Linux Mint 27 is bringing back hibernation, and it arrives with several new apps built by the Mint team itself. Founder Clem Lefebvre previewed a system monitor, a terminal, an archive manager and a file preview pane in his October news post. A Christmas release is the plan, but no exact date has been given.
Here is the short version before the details:
- Release: aimed at the Christmas period, per Linux Magazine. No beta or final date is confirmed.
- Headline change: a new Sleep Modes page with Hibernation, Hybrid Sleep and Suspend-then-Hibernate.
- New apps: Superlight (system monitor), Unfold (archive manager) and a new terminal.
- Nemo, the file manager, gets a preview pane you toggle with F7.
- LMDE gets the same features “either late in December or early in January,” Clem said in the comments.
Those details come from the Linux Mint blog, which calls them a preview of the next version.
Why Linux Mint 27 bringing back hibernation matters
Hibernation saves your session to disk and then powers the computer off completely. In Mint’s words, “No power is used.” Your open apps are still there when you turn the machine back on.
The catch is speed. Clem warns that hibernating and resuming “can take longer than a reboot” on some machines. The new Sleep Modes page in System Administration is meant to make it easy to turn on and set up.
It also adds two hybrid options. Here is how the three modes differ:
| Mode | What it does | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Hibernation | Saves the session to disk and shuts down fully | Laptops you leave unplugged for days |
| Hybrid Sleep | Suspends the PC and also saves the session to disk | Desktops, where a power cut would otherwise lose your work |
| Suspend-then-Hibernate | Suspends first, then hibernates when the battery gets critically low | Laptops you close for a few hours or overnight |
The “who it suits” column is our reading, not Mint’s. It is a sensible default guide until the release lands and you can test on your own hardware.
Superlight: a system monitor that shows what is eating your PC
Superlight is a new monitor with graphs for CPU, RAM, swap, GPU, network, disk I/O, temperature and fan speed. It also has an app page and a process list with sortable columns that it remembers.
Two parts stand out for everyday use. The battery view shows charge and power history. The Storage page breaks down disk use and drills into Files, Steam and Flatpak, which helps when a game library quietly fills your drive.
Nemo preview pane and Unfold make file chores quicker
Press F7 in Nemo and a preview pane opens for pictures, videos and audio. For photos it can show when and with which camera the shot was taken. You can also use the new status bar button instead of the shortcut.
Unfold is a small archive manager that views, creates and extracts archives using 7-Zip and 7-Zip-RAR. It handles password-protected archives too. Mint describes it as “designed to be as simple and easy to use as possible.”
A new terminal with colour-coded tabs
The new terminal app (spelled Velocitty on Mint’s blog) copies a few tricks from Firefox. You can reorder tabs, move them between windows and pull one out into its own window.
The colours are the smart part. Root tabs turn red, remote sessions turn blue, and tabs with a running process get a lighter shade. That makes it harder to run a command as root by mistake.
You can also save custom tabs with a name, colour and startup command, then open them from a bookmark icon. If you manage servers from a Mint desktop, our guide to the Linux kernel TCP flaw shows why that kind of safety cue is useful.
What we still don’t know about the Linux Mint 27 release date
Mint has not named a beta date. Clem said the team is “tagging and freezing projects right now,” which suggests the beta is not far off. That is an inference, not a promise.
The Mint post does not name the Ubuntu base either. The French outlet Next reports that Linux Mint 27, codename Adrien, will use Ubuntu 26.04. Treat that as reported until Mint confirms it.
Linux Magazine adds that Mint is moving from roughly six-month releases to yearly ones, so each release carries more changes. Until then, keep your current install patched. Our note on the OpenSSH 10.6p2 fix is a good example of why updates matter.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is Linux Mint 27 coming out?
Mint is aiming for the Christmas period, but it has not given an exact date. A beta should come first.
Does Linux Mint 27 bring back hibernation?
Yes. A new Sleep Modes page in System Administration makes hibernation easy to enable. It also adds Hybrid Sleep and Suspend-then-Hibernate.
What are the new apps in Linux Mint 27?
Superlight (system monitor), Unfold (archive manager) and a new terminal are the main ones. Linux Magazine also lists Clocks, Clockenstein and Xepub.
Will LMDE get the new features?
Yes, but later. Clem said they should reach LMDE late in December or early in January.
If you have an old laptop that struggles to resume from sleep, Linux Mint 27 is worth watching. Hibernation plus a proper system monitor fixes two long-time gaps. Wait for the beta and test it before you move a daily machine, since hibernation behaviour varies a lot by hardware.
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