Linux Mint Cinnamon vs. Mate - Linux system in comparison
Cinnamon vs. Mate is a comparison that has been with the Linux Mint community for a long time. Therefore, we show you in this article where the differences are. Since both are only desktop environments, most of the differences are purely optical. But a comparison is still worthwhile, because this way you can decide what suits you better.
Linux Mint: Cinnamon can do that
Cinnamon is developed directly by the Linux Mint creators and is considered the standard desktop environment for Linux Mint.
- Look / Performance: Cinnamon is optically more complex than mate. There are more effects and animations at the expense of performance. As long as you have a moderately up-to-date computer, Cinnamon will run smoothly. Cinnamon offers a much more modern look than mate and still remains discreet and simple.
- Structure: The structure of cinnamon and mate is very similar. However, there are small differences that are more in the details. For example, Cinnamon uses the Nemo file manager and the Muffin window manager. This is possible due to the inherited features of Gnome 3. You will hardly notice the difference in everyday life.
- Other: Cinnamon is a further development of Gnome 3. Therefore newer and more extensive features can be supported. This includes whole themes that you can activate in Cinnamon. Applets in the taskbar are also designed more efficiently. In principle, you can even include your own extensions in the taskbar. However, this requires advanced programming knowledge.
- Download: You can download Linux Mint Cinnamon in 32 and 64bit versions.
Linux Mint: Mate can do that
When the development of Gnome 2 was discontinued in 2011, the Mate team took on this task. The result was the surface mate. Due to the age, the functionality and the look is not quite as modern anymore. But above all, Mate scores with performance and overview. The main features are:
- Look / Performance: Mate takes its name from the mate plant. This tradition has continued in almost all components of the Mate desktop environment. Mate is a simpler version of the Gnome desktop environment. Therefore, there are fewer animations and transitions. This results in better performance than Cinnamon and should be an advantage especially on older devices.
- Structure: The desktop environment maintains the structure of Gnome 2 and also offers the typical Gnome 2 operation. This includes, for example, other network managers or file managers. The window management tool is also different than in Cinnamon.
- Other: Mate is also available for other Linux distributions, for example Arch Linux and Ubuntu. So if you value the same desktop environment on all of your installed operating systems, this could be of interest to you.
- Download: You can find Linux Mint Mate as 32 and 64 bit version in our download portal.
In the next article you will read a lot of interesting information about switching from Windows to Linux.