Linux Mint begin shipping HWE (Hardware Enablement) ISOs for better hardware support

With the Linux Mint team now taking extra time between releases, they're providing new HWE (Hardware Enablement) ISO downloads with newer Linux kernels.

This will enable you to download the current release of Linux Mint but get support for newer hardware, along with bug fixes from later versions of the Linux kernel. It's a good idea, a nice middle-ground between releases. From the Mint blog post:

"Linux Mint 22.3 was released in January with kernel 6.14. Today we’re publishing HWE ISO images for Linux Mint 22.3 with kernel 6.17. Going forward, we will publish HWE ISOs for the latest release whenever a newer kernel becomes available in the package base. Note that these ISOs are not new releases, but they are fully QA-tested and considered stable."

You can find them on the HWE page. Which is linked from the main Linux Mint downloads page.

They're also looking to add an "ALPHA" phase to their new longer release cycle, to enable more people to preview and test the upcoming distro releases. It will enable the Mint team to get more feedback on bigger changes. From the blog post:

"We’re considering adding an ALPHA phase to the new release cycle. This would make it easier for people to get a preview of what is coming, and allow us to gather early feedback on some of the big changes we’re working on.

We have a new package base, a new screensaver, additional keyboard layout improvements, and a functional Wayland session. There’s a lot to test and more on the way."

They also mentioned an important bug fix has landed for the lock screen / screensaver due to an issue with showing your screen when resuming from suspend before the lock screen actually appears.

Funding seems to be going well too with $20,977 donated in March. So far this year, every month has seen bigger support compared with 2025 and 2024. Quite pleasing to see the Mint team doing so well.