Linux Mint 18.3 will have Flatpak support and will be the last version with KDE Edition

The leader of the Linux Mint project, Clem Lefebvre has published a monthly report of the project, something already usual, but the news that he has poured on the blog is not usual. The next version of Linux Mint will be very important to many, as it will be a version that uses universal packages and it will be the last version with KDE Edition.

The project has decided cancel the KDE Edition version after the various efforts that the project has been making to offer this version of Linux Mint. Finally, it has not been possible to maintain this edition and they have decided to cancel the project.

This means that Linux Mint 19 KDE Edition will not exist. However, this does not mean that Linux Mint does not allow the installation of Plasma or that Linux Mint users cannot install the KDE desktop, if they will be able to do so and will even be able to install and use the Kubuntu repositories, as so far I did, but it will have to be done on Linux Mint.

Another novelty that Linux Mint 18.3 will have is the incorporation of Flatpak packages. The distribution that is based on Ubuntu will bet on the universal Flatpak package and not only that but in its Linux Mint application center it will offer applications in flatpak format as if they were normal applications.

Clem Lefebvre does not speak of snap packages, so we assume that pat the moment Linux Mint will not have support for these packages. But they have not denied them either, so possibly in future versions of Linux Mint they will use both types of universal packages. Something that is not unreasonable and that many distributions are thinking of using it.

LMDE 3 has also been mentioned in this article of the Linux Mint blog. The version that is based on Debian will be out in early 2018, will be based on Debian Stretch and will have Cinnamon 3.8 as the main desktop. The nickname for this version will be Cindy.

The news is already giving a lot to talk about and although it is true that it is a shame that such an official flavor is abandoned, it is also true that Cinnamon, Xfce and MATE are far from KDE Edition and that requires an extra cost that few distributions can afford, so it seems like a sensible and logical answer. But What do you think? Do you think there will be a fork of KDE Edition?