Cinnamon is a desktop environment for GNU/Linux-based operating systems, initially developed by the Linux Mint project.
After just over six months of development, the new version of Cinnamon 6.0 has landed on GitHub and the Linux Mint team has announced its availability. And this new version comes with a variety of interesting changes and of which the initial support for Wayland stands out, as well as customization improvements, support and more.
For those who are unfamiliar with this desktop environment «Cinnamon», I can tell you that this is based on GNOME components, but those components are shipped as a periodically synchronized fork with no external dependencies for GNOME.
Main new features of Cinnamon 6.0
Without a doubt, one of the most important changes that this desktop environment receives is the implementation of a Wayland experimental session, in which in addition to including the Wayland-specific session files, it also Efforts are implemented to avoid the use of Gtk/Gdk in core and startup code.
In addition to this, it is mentioned that Wayland's experimental session apparently supports experimental fractional scaling for HiDPI displays, also features an updated sound applet with support for Telegram Desktop, as well as also modifications in several modules to ensure better integration with Wayland architecture.
Another of the changes that stands out in this new version are the customization improvements, since the ability to change window size with menu editor, In lightbox a shadow simulation was implemented by mixing existing colors, Implemented an on-screen gesture to zoom on the desktop, while a context menu option reveals detailed information about the applications.
Furthermore, the “file center text updates”cinnamon.css" in the applet box Contribute to a cleaner, more organized desktop appearancea, while the gesture controls have been adjusted to accommodate amplified maximum volume settings, ensuring smoother UI interaction.
Hypnotix IPTV was another of the beneficiaries with this new version of Cinnamon 6.0, as it offers some additional settings with which now Users can select a universal list of favorite TV channels and a function was also implemented that allows the yt-dlp application to always be updated.
Of the other changes that stand out:
- Support for the AVIF image format for desktop backgrounds stands out, improving visual experiences.
- Numerous bugs have been fixed, including issues with menu applets, ensuring a more stable and reliable experience.
- The gesture management system has been refined, eliminating device detection to streamline the user interaction process.
- Option to always show the microphone mute indicator.
- The middle mouse button now works while the SHIFT key is pressed.
- Simplified window focus updates to the window list, emphasizing the use of strings instead of regular expressions in JavaScript.
Finally, if you are interested in knowing more about this new version of Cinnamon 6.0, you can check the details in the following link.
How to install Cinnamon 6.0 on Ubuntu and derivatives?
For those who are interested in being able to install this new version of the desktop environment, You can do it for now by downloading the source code of this and compiling from your system.
Because even the packages have not been updated in the official repository, they must wait, it usually takes a few days.
Another method, is using the Linux Mint Daily Builds repository (unstable packages):
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:linuxmint-daily-build-team/daily-builds -y sudo apt-get update
And they will be able to install with:
sudo apt install cinnamon-desktop
Finally, it is important to mention that This new Cinnamon 6.0 release will be offered in the next Linux Mint 21.3 release, which, according to the Linux Mint team's release schedule, aims for this new version to be released before the Christmas holidays.