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Topic: Open Source

Linux Mint releases Cinnamon, GNOME 2.x style desktop

Summary: GNOME 2.x fans get ready to rejoice. Mint has just released the first stable version of Cinnamon, its GNOME 2.x look-alike Linux desktop interface.

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

By for Linux and Open Source |

Say hello to Cinnamon, Mint's new GNOME 2.x style Linux desktop.

Say hello to Cinnamon, Mint's new GNOME 2.x style Linux desktop.

Clement Lefebvre, lead developer of Linux Mint, has announced the first "fully stable" version of its new GNOME 2.x-like "Cinnamon 1.2" fork of the GNOME 3.x desktop environment is now available for not only Mint, but for Ubuntu 11.10, Fedora 16, OpenSUSE 12.1, Arch Linux, and Gentoo.

The Cinnamon interface looks and works a lot like the popular GNOME 2.x interface, but it's built on top of the GNOME 3.x infrastructure. It was created because many people, including Linux's creator, Linus Torvalds dislike the new GNOME 3.x interface. Lefebvre tried to work with the GNOME developers to make a more user-friendly GNOME, but they weren't interested.

As Lefebvre explained when he launched the Cinnamon project, "I'm not going to argue whether Gnome Shell is a good or a bad desktop. It's just not what we're looking for. The user experience the Gnome team is trying to create isn't the one we're interested in providing to our users. There are core features and components we absolutely need, and because they're not there in Gnome Shell, we had to add them using extensions with MGSE [Linux Mint Shell Extensions for Gnome 3] and since "We're not interested in shipping Gnome Shell 'as is,' or in continuing with multiple hacks and extensions," so Lefebvre and his team started working on Cinnamon.

Now Lefebvre states the Cinnamon "APIs [application programming interfaces] and the desktop itself are now fully stable!". While documentation is still missing, Cinnamon brings back the GNOME 2.x style interface and adds new desktop effects and layouts, a configuration tool, and five new "applets."

For the effects, Lefebvre said, "Cinnamon 1.2 is a first step towards reintroducing desktop effects and the ability for the user to define fancy animations or to turn effects OFF altogether.

This release features 2 new animation plugins:

  • Fade, which changes the opacity of windows
  • Scale, which changes their dimension

In stark contrast to the GNOME 3.x shell users can also "change the layout of their desktop. Some people liked their panel on top, others liked it at the bottom, and some even liked to have two panels for their desktop. In Cinnamon 1.2, we haven't reached the stage where each component is independent and can be moved anywhere you like, but we added support for the most common desktop layouts:"

  • Traditional layout (one panel at the bottom)
  • Flipped layout (one panel at the top)
  • Classic layout (one panel at the bottom and one panel at the top)

This stable release of Cinnamon also includes a configuration tool called "Cinnamon Settings." With it, you can switch themes, apply desktop effects, add applets and extensions to your desktop and configure some other desktop settings.

  • Cinnamon comes with 5 new applets by default:
  • Accessibility
  • Recent documents
  • Removable drives
  • Trash
  • Display (XrandR monitor control)

Lefebvre says that these "will eventually become something similar to what they were in Gnome 2, [but] 'Applets' are a new concept in Cinnamon 1.2."

He continued, "To users they are optional parts of the desktop which come installed by default as part of what Cinnamon is and which place themselves in the panel, near the system tray."

"To developers … applets are a particular type of extension. They're specifically designed for extensions which add content to the panel and feature the following advantages:

  • They benefit from an Applet API and are trivial to write (as an applet developer you only focus on the content of your applet, everything else is done for you)
  • They're consistent and feature the same common behaviours (a context menu, consistent styles for the applet container, tooltips etc..)
  • They don't depend on a particular version of Cinnamon
  • They don't specify their location or whether they're loaded or not. In Cinnamon 1.2 they're near the systray. In future releases the user will be able to move them around.

Eventually, all panel components in Cinnamon will be 'applets' and they will be loaded the same way as 'applets' written by other developers."

Interested? You can download Cinnamon today and try it for yourself.

