To be the default desktop environment of Linux Mint 18.1

Nov 7, 2016 22:00 GMT  ·  By

Today, November 7, 2016, Linux Mint leader Clement Lefebvre tagged the final release of the Cinnamon 3.2.0 desktop environment on the GitHub page of the project, from where users can download the source archive if they want an early taste.

What this means is that the highly anticipated Cinnamon 3.2 is now finished, but it doesn't mean it's ready for public deployment just yet. An official announcement is not available at the moment of writing this article, and Cinnamon 3.2 is slated for public launch along with the Linux Mint 18.1 "Serena" operating system later in the year.

However, this won't stop us from telling you a little bit about the features implemented in Cinnamon 3.2, as the desktop environment ships with support for vertical panels, the ability to play sound effects when displaying notifications, revamped Keyboard applet, a setting for the new menu animations, and improved Xlet settings.

Workspace switcher improvements, updated appindicators and settings

Cinnamon 3.2 also comes with workspace switcher improvements, simplified background manager, keyboard navigation for context menus, updated appindicators and settings, support for displaying percentage next to the volume slider, vfade effect by default, as well as hover delay functionality to hot corners.

The placement of the system tray notifications was fixed in Cinnamon 3.2, which no longer depends on GConf. Users will be able to launch the Cinnamon settings when no panel is available, and it looks like most of the applets and components come with an updated layout to support the new vertical panels feature you can see below.

Last but not least, a new feature called "Peek at desktop" is implemented in the show-desktop applet so you can quickly take a peek at one of your active desktops, Cinnamon bin utils were converted to Python 3, the maximum delay for backgrounds slideshow was changed, and latest GTK+ 3 is supported.

Cinnamon 3.2 is a massive release with hundreds of changes, that's why you'll have to check out the full changelog below if you're curious to know what else is new or improved in this version. You can download the Cinnamon 3.2 sources now, but the Linux Mint 18.1 operating system could ship with a different Cinnamon 3.2 release, though, such as 3.2.1 or 3.2.2 if bugs are found.

Cinnamon 3.2 with vertical panels
Cinnamon 3.2 with vertical panels
Cinnamon 3.2 Changelog

Cinnamon 3.2 (2 Images)

Cinnamon 3.2
Cinnamon 3.2 with vertical panels
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