14 DAY TRIAL // Cinnamon 2.2, a Linux desktop environment developed by the same team that is also responsible for Linux Mint and that provides new features while preserving a more conventional approach, has been released and is now available for download and upgrade.
The 2.x branch of Cinnamon has been out for a while, and the developers have implemented a lot of incremental updates over time. Since its initial release back in October 2013, Cinnamon was upgraded numerous times, but the current release is probably the biggest one so far.
“On behalf of the team and all the developers who contributed to this build, I am proud to announce the release of Cinnamon 2.2! This new version will be featured in Linux Mint 17 ‘Qiana’ planned for the end of May and will then be backported to LMDE Update Pack 9. Have a lot of fun with this new release and don’t hesitate to give us some feedback!” said Clement Lefebvre, the leader of the Linux Mint project.
The graphical interface for System Settings has been drastically improved and the items have been categorized a lot better and separated into sub-sections. This means that users will no longer have to switch between the normal and advanced mode in order to get all the options in the same window.
The Screensaver and Power Management features also received a major overhaul, and users should find them much easier to use.
“The settings for the Screensaver and for Power Management were very confusing. Some settings were absent, others weren’t presented clearly and some were described in a way that led to believe they worked differently than they actually did,” also noted Clement Lefebvre.
Regional Settings and Keyboard Layouts have been changed completely. In fact, the Regional Settings module has been removed and Keyboard Layouts has been moved to the Keyboard module. This decision will ensure compatibility with other projects like MATE and KDE and allows distributions to design their own cross-DE locale management tools.
The Hot Corners and HUD also received a major overhaul and the entire desktop environment is now a lot friendlier to users who don't know what hot corners are. The top-left hot corner has been disabled because people activated it by mistake all the time.
Another very important feature is the HiDPI/Retina Display support, which seems to have become a must-have. The Cinnamon desktop environment should now look a lot better on high-resolution displays.
More details about the Cinnamon 2.2 release can be found in the official announcement. You can download Cinnamon 2.2 from Softpedia or you can wait for it to hit the repositories.