Linux Mint 20 and LMDE 4 Announced, Cinnamon 4.6 Gets Fractional Scaling

Linux Mint

Work on the Linux Mint 20 and Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) 4 operating system releases, as well as the Cinnamon 4.6 desktop environment kicks off over at the Linux Mint headquarters.

Linux Mint project leader Clement Lefebvre revealed today in the monthly newsletter that the development cycle of the upcoming Linux Mint 20 and LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) 4 has begun, and it starts with LMDE 4, which will be the first to be released later this year.

Packed with all the goodies from Linux Mint 19.3 “Tricia” and based on the latest Debian GNU/Linux 10 “Buster” operating system series, the Linux Mint Debian Edition 4 release will feature a better looking installer that now supports Btrfs submodules and /home directory encryption.

LMDE 4 will also introduce the ability to boot the live system with the Nvidia proprietary graphics driver. Therefore, you won’t have to worry that your Nvidia graphics card is not supported, even after installing the OS.

“We’ve had issues with Nouveau (the open-source driver) compatibility on some NVIDIA cards for a while now. In most cases people had to use nomodeset, but when Nouveau didn’t recognize the chipset at all, they were left with no graphical display,” said Clement Lefebvre.

Work has also started on the Cinnamon 4.6 desktop environment, which promises fractional scaling and the ability to choose the frequency of monitors in the Display Settings panel.

At the moment, Cinnamon only supports 100% (normal mode) and 200% (HiDPI mode) scaling, but with fractional scaling users will also be able to select options like 125%, 150%, and 175%. Best of all, users will be able to set a different scaling for each of their monitors.

There’s no word yet on the new features coming to Linux Mint 20, but rest assured that it will ship with the Cinnamon 4.6 desktop environment on an Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) base.

Cinnamon 4.6 Display Settings
Cinnamon 4.6 Display Settings

Source and Images: Linux Mint

Last updated 4 years ago

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com