From the ‘RIP MATE’ files:
Lots of people didn’t (and still don’t) like GNOME 3, which has helped the popularity of Linux Mint.
Linux Mint has not adopted the new interface instead going their own route with the MATE fork and the MGSE (Mint GNOME Shell Extensions). Apparently that’s not enough and now Mint Founder Clement Lefebvre has launched a new effort to create a new desktop called Cinnamon.
Yes it’s aggressive. But it makes more sense (to me) than Mark Shuttleworth escapade to oblivion, the abomination known as Unity. Lefebvre is trying to give users want they want — a better GNOME 2.x type of experience and not some whacked out interface that is more ‘usable’ to some unknown group of mystical usability experts.
Now to be accurate, Cinnamon is not an entirely new technology – Lefebvre is smart in that he’s still leveraging the power of GNOME.
The README for the Cinnamon project states that:
Cinnamon provides core user interface functions for the GNOME 3 desktop,
-like switching to windows and launching applications. Cinnamon takes
-advantage of the capabilities of modern graphics hardware and introduces
-innovative user interface concepts to provide a visually attractive and
-easy to use experience.
Makes sense to me, and hey it will still be compatible with other GNOME apps too. The fact that this is being developed in the open on GitHub (here’s the project) is great too. As this matured, I’d sure love to see RPM packages of this for Fedora/openSUSE too.
Cinnamon is what open source is all about – here’s a developer and community with an ‘itch to scratch’ – code is open source and we the users get to choose what we want to run.
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist
