- If you are running the BETA you don’t need to upgrade, use the Update Manager to apply available updates.
- Upgrade instructions for Linux Mint 21.3 will be provided in a few days.
Pipewire is now system default. Nice.
Hey, you and me, obviously we get it. But Mint is kinda supposed to be newbie friendly, so for all the stupid people out there following along, what’s pipewire and why is this significant?
The main difference to me is that Bluetooth headsets were problematic with PulseAudio. It works much better with Pipewire.
It’s a different way of routing audio through the system. For the average user it won’t make a whole lot of difference, but for some (you and I, obviously), it provides a bit more control over the flow and its performance. Very useful when doing things such as recording in a DAW.
Unless this is something a user needs to care about, there will be no noticeable difference. Pavucontrol is still an excellent front end, even if the back end is handled by pipewire.
EDIT: Yeah, now that I think about it, like that other guy said: Bluetooth audio. It got more or less trouble free after I switched to pipewire a while back on my Mint 21 machine.
