Linux Mint 21 (“Vanessa”): The new Cinnamon 5.4 is already on the starting grid

Cinnamon 5.4, the new desktop for the upcoming Linux Mint 21 (“Vanessa”), has been released and has a number of innovations to offer. The latest version of the Linux distribution, which is particularly popular with newcomers and switchers, is expected to be released later this summer.

Fresh cell treatment for the next Linux Mint

Seven months after Cinnamon 5.2, which celebrated its debut with Linux Mint 20.3 (“Una”), the Ubuntu derivative’s open source developers released the latest version of its internal desktop environment, marking a significant milestone along the way. to the next. Major release marked.

Cinnamon 5.4 now offers many innovations, such as a new JavaScript interpreter based on the free window manager known from Gnome. motherwhich is very deeply embedded in the shell and is comparable to win as composer for display server protocol Wayland features and better support for HiDPI.

Add to that an improved RTL layout and the mandatory tweaks and bug fixes that come with every release. In particular, the creators want to free the free desktop from previous regressions and make it more flexible.

In preparation for Linux Mint 21, we are updating Cinnamon’s Javascript interpreter and rebasing its window manager on a more modern version of Mutter. This is a huge task and requires a lot of code changes in Cinnamon and causes a significant number of regressions.

Clement Lefebvre, Lead Developer, Linux Mint

The Menu applet, Sound applet, and Power applet were also improved, while the XApp Status applet tooltip was relocated. Fractional scaling for high-resolution HiDPI displays is also said to be making significant progress.

Linux Mint gets a graphical update tool

If before users had to initiate the version change, for example from LMDE 4 (“Debbie”) to LMDE 5 (“Elsie”), with a script via the command line, in the future it will take switch to a new major version. using an update tool with a graphical user interface.

With the help of the first beta version of the new Linux Mint update tool, Linux Mint Debian Edition can now be updated to the latest version, while the final release is scheduled to appear with Linux Mint 21 (“Vanessa”).

The new Linux Mint Update Tool is initially only available as a beta for Linux Mint Debian Edition 4 (“Debbie”) and can be updated with the following command via package management Department install from console.

sudo apt update && sudo apt mintupgrade -y

Then the new Linux Mint update tool will be launched with the following command and the update process can begin.

sudo mintupgrade

With the release of Linux Mint 21 (“Vanessa”), which will be based on the current Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (“Jammy Jellyfish”), the Linux Mint Update Tool will also be part of the standard package.

The Youtube channel”9to5LinuxIt already provides the corresponding impressions of the next edition of Linux Mint and its new desktop interface.

More information is provided by the project page on the GitHub development platform.