Linux: The Ultimate Guide

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• Menu: A list of commands or options provided by the user through 
the menu bar.
• Menu Bar: It is a small, horizontal bar containing menu labels.
• Ribbon: Set up a file menu and toolbar that integrates program 
functions.
• Tab: A clickable area at the top of a window shows another page or 
location.
• Toolbar: The Button Bar, usually near the app window’s top, controls 
software operations.
• Window: A rectangular section of a computer display that shows the 
operating system.
The GUI uses icons, windows, and menus to execute commands, such as 
opening, deleting, and moving files. Although the GUI operating system 
is navigated using the mouse, the keyboard can also use with keyboard 
shortcuts or arrow keys.
For example, if you wanted to open an application on the GUI system, 
you could move the mouse pointer to the system icon and double-click it. 
With the command-line interface, you will need to know the commands 
to go to the program’s directory, enter the list of files, and then use the file.
Benefits of GUI
A GUI is considered more user-friendly than a text-based command-line 
interface, such as MS-DOS, or the shell of operating systems like UNIX.
Unlike command line or CUI operating systems, such as UNIX or 
MS-DOS, GUI operating systems are easy to read and use because com-
mands do not need to be memorized. Additionally, users do not need to 
know any programming languages. Thanks to its ease of use and modern 
appearance, GUI operating systems dominate today’s market.
Command-Line Interface
CLI is a command-line program that accepts inputs to perform a particu-
lar function. Any application you can use via commands in the terminal 
falls into this category. CLI is an old way of working with apps and appli-
cations and is used to perform specific tasks that users need. CLI is a text-
based visual interface, unlike the GUI, which uses graphics options that 

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allow the user to interact with the system and apps. CLI allows the user 
to perform tasks by entering commands. Its operating system is straight-
forward but not easy to use. Users enter a command, press “Enter,” and 
wait for a response. After receiving the command, CLI correctly evaluates 
it and displays the output/effect on the same screen. The command-line 
interpreter is used for this purpose.
CLI is introduced with a telephone typewriter. This system was based 
on batch processing. Modern computers support CLI, batch process-
ing, and a single interface GUI. To make good use of CLI, the user must 
enter a set of commands (one by one) immediately. Many applications 
(mono-processing systems) still use CLI on their operators. In addition, 
programming languages like Forth, Python, and BASIC provide CLI. The 
command-line translator is used to use a text-based interface.
Another feature of CLI is the command line used as a sequence of char-
acters used in the user interface or shell. Command information is used 
to inform users that CLI is ready to accept orders. MS-DOS is an example 
of CLI.
Terminal User Interface
TUI is also known as a Text-based User Interface. You have text on the 
screen because they are used only in the terminal. These applications are 
not well-known to many users, but there are a bunch of them. Terminal-
based web browsers are an excellent example of TUI programs. Terminal-
based games also fall into this category. Text User interface (also known 
as written user interaction or terminal user interaction) is a text-based 
user. TUIs differ from command-line communication in that, like GUIs, 
they use all of the screen space and do not provide line-by-line output. 
However, TUIs use only the text and symbols found in the standard text 
terminal, while GUIs typically use high-definition image terminals.
CINNAMON
It is a free and open-source desktop X Window System source from 
GNOME 3, following standard desktop metaphor agreements. Cinnamon 
is the main desktop distribution platform for Linux Mint and is available 
as a desktop of your choice for other Linux distributions and other appli-
cations such as Unix.
The development of Cinnamon began as a reaction to the April 2011 
release of GNOME 3 when the standard desktop GNOME 2 desktop 
was left in favor of GNOME Shell. Following several attempts to extend 

