Preparations for the Debian version of Linux Mint 23, codenamed Alfa have started. On the Linux Mint packages page, packages related to LM23 have appeared. A set of packages which are needed to build Alfa are not in the Trixie repository, only older versions (e.g. glib2.0). To be able to build Alfa, these missing newer packages need to be backported to Trixie, before the real work can start. I have begun with backporting the needed packages to Trixie.
Edit 15.4.2026
Today was a busy day, I built the entire Cinnamon 6.7.0 stack in arm64 Trixie. Of course everybody would like to know how it works, as I tested the new Cinnamon in UTM on my Mac Mini M1. I am quite impressed I must say. It works very well. Note that this is 6.7.0, an unstable release version, so many improvements will follow before it will be released somewhere in July 2026. One of the new things in Cinnamon 6.7 is a completely rewritten screensaver. The screensaver was tested and works well in both Wayland and X. Wayland seems to work better than last time I tested it. Although it takes a bit more time to load the desktop. It starts with a black background. After half a minute or so, the desktop paper shows up and one is able to do things. Attached are some screenshots to see how it looks like.
Edit 17.4.2026
According to the Linux Mint blog site, new LM releases will take longer now. They call that adopting a longer development lifecycle. This means that LM 23 will come out around Christmas 2026, not July 2026 as I thought it would.