Uly.me

cloud engineer

cinnamon

Cinnamon or Mate?

Here’s how to tell if you’re running Cinnamon or Mate.

inxi -Fxz

Result.

System: Kernel: 5.4.0-40-generic x86_64 
bits: 64 
compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 
Desktop: Cinnamon 4.6.6 
Distro: Linux Mint 20 Ulyana 
base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal
...

Linux Mint Windows and Workspaces

Here’s the shortcut key combination for managing windows and workspaces in Linux Mint 18.

  • Press the “Ctrl + Alt + Down” keys to display all open windows.
  • Press the “Ctrl + Alt + Up” keys to display all workspaces.
  • Press the “Ctrl + Alt + Left or Right” keys to move between workspaces.

Very useful.

Linux Mint 19.1

Just got done installing Linux Mint 19.1 Tessa Cinnamon edition. It’s a long-term support release with support until 2023. Here are some of the new features. I use Etcher on the Mac to write to the USB. I then booted via USB to install Linux Mint on the new machine. Linux Mint was done installing in less than 10 minutes. I went with Cinnamon since it was a darker theme.

Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon

Dual Booting Ubuntu and Mint

I’ve been using the Mac OS for six years now. Prior to that, I was an Ubuntu user for 10 years. I do miss working with Linux. Part of the reason I switched, I was tired of constantly fixing the Ubuntu desktop. Every time there was a new release, something was broken and I needed to fix it. Then Ubuntu Unity desktop came along. That essentially was the last straw. I dabbled with Mint a little bit, but it only lasted for a couple of months.

These past few months, I’ve been trying to rekindle my love for Linux. I’m trying out two distros. I’m running Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and Linux Mint 18, dual booting each distro sharing a 1TB hard drive. Each distro is taking up 500GB. Both are running the Cinnamon desktop. There are a few issues here and there. It’s not quite the polish product yet. On both instances, I had to install the Chromium browser because Firefox, the default browser, is not just up to snuff.

Overall, Ubuntu and Linux Mint have improved tremendously since I last used them. The Sound and WiFi network settings are much, much more easier to configure than the previous iterations. If you were ask me which distro do I prefer now, I can’t give you an answer at the moment. Time will tell. It’s going to take a while to get used to navigating and using the Cinnamon desktop effectively. Maybe a follow up post is in order.