Linux Mint Starts Working On Wayland For Cinnamon, Likely Not Fully Ready Until 2026

Tucked away within the October 2023 monthly status updates for the Linux Mint project is word they have begun working on their Wayland support.

Linux Mint developers have devoted some time to begin working on Wayland support for their desktop Linux distribution and in turn the Cinnamon desktop. They wrote in their monthly status update that it will still be a ways out before seeing Linux Mint working well on Wayland:

"We don’t expect it to replace Xorg as default any time soon, not in 21.3, not in 22.x, but we want to be ready all the same.

Cinnamon 6.0, planned for Mint 21.3 this year, will feature experimental Wayland support. You’ll be able to select between Cinnamon (the default session, running on Xorg) and Cinnamon on Wayland from the login screen.

The Wayland session won’t be as stable as the default one. It will lack features and it will come with its own limitations. We won’t recommend it but you’ll be able to give it a shot if you want to and it’ll be there for interested people if they want to give us feedback."

Cinnamon on Wayland still has many features that need to be ported over and there are many missing features like background support, keyboard switching, and more. This Trello board outlines the long road ahead for Cinnamon Wayland support.

The monthly status update went on to point at a possible 2026 timeline when the Wayland support may be stable / the default. Given Linux Mint is sticking to Ubuntu LTS as its base and not expecting Wayland support ready before Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and then in turn would be a Wayland transition when they likely move to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS.

"We wanted to have a clear picture of the work involved, so we wanted to start now. In terms of timing we don’t think we need Wayland support to be fully ready (i.e. to be a better Cinnamon option for most people) before 2026 (Mint 23.x). That leaves us 2 years to identify and to fix all the issues. It’s something we’ll continue to work on. Whenever it happens, assuming it does, we’ll consider switching defaults. We’ll use the best tools to do the job and provide the best experience. Today that means Xorg. Tomorrow it might mean Wayland. We’ll be ready and compatible with both."

In any event they did share a screenshot of Linux Mint on Wayland:

More details around the current Wayland status and other Linux Mint development milestones via their October update.