Karin Chan

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYWLiJsiqX2Nsg_5hErYFYeN8zJAtLn48E_fLnRuiAtOU7ftobEtEW6J6KDZpCutD1K7aEryEWX6is1q06CbUWbtwrpQtlwe7rvxdIgo6U7P78eQDxqORg69wU2O-EwSwXoYVJbmx82MGo/s1600/cinnamon-1.8.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYWLiJsiqX2Nsg_5hErYFYeN8zJAtLn48E_fLnRuiAtOU7ftobEtEW6J6KDZpCutD1K7aEryEWX6is1q06CbUWbtwrpQtlwe7rvxdIgo6U7P78eQDxqORg69wU2O-EwSwXoYVJbmx82MGo/s320/cinnamon-1.8.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://github.com/linuxmint/Cinnamon">Cinnamon</a>, the desktop environment used by default in Linux Mint, has reached version 1.8, getting its own Control Center, screensaver and more.</b></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Cinnamon is a GNOME Shell fork which tries to offer the layout and customizability of GNOME 2: by default there's a panel at the bottom (but optionally, you can also get one on top like in GNOME 2) that supports autohide, it supports applets, a classic system tray and more.</i><br /><br /><b>Let's take a look at what's new in the latest Cinnamon 1.8! </b></div><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><br /><h2>Cinnamon 1.8 video</h2><br />Below you can watch a video which presents the most important changes in Cinnamon 1.8:<br /><br /><center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZNjZH2r9Zos" width="480"></iframe><br />(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNjZH2r9Zos">direct video link</a>; for more videos, subscribe to our <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/nilarimogard">YouTube channel</a>)</center><br />Sorry for the fonts in the video, it's an YouTube bug because the fonts look ok in my original video. The fonts don't look like that when using Cinnamon.<br /><br /><br /><br /><h2>What's new in Cinnamon 1.8</h2><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Cinnamon 1.8 no longer uses gnome-session for fallback which has advantages such as the ability to restart Cinnamon after a crash or the use of a wrapper which allows Cinnamon to restart itself after potential crashes. This should also fix the issue with Cinnamon not working on some hardware which was actually capable of running it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Cinnamon 1.8 comes with its own Control Center</b>, so there's no longer the need to use GNOME Control Center. This is especially useful if you have installed multiple desktop environments: features that are GNOME Shell or Unity specific don't show up in Cinnamon Control Center, so you should now have a more clean, less confusing settings app. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Cinnamon Settings you can find all the GNOME settings that also apply to Cinnamon as well as Cinnamon-specific settings such as applets, desklets, theme settings, windows behavior, hot corners setup, panel settings and more:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/cinnamon-1.8-system-settings.png" rel="image_group"><img alt="Cinnamon Control Center" src="http://img.netupd8.com/cinnamon-1.8-system-settings_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">By default, Cinnamon Control Center displays only some of the system settings and for more advanced settings you must click the "Switch to Advanced Mode" button in the lower left corner.</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The <b>Cinnamon Screensaver</b> about which we were telling you <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/01/work-started-on-cinnamon-screensaver.html">a while back</a>, is available by default with Cinnamon 1.8. The screensaver is very simplistic, displaying the date and time on a shaded background and optionally, it can also display an away message:</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/cinnamon-1.8-screensaver.png" rel="image_group"><img alt="Cinnamon Screensaver" src="http://img.netupd8.com/cinnamon-1.8-screensaver_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/cinnamon-1.8-screensaver-settings.png" rel="image_group"><img alt="Cinnamon screensaver settings" src="http://img.netupd8.com/cinnamon-1.8-screensaver-settings_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The new Cinnamon release also introduces "<b>Desklets</b>" (<b>desktop widgets</b>), but since this is a new feature, there are only a few available for now:</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/cinnamon-1.8-desklets.png" rel="image_group"><img alt="Cinnamon Desklets" src="http://img.netupd8.com/cinnamon-1.8-desklets_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/cinnamon-1.8-desklets-settings.png" rel="image_group"><img alt="Cinnamon desklets settings" src="http://img.netupd8.com/cinnamon-1.8-desklets-settings_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The desklets can be set to snap to a desklets grid so they align nicely, with configurable grid width and users can also select if the desklets should use a border, border and header or no decoration at all.</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Another interesting new feature in Cinnamon 1.8 is that you can <b>install or update "spices" (which include applets, desklets, themes or extensions) directly from the desktop</b>, via Cinnamon Control Center, so Cinnamon users no longer need to manually download and install them from  http://cinnamon.linuxmint.com:</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/cinnamon-1.8-applets-install-online.png" rel="image_group"><img alt="Cinnamon 1.8 applets install" src="http://img.netupd8.com/cinnamon-1.8-applets-install-online_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">In my test, installing themes didn't work for some reason, maybe because the available themes aren't compatible with the latest Cinnamon 1.8 yet, but I was able to successfully install applets and desklets.</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">And finally, <b>Nemo, the default Cinnamon file manager, has received many improvements </b>since the previous stable release that's available in Linux Mint 14 (1.1.2), such as:</div><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">buttons in the statusbar to easily hide the sidebar and switch between places and treeview (sidebar);</li><li style="text-align: justify;">option to hide the menu;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">collapsable sidebar categories;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">breadcrumbs;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Sidebar Disk Indicators: indicators are displayed under each drive, displaying the free/used space;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">various fixes and more.</li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/cinnamon-1.8-nemo.png" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Cinnamon 1.8 Nemo" src="http://img.netupd8.com/cinnamon-1.8-nemo_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nemo 1.8</td></tr></tbody></table></div><br /><i><a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/12/how-to-install-nemo-file-manager-in.html">See how to install Nemo file manager in Ubuntu</a>.</i><br /><br /><br /><br /><b>Other changes:</b><br /><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Cinnamon now automatically falls back to Software Rendering (previously known as Cinnamon 2D) when the full Cinnamon is not supported - a critical notification is displayed on startup when running Software Rendering  - this usually happens because of a problem with the drivers or if the graphics card doesn't support any acceleration;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">improved hot-corner configuration;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">new coverflow and timeline alt-tab;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">updated default applets, many fixes, etc.</li></ul><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/cinnamon-1.8-hotcorners.png" rel="image_group"><img alt="Cinnamon hot-corner configuration" src="http://img.netupd8.com/cinnamon-1.8-hotcorners_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/cinnamon-1.8-coverflow-alt-tab.png" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Cinnamon coverflow alt-tab" src="http://img.netupd8.com/cinnamon-1.8-coverflow-alt-tab_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coverflow ATL-TAB style</td></tr></tbody></table></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/cinnamon-1.8-timeline-alt-tab.png" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Cinnamon timeline alt-tab" src="http://img.netupd8.com/cinnamon-1.8-timeline-alt-tab_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Timeline ALT-TAB style</td></tr></tbody></table></div><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/12/what-to-expect-in-linux-mint-15.htmlBumpmaps">Bumpmaps</a>, a feature that was supposed to be added in Cinnamon 1.8 didn't make it unfortunately as it's not yet fully ready.</div><br /><br /><br /><h2>Install Cinnamon 1.8 in Ubuntu</h2><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Cinnamon 1.8 will be available by default in Linux Mint 15</b> (Cinnamon Edition - RC should be out mid-may) and it should also be available in the <b>"Romeo" repository for Linux Mint 13 and 14 soon</b>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ubuntu Precise, Quantal, Raring and Saucy users can install the latest <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/02/alternative-cinnamon-ppa-for-ubuntu.html">Cinnamon via PPA</a>:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-stable<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install cinnamon</code></pre>Once installed, log out and select Cinnamon from the login screen.<br /><br /><b>For other Linux distributions, see the Cinnamon <a href="http://cinnamon.linuxmint.com/?page_id=61">downloads page</a>.</b><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>via <a href="http://cinnamon.linuxmint.com/">cinnamon.linuxmint.com</a></i></div>

