14 DAY TRIAL // Linux Mint 17.1 "Rebecca" is scheduled to launch in just a few weeks and it will arrive with a brand new version of Cinnamon, 2.4, which promises to be one of the biggest updates so far.
The Linux Mint distribution is one of the most used operating systems after Ubuntu. It's based on the OS from Canonical, but the developers have a different way of doing things. For one, they also make their own desktop environment (for one of the flavors), called Cinnamon. It's the default solution for Linux Mint and it's a very complex piece of software.
Cinnamon is one of the reasons Linux Mint is so popular. It was designed to provide a more conservative desktop design, especially after GNOME 3 took a different direction. Many users didn't want to adopt the new solution and they found refuge in Cinnamon and MATE. Don't make the mistake of thinking that the general design has remained the same and that the desktop hasn’t evolved. It has, but slowly and the devs have made sure that things remained large the same.
Cinnamon 2.4 is a massive update
Even if the new version seems to be a stable one, there is a good reason why it is made available almost a month before getting integrated in Linux Mint 17.1 "Rebecca." There still are problems and the devs want to correct any issues and bugs that might show up in the meantime.
"On behalf of the team and all the developers who contributed to this build, I am proud to announce the release of Cinnamon 2.4! This new version will be featured in Linux Mint 17.1 'Rebecca' planned for the end of November and in LMDE 2 'Betsy' planned for Spring 2015. Have a lot of fun with this new release and don't hesitate to give us some feedback."
"Cinnamon 2.4 is available in Romeo. As everything coming fresh out of the oven, please consider it 'unstable' (Cinnamon is released a month earlier than Linux Mint for the specific purpose to squash new bugs and to gather feedback)," says Clement Lefebvre, the leader of the Linux Mint project.
Numerous changes have been made to Cinnamon, but the new features are the ones that really seem to make a difference. For example, the Theme Settings have been redesigned and now users can change the system theme more easily (other colors than green are available), background slideshows have been implemented, a few privacy-oriented settings have been added, the file manager now comes with a new toolbar, and lots of other smaller improvements have been made.
You can download the Cinnamon 2.4 source package from Softpedia, but if you have a Linux Mint system you can install it by choosing the Romeo repository.