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Linux Mint's Cinnamon: A GNOME 3.x shell fork

Beyond the desktop: Ubuntu Linux's new Head-Up Display

Linux Mint 12: A Great desktop Linux stays Great

Linux Mint 12's Three Desktops

Installation and First Run: Mint 12

Topics: Open Source, Hardware

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48 comments
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  • I will give the Linux community some credit

    They are better than anyone else at throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. And they've clearly had some successes (though not one of them has been on the desktop). The problem as a consumer is that I don't have the time or the inclination to try 100 desktops that are going to fade away into oblivion just to find the 1 that will be "successful" (in quotes since Linux proponents have a strange definition of success).

    It wouldn't even be so bad if next month, the worst 10 desktops were gone leaving 90 and in 2 years, the 98 worst desktops were gone leaving only the 2 best ones. Every failed desktop seems to create 2 more. In 2 years, there will be 200 desktops.

    Linux could stand to take a page out of Apple's playbooks. While Apple has not had a 100% success rate, most of their stuff does take off. If I invest in an Apple product or technology, I can be fairly certain (with few exceptions) that in 2 years, my efforst will not have been wasted. The same cannot be said of Linux. If I were to invest my time and energy into learning one of these distros with one of these desktops, there is a 99% chance that my time will be wasted since the developer will lose interest and move on to the next project.
    toddybottom_z
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Linux Mint releases Cinnamon, GNOME 2.x style desktop

      @toddybottom_z
      Troll.
      kirovs@...
      Reply Vote

      • Another bit of advice

        @kirovs@...
        Calling someone a troll with no other "argument" is the same as flagging the post. See below. Thanks for making my post appear more truthful.
        toddybottom_z
        Reply Vote

    • Just a bit of advice

      Flagging a post doesn't make it untrue. In fact, it usually signifies that the flagger couldn't actually come up with any good counterpoints, thus making the flagged post appear more truthful.
      toddybottom_z
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Linux Mint releases Cinnamon, GNOME 2.x style desktop

      @toddybottom_z <br><br>Clearly you know nothing about Linux, you should really try something before you pass judgment on it.

      And its not surprising that a windows fanboy was the first to comment on a Linux article, Linux must be a threat otherwise you wouldn't be here.
      guzz46
      Reply Vote

      • Is Linux a threat on the desktop?

        @guzz46
        You honestly believe that? Even SJVN has backed away from that ridiculous claim.
        toddybottom_z
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Linux Mint releases Cinnamon, GNOME 2.x style desktop

        @toddybottom_z

        I don't believe it, I know it, Linux is more dominate in more ares than windows, in fact windows only has one market, the desktop, which it is desperately trying to hold on to by preventing anything else from getting a foothold.

        And once again you are here aren't you? why even bother reading and commenting if it isn't a threat?
        guzz46
        Reply Vote

    • RE: Linux Mint releases Cinnamon, GNOME 2.x style desktop

      @toddybottom_z
      There are already 200 linux distros which could easily confuse end users on which one to try. That is a lot of downloading, formatting, installing, and uninstalling. One huge problem with linux is that everyone thinks they can do it better than everyone else and is why they have the fork problem. Too many distros, not enough focus and attention. And people wonder why I stay away from linux.
      Loverock Davidson-
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Linux Mint releases Cinnamon, GNOME 2.x style desktop

        @Loverock Davidson-
        "That is a lot of downloading, formatting, installing, and uninstalling"

        And compiling.
        toddybottom_z
        Reply Vote

      • And people wonder why I stay away from linux.

        @Loverock Davidson-

        Yet here you are.

        How strange
        guzz46
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Linux Mint releases Cinnamon, GNOME 2.x style desktop

        @Loverock Davidson- Yeah Lovey, don't forget compiling. That's why I take hours and hours...no, wait...I have no idea how to compile something, yet I've used Mepis Linux for years. I must be doing something wrong...
        AmraLeo
        Reply Vote

    • Here's a suggestion

      Read a book, leave the computer alone for a very very long time.
      ego.sum.stig
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Linux Mint releases Cinnamon, GNOME 2.x style desktop

      @toddybottom_z The Linux problem has always been development tools (companies like Adobe don't like what is available) and the GNU making hard for closed source to prosper on Linux. You see, they perceived you as having to give up too much of their proprietary software to make it viable.
      slickjim
      Reply Vote

    • Who cares if it's "successful"....

