In the latest monthly newsletter released today, Linux Mint project leader Clement Lefebvre offers a glimpse of the new default Cinnamon theme set to debut in Linux Mint 22.1 later this year.
Scheduled for launch in December 2024, just in time for the Christmas festivities, Linux Mint 22.1 will include the upcoming Cinnamon 6.4 desktop environment, which features a significantly darker and more contrasted theme than its predecessor, along with rounded elements, redesigned dialogs, and a noticeable gap between the applets and the panel.
The fresh default Cinnamon theme brought to Linux Mint 22.1 will also feature a newly designed “Force Quit” dialog developed in Clutter, which will activate when an application becomes unresponsive. Moreover, the media controls and Workspace OSD have been updated, a new status applet has been added, and enhancements have been made to notifications, animations, and the main menu within the new Cinnamon theme.
On the technical side, Linux Mint 22.1 will present a significantly enhanced package management system with proprietary tools like the Update Manager and Software Sources, which will operate with Aptkit and Captain, eliminating reliance on aptdaemon, Synaptic, GDebi, apturl, and other components that are no longer supported.
“This allowed us to completely refactor the code in the Update Manager and greatly simplify its architecture. It worked well but it had been written decades ago and some of the techniques and components it relied on weren’t future-proof,” said Clement Lefebvre.
As expected, Linux Mint 22.1 will be based on Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS (Noble Numbat) and powered by Linux kernel 6.8. This will be the first update to the Linux Mint 22 series, which will continue to receive software updates and security patches until 2029.
Image credits: Linux Mint/Clement Lefebvre
Last updated 9 hours ago