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GNOME 3 to suit the design goals of Linux Mint, Mint developers have 
installed several GNOME 3 components to create a standalone desktop 
space. The split on GNOME was completed on Cinnamon 2.0, released 
in October 2013. Apples and desktops are no longer compatible with 
GNOME 3.
As a distinguishing feature of Linux Mint, Cinnamon has generally 
received good media coverage, mainly due to its ease of use and soft learn-
ing curve. In terms of its sequential design model, Cinnamon is similar to 
the Xfce desktop and GNOME 2 desktop (MATE and GNOME Flashback).
History
Like a few other GNOME-based desktop environments, including 
Canonical Unity, Cinnamon became dissatisfied with the GNOME 
team’s traditional desktop experience in April 2011. Until then, GNOME 
had included a standard desktop theme. But GNOME 3 was replaced by 
GNOME Shell, which lacked a function-like panel and other basic desktop 
features. The abolition of these essential features was unacceptable for dis-
tribution developers such as Mint and Ubuntu, aimed at users looking for 
collaborative sites where they could be relieved immediately.
The Linux Mint team initially decided to upgrade the GNOME Shell 
extensions to overcome this difference to replace the remaining fea-
tures. The results of this effort were “Mint GNOME Shell Extensions” 
(MGSE). At the time, the MATE desktop environment was also forked 
from GNOME 2. Linux Mint 12, released in November 2011, then merged 
both, thus giving users the choice of GNOME 3-with-MGSE or traditional 
GNOME desktop 2.
However, even with MGSE, GNOME 3 was still missing out on the 
luxury of GNOME 2 and was not well received by the user community. 
Some missing features could not be changed at the time, and it seemed 
that the extensions would not work in time. In addition, GNOME devel-
opers could not meet the needs of Mint developers. To give Mint develop-
ers better control over the development process, GNOME Shell was forked 
as “Project Cinnamon” in January 2012.
Gradually, various key applications were replaced by Mint developers. 
As of version 1.2, released in January 2012, the Cinnamon window man-
ager is Muffin, the fork of GNOME 3’s Mutter. Similarly, from September 
2012 (version 1.6 onwards), Cinnamon includes a Nemo file manager with 
a fork from Nautilus. Cinnamon-Control-Center, installed since May 2013 
(version 1.8 onwards), integrates GNOME-Control-Center functionality 

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with Cinnamon-Settings and makes it possible to manage update applets, 
extensions desktops, and themes. -top. GNOME-Screensaver was also 
installed with a fork and is now called Cinnamon-Screensaver.
As of October 2013 (version 2.0 onwards), Cinnamon is no longer a 
front-end desktop for a GNOME desktop like Unity or GNOME Shell 
but a desktop environment that is unique in its own right. Although 
Cinnamon is built on GNOME technology and uses GTK, it no longer 
requires GNOME to be installed.
Overview
The Cinnamon desktop environment is a vast development project. 
Between 2006 and 2010, the most prominent Linux Mint desktop space 
was GNOME 2. It was very stable and trendy. In 2011, Linux Mint 12 could 
not be shipped via GNOME 2. The upcoming GNOME team released a 
brand-new desktop (GNOME 3 aka “GNOME Shell”) using the latest 
technology (Clutter, GTK3), which had a completely different design, and 
we used a very different paradigm than the previous one but used the 
same word spaces and therefore could not be installed near GNOME 2. 
After the decision from Debian to upgrade GNOME to version 3, GNOME 
2 was no longer available in Linux Mint. To address this issue, two new 
projects were launched.
A project called “MATE” was started by an engineer named Perberos. 
Its goal was to redesign and repack GNOME 2 to its original form. 
Linux Mint started a project called “MGSE.” Its goal was to upgrade the 
GNOME 3 extensions to replace some of the lost and found functionality 
in GNOME 2 (panel, systray, application menu, alt-centric tab selector, 
window-list, etc.).
Linux Mint 12 has been distributed on both MATE and GNOME3 + 
MGSE. Six months later, and after a huge amount of work, MATE was 
stable, and from the extension set, MGSE became a GNOME 3 fork called 
Cinnamon. Linux Mint 13 was the first Linux release for the Cinnamon 
desktop deployment. Since Linux Mint has a MATE and Cinnamon sys-
tem, both provide users with a desktop, one forked from GNOME 2 and 
the other forked and based on GNOME 3.
Other recent improvements include the following:
• Desktop grid, wildcard support for file search, multi-process settings 
daemon, desktop actions on panel launcher, various desktop man-
agement processes, and file manager in Nemo.

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• An additional option for the desktop panel layout offers a modern-
looking theme with customized windows.
• Improved design of duplicate applications in the menu (i.e., flatpak 
vs. deb packages) pin files in Nemo focuses on performance 
improvement.
SOFTWARE COMPONENTS
X-Apps
Cinnamon introduces X-apps based on GNOME core applications but is 
modified to work across Cinnamon, partner and xfce; they have a stan-
dard user interface (UI).
• Xed is a Gedit/pluma text editor.
• Xreader is a document viewer based on Evince/Atril.
• Xviewer is an image viewer based on Eye of GNOME.
• Pix is an image editor based on gThumb.
• Xplayer is a media player based on GNOME (Totem) videos.