Cinnamon; adding needed spice to Gnome 3

Ok, so I used Gnome Shell before it was officially released. I stopped using it because I thought it was intriguing, but awkward to use in its beta stages. Then Gnome 3 was released and gnome-shell was no longer an interesting option, it was the compulsory way to use the operating system; and I wrote at the time about some of the problems. Many were solved, but the underlying troubles in the design of Gnome Shell were a problem for me. And I've really tried to like it, I really have, and I don't. I hate it. It makes almost every workflow I have tedious and exasperating. It has damaged my productivity. It looks pretty, it looks stylish, but it's frankly slow and painful to get things done. I tried lots of other window managers and was frustrated at having the leave the good things of Gnome behind.

Until someone told me about Cinnamon. I looked at the website and thought it might be just the ticket. Unfortunately it's not officially packaged for Debian (yet), and I currently lack the time to start building my own packages. Fortunately someone else has done it. I installed the packages on my laptop and breathed a sigh of relief (once I diagnosed a problem with the settings dialog). I installed it on my other boxes (that have GUIs), and now, well, the best thing is I am enjoying all the great things about Gnome 3 now. I'm even enjoying the great things about Gnome Shell, since Cinnamon is actually a fork, but all the stupid bits are gone.

There is a nice, elegant panel, so much cleaner than the Gnome Fallback mode. It looks like it belongs in Gnome 3, it does. Notifications are more subtle, coming up in out of the way bits of the screen. The screen effects are subtle but pleasant. In short it is what Gnome 3 should have been, or at least optionally. The "new" interface of Gnome Shell may suit many users, many devices, many workflows, but it most certainly does not suit all.

I have my nice comfortable desktop and workflow back after many months; kudos to the Cinnamon team, and kudos for them really showcasing all the excellence of Gnome 3 rather better.

If you want to try it out on Debian, follow the instructions here, and note the possible problem with the settings dialog.

Follow me!

@ProfCTurner