Review – Ubuntu Cinnamon 25.04
by Adam Hunt
Released with the other Ubuntu flavors on 17 April, 2025, Ubuntu Cinnamon 25.04 brings a new version of the Cinnamon desktop from Linux Mint and some changes in the application line-up, too. Over time, it is slowly culling the very long default application list and that can only be a good move.
Ubuntu Cinnamon 25.04 is the 12th version of this distribution and the fifth since becoming an official Ubuntu flavor.
This is the middle of the three interim releases that make up this development cycle which will result in the next long term support (LTS) version. That will be Ubuntu Cinnamon 26.04 LTS and is expected in April 2026. As an interim release Ubuntu Cinnamon 25.04 has nine months of support, running until January 2026.
Installation
I downloaded the ISO file from the official website using Transmission BitTorrent. Once I had the file, I did an SHA256 sum check on it from the command line. This simple check is always a good idea, just to make sure the ISO file is uncorrupted.
This ISO file was 4.8 GB in size which is actually 200 MB (4%) smaller than the last release, Ubuntu Cinnamon 24.10, which was 5.0 GB. This is the second release in a row to shave 200 MB off the ISO file, so Ubuntu Cinnamon is shrinking over time. I have some information on where that extra space was saved, too.
I dropped the Ubuntu Cinnamon 25.04 ISO file onto a USB stick equipped with Ventoy 1.1.05 and booted it up for testing from there. Ubuntu Cinnamon is not officially listed as Ventoy-supported, but it worked fine.
System requirements
Ubuntu Cinnamon does not list any system requirements but it is probably safe to assume that it is the same as Ubuntu 25.04 which would be a minimum of: 2 GHz dua- core processor 4 GB of RAM
That recommended 4 GB of RAM is probably a bit minimal if you are doing web browsing here in 2025. 8 GB is probably a more realistic minimum.
New
This release uses the Cinnamon 6.4.8 desktop, an update from the last few releases, which employed 6.0.4. This new desktop version includes some overall user interface modernization. Also, the nightlight configuration is now in the display settings, the main menu can be controlled using the number pad arrow keys, the power applet supports more devices and their labels, and the user's profile picture can now be displayed with the user applet.
Cinnamon desktop components which have been upgraded include the Cinnamon Control Center 6.4.1, Cinnamon Screensaver 6.4.1 which adds delays in five and ten second increments, Cinnamon Settings Daemon 6.4.2 which has a new audio device selection dialog box, the Muffin 6.4.1 window manager, and CJS 6.40 (which are some Mozilla-based javascript bindings for the Cinnamon platform), which still uses mozjs115.
As with all the Ubuntu 25.04 flavors, the included Linux kernel is now version 6.14 and the systemd initialization system is version 257.4. Because Ubuntu Cinnamon has only been around since 19.10, all its releases have used systemd from the start.
The Yaru-Cinnamon theme has received some updates as well.
One thing that is not new in this release is that the live session version of Ubuntu Cinnamon 25.04 will not mount any drives, including USB drives, just like in the last two releases, Ubuntu Cinnamon 24.10 and 24.04 LTS. This prevents using it as a rescue disk, and also makes doing screenshots more complicated. The screenshots for this review had to be uploaded to a cloud service as a .zip file and downloaded to my laptop, rather than simply putting them on a USB stick. Most of the other Ubuntu flavors (other than Xubuntu 25.04) do not lock drives out of live sessions, as it serves no useful purpose.
As far as reducing the size of the ISO file goes, the release notes state, “some extra, unnecessary packages were removed, most notably language packs. You need to install only the language pack of your choice. This decreases the image size a little”. There are also some other places where space has been saved, covered below under settings and applications.
Settings
Ubuntu Cinnamon 25.04 introduces some changes to the amount of user customization compared to the last release. There are now three different mouse pointer themes (down by one); 32 window color themes (down by three); 26 icon themes (down by seven) and 32 desktop themes which set the panel colors (up by four). These theme revisions probably contribute to reducing the ISO download size.
Since this release is code-named “Plucky Puffin”, there is also a new puffin-themed default wallpaper. The number of wallpapers provided has changed over the last three releases from 43 in 24.04 LTS, down to 15 in 24.10, and now up to 48 in this release which includes the reintroduction of some previously deleted Debian logo wallpapers. At first glance, it may seem unusual to include Debian wallpapers but there is some legitimacy here. Ubuntu Cinnamon is ultimately a Debian derivative, since Ubuntu is based on Debian.
As in past versions of the Cinnamon desktop, in 6.4.8 the bottom panel still can be adjusted in size over a large width range and the icons on the panel automatically size to fit. The menu continues to be adjustable in size by mouse drag from its default size to a much larger or much smaller size.
The range of customization provided is extensive and gives a lot of user control as to how the resulting desktop looks.
