Ubuntu Cinnamon For Linux

Ubuntu interim releases can sometimes be a bit hit or miss, as history shows us. However, more often than not, the might of the whole Ubuntu community and team is easy to see, and that's exactly the case with Ubuntu 23.04, one of the best interim releases of the past couple of years.

One of the biggest news is that with the release of Ubuntu 23.04, the Ubuntu ecosystem has got two new family members in the form of Edubuntu 23.04 and Ubuntu Cinnamon 23.04. Ubuntu Cinnamon 23.04 (code-named Lunar Lobster) marks the first official debut of the distro as an official Ubuntu flavor. The hype surrounding it may not be all that great, since most Cinnamon lovers are bound to be familiar with the project from its "Remix" days.

However, since it's now an official flavor, Ubuntu Cinnamon should be a lot closer to Linux Mint (even though the experiences are quite different, or at least different enough), which is not a bad thing.

Upon first booting up the OS, it's quite clear that Ubuntu Cinnamon is its own thing, and not just a Linux Mint wanna-be. The orange accents are neat, the desktop arrangement is very Cinnamon-y, and the performance is nothing short of super snappy.

Ubuntu Cinnamon is what one might call a middle-weight Linux distro, and is aimed at those who are not fans of the generic GNOME setup usually associated with Ubuntu.

Unsurprisingly, Ubuntu Cinnamon 23.04 uses the same Linux Kernel 6.2 as Ubuntu, but with the addition of various Rust modules, systemd v252.5, and an updated Ubuntu font (which looks great).

The 23.04 release comes with Cinnamon 5.6.7, which is not exactly impressive when it comes to big changes. Besides the basic apps such as LibreOffice (7.5.2), Thunderbird (102.10), and Firefox (111), you also get some new apps such as Celluloid, The GIMP, gThumb, and GNOME Photos.

Nemo is still the default file manager, and there are a lot of small tweaks, and Cinnamon-specific settings changes. What's important to note here is that Ubuntu Cinnamon has "just arrived" in the family, so there's a lot of work to be done in the future.

Still, while not massively different from its previous version, Ubuntu Cinnamon 23.04 does have a few bug fixes, and new features. These include fixes with the keyboard navigation in the Scale and Expo view, GWL app reloading fixes, and some theme-related display fixes.

As far as new features go, Ubuntu Cinnamon 23.04 has theme separation (in the popup), the ability to lock desklets in place, system icon in the system information tab, some new keyboard shortcuts and entries, and notifications during settings.

The installer is also new, and it's a Flutter Ubuntu Desktop Installer, which looks modern and works well.

If you're a Linux Mint fan, you're not in the wrong, but Ubuntu Cinnamon 23.04 might be a lot more appealing for Cinnamon lovers that want a somewhat traditional Xorg-powered desktop experience prepacked with a few useful Snap integrations.