Cinnamon is a desktop environment for GNU/Linux-based operating systems, initially developed by the Linux Mint project as a fork of GNOME Shell.
Linux Mint developers unveiled recently launched the new version of its desktop environment "Cinnamon 6.0", after a development period of almost six months following the previous release of Cinnamon 5.8.
In this new release the change in version number to 6.0 is not due to any breaking change, but rather just continues the tradition of using even decimal digits to number stable versions (5.6, 5.8, 6.0, etc.).
Main new features of Cinnamon 6.0
One of the highlights of this new release of Cinnamon 6.0 is the experimental support for Wayland. Although it is in the early stages, many features available when running Cinnamon in an X.org based environment they are not yet available onor work correctly in a Wayland-based session, but it is worth mentioning that this experimental support marks a change towards better performance.
And when you start in the Wayland environment, window management and virtual desktops are already running, and most applications and components start, including the file manager and dashboard. Cinnamon is planned to be fully operational in the Wayland environment before the release of Linux Mint 23, which will be released in 2026.
Another novelty that Cinnamon 6.0 offers is in the rHypnotix IPTV eproducer, since its capabilities have been expanded, now allowing the ccreation and management of a general list of favorite channels, which offers the flexibility of maintaining all channels in a single space, regardless of the providers.
Additionally, A function has been implemented for downloading and installing new versions of the yt-dlp application, used for viewing content on YouTube. It is mentioned that the purpose of this is to ensure compatibility with changes to YouTube that may arise and that could affect the functionality of previous versions of yt-dlp included in some distributions.
On the other hand, it also highlights the support for AVIF images, with this the possibility of using images in AVIF format as desktop background was added.
Of the other changes that stand out in this new version:
- A new option for notification screen selection
- A new gesture to zoom on the desktop
- A new menu details option
- Support for color picker in screenshot service
- An xdg portal configuration file
- Support for downloading actions for the Nemo file manager.
- Ability to resize the window with the menu editor.
- For more effective color mixing when forming a background gradient, dithering (shadow simulation by mixing existing colors) is used.
- An option has been added to the Audio Control applet to always display the microphone mute indicator, regardless of whether the microphone is activated.
- Implemented processing of pressing the middle mouse button while holding down the Shift key.
- Added a setting to select the screen on which notifications will be displayed.
- Added an option to the context menu to display detailed information about the application
Finally, if you are interested in knowing more about it, you can consult the details In the following link.
How to install Cinnamon on Linux?
For those who are interested in being able to install this new version of the desktop environment, You can do it for now by downloading the source code of this and compiling from your system.
In the case of Arch Linux the package can be installed by typing the following command:
sudo pacman -S cinnamon-desktop
In the case of Ubuntu and derivatives, there is currently no third-party repository that has the complete update, at the moment just this, is the one that has already begun to introduce the updated packages and it is a matter of hours before it will be available for download and installation.
To add this repository to the system, we must open a terminal (you can use the shortcut key Ctrl + Alt + T) and in it you will type the following command:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wasta-linux/cinnamon-testing
sudo apt update
Once the environment is available, you can install it by typing:
sudo apt install cinnamon-desktop
In the event that the new version most likely reaches the official channels first, you can install the environment simply from a terminal, typing the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository universe
sudo apt install cinnamon-desktop-environment
While for Fedora, only the package is available at the moment, in the same way it does not take long to be available.
To install the package as soon as it is available, just type:
sudo dnf install cinnamon