The Linux Mint team has explained the roadmap for their next major release, the Linux Mint Debian Edition 7 (LMDE 7), codenamed "Gigi." The regular edition of Linux Mint will stay on an Ubuntu base, but LMDE 7 will soon use the latest Debian 13 release as its foundation.
LMDE is the project's hedge against any issues with the main Ubuntu package base in the future, and it has always been available alongside the Ubuntu-based versions. The goal for the new Linux Mint Debian Edition 7 release is to bring a Debian 13 package base, all the improvements that shipped with Linux Mint 22.2, and support for OEM installations.
The OEM support was already implemented and has been working very well. The team was able to port the new Mint 22.2 features to LMDE 7 pretty fast. However, now the plan is to adapt the libadwaita-1.5 changes to libadwaita-1.7 and reapply patches. One thing to note is that since Debian 13 no longer fully supports i386, LMDE 7 will only ship for amd64. You can expect the beta for LMDE 7 sometime this month.
The new Linux Mint 22.3 is still planned for release in December, so this will be a very short release cycle. The priority for this release is going to be the new version of Cinnamon and shipping some of the important work-in-progress features that were started earlier this year. This includes the new menu, a status applet, and Wayland-compatible handling for keyboard layouts and input methods.
It's a big task to work on two major updates at once, so keep in mind that a delay is always possible. However, it seems like the team is on track for now. If you've ever thought about trying Linux, now might be the perfect time to give it a shot, especially with these new releases right around the corner. Zara was just released a week ago, so it's a surprise to hear about the next update already, but the team does not take it easy.
The news post also mentioned some of the great sponsors and donations from July. Linux Mint raised a total of $14,914 thanks to 484 generous donors, including many repeat donors. If you want to help them out, you can always donate or become a patron. It's what keeps the project going, and it lets them keep cranking out these updates. It's likely a lot of work to get these kinds of updates out so fast, and the community support is what makes it possible.
Of course, you don't have to update if you don't want to; there's no issue with keeping your version the way it is. Version 22.2 "Zara" of Linux is still available to download from the official website, which will get you up to date on the current version. The beta for the LMDE 7 will be on the Linux Mint GitHub when it is released this month.
Source: Linux Mint Blog