Linux Mint ignores new versions for 7 months, but its HWE ISOs will ensure your new hardware runs smoothly

A while ago, the Linux Mint development team announced that they wanted to take longer development cycles between OS updates, meaning we won’t see a new version of the OS until at least Christmas 2026. While it’s always good for development teams to move forward at a steady, sustainable pace, it’s sad to think that Linux Mint will basically be locked in until 2027, almost there.

However, that doesn’t mean people will be stuck with an old Linux kernel until then. The Linux Mint development team has announced plans to release Hardware Activation (HWE) ISOs, meaning users will still get support for their new hardware despite the feature freeze.

Linux Mint gets HWE ISOs to help keep kernel updates

The Linux Mint version, however, remains at 22.3

As announced in the monthly Linux Mint news of April 2026, the development team has released its first HWE ISO. These are special ISOs in which the operating system remains the same, but the Linux kernel it runs on is updated to a newer version. So even though Linux Mint will still be stuck on version 22.3 until December 2026, the accompanying Linux kernel will still be updated to support new features and hardware.

Here’s what the team has to say about the new ISO:

Linux Mint 22.3 was released in January with kernel 6.14. Today we are releasing HWE ISO images for Linux Mint 22.3 with kernel 6.17. In the future, we will release HWE ISOs for the latest version whenever a newer kernel becomes available in the package base. Note that these ISOs are not new versions, but they are fully tested by QA and considered stable.

You can grab the new Linux Mint image from the HWE ISO download page. Note that you don’t have to do this if Linux Mint is already installed on your computer. If you do, Linux kernel 6.17 should arrive via your usual update channels. HWE ISOs are most useful when you are doing a fresh install.