this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2026
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is Mint still using old kernels? That could hurt hardware compatibility especially with newer hardware
Depends on your definition of "old", I guess. 6.8 is considered "current", 6.14 and 6.17 are available on the list. So far, hardware support on 6.8 has covered everything I've thrown at it.
if you wanna put Linux on a brand new Christmas gift laptop, I think 6.14 could definitely be too old
in some cases even 6.17 might be too old
If the Mint installer uses 6.8, can you even install it on brand new hardware? missing a laptop's wifi drivers would be a huge pain cause then you can't update it without a usb->ethernet adapter
that would be enough frustration for most users to turn back to Windows
I'm running 6.8 kernel on current Mint for a new PC I built last year. I remember that being a big deal that they were using more recent kernels to improve hardware support. So far it's supported everything I've thrown at it without any effort on my part.
That's awesome! Mint definitely sounds great if it supports your hardware without issue. I think it's less of a concern with custom builds, and more of an issue with OEM prebuilts and laptops especially
You can install actually something called Mainline kernels. Which is a simple GUI app. That works also very well under Mint. Allowing you to install even newer kernels.
that sounds cool
although I guess that won't help you if the Mint installer can't boot on your computer, or if your wifi driver isn't available and then you can't download newer kernels