Cinnamon

Cinnamon is an open source project that provides users with a full featured desktop environment for GNU/Linux operating systems. It is a fork of the GNOME Shell user interface distributed with the GNOME project. It has been designed from the ground up to provide users with a traditional, yet advanced and modern graphical session for their Linux-based operating systems. It's usually deployed on the Linux Mint distribution.

Designed for Linux Mint

Actually, the Cinnamon project has been developed by the same team of hard working people behind the Linux Mint project, out of frustration with the GNOME desktop environment. However, the desktop environment is not attached to the Linux Mint distribution, as it can be easily installed on other open source GNU/Linux operating system, straight from their default software repositories or using third-party ones provided by the community.

The desktop layout is similar to GNOME 2

The best part of Cinnamon is that the desktop layout is similar to GNOME 2. It is easy to use, powerful, flexible and features a plethora of themes, applets, desklets and extensions for greater customization.

Usually, a clean install of Cinnamon includes the following applications: Nemo file manager (fork of Nautilus), Muffin window manager (fork of Mutter), Cinnamon Settings Daemon (for of GNOME Settings Daemon), Cinnamon Session (for of GNOME Session), and Cinnamon Control Center (fork of GNOME Control Center).

By default, it uses a single panel located on the bottom edge of the screen, from where users can access the main menu, interact with the functions of the system tray area and running programs, launch applications, as well as to switch between virtual workspaces. The panel can be moved on the upper side of the screen. In addition, users can change its look and feel with applets and themes, forcing it to act as they see fit.

Bottom line

In conclusion, Cinnamon combines the power of the GNOME desktop environment with its own, in-house built features and applications, providing users with an accessible and actively developed graphical interface for their Linux distributions.

What is new in this release:

• Use default icon names in Online Accounts (GOA) (#7559)
• fix symbolic icons and delete obsolete (#7566)Cinnamon theme: window-list progress improvements (#7562)
• Settings: Fix launching mintsources/mintdrivers/lightdm-settings
• cs_startup.py: Always have delay widgets, but hide/show them depending on if there's a delay or not.
• extension: Fix inability to force xlet installs (#7571)

What is new in version 3.8.4:

• Use default icon names in Online Accounts (GOA) (#7559)
• fix symbolic icons and delete obsolete (#7566)Cinnamon theme: window-list progress improvements (#7562)
• Settings: Fix launching mintsources/mintdrivers/lightdm-settings
• cs_startup.py: Always have delay widgets, but hide/show them depending on if there's a delay or not.
• extension: Fix inability to force xlet installs (#7571)

What is new in version :

• Sound settings: Assign the selected device to the profile selector.

What is new in version 3.6.5:

• cs_sound.py: Replace tab with space.
• calendar applet: Fix formatting.

What is new in version 3.4.6:

• Remove strict dependency on libcjs-dbg

What is new in version 3.4.4:

• classicSwitcher.js: Fix hidpi issues.
• KeybindingWidgets.py: fix parsing of accelerators that are shifted but not alpha numeric characters.
• xlet-settings.py: Don't crash when an invalid xlet id is provided.
• window-list applet: fix argument warning
• add issue template
• ui/settings: Handle undefined old settings values
• hotCorner.js: Fix hover delay callback.

What is new in version 3.4.1:

