Can I change Cinnamon for MATE, or another. <SOLVED>

[Unclefred]

I downloaded Tara Cinnamon and I find that in many apps, my tool menus are not there. I think I meant to use MATE. I seem to remember from years ago that there is an easy way to switch Windows Managers, (That's what these are, I believe). But I can't find a way to do it.

[Schultz]

Cinnamon and Mate are desktop environments. It is not recommended by most here (me included) to have two DEs installed, or removing one and installing another, on an existing install. If DE is what you meant, the best way to go is a clean install of Mate.

Now if you meant file managers, you can have more than one without it causing any problems (I believe). Cinnamon's file manager is called Nemo and Mate's is Caja. You can install Caja and use it with Cinnamon. But the best way to go IMHO would simply be a clean install of Mate.

[gm10]

Code: Select all

apt install mint-meta-mate

and then switch to MATE at the login screen. You can then keep Cinnamon or remove it and its apps.

If you only just installed then I agree that simply doing a fresh install of the MATE version is the cleaner way though.

[Unclefred]

It's a recent install, but I copied a whole bunch of data onto that disc. But it's OK, I have that all backed up, and I can do it again. The main thins was that programs like Gedit, which I like for plain text, don't show menus; <File>, <Edit>, <View>, <Tools>, and so on. I really like my menus. If this'll fix that, then it's a go for reinstall.

[all41]

Since you have all your backups in order you could go with the mint-meta-mate packages first,
and if the gremlins creep in you can go for the fresh install.

You may also consider another text editor like "geany" from the repositories.

Code: Select all

apt install geany

Plenty of toolbars and menus, powerful and customizable

[MrEen]

If the entire menubar is missing, press and hold the ALT key, then press v t m (in the case of Firefox.) The v should bring up the View menu, then you can see what letter you need next by looking at the underlined letters (Toolbars, for example, as well as Menu Bar.)

In some programs, you may need to find Preferences, or Settings possibly to enable the menubar, not sure.

[all41]

@Unclefred
If you want a very simple text editor with the toolbar look at 'leafpad'
in the repositories.

[Unclefred]

So are you saying that changing to MATE won't necessarily fix the Menubars. Firefox has them, but GEdit doesn't. I can't even get them in GEdit. Libre Office has them. What happened to Gedit? And AisleRiot Solitaire doesn't have them either. This is a little loss of standards to my way of thinking.

[all41]

MATE 19 Gedit from the repositories is rev 3.28.1 and does not have the toolbars along the top
File Edit Search Options etc

[MrEen]

I am using 18.3 Xfce. My version of Aisleriot is 3.18.2. I have a menu that I cannot figure out how to hide. What happens when you press Alt v?

[trytip]

if you have everything backed up i would format and install the mint mate 19 . but those title bars were taken away by gnome developers it's the way new gnome apps are. it is ridiculous i try moving a small window of gnome app and i forget that i can click and drag even from a title bar button, but i'm used to dragging from an empty title bar space which i always try to look for

[octathlon]

I read (about a year ago?) that gedit is no longer being maintained. I don't know if someone has stepped up to maintain it since then. I don't think changing your DE from Cinnamon to MATE is going to change anything since you would still be running the same version of gedit.

Meanwhile, the default text editor on Mint is xed, which I just started using since I installed Mint 19 last week. It appears to be almost exactly the same as gedit, menus and all. Have you tried it?

[all41]

if you have everything backed up i would format and install the mint mate 19 .

+1 but it doesn't negate the op's main issue.
edit: actually, it does in part, considering xed is the default text editor and has the toolbar
Not sure about AisleRiot issues though

[gm10]

The main thins was that programs like Gedit, which I like for plain text, don't show menus; <File>, <Edit>, <View>, <Tools>, and so on. I really like my menus. If this'll fix that, then it's a go for reinstall.

Reinstall won't change this. It's the (not so) new GNOME design guidelines. It was changed years ago: https://blogs.gnome.org/nacho/2014/01/1 ... -new-face/

You'd have to find an old version I guess or, as others suggested, move on to another text editor.

[Unclefred]

Oh Dear. Saying good bye to gedit will be emotionally draining on me. I love the "Cobalt" blue background that's so easy on the eyes. Gedit is like an old friend. OK, I'll install Xed & give it a try.

[gm10]

Oh Dear. Saying good bye to gedit will be emotionally draining on me. I love the "Cobalt" blue background that's so easy on the eyes. Gedit is like an old friend. OK, I'll install Xed & give it a try.

xed is already pre-installed, it's the default text editor that comes with Cinnamon, and cobalt blue is also the background I use with it.

Basically the old gedit2 was forked into pluma which was forked into xed, so it should feel familiar enough to you.

SciTE is my preferred editor though, but that one is very different.

[Unclefred]

Thank-you everyone! Xed came up with Cobalt Blue & Menues. I wonder if I could create a link to it on my Desktop and rename the Link "Gedit." Perhaps that is going too far. I'm busy for this morning, but I have another question and I'll see you guys again soon, I think.

[shawnhcorey]

I downloaded Tara Cinnamon and I find that in many apps, my tool menus are not there. I think I meant to use MATE. I seem to remember from years ago that there is an easy way to switch Windows Managers, (That's what these are, I believe). But I can't find a way to do it.

They are called desktop managers and altho you can only run one at a time¹, you can install as many as you please. You can switch the desktop manager by logging out, finding the little gear on the login screen (it moves with each new version), clicking on it and select the desktop manager, then logging back in.

Each desktop manager has its own menu system and default file manager.

Some desktop managers: Cinnamon, Mate, KDE, XFCE.

¹ You can run more than one if you place each in its own virtual machine.

[gm10]

I downloaded Tara Cinnamon and I find that in many apps, my tool menus are not there. I think I meant to use MATE. I seem to remember from years ago that there is an easy way to switch Windows Managers, (That's what these are, I believe). But I can't find a way to do it.

They are called desktop managers

Not that, either. If we are already correcting terminology (names in brackets are the programs in use in OP's configuration):

Display Server (X11) -> Display Manager (LightDM) -> Desktop Environment (Cinnamon) -> Window Manager (Muffin, fallback Marco)

[Unclefred]

It's OK. Thank-you. we can call this one solved, now.