Linux Mint‘s default desktop environment system, Cinnamon has a major release today. Cinnamon version 3.0 has been announced ahead of the Linux Mint 18 release.

Linux Mint 18, which is based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, will have its own set of Mint apps. While we wait for the release of Linux Mint 18 to see what features does it offer, we can surely have a look at Cinnamon 3.0 features.

New features in Cinnamon 3.0

Here are some of the main features in Cinnamon 3.0. You need to have used previous versions of Cinnamon to actually understand these features.

Improvements of windows management on tiling, mapping and unmapping windows, compositor’s window groups and tracking of full-screen windows

Improved touchpad support: edge-scrolling and two-finger-scrolling can now be configured independently and are both enabled by default

Improved touchpad support: edge-scrolling and two-finger-scrolling can now be configured independently and are both enabled by default New accessibility and sound settings

New accessibility and sound settings You can rename battery powered devices

You can rename battery powered devices Different default applications can be set to open plain-text, documents and source code files

Different default applications can be set to open plain-text, documents and source code files Panel launchers have application actions

Panel launchers have application actions Dialogs and menus have animation by default

Dialogs and menus have animation by default Favorites and system options can now be disabled in the menu applet

Favorites and system options can now be disabled in the menu applet The photo-frame desklet covers subdirectories

The photo-frame desklet covers subdirectories Improved support for GTK 3.20, Spotify and Viber

As of now, Cinnamon 3.0 is not available in the official PPA. I’ll update the article when it is available.

Your take?

The entire last week was hyped around Ubuntu 16.04 features and release. As it has been released now, it’s time to look up to the next big Linux release and that is Linux Mint 18. Unlike Ubuntu, Linux Mint doesn’t have a fixed release schedule. But it should be coming sometime after mid-May.

By the way, I often wonder, why is there no logo for Cinnamon desktop environment? This is something basic and Mint team should actually work on it.

What do you think of Cinnamon 3.0? Could this be a reason why you would want to try or upgrade to Linux Mint 18?