Cinnamon’s appearance outside the Mint distro often disappoints users, as its default visual style can seem outdated and unrefined in many distributions. Mint’s focus on the Mint-Y theme, which offers a more polished and modern look, contributes to this perception. The default Cinnamon theme is often left unchanged and serves primarily as a fallback option for troubleshooting, receiving little attention from theme developers. Consequently, users of distributions that don’t implement Mint-Y may have a less appealing experience.

Distributions are expected to customize desktop environments to suit their style, but many either stick with default settings, focus on other desktop environments, or neglect to invest in enhancing Cinnamon’s appearance. As a result, Cinnamon is often overshadowed by more visually refined options like GNOME or KDE Plasma. An update aims to improve the out-of-the-box experience by making Cinnamon’s appearance more polished, regardless of the distribution it’s running on. This update represents a step toward enhancing Cinnamon’s visual identity and may potentially increase its appeal beyond Mint.