Cinnamon 1.8 Gets Its Own Control Center And Screensaver, Easier Spices Installation

Cinnamon , the desktop environment used by default in Linux Mint, has reached version 1.8, getting its own Control Center, screensaver and m...

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<div style="text-align: justify;">Like we were telling you a <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/12/what-to-expect-in-linux-mint-15.html" title="What To Expect From Linux Mint 15 (Cinnamon, Nemo Changes)">while back</a>, Linux Mint 15 will get a new screensaver, among other cool new features and changes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The work on the new Cinnamon screensaver has started</b> and the code is available on <a href="https://github.com/linuxmint/cinnamon-screensaver">GitHub</a>:</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/cinnamon-screensaver.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Cinnamon Screensaver"><img alt="Cinnamon Screensaver" src="http://img.netupd8.com/cinnamon-screensaver_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cinnamon Screensaver / lock screen (<b>work in progress</b>!)</td></tr></tbody></table></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">Cinnamon Screensaver is a fork of GNOME Screensaver 3.4 and is very simplistic: for now, it displays the time and date along with the username and a shaded background, with a lock screen dialog similar to the one available for Unity, like you can see in the screenshot above.<br /><br />According to its desktop file, the screensaver can be used not only in Cinnamon, but also in Unity (and I can confirm it works with Unity), Xfce or GNOME.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The new Cinnamon Screensaver is not available as a .deb yet so the only way to install it for now is to compile it from source. But it will probably be available soon in the Cinnamon nightly builds PPA and it may be backported for Linux Mint 14 Nadia. For now, it conflicts with GNOME Screensaver which must be removed for Cinnamon Screensaver to work properly.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Arch Linux users can already install Cinnamon Screensaver via <a href="https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/cinnamon-screensaver-git/">AUR</a>.</div>

Work Started On Cinnamon Screensaver (Forked From GNOME Screensaver 3.4)

Like we were telling you a while back , Linux Mint 15 will get a new screensaver, among other cool new features and changes. The work on the...

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