Linux Mint Cinnamon v Ubuntu Cinnamon

[mbott]

Greetings,

I've been away from Ubuntu since approx. 2017 after spending 10 years running it. Been toying with the idea of at least trying out Ubuntu with the Cinnamon desktop. I've been running Linut Mint (now LM22) since I left Ubuntu. But the idea of returning to Ubuntu with the Cinnamon desptop for no other reason than to try it out interests me.

Has anyone here made a comparison of the two environments with the Cinnamon desktop? Any pluses/minuses to this?

Thanks!

--
Mike

[Shibblet]

Greetings,

I've been away from Ubuntu since approx. 2017 after spending 10 years running it. Been toying with the idea of at least trying out Ubuntu with the Cinnamon desktop. I've been running Linut Mint (now LM22) since I left Ubuntu. But the idea of returning to Ubuntu with the Cinnamon desptop for no other reason than to try it out interests me.

Has anyone here made a comparison of the two environments with the Cinnamon desktop? Any pluses/minuses to this?

Thanks!

--
Mike

I know there are a lot of technical differences. But ultimately, it's going to come down to Snaps & Flatpaks. If you are running Ubuntu Cinnamon, you'll have the Ubuntu Software Center with Snaps & Flatpak support. Mint will have the Mint Store, with Flatpak Support.

Either way, the desktop will work the same.

[guiverc]

Ubuntu Cinnamon is runtime adjustment free, as it is built (23.04 & later) by Ubuntu infrastructure using only packages from Ubuntu repositories; thus there is no need for runtime adjustments (I'm not covering earlier than 23.04)

Linux Mint relies on an upstream source for binary packages (not source code or like Debian-Ubuntu), which is why it uses runtime adjustments, as they chose to not create all packages themselves. These adjustments vary between releases.

The Ubuntu system and lack of 3rd party packages in Ubuntu Cinnamon allow you to use Ubuntu support sites if using Ubuntu Cinnamon; Linux Mint users can read from those sites; but due to differences they cannot ask questions on such sites.

I like multi-desktop environments (ie. I have multiple desktops installed on this system), and in this regard I always found Linux Mint more fragile than Ubuntu, then again I also find Ubuntu more fragile than upstream Debian anyway (Debian makes fewer tweaks than does the Ubuntu flavors; but I do like what the Ubuntu flavors do!). I have no real experience with LMDE Cinnamon though; but I'd expect the same there too.

I worry less about out of the box experience personally; as adding flatpak to a Ubuntu system takes two commands; and if you wanted to reverse the snap prevention on Linux Mint that's not difficult either (just takes a couple of extra commands); so i can make most tweaks myself. Linux Mint and its use of runtime adjustments however is more than tweaks in regards changes to config files; and whilst minimal, it's still something I prefer to avoid on my systems.

I've always admired Linux Mint's visuals, but I'll do it myself rather than use their approach.

[TenPlus1]

Linux Mint Cinnamon edition is based on ubuntu 24 so will have all the same updates, and on top of that the Cinnamon desktop will always have the latest releases available straight from the maintainers and optimizations to the system to keep everything running well. I also prefer the focus on flatpaks rather than canonicals snapd system which for me at least works a lot better.

[tea for one]

Has anyone here made a comparison of the two environments with the Cinnamon desktop?

More info page 51 edition 209 here https://fullcirclemagazine.org/