunity to adjust the release schedule. However, no additional details have been shared at this time.
For more information, see Mint’s January newsletter.
Image credits: Linux Mint