• Remove usage of GTK_POLICY_EXTERNAL
• checkBox.js: remove extra unused argument which was causing a warning with new cjs/mozjs
• st-bin.c: Fix y_fill setter (it was setting x_fill to the value of the existing y_fill, before it is set in the same call).
• menu applet: fix keyboard navigation of recent context menu. Fix closing of same menu when switching to another category. Also fix closing when opening another recent's context menu.
• menu applet: notify when a recent file is activated that can't be accessed.
• menu applet: make missing file notification transient.
• menu applet (vector box): partially revert c0d37dd79d68c97 - there is flickering as events go from a button to the vector box and back. Remove the idle callback, and directly react to the enter even once more. To compensate, increase our maybeUpdateVectorBox delay timeout, which more or less fixes the original problem the above commit was attempting to fix.
• menu applet: _select_category - only call displayButtons if the category has really changed.
• menu applet: fix keyboard navigation when a second recent context menu is toggled open.
• Sound settings: Fix device icons
• xlet-settings.py: ignore files and directories in the config directory that aren't created by our settings api as well as instances that no longer exist
• ExtensionCore.py: Don't scrub the config directory on load. This is no longer necessary since xlet settings now ignores anything that isn't an active instance, and some applets need a place to store extra files so they get cleaned up on uninstall.
• cs_panel.py: Fix crash when there are no panels
• sound-applet: remove extraneous arguments on add_actor calls
• radioButton.js: remove extra argument to add_actor.
• window-list-applet: fix undefined reference warning
• [cinnamon-json-makepot] Added support to extract "title" and "units" keys on list elements
• debian/control: use correct runtime dependency on caribou introspection only.
• User applet: Remove ability to switch to guest with LightDM
• runDialog.js: Fix undefined variable warning (#6539)
• Reorganize the default applets in the panel
• User applet: Remove trailing spaces
• Applets: Make TextIconApplet smarter and adapt to vertical panels.
• menu applet: use _select_category to select recents and places, so we can cache the current selection more accurately and prevent needless calls to _displayButtons.
• window list: add missing dependency to settings (#6551)

What is new in version 3.2.8:

• menu applet: Only construct one context menu for recent files, and re-use it.
• cs_screensaver.py: Re-use the Gtk.Socket always - it can hold both Gtk.Plugs and normal Gtk.Widgets, just treat it like a normal bin/container. This seems to assist on ref-cleanup and child reaping when switching screensavers. (observed on Arch, reported on Arch and Fedora)
• menu applet: Don't reconstruct recent files, just re-order, add, remove as required.
• menu applet: Fix a couple of minor leaks (actors created but never added to a container - being GInitiallyUnowned, they never get their floating ref sunk, and so can't be unreffed. Fix a prototype mis-match, and just rename GenericButton to NoRecentDocsButton, since that's the only user of it.
• menu applet: Some fixes for previous commits, don't be so destructive when refreshing applications.
• Revert "cs_screensaver.py: Re-use the Gtk.Socket always - it can hold both Gtk.Plugs"
• Fix tuples for python 3.6
• tooltips.js: add a hide timer to check if a tooltip should hide itself, but for various reasons never got to act on a leave-event (due to vagaries in event reporting).
• recent applet: Rework to be non-destructive when updating the recent list (this brings a lot of the recent changes to the menu applet over to this one.)
• recents, applets: Couple warning cleanups
• network applet: Remove a useless log warning. At some point more than a year ago we started getting these (possibly a change to network-manager), they have no value whatsoever, but fill up the log.

What is new in version 3.2.2:

• [ Clement Lefebvre ]
• build: Make AX_ macros optional
• [ Odyseus ]
• [Xlet settings] Fix for icon choosers stuck dialogs
• [cinnamon-json-makepot] Added support for "title" key
• [ lestcape ]
• Ensure a default icon size of 16px if the icon-size is not set in the indicator icon theme class.
• [ German Franco ]
• [workspace-switcher] Fix buttons' size Buttons didn't get proper height (or width in vertical mode) if the auto-scale font setting was not enabled.
• [ NikoKrause ]
• [sound-applet] removed ancient code for timeLabel
• uniform names
• [ Stephen Collins ]
• Restore ability to theme the menu applet menu separately from other menus
• [ JosephMcc ]
• cs_effects: Disable menu animations when turning of window effects
• [ Odyseus ]
• [applet.js] Re added ability to display a separator on applets context menus.
• [applet.js] Added a mechanism to highlight applets with open menus.
• [ NikoKrause ]
• [menu-applet] fix keynav issues with TAB and right
• [ lestcape ]
• Use the Gio library for establish the file permissions in replace of the spawnCommandLine usage.
• [ itzexor ]
• panel-launchers: close the menu before destroying when removing launcher
• [ Odyseus ]
• [Xlet settings] Added translation mechanism to xlets settings windows
• [ itzexor ]
• cs_backgrounds.py: fix thumb generation on LMDE2
• [ NikoKrause ]
• [sound-applet] remove show percentage label for slider option
• [ JosephMcc ]
• theme: Fix theming of the workspace switcher
• [ NikoKrause ]
• typo
• [ Clement Lefebvre ]
• l10n: Update POT file

What is new in version 3.2.1:

• [ kloun ]
• rm obsolute and unsupport NEWS file
• [ Michael Webster ]
• keyboard applet: Fix positioning of the flag render within its actor.
• Fix some runtime warnings - in the sound applet, object construction is too soon to get the theme node, wait until 'style-changed' signal is sent by the main actor. In the menu applet, remove return values of navigateContextMenu() - there is only one user of this function, and they don't check for a value.
• keyboard applet: Allow flag icon to properly scale its size to match the panel and preferences. Monkey patch some St.Icon methods to the EmblemedIcon class so we can use the existing applet icon sizing calculations by pretending we're just another icon hanging around, getting things done.
• [ NikoKrause ]
• [menu-applet] fix warnings caused by keynavigation
• [ Clement Lefebvre ]
• Update ./test script
• Info settings: Add upload-system-info button
• l10n: Update POT file
• Info settings: Add tooltip to upload button
• Fix typo
• l10n: Update POT file

What is new in version 3.0.7:

• Fixes https://github.com/linuxmint/Cinnamon/issues/5410 (Power settings segfault).

What is new in version 3.0.6:

• Add a generic "bluetooth" icon
• power applet: Don't connect to any signals that call _devicesChanged until we have the power proxy (since the callbacks assume we do have it).
• windowAttentionHandler.js: make the ignored app check case- insensitive. While we're here make it a gsettings array for convenience.
• org.cinnamon.gschema.in - add pidgin to ignored wm classes.
• Touchpad settings: Invert motion-threshold setting widget
• appletManager.js: Fix copy/pasting applet panel applet layouts. Extension.get_max_instances() needed an extra argument, and then we were doing work twice - finished removing obsolete code.
• cinnamon-recorder: fix crash when starting recorder...
• cinnamon-recorder.c: restore avoidance of the panel when drawing the recording indicators. This was removed during some panel work a while back and never restored. Always draw them on the primary monitor now (the only monitor with reliable, simple-to-get workarea information).
• fix spelling mistakes
• onscreen keyboard: Add option to change activation behavior - accessible mode has the keyboard appear whenever focus demands it (ordinary accessibility behavior). On-demand mode will have the keyboard only appear when the user requests it via an applet click or keyboard shortcut.
• Themes settings: Fixed loading icon themes when a theme isn't readable
• popupMenu.js: use the signalManager.disconnect correctly - the source actor (the panel actor for the applet) has to be the second argument, the object to disconnect from. Was causing flickering in the menu applet after repositioning it.
• Makepot
• Settings: Don't hardcode "more info" link color in spices modules
• [desrt] network: properly remove connections from list
• Network applet: Fixed icon not showing VPN status
• Network applet: Delete trailing spaces
• Network applet: Fixed applet showing "Auto" wireless connection when turning wifi OFF and then back ON.
• tray icons: Bump icon request to 24, then scale back to 20 in the applet. This is needed due to changes to GtkIconSize values in Gtk3. GtkStatusIcon iterates thru the built-in icon sizes to pick an appropriate icon to use, and as of 3.18 there are no sizes between 16 and 24px.
• Preferred application settings: Set mimetypes more exhaustively

What is new in version 3.0.4:

• extensions: Fix the alignment of the rating number in the "Get more" pages so it won't get covered by overlay scrollbars
• bump muffin version because of API changes

What is new in version 2.8.8:

• layout.js: Remove code for interaction with the screensaver. It was always broken until 2.8.7, where I 'fixed' it, and has caused some reported regression where the panels will be hidden after returning from the screensaver.

What is new in version 2.8.7:

• launcher-editor: Implement the idea in https://github.com/linuxmint/Cinnamon/issues/4849 makes more sense for than the current behavior. Do the same for directory-editor.ui
• window-list: Properly scale the window previews for hidpi
• popupmenu.js: Fix documentation

What is new in version 2.8.6:

• launcher-editor: Implement the idea in https://github.com/linuxmint/Cinnamon/issues/4849 makes more sense for than the current behavior. Do the same for directory-editor.ui
• window-list: Properly scale the window previews for hidpi
• popupmenu.js: Fix documentation

What is new in version 2.6.7:

