We asked you to send in the best Cinnamon desktop themes you could find.
And you did just that.
One week, hundreds of nominations, and a hearty helping of opinion later, we finally share the five Cinnamon themes that received the most nominations.
For more details on the desktop environment check out the Cinnamon article on Wikipedia.
The 5 Best Cinnamon Themes (As Chosen By You)
Below sit the five most popular Cinnamon themes as based on your nominations (we’d love to list every theme you suggested but we have to be strict).
For our screenshots we used the same GTK+ theme (Orchis) and icon pack (Captiva) and had the same two Cinnamon UI elements (Menu, Calendar) on show. The images show the latest stable release of Cinnamon (v2.8) running on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.
How to Install Cinnamon Themes
The themes listed below can be installed in one of two ways. The first is by searching for the theme in the online section of the Cinnamon theme chooser: Menu > Settings > Themes > Add/Install Themes… > Online.
For themes on Github, DeviantArt or GNOME-Look you will need to download the theme archive, extract it, and place it inside the ~/.themes folder hidden in your Home directory.
Zukitwo Cinnamon
Zukitwo Cinnamon is a flat, airy skin for the Cinnamon desktop shell. It has a light grey and soft blue color palette, and uses transparency effects for the panel.
The theme is the work of designer ~zagortenay333 (a name you’ll see elsewhere in this rundown) and is derived from the GNOME Shell theme of the same name.
The theme isn’t available to install through the Cinnamon Spices website (the repo that the desktop theme picker pulls from). It is available on Github.
Minty
Minty by Satya164 is a glossy, glassy, green wonder that’s well suited to the Linux Mint distribution. The transparent menu and panel are balanced well by the use of freegreen and white.
While the theme hasn’t been updated since 2012 (!) it works fine in the latest Cinnamon builds.
If you’re not a fan of the green highlights but like what you see check out Minty Colors, which is also available to install through Cinnamon System Settings > Themes > Add/Install Themes > Online.
Windows 10 Light Theme
The idea of mimicking another operating system’s look isn’t new. The flexibility of Linux means it’s easy to do.
Themes aping Android, Mac and iOS were among the suggestions you sent in, but it was a Windows 10 inspired theme that suckered up the most votes.
Although based on the style of of Microsoft’s latest OS it’s not a total UI mimic. In fact, without a matching Windows 10 GTK and icon a casual over-the-shoulder glancer would have a hard time guessing it’s based on Windows.
The theme works with Cinnamon 2.6 or later and its author recommends using the configurable-menu applet for a more ‘Windows-y’ look.
Ideal for those who want some of the Windows 10 style but without the Windows 10 headache.
Tomcat
Tomcat’s mix of battleship grey, drop shadows and raised elements tickles the design tastes of our readers.
“[It is] based mainly on default Cinnamon theme and nice GNOME Shell Atolm theme,” Radek71, the theme designer, explains in the theme description.
Try it out for yourself couldn’t be easier as it’s available to install through the Cinnamon themes picker. Just search ‘Tomcat’.
Numix Cinnamon
No list of themes would be complete without Numix. Before the call for contenders even opened it was already on the list.
It’s, arguably, and justifiably, the best known Linux theme since elementary and Faenza. Numix has it all: colour, angles, options, icons, GTK themes, GNOME shell themes, Plank themes and even Android themes!
There are several different Numix themes listed on the Linux Mint theme site, and not all entries were specific in which of these they were nominating.
We rolled with ~zagortenay333‘s, which is available to download from DeviantArt. It’s the best of Numix (and will look best when used with the Numix GTK+ theme and Numix icon pack).
Vote For Your Favourite
There you have it. The five top rated themes according to you. Now all that’s left is to pick a winner
The results of this post are based on reader nominations. If your favorite theme didn’t make the cut it’s not because we didn’t like it but because it didn’t garner enough nominations.