Cinnamon fork of GNOME Shell gets stable release

h-online.com ^ | 24 Jan 2012 | djwm

[smokingfrog]

Version 1.2 of Cinnamon, the Linux Mint project's fork of the GNOME Shell, has been released and the APIs and desktop interface have been declared fully stable by Mint Founder Clement Lefebvre. Created last year to streamline the Mint developers' changes to the GNOME 3 environment, the Cinnamon fork brings familiar GNOME 2 design elements to the GNOME 3 shell. Among the enhancements in the stable version is easier customisation through a "Cinnamon Settings" tool which includes, for example, the ability to set the date format for the calendar applet and change panel launchers' icons.

The Settings tool is also the route to configuring Cinnamon applets, newly added in 1.2, which currently add support to the desktop for Accessibility, Recent Documents, Removable Drives, Trash and XRandR monitor control. Applets are an enhanced form of extension compared to GNOME 3 desktop extensions – Lefebvre says the developers' plan is that all panel components should be applets and dissuades other developers from writing extensions for anything but "advanced purposes".

The desktop now comes with a selection of three desktop layouts. The Traditional layout offers a single bar at the bottom of the screen with main menu, launcher, taskbar and system tray with applets, while the Flipped layout places that bar at the top of the screen. A Classic layout uses a top bar with main menu, launcher and system tray and a lower bar with task bar in a style more akin to GNOME 2. The main menu itself has been improved, so that, while searching, pressing enter launches the first item in the results, and it is now harder to accidentally make your results disappear by moving the mouse over the categories.

[smokingfrog]

Source code and instructions how to install Cinnamon for Linux Mint 12, Ubuntu 11.10, Fedora 16, openSUSE 12.1, Arch Linux and Gentoo are available on Cinnamon Downloads page. Cinnamon is licensed under the GPLv2 or later.

[NativeSon]

I read that title and thought in order: 1) uh-oh, I’m having a stroke, 2) is this mad-libs and 3) cool! I’ll fire up my Linus box

[Kartographer]

So I guess now all you have to do is decide Red or Blue?

[Mr. K]

Wow~!

Gramma will be so happy she can install “the Linux Mint project’s fork of the GNOME Shell, [with] the APIs and desktop interface” for spamming her Mah Jong club from the web server in her sewing room.

Linux has gotten so user-friendly after all these years!

[smokingfrog]

[Mr. K]

LOL

don’t feel bad- I read that title and it made perfect sense to me -which makes me depressed that I am THAT MUCH of a geek.

[Bigh4u2]

I have Mint 9 Isadora.

I can’t update anything without ‘broken packages’, which won’t install.

I’m a neophyte as far as Linux is concerned and a bit put off by all the ‘terminal’ commands necessary to ‘fix’ things.

Linux needs to make it easier for those, like me, that would rather ‘point and click’ to install or repair any packages.

I’m running Linux Mint now, but if I can’t update easily, it would be better to go back to Windows until they make it a bit more ‘user friendly’.

BTW. I used to operate a “Unix” system a long, long time ago and I’ve pretty much forgotten most of it.
I don’t want to have to ‘relearn’ commands and syntax just to be able to use my computer.

(sorry, just my pet peeve with the system)

[knarf]

Hmmph ... I decided to continue with my Mandarin Chinese lessons ... they’re easier and make more sense.

[ShadowAce]

[Bikkuri]

Thank you SO much for this!!! I have been lacking Linux time recently because of the new Gnome 3 :/

[Big Giant Head]

I’ve never been a fan of Ubuntu, or any command line work. When I was a TOTAL NEWB with Linux, I heard that ubuntu was the BEST! So I downloaded and burned a CD to install on my laptop test bed. Clueless. I couldn’t figure out what to do, couldn’t configure the internet, nothing. No sound, no hope.

