Linux Mint is great out of the box, which is one of the reasons why it is so popular among novice Linux users. But Linux Mint is also powerful, flexible, fast, robust, and customizable, making it popular among established Linux users as well. Cinnamon, Linux Mint’s flagship, and most popular desktop environment, can be further expanded with various components. In this final article as part of my Cinnamon Spices series, which is part of my complete Linux Mint 22 tutorial series, I will explain how to use and set up Extensions in Linux Mint Cinnamon.
Content of this article
- What are Extensions
- How to find Extensions
- How to install and enable Extensions
- How to configure Extensions
- Some useful Extensions
Article information
- Linux Mint 22 Cinnamon
What are Extensions
Linux Mint is a fantastic Linux distribution. On the one hand, it is simple to use and easy to learn, and on the other hand extremely powerful, flexible, and adaptable. It offers something for everyone. Especially the desktop environment Cinnamon, one of the three desktop environments available for Linux Mint, is wonderful to use and can be adapted to your preferences in many ways.
Some of the additional available components for customizing Linux Mint’s Cinnamon desktop environment are Themes, Applets, Desklets, Actions, and Extensions, which are all part of the official Cinnamon Spices repository, which offers numerous add-ons for Linux Mint Cinnamon for free. In previous articles, I explained how to find, install, set up, and use Themes, Applets, Desklets, and Actions. In this final article, it is time to focus on Extensions.
If you have not read the other articles yet, or you want a refresher, it’s helpful to have a clear understanding of the differences between Themes, Applets, Desklets, Actions, and Extensions.
- Theme: The main purpose of a Theme is to customize the look and feel of your desktop environment. Via a simple download of an extra theme, you can quickly change your desktop completely and have it match your visual wishes.
- Applet: Applets are small ingenious additional functionalities that are reflected in your panel.
- Desklet: Desklets are applications with a very small but dedicated piece of functionality that are built to be placed and visible on your desktop.
- Action: Actions will be part of the Nemo file manager’s right-click context menu, and are specific options available or not depending on the context, like when selecting a photo file it gives you other options than selecting an iso file.
- Extension: Extensions are components that modify or extend the way Cinnamon works.
So the main purpose of Extensions is to modify or extend the way the Cinnamon desktop environment works. You can simply and quickly add and set up new Extensions. At the moment of writing, there are 32 extensions available via the Cinnamon Spices website, or directly via the System Settings of Linux Mint. With these extensions, you can add a diversity of additional functionalities, like dynamic wallpapers, a Magic Lamp effect to minimize and unminimize windows, mouse click effects, custom shadows, opacify windows, and a customizable workspace scroller.
How to find Extensions
It’s pretty easy to find new Extensions. Extensions can be installed and set up from within Cinnamon itself or can be found via the Cinnamon Spices website. Currently, there are 32 Extensions for you available, free to use.
Built-in Extensions app
Linux Mint Cinnamon has an application available out-of-the-box specifically for adding, maintaining, and removing Extensions. The Extensions application can be found via the application launcher in the Linux Mint main menu.
1) In the panel, click on the Linux Mint logo at the bottom left to open the Linux Mint main menu and search for Extensions via the search bar. You can also open the System Settings and search there for Extensions. In the screen that opens, you will see two main parts, namely Manage and Download.
2) Click on Manage.
In Manage you will see an overview of already installed Extensions. Initially, it is empty.
3) Click on Download.
The following screen is displayed:
Here you see an overview of available Extensions. You can sort Extensions here in several ways, such as by Popularity, Name, and Date. You can also sort so that the Installed or Upgradable Extensions become visible. You also have a search area here. At the bottom of the screen, you see 4 icons, for more Information, Uninstall, Updates, and Refresh.
4) When you select an Extension, you can click on the Information icon at the bottom.
Now a new webpage in your standard browser will be opened. This is a page as part of the Cinnamon Spices website, which we will discuss in the next section.
5) Feel free to browse the available extensions in the Extensions app and see if there is anything that would appeal to you. When you like something, just click on the Install button at the right of an Extension.
