The Linux Mint crew quietly launched the Cinnamon 5.6 desktop atmosphere, a significant replace that shall be included by default within the upcoming Linux Mint 21.1 “Vera” working system this Christmas.
Cinnamon 5.6 has been in growth for the previous few months and comes as an improve to Cinnamon 5.4 launched in June 2022. Most likely, current Linux Mint customers will obtain the replace shortly, however Cinnamon 5.6 is included by default in Linux Mint 21.1.
Till Linux Mint 21.1 hits the streets later in December, I took the freedom of putting in Cinnamon 5.6 on my Arch Linux machine to check out the brand new options and enhancements. One of many largest modifications on this launch was highlighted by the Linux Mint chief himself Clement Lefebvre within the undertaking’s newest newsletter.
Sure, I’m speaking about Nook bar, a brand new applet positioned on the suitable fringe of the taskbar to make it simpler for customers to see the desktop after they have many home windows opened. As you may think about, the Nook bar applet replaces the normal Present Desktop icon subsequent to the applying launcher, which, in flip, was changed by a separator.
As with many Cinnamon applets, Nook bar might be configured. Due to this fact, it is possible for you to to vary the conduct of the clicking motion from the default of exhibiting the desktop to exhibiting the desklets, the Expo View (workspace selector), or the Scale View (window selector).
There’s additionally a center click on motion that, by default, reveals the desklets. This will also be configured to indicate the desktop, Expo View, or Scale view. Should you don’t need to configure the Nook bar applet, you may simply right-click on it to get prompt entry to all these actions.
As well as, the Nook bar helps a characteristic referred to as “peek-to-desktop”, which might be enabled on mouse hover. Because the title suggests, this characteristic permits you to take a sneak peek at your desktop once you drag information over the Nook bar applet.
After all, this bumps your productiveness when you’ve got many home windows open and also you need to drag information in your desktop. The peek-to-desktop characteristic is disabled by default for the mouse hover motion, so that you’ll should allow it from settings, and one of the best half is you could configure hover delay and window opacity.
“It is a characteristic that was applied in Home windows. Though the nook bar is much less noticeable/discoverable than the show-desktop applet it’s simpler to make use of as soon as you realize it’s there. It occupies the nook of the display screen so you will get there quick with out aiming and with a fast motion of the mouse,” defined Clement Lefebvre.
Different new options embrace a brand new setting to set the period of a notification, help for key bindings to the Inhibit Applet, the power to lock desklets in place, provides keyboard shortcuts to allow you to transfer home windows to watch above (Tremendous+Shift+Up) or beneath (Tremendous+Shift+Down) in multi-monitor setups, and provides a brand new type-to-search characteristic for shortcut names in Keyboard settings.
Cinnamon 5.6 additionally improves keyboard navigation within the Scale View and Expo View, improves the presentation of terminal arguments, improves the descriptions of a number of keybindings, and separates Gentle, Darkish, and Darker themes, and renames “Preferences” to “Applet preferences” in applets the place it’d confuse customers.
After all, there are numerous under-the-hood modifications to make Cinnamon sooner and extra steady. All in all, it appears to be like like Cinnamon 5.6 leaves as much as its title of being a light-weight, but fashionable desktop atmosphere for GNU/Linux distributions. Should you’re utilizing Arch Linux, you may set up Cinnamon 5.6 proper now!
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