But I tried a 10 pack of different flavors I bought off ebay for $10 and kept trying different “flavors”. The ONLY one that would load, configure, and present itself as ready to run, complete with wireless, was PCLinuxOS. Zero command line inputs, ever. Flash, everything worked.

If after all these years, Ubuntu still required tweaking, command line inputs, and mucking about, screw it. Not interested. Don’t bother posting “simple” commands to tell me how to do it either. I don’t care. That is retarded.

I can get around a Mint version I have on my Asus but it’s not a whit better than the 2007 version of PCLinuxOS.

[NativeSon]

well, it wouldn't be that bad but for the fact that I'm running Ubuntu on my “toy box”. now if I can remember where I left it....

[Texas Fossil]

Have been running Linux of some flavor since 1994. Started with a UMSDOS version of Slackware.

Currently running Xubuntu 11.04

Love it. But primarily because it relies on XFCE, my favorite user interphase. Started running XFCE when Redhat 8.0 came out. (was not in the install disc, but I added it)

In my opinion, Gnome 3 is bloated.

[pyx]

Cinnamon fork brings familiar GNOME 2 design elements to the GNOME 3 shell

Gee, I wonder why. /s This couldn't possibly have anything to do with the massive user community rejection of the Unity Desktop that relies solely on GNOME 3 or the Unity developer's arrogant response to the user community or have anything to do with the removal of the Classic desktop option between Ubuntu 11.04 to Ubuntu 11.10 ... nope ... nothing at all ... two completely unrelated events ... it must be something else.

[zeugma]

Thanks for posting. Looks like Mint has a new KDE RC out too (1/11). I’ll be checking it out in a VM. I’m getting kind of tired of Fedora.

[ShadowAce]

I’m getting kind of tired of Fedora.

Heretic!!

:D

[TexasRepublic]

I have alternated between Ubuntu and Mint over the past three years. I thought I had settled with Mint until I discovered that some versions of Mint would not run on some laptops while the latest Ubuntu 10.10 would. I suspect graphics card compatibility with certain Mint versions is the issue. So I resolved to give Ubuntu 11.10 and Unity a fair trial. That lasted a week - Unity sucks. I really expect to see open program icons on the status bar! So, I installed gnome-panel which makes the desktop more traditional. Then I removed the top menu bar and put various icons on the bottom bar. The desktop now looks familiar like Gnome 2 or Windows XP. I have not tried Mint’s forks, but it hardly seems necessary for me now.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Cinammon Settings looks like a prettified version of gnome-tweak-tool - doesn’t seem like this fork is that big of a deal.

[pyx]

... - Unity sucks.

I completely and totally agree. And what's more disturbing, is that many people from the enduser community told the developers over and over again that they hated Unity.

Endusers were both specific and repetitive about Unity and the developers said what amounted to an Obama with, "I am Emperor Obama and I present Obamacare. You little people will do as I command."

So after unnecessarily stirring-up the end-users' hornet's nest the developers relented just a little bit and decided to put a Gnome Classic desktop in with Ubuntu 11.04. At least end-users could benefit by both the new Linux 4.0 kernel and also benefit, IF THEY CHOSE TO, from the new Unity desktop interface. Well, that all changed with version 11.10 because the developers in their infinite wisdom of what the enduser community wanted in a desktop took away the ability for endusers to select the Classic Desktop without Unity.

So the enduser community responded to Obama type edicts from desktop developers with a ... get ready for it ... choosing other distributions of Linux or customize their own Desktops or choose other desktops such as KDE, LXDE, Xfce, etc. or endusers choosing older versions where they could still choose what they liked in a desktop.

And what's the result of all this unnecessary upheaval ? ... A Cinnamon fork that brings familiar GNOME 2 design elements to the GNOME 3 shell.

This whole mess reminds me of the old Engineer's adage; That which is not intended to move, affix it with duct tape and that which is intended to move, give it a shot of WD-40.

[pyx]

And if it ain't broke, don't fix it.