• mint-x-icons:
• Updated pidgin tray icons
• cinnamon-desktop, cinnamon-session, cinnamon-settings-daemon, cinnamon-screensaver
• Split "use-systemd" configuration key into three different keys for cinnamon-settings-daemon, cinnamon-session and cinnamon-screensaver
• Note: In Betsy, you'll want to set the session and settings-daemon keys to true, and the screensaver key to false. In Mint 17.x, set all keys to false. In systemd distributions, set all keys to true.
• nemo:
• nemo-application: register with org.gnome.SessionManager - this should fix the race condition where c-s-d dies before nemo does, causing all of our icons to revert to fallbacks briefly.
• menus: Always show icons in Open With and Templates submenus.
• nemo-bookmark-list: make sure to keep the bookmarks file writable by the user (and not just root) when running nemo as root.
• cinnamon:
• Power settings: Don't rely on output.get_backlight_min|max() to show brightness controls as it's not reliable with all hardware. Try to get backlight() info directly to see if it's supported instead.
• Theme settings: Fixed regression caused by gettext fix ;)
• Power settings: Don't show "When the battery is critically low" option with upower 1.0 (it no longer supports that)
• Power settings: Don't use variables that don't exist (in UPS handling)
• Calendar applet: Refresh view when show-week-numbers setting is changed
• Network applet: Properly detect active VPN connection at session start when updating the panel icon
• On-Screen keyboard: Affect Struts
• On-Screen keyboard: Removed transparent background in default theme.
• Sound applet: Only read position for seek-supported players, only support seek when playback rate is 1.0, don't support seek for Totem/GNOME-MPlayer/Pithos (either getting or setting the position isn't fully functional), only update position at most once per second
• Systray applet: Factorize icon resize code, removed special cases (we know they don't work for pidgin and thunderbird)
• Systray applet: force natural icon sizes for known buggy icons (pidgin, thunderbird)
• Keyboard settings: Renamed horizontal/vertical maximization options
• cinnamon-slideshow.py: fix crash when file change
• expo.js: don't respond to scrolls when animating
• cs_general.py: Sync GNOME HiDPI settings
• Fix panel launcher dnd
• cinnamon-settings: be compatible with old gi
• cs_screensaver.py: use gtk_container_foreach instead of gtk_container_forall
• cs_panel.py: better protection against broken panel config
• Don't show stack switcher on applet configuration page
• Follow date format setting in notification applet
• Load default icon if icon theme doesn't have application icon
• js/docInfo.js: don't make a thumbnail factory (it never gets used)
• cinnamon-settings: invert mouse sensitivity setting so it makes sense, eliminate rubber-banding of GSettingsRange by restricting int setting types to whole number adjustments in the slider.
• cs_privacy: replace broken unbind() - take advantage of the behavior that a new binding will overwrite a previous one on the same object property.
• Add image for default screensaver preview.
• cs_screensaver.py: bring the currently selected screensaver row into view when the panel is displayed.
• menu applet: when refreshing happens, apps, recent and places need to end up in the same order as before. Also, since we empty the whole container during an app refresh, we need to rebuild recent and places.
• SettingsWidgets: display the correct number of SpinButton digits depending on the step value. (fixes issue with font scale spinner)
• cs_panel: don't connect to settings until the page has been constructed. Don't crash and burn if cinnamon isn't running.
• cs_panel: don't crash when there aren't any panels
• osd: fix the media keys osd not showing on top of full screen windows
• allow disabling of pointer barriers on all panels
• Added missing method to ExtensionSidePage class, which blocked the update of the indicator of the active theme

What is new in version 2.6.6:

