14 DAY TRIAL // The Linux Mint developers have finally released the stable version of the Cinnamon 2.8 desktop environment. It's a huge release, and all users of this desktop environment are in for a treat.
Cinnamon 2.8 was actually released a few weeks ago, but it has not been deemed stable until now. We already know a lot about the new version of the desktop environment, so it's not exactly a surprise.
As usual, many new features have landed in Cinnamon, and it will take a while for users to discover them. There is a lot of smaller stuff under the hood as well, and that is usually where all the cool stuff happens.
The Cinnamon desktop is mostly known for powering the Linux Mint distribution, but it's available for other distros as well. It's a complex piece of software with a lot of moving parts, so it will take a while until it officially hits the repositories. Most likely, it will be made available first for Linux Mint and it will also get backported at some point.
Cinnamon 2.8 is now ready for download
"On behalf of the team and all the developers who contributed to this build, I am proud to announce the release of Cinnamon 2.8! This new version will be featured in Linux Mint 17.3 'Rosa' planned for the end of November and in LMDE 2 'Betsy'. Have a lot of fun with this new release and don’t hesitate to give us some feedback! Enjoy," noted the leader of the Linux Mint project, Clement Lefebvre.
According to the extensive changelog, a new sound applet has been added, the power applet has been improved considerably, the workspace switcher applet is now able to show a visual representation of your workspaces, the Cinnamon system tray now also supports indicators, the window list is now able to show window thumbnails, various animations have been tweaked, the display settings have been refined, the backend has been improved as well, and various other fixes have been added.
As usual, you can download the latest Cinnamon build from Softpedia, but please keep in mind that it's only the source package.