What's New in Linux Mint 21.1 'Vera’
Linux Mint is one of the most successful distributions based on Ubuntu. And with the number of Ubuntu derivatives out there, that’s saying something. Linux Mint must be doing a lot of things right—at least, according to its passionate user base.
Linux Mint is focused on desktops and laptops. It provides customized desktop environments with a choice of Cinnamon, Xfce, and Mate. It has the Snap store disabled by default, a move first made in Linux Mint 20.
Linux Mint doesn’t have a server version. Its purpose is to provide a simple, intuitive, attractive desktop Linux experience for its users, especially newcomers to the Linux world. The Linux Mint team want a mac or Windows user to be comfortable with Linux Mint within a short time.
Mint uses a traditional desktop layout, with a status bar—called the panel—at the bottom of the screen. A start menu is accessed by a button at the left-hand end of the panel, and there’s a cluster of icons in a control area at the right-hand end of the panel.
Linux Mint uses the apt package installer, just like Ubuntu and Debian. It also has its own Software Manager software. It’s similar to the Ubuntu one, but it defaults to installing from DEB files, not Snap packages. Many of the packages offered give you the choice of installing from a DEB or flatpak, but a few packages, such as Zotero, are flatpak only.
Linux Mint is more than a de-Snapped Ubuntu though. It feels like using a slick, polished, simplified, and less prescriptive Ubuntu, with sensible defaults. Linux Mint 21.1 Vera, which is based on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish, is due to be released on Christmas Day, 2022. We fired up a beta version to give you a heads-up on what’s new in this release.