Updated April 18, 2023
Definition of GNOME vs Cinnamon
Gnome and Cinnamon are defined as free and open-sourced implementation of the set of interface visuals that unifies concepts by the graphical user interface in order to enable users to interact conveniently with computers and runs on top of another operating system sharing the same graphical user interface and relays Unix like operating system. This is the place of commonality and hence becomes an important concept to discuss the verses between these 2 elements in the discussion. Individually, Gnome is an open-source desktop environment that relays Unix-like operating system and is a part of various Linux distributions like, Fedora, Debian, CentOS, Pop!_OS, Oracle Linux, and many other such distributions. On the other hand, Cinnamon is an open-source implementation of the X Window System that is derived from GNOME3 but the conventions that are followed are traditional ones and are the main desktop environment for the Mint Linux distribution.
Head to Head Comparison Between GNOME vs Cinnamon (Infographics)
Below are the top 8 differences between GNOME vs Cinnamon:
Key Differences between Gnome and Cinnamon
Both the implementation, i.e. GNOME and Cinnamon are desktop environments and hence the doubt of what’s the difference is a topic of essence that needs to be looked into in order to understand the scope of utilities of the 2 options available. The very first difference being the origin of the implementations. GNOME as a project is carved out of a project GNU Network Object Model Environment and that is how it gets its acronym, whereas Cinnamon is a forked version of GNOME3 project, and some of the utilities that were removed after GNOME 3 still is held back in the Cinnamon because of its varied reasons.
Once anyone starts using the environments, it might take some time to get used to it, but with GNOME’s direction and general interface in order to attain simplicity naturally becomes the foremost option of the first usage, but at some times it feels overburdened that some tasks which could have been a utility in GNOME happens to not exist and takes a lot more time to attain the same level of utility in comparison to that already available in Cinnamon.
In the table below, we will look at different genres on which these 2 desktop environment can be compared and look in detail regarding the comparison.
Comparison Table of GNOME v/s Cinnamon
| Gerne of Comparison | GNOME | Cinnamon |
| The raw look and feel of the desktop | The unique look in GNOME is something that makes it stand out from the rest, though at first, it might be intriguing for people to use it, there are some factors where it might be extra work for some users | Cinnamon on the other hand gives a look of the desktop-based operating system and one wouldn’t feel anything different while using the raw version of it. While one may feel it a bit difficult on few things in Gnome, but relatively easier in the Cinnamon. |
| Raw set of applications out of the box | Some of the apps in GNOME is always present and are referred to as iconic apps. The integration of these apps with the GNOME environment is very smooth and is minimalistic in nature. | Cinnamon has a pretty exhaustive suite as well, but the default view is not easily noticeable. Since the desktop environment is a forking of GNOME3, many GNOME-based apps are also present. The apps in Cinnamon are lighter, faster, and utilize a lot fewer resources. |
| Application launcher in the desktop environment | The most used component of any desktop environment is its launcher and this is where GNOME’s launcher can be accessed by pressing Super Key and the activities overview will pop up with GNOME allowing user to get a view of all the applications and even search for the same. | On the other hand, the Cinnamon launcher is a menu-based prompt, very similar to the windows start menu. Same to GNOME, pressing the Super key brings up the launcher, and then one can navigate to the corresponding option. Even though Cinnamon is a fork from GNOME, Cinnamon adapted the application launcher while GNOME moved away from it. |
| Documentation for the usage of environment | GNOME has the most thorough in-depth documentation present on how to use the desktop environment over a site that is divided into users, administrators, and developers. | When one needs any help on the Cinnamon desktop environment, one can look at the Linux Mint website, and also numerous PDFs that are available. But the |
| Performance | Standard desktop environment like that of GNOME (KDE as well) is likely to use a lot of memory and hence the CPU load starts increasing quickly as well. | The performance of cinnamon is better than GNOME of course, but it is still not the best out of a lot of other desktop environments that are available out there. One should look at the desktop environment by Awesome. |
| Customization | GNOME provides users with minimalistic customization options in order to have a goal of simplicity and in order to make tweaks beyond the simplistic ones, it can be still done but of course with a lot of effort! | By nature, cinnamon is flexible and very similar to how XFCEs are. Various elements can be customized starting from changing themes, change in the taskbar, start menus, etc., and is characterized by the distributed customization alternatives. |
| Options of distributions | Some of the options where GNOME is used in the distribution are:
· Ubuntu · Pop!_OS · Debian · Manjaro · Fedora Workstation |
Some of the options where Cinnamon is used in the distribution are:
· Linux Mint · LMDE · Debian · Manjaro · Fedora Cinnamon Spin |
| Availability of the specific feature | Though this is not actually a point of comparison, as some unique set of applications is present in GNOME that is not present in cinnamon such as:
· Search · Shell Extensions |
Similar to GNOME, below set of applications are present in Cinnamon that is not present in GNOME such as:
· Desklets and Applets · Extensions |
Conclusion
In this article, though GNOME and Cinnamon have similarities between them, the varied differences help users in choosing the right one while one prepares the desktop environment for use, because few desktop environments are not very flexible and it is very difficult to transition to the newer one, although not impossible.
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