Applications
Some of the applications included with Ubuntu Cinnamon 25.04 are: Archive Manager (File Roller) 44.5 archiver Blueman 2.4.4 Bluetooth controller Brasero 3.12.3 CD/DVD burner* Cheese 44.1 webcam* Cinnamon 6.4.8 desktop environment CUPS 2.4.12 printing system Document Scanner (Simple Scan) 46.0 optical scanner* Document Viewer 48.0 (Evince) PDF viewer Firefox 137.0.2 web browser Deja Dup 45.2 back-ups* GDebi 0.9.5.8 package installer GIMP 3.0.2 image editor GNOME Calculator 48.0.2 calculator GNOME Calendar 48.1 desktop calendar GNOME Disks 46.1 disk manager* GNOME Software 48.1 package management system GNOME System Monitor 48.0 system resource monitor GNOME Terminal 3.56.0 terminal emulator GNOME Videos 43.1 (totem) video player GNote 48.0 note taking application Gparted 1.6.0 partition editor* gThumb 3.12.7 image viewer Hexchat 2.16.2 IRC client* Image Viewer 47.0 (Eye of Gnome) image viewer* LibreOffice 25.2.2.2 office suite Muffin 6.4.1 window manager Nemo 6.4.5 file manager Pidgin 2.14.14 IRC client Pipewire 1.2.7 audio controller Remmina 1.4.39 remote desktop client Rhythmbox 3.4.8 music player Shotwell 0.32.10 photo organizer Sound Juicer 3.40.0 CD ripper* Synaptic 0.91.5 package manager Systemd 257.4 init system Text Editor (gedit) 48.1 text editor Thunderbird 128.9.1 ESR email client Transmission 4.0.6 bit torrent client* * indicates same application version as used in Ubuntu Cinnamon 24.10 supplied as a Snap, so version depends on the upstream package manager *** only present in the live session version, not in the normal installation.
As can be seen from the small number of single asterisks, a lot of the applications have received new versions, with many of those from the newest GNOME 48 desktop.
There have been several changes in the default application mix provided this time. The release notes state that the Alacritty terminal emulator has been removed in favor of GNOME Terminal, which was already included, thus removing one application redundancy.
Not announced, but gone anyway, is the Image Magick command line image editor. This was redundant to the much more user-friendly GIMP image editor and I am not sure what the user case was for including it in the first place.
These two removals contribute to a net reduction in size for the ISO file, too.
Swapped out is the neofetch hardware and software configuration display command line application, which is replaced with fastfetch instead, for whatever practical value either of those have to any users.
Ubuntu Cinnamon uses the Cinnamon desktop's own Nemo file manager, which is now updated to version 6.4.5. It includes a new “actions” sub-menu. Since it is not configured for bulk file renaming, a standalone bulk file renamer, such as GPRename is recommended.
Ubuntu Cinnamon 25.04 includes the LibreOffice 25.2.2.2 office suite which is complete except for the LibreOffice Base database program. It is probably the least-used part of LibreOffice but it can be installed if needed.
Ubuntu Cinnamon also comes with19 games, probably more than any other Ubuntu flavor. These are: Aisleriot Solitaire, Five-or-more, Four-in-a-row, GNOME 2048, GNOME chess, GNOME Klotski, GNOME Mahjongg, GNOME Mines, GNOME Nibbles, GNOME Robots, GNOME Sudoku, GNOME Taquin, GNOME Tetravex, Iagno (Reversi), Hitori, Lights Off, Quadrapassel, Swell Foop and Tali. That is a lot of games! Again, I am not sure of the user case for so many games to be included by default.
Even though it is being slowly reduced over each recent release, the list of default applications in Ubuntu Cinnamon is still extremely long. It includes just about anything a desktop user could want, except perhaps a video editor. There are also a lot of duplicate applications still included, like two IRC clients, two image viewers and two software package managers, plus those 19 listed games, as well. There is a “minimal installation” option which now additionally omits the Evince PDF viewer, GNOME Disks, GNOME Font Viewer, GNOME Photos, the Nemo Fileroller (archive manager) extension, and the Synaptic package manager. I am not sure if it is easier to install the minimal version and add what you want, or use the regular installation and remove everything you don’t want. Hopefully, over time, the regular installation will get slimmer, with fewer redundancies.
Conclusions
Overall Ubuntu Cinnamon is a great distribution that is being slowly refined with each release, while avoiding any major changes.
Ubuntu Cinnamon 25.04 is a good release with some evolutionary improvements over 24.10 and this probably indicates that we can expect further small updates in the last interim release in October 2025, before the next LTS arrives. That LTS will be Ubuntu Cinnamon 26.04 LTS, expected in April 2026.
External links
Official website: https://ubuntucinnamon.org/
Biography:
Adam Hunt started using Ubuntu in 2007. He lives in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, in a house with no Windows.