      @toddybottom_z <br>...as long as it works for you? And you don't have to try 100 desktops, though you probably can if you want to. One of the top 2-4 will probably work just fine.<br><br>I've always thought that one of the nicest aspects of X is that the user does have a choice of window managers.<br><br>BTW: <br><br>There's only one important Linux distro that requires any compilation: Gentoo. The others distribute binary packages.<br><br>Also, most Linux distros offer several desktops.
      John L. Ries
      Reply Vote

    • It Seems You Don't Understand Linux at All

      @toddybottom_z <br>The Linux community is just a sampling of the community in general. It works the same way as the world community. It doesn't consist of a company board that makes decisions about what direction they're going to take the company. Each distribution individually makes decisions about the direction they will take, not the whole community.<br><br>As a consumer I assume you also don't have time to test drive every vehicle model in existence either, but then you don't have to. You have an idea of what you want to begin with, so you can narrow down your choices and test drive just a few to decide what you want to get. If your vehicle needs change, then you can always switch vehicles later. Linux works similarly.<br><br>If you invest in learning how to use Linux, your knowledge will be translatable to another distribution and/or another desktop. Beyond that, the specifics can change with any user interface with the next iteration. That's certainly true of Windows. The general knowledge that you gain from Windows 95, 98, or even XP is just as translatable to many graphical user interfaces (including most Linux ones) as it is to Windows 7. The specifics have undergone many changes. With Macs there was a big transition from the Mac OS series to the OS X series of interfaces. Also, big projects that have recently made a large transition are unlikely to make another such transition for quite some time. Given these facts your claim that you have a 99% chance that your time will be wasted is just so much nonsense.
      CFWhitman
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Linux. If I were to invest my time and energy into learning one of thes

      @toddybottom_z wrote:<br>"Linux. If I were to invest my time and energy into learning one of these distros with one of these desktops, there is a 99% chance that my time will be wasted since the developer will lose interest and move on to the next project.<br><br>Anyone worried about longevity of Linux distros and desktop environments should look to the top two Linux companies, Red Hat and SuSE. Both companies are successful (Red Hat more so than SuSE) and growing. Their distros date back to the early '90s and are base distros, meaning that they are not derivatives. In addition, KDE is currently the default desktop environment for both.<br><br>o Red Hat Enterprise Linux desktop (both licensed $ and supported)<br>o SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (both licensed $ and supported)<br>o Fedora, community-based and Red Hat-supported, is Red Hat's testbed and is free<br>o openSuSE, community-based and SuSE-supported, is SuSE's testbed and is free<br><br>Slackware and Debian are also very good bets for longevity. Both pre-date Red Hat and SuSE and are highly-stable community-based projects. Debian is also a very popular base distro (e.g., Ubuntu and Linux Mint). Gnome is the default desktop environment for Debian and KDE is the default desktop environment for Slackware.<br><br>Derivatives IMO have much more inherent risk of dying on the vine than the base distros listed above. However, derivatives with strong organizational or community backing can be considered as more viable for the long term than those managed by an individual. For example, Scientific Linux, a RHEL derivative, produced by government labs including the U.S.-based Fermilab and European-based CERN.<br><br>Will Canonical still be cranking out Ubuntu releases in five years? Previous attempts with corporate-backed derivatives either failed or are stagnant (e.g., Corel, Linspire, Xandros).
      Rabid Howler Monkey
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Linux Mint releases Cinnamon, GNOME 2.x style desktop

    Cinnamon ~ Fedora Linux.
    No problems.
    daikon
    Reply Vote

  • No more Gnome, Linux Mint 12 KDE for me

    Mate is stable, but KDE has far exceeded all of my expectations--had not used it since 3.5.x and as Bruce Byfield writes, KDE's a better UI than Windows 7:

    h-t-t-p://www.datamation.com/open-source/kde-vs.-windows-7-1.html
    Dietrich T. Schmitz *Your
    Reply Vote

    • Sounds like a plan.

      @Dietrich T. Schmitz * Your Linux Advocate ... I tried the RC and now am waiting for the stable version. It is impressive, but I've been using Gnome so long, the family really likes it.

      My daughter just purchased an Acer i5 and she likes Mint 12 with Cinnamon or just the plain Gnome 3. Maybe I'll have to sell her on a triple boot? :)
      Joe.Smetona
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Linux Mint releases Cinnamon, GNOME 2.x style desktop

        @Joe.Smetona

        Who the hell still buys acer?
        Viper589
        Reply Vote
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