• mint-x-icons:
• Updated pidgin tray icons
• cinnamon-desktop, cinnamon-session, cinnamon-settings-daemon, cinnamon-screensaver
• Split "use-systemd" configuration key into three different keys for cinnamon-settings-daemon, cinnamon-session and cinnamon-screensaver
• Note: In Betsy, you'll want to set the session and settings-daemon keys to true, and the screensaver key to false. In Mint 17.x, set all keys to false. In systemd distributions, set all keys to true.
• nemo:
• nemo-application: register with org.gnome.SessionManager - this should fix the race condition where c-s-d dies before nemo does, causing all of our icons to revert to fallbacks briefly.
• menus: Always show icons in Open With and Templates submenus.
• nemo-bookmark-list: make sure to keep the bookmarks file writable by the user (and not just root) when running nemo as root.
• cinnamon:
• Power settings: Don't rely on output.get_backlight_min|max() to show brightness controls as it's not reliable with all hardware. Try to get backlight() info directly to see if it's supported instead.
• Theme settings: Fixed regression caused by gettext fix ;)
• Power settings: Don't show "When the battery is critically low" option with upower 1.0 (it no longer supports that)
• Power settings: Don't use variables that don't exist (in UPS handling)
• Calendar applet: Refresh view when show-week-numbers setting is changed
• Network applet: Properly detect active VPN connection at session start when updating the panel icon
• On-Screen keyboard: Affect Struts
• On-Screen keyboard: Removed transparent background in default theme.
• Sound applet: Only read position for seek-supported players, only support seek when playback rate is 1.0, don't support seek for Totem/GNOME-MPlayer/Pithos (either getting or setting the position isn't fully functional), only update position at most once per second
• Systray applet: Factorize icon resize code, removed special cases (we know they don't work for pidgin and thunderbird)
• Systray applet: force natural icon sizes for known buggy icons (pidgin, thunderbird)
• Keyboard settings: Renamed horizontal/vertical maximization options
• cinnamon-slideshow.py: fix crash when file change
• expo.js: don't respond to scrolls when animating
• cs_general.py: Sync GNOME HiDPI settings
• Fix panel launcher dnd
• cinnamon-settings: be compatible with old gi
• cs_screensaver.py: use gtk_container_foreach instead of gtk_container_forall
• cs_panel.py: better protection against broken panel config
• Don't show stack switcher on applet configuration page
• Follow date format setting in notification applet
• Load default icon if icon theme doesn't have application icon
• js/docInfo.js: don't make a thumbnail factory (it never gets used)
• cinnamon-settings: invert mouse sensitivity setting so it makes sense, eliminate rubber-banding of GSettingsRange by restricting int setting types to whole number adjustments in the slider.
• cs_privacy: replace broken unbind() - take advantage of the behavior that a new binding will overwrite a previous one on the same object property.
• Add image for default screensaver preview.
• cs_screensaver.py: bring the currently selected screensaver row into view when the panel is displayed.
• menu applet: when refreshing happens, apps, recent and places need to end up in the same order as before. Also, since we empty the whole container during an app refresh, we need to rebuild recent and places.
• SettingsWidgets: display the correct number of SpinButton digits depending on the step value. (fixes issue with font scale spinner)
• cs_panel: don't connect to settings until the page has been constructed. Don't crash and burn if cinnamon isn't running.
• cs_panel: don't crash when there aren't any panels
• osd: fix the media keys osd not showing on top of full screen windows
• allow disabling of pointer barriers on all panels
• Added missing method to ExtensionSidePage class, which blocked the update of the indicator of the active theme

What is new in version 2.4.8:

• Revert "st: Use a more up-to-date cogl API when creating textures"

What is new in version 2.4.6:

