Cinnamon (software)

Cinnamon ( English for " cinnamon " ) is a free software desktop environment for Linux. The project started as a fork of GNOME Shell, so as Graphical Shell to create under Linux Mint a user interface that combines the modern concepts of Gnome 3 with the traditional operation of Gnome 2. Meanwhile Cinnamon is also available for other Linux distributions.

Development

With the release of the Gnome desktop environment 3 was a new design and operating concept introduced, which did not fit the expectations of the Linux Mint developers. Therefore, the Gnome 2 fork MATE has been developed under the umbrella of Linux Mint. Nevertheless, to give users the ability to use the distribution with modern Gnome 3 features, even this surface was available, but was adjusted externally by the Mint Gnome Shell Extensions ( MGSE ). The adaptability of Gnome Shell extensions by is limited, so the developers decided finally to develop its own Gnome -3 Fork for their needs, which they named Cinnamon, according to the English word for cinnamon. The most noticeable change is the reintroduction of the taskbar, lack thereof has been criticized in Gnome 3 times.

Since version 1.2 Cinnamon uses the window manager muffin, a spin-off from parent. Even the famous Gnome file manager Nautilus was forked and comes from Cinnamon 1.6 under the name Nemo used. Also new as of this version is the display mode 2D Cinnamon, with the desktop environment works on systems without 3D acceleration.

Functions

Cinnamon has many features

  • Desktop effects, including animation and transition effects;
  • A movable plate, equipped with a main menu, a program launcher, a window list and a task bar;
  • Various extensions;
  • Applets in the system tray
  • Overview with functions similar to the GNOME Shell, and a
  • Settings Editor for easy adjustment. It can be customized: The panel
  • The Calendar
  • Topics
  • Desktop Effects
  • Applets
  • Extensions

Configurability

Cinnamon has many settings to customize the appearance of the surface. It also inherits from Gnome 3, the ability to set up extensions and themes, but loses the compatibility with existing GNOME Shell Extensions.

In addition, Cinnamon introduces the well-known in a similar way from Gnome 2 concept of applets. Thus, each component of the task bar is an applet that can be added or removed by the user. In contrast to conventional extensions, they benefit from an API to easily extend the taskbar to more functionality and to remain compatible with future versions of Cinnamon. The latter is not ensured in normal extensions. The development team does not recommend to use extensions only for more complicated tasks that can not be met by applets. On the project's website some themes, applets and extensions can be downloaded.

Dissemination

Cinnamon is available not only for Linux Mint. On the project website are available and installable packages for some Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, openSUSE next to the source code. In addition, Cinnamon is now included in the official repositories of Ubuntu (since 13:04 ), Fedora, Arch Linux and Debian (unstable). Between 2012 and 2013 used Cinnarch, an Arch Linux derivative, Cinnamon.

Software maintainer Fork (software development) Shell (computing) GNOME Files
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