Exploring the Cinnamon and Mate desktops environments
A Taste of Mint

The Cinnamon and Mate desktop systems have stirred up plenty attention around the Linux world. We'll show you around these innovative new desktop systems and help you decide which is right for you.
Born in the quest for a better and more polished alternative to Ubuntu, Linux Mint [1] has become a distribution to reckon with. Mint has been steadily moving up the distro popularity charts, closing up on its progenitor. Several factors contribute to the success of Linux Mint: a predictable release schedule, attention to detail, unique and genuinely helpful tools and utilities, and support for proprietary codecs.
Another big contributor to the latest surge in Linux Mint's popularity is the new in-house Cinnamon desktop environment [2] and the decision to include the Mate (pronounced maté) desktop [3] as an alternative. Forming the Mint distro around Cinnamon and Mate, rather than settling for the classic KDE and Gnome desktop options, was a risky move, but it looks like it's paid off. Linux Mint has established a reputation as a versatile and user-friendly distro, and these additional desktop options distance Mint even further from Ubuntu.
The story of Cinnamon and Mate starts with the story of Gnome – the great GNU desktop used in Linux systems around the world. The major update from Gnome 2 to Gnome 3 brought in many fundamental changes to the Gnome desktop. Some of the changes were based on the desire to make an interface that adapted more readily to mobile devices, but the Gnome developers also took some bold steps to reinvent the conventional desktop metaphor in favor of a new vision that they thought would ultimately be more intuitive and convenient.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
Akamai Will Host kernel.org
The organization dedicated to cloud-based solutions has agreed to host kernel.org to deliver long-term stability for the development team.
-
Linux Kernel 6.14 Released
The latest Linux kernel has arrived with extra Rust support and more.
-
EndeavorOS Mercury Neo Available
A new release from the EndeavorOS team ships with Plasma 6.3 and other goodies.
-
Fedora 42 Beta Has Arrived
The Fedora Project has announced the availability of the first beta release for version 42 of the open-source distribution.
-
Dash to Panel Maintainer Quits
Charles Gagnon has stepped away as maintainer of the popular Dash to Panel Gnome extension.
-
CIQ Releases Security-Hardened Version of Rocky Linux
If you're looking for an enterprise-grade Linux distribution that is hardened for business use, there's a new version of Rocky Linux that's sure to make you and your company happy.
-
Gnome’s Dash to Panel Extension Gets a Massive Update
If you're a fan of the Gnome Dash to Panel extension, you'll be thrilled to hear that a new version has been released with a dock mode.
-
Blender App Makes it to the Big Screen
The animated film "Flow" won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 97th Academy Awards held on March 2, 2025 and Blender was a part of it.
-
Linux Mint Retools the Cinnamon App Launcher
The developers of Linux Mint are working on an improved Cinnamon App Launcher with a better, more accessible UI.
-
New Linux Tool for Security Issues
Seal Security is launching a new solution to automate fixing Linux vulnerabilities.