How do I install the Cinnamon Desktop?
Cinnamon is a Gnome-Shell desktop fork. It is not strictly a Gnome-2 interface, although the developers aims are laudable - to produce a simpler more traditional desktop interface.
Development seems to be rapid. It is usable and certainly fun to play with with a growing number of extensions to install to extend the base installation.
How to install
for 13.04 & 13.10, 14.10 & later
Cinnamon is now available in the Universe repository
cinnamon
Alternatively - from the command-line:
sudo apt-get install cinnamon-desktop-environment
Since it is in this repository, it is community maintained and thus it is up to the community to update the packages as and when new releases and bug-fixes are released.
For Ubuntu 14.04, there is currently no cinnamon packages in the Universe repository.
Via PPA for 11.10 and later
EDIT: 22/05/2014 - the PPA ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-stable has been removed or hidden from public view. I contacted the maintainer and the following is their reply:
The stable PPA is indeed no longer being maintained.
The nightly PPA is being kept for development purposes and should not be used on any sort of production machine (it can and will break at any time).
To be honest, I don't have an alternative to offer Ubuntu users at the moment, apart from switching to a distribution that does support Cinnamon. There are many such distributions out there, and I'm only hoping for someone to (finally) step up on Ubuntu's side to provide proper packages to its users.
EDIT: 25/04/14 - Two alternative PPA's have now been created - both claiming to enable the stable version of Cinnamon for Ubuntu users. I cannot vouch for the veracity of these PPAs
Option 1: 12.04 & 14.04 users only:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tsvetko.tsvetkov/cinnamon
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cinnamon
Option 2: 14.04 users only:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lestcape/cinnamon
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cinnamon
As an alternative you may wish to consider the unstable nightly automatic builds - please note Gwendal's warning above:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-nightly
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cinnamon
Option 3: In addition, you can also install cinnamon 2.2 in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and derivatives by adding Linux Mint 17 Qiana repository in your system.
Open file /etc/apt/sources.list with nano command:
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
Add the following line at the end of file /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ qiana main upstream import
Update the repository then install the authentication key
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linuxmint-keyring
Update the repository again and install Cinnamon 2.2:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cinnamon
After installation
Logout and select the Cinnamon session:
Enter you password and you'll see the Cinnamon desktop
... showing the traditional start type menu and applet design from Gnome-2
Extensions/Applets
The Cinnamon desktop uses the same philosophy as Gnome-Shell - functionality can be added to by installing Extensions & Applets.
Cinnamon uses its own Settings tool.
Cinnamon Settings
Cinnamon Applets
Similar to gnome-shell extensions - you can install applets from a dedicated Mint website.
12.04 vs 11.10
I contacted the Ubuntu Cinnamon PPA owner - Gwendal LE BIHAN - 2nd April - this is the reply:
We are currently in the process of finalizing the migration of cinnamon to gnome3.4. The PPA will be updated with precise packages as soon as this is done.
Those packages should be available within a week or 2, and definitely before precise's release.
Note that no more releases of cinnamon will be available for other versions of Ubuntu, since the gnome3.4 libraries are not available on versions of Ubuntu prior to precise.
Precise builds are now available in the PPA and can be installed per the linked answer.
From now on, the Oneiric packages in the PPA will be fixed at v1.4. Thus if you are an Oneiric (11.10) user, your upgrade route should be via the 12.04 distro route, followed by reactivating or adding the PPA.
Alternatively, you may wish to consider one of the other answers to the question.
PPA for 12.04 (nightly build)
Packages for Precise are now available on the nightly PPA :
The stable PPA will take a little more time before it gets updated, any feedback about the nightly packages will be very welcome.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-nightly
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cinnamon