Linux Mint's popularity brings success and stress for maintainers

The Linux Mint project recently celebrated a record-breaking month, receiving 1,393 donations totaling $47,312 (£34,713) in January 2026. This impressive figure underscores the distribution's enduring popularity among Linux users. However, this success comes with mounting pressure on the development team, as revealed in their latest blog post discussing both achievements and challenges.

The price of popularity

The January blog post, published in mid-February, covers several technical improvements in the works. The team is enhancing Cinnamon's input method support, including automatic keyboard layout switching when users select specific input methods. For instance, choosing the mozc input method would automatically switch to a Japanese keyboard layout. They're also developing user account management features for the new Mint System Administration tool introduced in the latest version.

Wayland support continues to be a significant focus, with screensaver compatibility emerging as a particular challenge. Unlike X11, Wayland has no built-in provision for screensavers by design. Jamie Zawinski, creator of XScreensaver, has extensively discussed why this architectural decision makes screensaver support problematic in Wayland environments. The Mint team must find workarounds for this limitation as they push forward with Wayland compatibility.

Release schedule pressure

The most revealing section of the blog addresses the strain of Mint's development cycle. The team spends considerable time on testing, fixing, and releasing rather than actual development. With semi-annual point releases plus LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition), the maintenance burden has become overwhelming.

"With a release every six months plus LMDE, we spend more time testing, fixing, and releasing than developing. We're thinking about changing that and adopting a longer development cycle."

This isn't the first time Mint has adjusted its release strategy. The project began by tracking all Ubuntu releases, then switched to Ubuntu LTS-based versions starting with Mint 17 in 2014. Each major version now receives point releases that follow Ubuntu LTS updates, with all versions receiving long-term support.

Potential solutions on the table

The development team is considering several approaches to reduce their workload. One obvious observation is that only the Cinnamon edition receives new desktop versions with each point release, while Xfce and MATE editions maintain the desktop versions inherited from their respective Ubuntu LTS bases.

This discrepancy raises questions about whether non-flagship editions could be maintained less frequently or potentially discontinued. The Linux ecosystem already offers several excellent Xfce-based alternatives:

• Xubuntu: The official Ubuntu flavor with a minimal install option avoiding Snap packages
• Linux Lite: Another Ubuntu-based distro avoiding both Snap and Flatpak packages
• Asmi Linux 24.04: Allows users to choose which packaging formats to support

Zorin OS recently announced it would sunset its Xfce-based "Lite" edition, citing that its GNOME-based version now runs well even on lower-end hardware. This trend suggests that maintaining multiple desktop variants may no longer be necessary for beginner-friendly distributions.

The broader context

Linux Mint's situation reflects a common challenge in successful open-source projects: balancing user expectations with developer sustainability. The project's popularity, evidenced by record donations and positive reception of Mint 22.3, creates pressure to maintain frequent releases and implement numerous features.

However, this pace threatens developer wellbeing and potentially the project's long-term viability. The consideration of a longer development cycle represents a mature acknowledgment that sustainable development practices must sometimes trump release frequency.

As the team contemplates these changes, the Linux community will be watching closely. Any adjustments to Mint's release strategy could influence other distributions facing similar pressures. The key question remains: can Linux Mint maintain its position as a user-friendly, reliable distribution while giving its developers the breathing room they need?

The featured image shows a mint plant, symbolizing the Linux Mint distribution that has grown from a simple Ubuntu derivative into one of the most popular Linux distributions worldwide.