• Settings: Fix occasional GTK-Warning and blank menu entry in the terminal selection, some comments
• overrides: only check gsettings schema when it's actually provided.
• magnifier.js: fix source id warning
• notifications: fix default opacity being doubled in hidpi mode.
• desklets: Make sure a new desklet is placed in a visible portion of the primary monitor.
• photo desklet: Fix a warning, clock desklet: move some String class overrides to js/ui/overrides.js so they can be used in the desklet as well as the calendar applet.
• panel applet: always remove the drag placeholder after a drag (not just after a successful one)
• menu applet: always remove a favorites drag placeholder after a drag (not just after a successful one)
• Added missing dependency on gir1.2-notify-0.7
• Cinnamon Settings: Properly handle themes which thumbnail isn't readable
• cinnamon-slideshow: fix introspection for some Fixes #3742
• fix user added picture slideshow
• fix 'genericpath.py:29:isfile:TypeError: coercing to Unicode: need string or buffer, NoneType found'
• sound applet: fixed #3735 - mute on middle click
• windowManager.js: Fix opacity issues when using fade mapping, and other effects involving opacity changes.
• cinnamon-settings keyboard: fix Escape key handling to cancel keybinding teach mode (when numlock is on), and allow backspace to be used as a hotkey when modified.
• keybindings: Ignore capslock for teach mode
• keybindings: force lower case when comparing existing keybindings for collisions.
• Fixed scroll direction in window list applet
• layout.js: don't hide/show the panels during the startup animation, make them temporarily transparent instead - this fixes an issue when panel auto-hide is active, the animation will complete, and you'll see a temporary blank area where the panel would be, as the chrome adjusts to the panel.
• layout.js: Only alter panel behavior during animation when the panel auto-hide is actually active - it 'looks' better during startup for any non-auto-hidden panel.
• appletManager.js: Don't dump orphaned applets into the remaining panel when changing layouts from double to single panel. They are silently ignored. They will show as having an issue in applet settings (red dot) and a looking glass log note, describing how to fix, if desired.
• keybindings: Filter out reserved GdkModifierTypes - they can interfere with keybindings on certain systems.
• classicSwitcher.js: prevent warning from an errant source id.
• app switcher: Fix double-destroy when activating a minimized window. The app switchers listen for the 'map' signal from windows - a mapping signal triggers an _activateWindow, and we also get an activate from actually selecting the window in the first place.
• st-im-text.c: Fix capslock in StEntry widgets.
• expoThumbnail.js: Fix warning from invalid source id.
• overrides.js: Add dump_stack when .disconnecting with an invalid ID.
• classicSwitcher.js: Force a re-allocation of the alt-tab container when a thumbnail/preview is removed.
• Fixed default avatar image path
• menu applet: Don't reset the category when dragging an app.
• st-texture-cache.c: Make sure the pixbuf requested ends up with the correct-sized texture (instead of the original texture size) - StIcon's update_shadow_material method was getting a bad size to generate the shadow/blur.
• Rename the stock cinnamon menu applet icon so it gets rendered correctly as a symbolic icon.
• applet.js: Make sure set_applet_icon_symbolic_name and _path use a good size when scale mode is off. Also reduce the padding of the menu-symbolic.svg icon so its visible size is more in line with other symbolic icons.
• menu applet: Fix logic surrounding the default icon.
• Fixed the PictureChooserButton in Gtk 3.14, compatible with 3.10.
• Cinnamon Settings: Fixed menu picture sizes in PictureChooserButton in Gtk 3.14, compatible with 3.10.

What is new in version 2.4.5:

• Fixed startup animation

What is new in version 2.4.3:

• Small l10n fixes, refreshed desktop files

What is new in version 2.4.2:

• photoframe desklet: fix mega leak, don't cache all images, destroy old images.
• photoframe desklet: cancel the update timer when removing the desklet.

What is new in version 2.4:

• Responsiveness and memory usage:
• CJS was rebased on a newer version of GJS in an effort to reduce memory usage and provide faster execution times.
• All Cinnamon components were reviewed and their source code was checked with static analysis tools. Although most of them were small, about 30 memory leaks were fixed.
• Icons used in Cinnamon Settings were added to the Mint-X icon theme. This increased responsiveness (This is specific to Linux Mint so we encourage all artists and distributions to do the same).
• More polish:
• Credit to and similar to GNOME Shell, the Cinnamon desktop now starts with a zoom animation.
• The login sound is now handled directly by Cinnamon (as opposed to cinnamon-settings-daemon) and plays in sync with the login sequence.
• Modules in Cinnamon Settings and categories in the application menu are now sorted alphabetically.
• Similar to Windows, "Super+e" now opens up the home directory.
• Cinnamon 2.4 ships with many small refinements (multiple panel launchers, improvements in the sound applet, removal of the timeout in the logout dialog...etc) and a lot of bug fixes.
• More settings and hardware support:
• Single-button touchpads are now supported (like the one used on the Macbook) and actions for 2-finger and 3-finger clicks are configurable. By default they correspond to right-click and middle-click.
• Compositing in full-screen mode is now configurable and does not require to restart Cinnamon. This means less screen-tearing by default for most users and the option to undirect windows for gamers and users requiring an application to run at full speed without being impacted by the composition manager.
• The desktop font is now configurable.
• It is now possible to give the screensaver a custom date format, and custom fonts.

