Linux Mint 20: Release Date, Features and Everything Important Associated With it

A continually updated article that lists all the new features in the upcoming Linux Mint 20 release.

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS release is just around the corner. This is a good news for Linux Mint users as well. A new Ubuntu LTS release means that a new major Linux Mint release will follow soon.

Why? Because Linux Mint is based on the long term support (LTS) release of Ubuntu. Mint 18 series was based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, Mint 19 was based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Linux Mint is going

Unlike Ubuntu, Linux Mint doesn’t have a set release schedule. Keeping the past trends in mind, I can make an intelligent guess that Linux Mint 20 should be releasing in June this year.

New Features Coming in Linux Mint 20 “Ulyana”

Let’s take a look at some of the main proposed new features and changes in Linux Mint 20, code-named Ulyana.

Performance improvement to Nemo file manager

One of the planned performance improvement in the Nemo file manager is the way it handles the thumbnails. You might not have realized but thumbnail generations takes considerable system resources (and disk space as well). Try opening a folder with a few thousands images and you’ll notice that CPU consumption goes up.

In Linux Mint 20, the aim is to prioritize content and navigation and to delay thumbnails as much as possible. This means that the content of folders shows up with generic icons before the thumbnails are rendered. It won’t be pleasing to the eyes, but you’ll notice the improvement in performance.

Two refreshed color variants

By default Linux Mint has a green/mint accent. There are a few more color accents available. Linux Mint 20 refreshes the pink and blue colors in its kitty.

Here’s the new Aqua accent color:

Linux Mint Aqua

And the new Pink accent color:

Linux Mint Pink

Sharing files across network becomes simple with this new tool

Linux Mint 20 will feature a new GUI tool for easily sharing files on the local network without any additional configuration.

New tool for sharing files across the network

Better desktop integration for Electron apps

Electron is an open source framework that allows to build cross-platform desktop applications using web technologies. Some people call it the lazy approach because the application runs on top of Chromium web browser. However, this allows developers to easily make their applications available for Linux (and macOS). Slack on Linux is one of many such examples.

Linux Mint 20 will have better support for Electron applications with improved integration of system tray and desktop notifications.

Fractional scaling with improved multi-monitor support

A proposed change is to include fractional scaling in Linux Mint 20 that too with multi-monitor support. If you have a combination of HiDPI and non-HiDPI monitors, you should be able to select the different resolution, refresh rate and different fractional scaling for each of them.

No more 32 bit

Though Ubuntu 18.04 dropped 32-bit ISO 2 years ago, Linux Mint 19 series kept on providing 32-bit ISO to download and install.

This changes in Linux Mint 20. There is no 32-bit version of Linux Mint 20 anymore. This is because 32-bit support completely disappears from Ubuntu 20.04.

What else?

A lot of visual changes come with the release of Cinnamon 4.6 desktop version.

There should be a few ‘under the hood’ changes coming from Ubuntu 20.04 such as Linux Kernel 5.4, removal of Python 2 support, inclusion of Wireguard VPN etc.

I’ll update this article with more features as the development progresses. Stay tuned!

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