Linux Mint 20 Doing Away With 32-Bit Support

Linux Mint is joining the ranks of most other major desktop Linux distributions in abandoning their 32-bit support.

Linux Mint 20 "Ulyana" is coming and based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. Linux Mint 20 will come in its usual Cinnamon, MATE, and Xfce desktop flavors.

While Linux Mint has been popular with some novice Linux users and on lower-end hardware, Linux Mint 20 will not be offering 32-bit support. This isn't entirely surprising, however, since Ubuntu has been phasing out their x86 32-bit packages except for select packages like Steam and necessary support libraries. Thus if Linux Mint were to continue with 32-bit support it would be more difficult to manage.

Confirmation of Linux Mint 20 going 64-bit only was shared via their monthly newsletter. Linux Mint developers meanwhile continue working on their Xapp improvements, faster Nemo file manager performance by making thumbnails less of a priority, and their Warpinator tool is almost ready for an easy-to-use file sharing mechanism on LANs.