Cinnamon Spices website
Next to the Extensions application in Linux Mint Cinnamon, you may like it more to have a kind of app store where you can not only find Extensions, but also Themes, Applets, Actions, and Desklets, which I discuss in separate articles. Well, there is the very nice Cinnamon Spices website, which was briefly mentioned in the previous section, as it is used as the backend for the Extensions app.
1) Go to https://cinnamon-spices.linuxmint.com/
2) Click on Extensions.
Here you can search, and choose between Popular and Latest.
3) Click on an Extension to see all the details, like the description, documentation, and also comments from users. Here you also see buttons that bring you to for example open issues and the product website.
How to install and enable Extensions
I prefer using the built-in Extensions app because it offers a simple, fast, and visual way to download, install, and activate the Extensions.
Let’s for example try to install the gTile Extension.
1) In the panel, click on the Linux Mint logo at the bottom left to open the Linux Mint main menu and search for Extensions via the search bar.
2) Select the Download section.
3) Search for gTile.
4) Select the gTile Extension and click on the Install button at the most right of the Extension.
After the download and installation are successful, you see a checkmark on the left side of the Extension icon and name.
5) Now go to the Manage section.
In the list, you see the new gTile Extension.
6) To enable the extension, select the new gTile Extension and click at the bottom of the screen on the Add sign.
How to configure Extensions
Some of the Extensions can be adjusted if the gear icon on the right side of the name of an Extension is active in the Extensions manager.
Here you see a gear icon on the right-hand side, which brings you to the Configuration screen of this Desklet.
Every extension has its own settings and way of working. For example for the gTile extension from the previous paragraph, you can use the keyboard command Super (Windows key) + G to open gTile, but you can also change it to your preference. You can also change the behavior in gTile, like enabling animations, auto-close, monitor aspect ratio, and UI centering.
Some useful Extensions
There are quite a few Extensions out there, so I can imagine that you don’t just know which Extensions are the best, the most useful, or the coolest. So here are some of my favorite Extensions for you to start with.
gTile
In the Cinnamon desktop environment, we have the built-in option to simply snap our windows to the side, the top, or the bottom of your workspace. This is very convenient if you want to quickly and effectively (re)organize your different windows, to be more productive. The gTile extension builds on this and offers many more options for effective window tiling.
Here you have different options, like adjusting the tiling grid between 2×2, 3×2, 4×4, and 6×6, enabling or disabling animations, enabling or disabling auto-close, auto tile main and list, and auto tile two lists.
Mouse Shake Zoom Extension
The Mouse Shake Zoom Extension is a simple but very useful extension for those who sometimes don’t know where their mouse pointer is. Just quickly move your mouse around and your pointer enlarges, so you can see the pointer position more easily.
Mouse Click Effects
The Mouse Click Effects extension is very useful for different purposes. First of all you can use it for the same purpose as the Mouse Shake Zoom Extension to simply see where your pointer is. But if you for example are creating explanatory recordings for YouTube videos or courses, it is for visibility purposes better to clearly show where you click on the screen. With this extension, different types of highlights can be shown around your mouse pointer the moment you click on a button or somewhere else on the screen.
Final words
That’s it. There is so much possible with Linux Mint. If you just want to install Linux Mint and use it as it is offered out-of-the-box, you can without a problem. But if you would like to adjust the system to your own liking, that is also very possible. Extensions are just one of the types of solutions available for Linux Mint to supplement the base system with valuable little functional applications.
If you want to read about the other Cinnamon Spices, as part of my Linux Mint Tutorial Series, click on the links below:
- Cinnamon Spices – How to use Themes in Linux Mint Cinnamon
- Cinnamon Spices – How to use Applets in Linux Mint Cinnamon
- Cinnamon Spices – How to use Desklets in Linux Mint Cinnamon
- Cinnamon Spices – How to use Actions in Linux Mint Cinnamon
About the free Linux Mint tutorial series
Through a number of short Linux beginner tutorials, I want to offer a simple starter guide for those who have never done anything with Linux Mint and do not know exactly where to start and where to find the necessary information. In an accessible way, it guides you through among others the principles of Linux, finding and downloading a Linux distribution, creating a live medium, finding software, installing software, executing updates, and making sure your internal and external devices work properly. This article is part of my Linux Mint tutorial series. You can find an overview of the complete tutorial series via the link below:
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