Clem Lefebvre, head of the Linux Mint project, said in an official blog post that the team has been developing a new system upgrade tool with the goal of making Linux Mint easier to update across major versions .
Users familiar with Linux Mint should know that Linux Mint follows a 6-month release cycle, with a new major release update every 2 years, and usually 3 minor releases in between. As described in the Linux Mint User Manual , minor version upgrades within the same major version of Linux Mint are usually very straightforward.
However, when users want to upgrade to the next major version, the process is much more complicated. Users need to have more experience, and can only use the command line to perform, the upgrade process is very unfriendly.
With the new upgrade tool, users will have a fully graphical interface that checks that everything needed for the upgrade is ready (for example: is there enough storage space, is the power connected to prevent unexpected shutdowns, and whether networking). In addition, the upgrade tool will keep your updated images and custom libraries where possible, and if there are related issues with your library, the tool will also prompt you and have a fix button to fix those issues.
Features of the upgrade tool:
- Fully graphical, no command line
- Localized (existing tools only support English)
- Do some more checks to make sure everything works fine with the upgrade
- Configurable
- Keep your chosen mirrors (it will check if they are compatible and up-to-date)
- Will not force removal of your custom libraries and PPAs (but will check if the target version is supported)
- It provides error messages and helps you deal with them (for most detected issues, the user just needs to click a "fix" button)
The upgrade tool will first be available to users who wish to move to LMDE 5 when LMDE 4 (Linux Mint Debian Edition) ends its life cycle in August. It will also be available to those who are currently using Linux Mint 20.3 and want to upgrade to Linux Mint 21. The Linux Mint upgrade tool is currently in Alpha and the official plan is to release the tool as soon as possible.
Not being able to easily upgrade between major Linux Mint releases was a big problem with Linux Mint before, but with this new upgrade tool, that problem is solved. For potential Linux Mint users, there is no need to switch to other Linux distributions because of this little problem.