What is new in version 2.2.3:

• Better Looking Settings
• Screensaver and Power Management
• Regional Settings and Keyboard Layouts
• Date and Time Settings
• Hot Corners and HUD
• Applet Roles and Systray Icons
• Menu Improvements
• MPRIS and Sound Applet
• HiDPI/Retina Display support
• Graphics Tablet
• A11y MouseWheel Zoom
• Window manager improvements
• Lots of other improvements

What is new in version 2.0:

• Better Edge-Tiling
• Edge-Snapping
• Sound Effects
• Better User Management
• Nemo Improvements
• Window manager improvements
• Cinnamon Backend 2.0
• Better localization, date formats, centralized translations
• Added support for LightDM user-switching and guest user sessions
• Added support for MDM user-switching and MDM integration in the System Settings
• Improved support for systemd/logind
• Settings API for Applets/Desklets
• Nemo actions

What is new in version 1.8:

• On behalf of the team and all the developers who contributed to this build, I am proud to announce the release of Cinnamon 1.8!
• Cinnamon 1.8 represents 7 months of development and 1,075 commits. It features a lot of bug fixes but also brand new features and many improvements.
• File Manager:
• Nemo received a lot of attention. Its user interface was heavily modified and its behavior was adapted to integrate better with Cinnamon.
• You can now easily hide the sidebar and switch back and forth between places and treeview. Under each place, if applicable, a small bar indicates how much space is used.
• Screensaver:
• Cinnamon now features its own screensaver. One of its particularities is that you can define an away message before locking up your screen.
• People who are looking for you can see that message while you're away.
• Control Center:
• All configuration modules are now present in Cinnamon Settings. You no longer need to use Gnome Control Center.
• Desklets:
• KDE calls them Plasmoids, Android calls them Widgets, in Cinnamon they're called "Desklets". The same way you can add applets to your panel, you can add desklets to your desktop.
• Cinnamon 1.8 ships with 3 desklets installed by default (a launcher, a clock and a photoframe) and many more will come from the community (yes, before people ask, there is an xkcd desklet out there).
• Spices Management;
• In Cinnamon 1.8 you can install "spices" (i.e. applets, desklets, themes, extensions) straight from your desktop. You don't need to browse http://cinnamon.linuxmint.com anymore.
• You can apply updates as well and if the Spice supports it you can use multiple instances of it.
• New features for developers:
• Settings API for Applets/Desklets
• If you're an Applet/Desklet developer, don't use gsettings anymore. Cinnamon 1.8 features a settings API which will do all the work for you.
• It will set up your settings and default values for you, automatically.
• It will allow you to access your settings just as easily as you access values in an array.
• It will generate a configuration screen for you, automatically.
• In other words, you just define your settings and use them in your applet/desklet, and Cinnamon does everything else for you. A configuration screen is automatically generated for you and the user can configure the settings you defined from the System Settings.
• System improvements:
• Renderer detection:
• Muffin now checks which renderer is being used. If the session is using a Software Renderer (that's the case when there is a problem with the drivers or if the card doesn't feature any acceleration) a notification pops up to let the user know about the problem.
• Fallback mode:
• Cinnamon no longer uses gnome-session for fallback. In some cases gnome-session didn't allow Cinnamon to run even though the hardware was capable of running Cinnamon. Another limitation of gnome-session was its inability to restart Cinnamon after a crash. In Cinnamon 1.8, the Cinnamon session always launches Cinnamon, so your computer will try to run Cinnamon no matter what.
• Cinnamon also uses a wrapper to restart itself and recover from potential crashes. If Cinnamon crashes it now falls back on Metacity and asks the user if he/she wants to restart Cinnamon.
• And that's not all...
• Cinnamon 1.8 is huge. Its commit changelog is twice the size of the 1.6 release!
• Other notable features:
• Better hot-corner configuration
• Coverflow Alt-Tab
• Timeline Alt-Tab
• Horizontal/Vertical maximizing of windows

What is new in version 1.6.7:

• Cinnamon 1.6.7:
• Resize existing icons in window list applet when panel icon scaling mode is changed
• Fixed icon pixelation in Alt-tab (for most toolkits including pyGTK)
• Fixed menu application buttons being cropped
• Fixed advanced options box in cinnamon-settings->backgrounds not being shown properly in Mint 14 (GTK3.6?)
• Updated translations
• Nemo 1.1.2:
• Cleaned up code from move-to/copy-to entries so that views can be finalized (ensures all listener signals get disconnected, stops random crashes in the preferences screen).