Cinnarch preview

Cinnarch is a desktop Linux distribution based on Arch Linux and using the Cinnamon as the default and only supported desktop environment. Like Arch, it follows a rolling-release development model, which is an install-once-and-update-forever model that ensures that an installed system will never need to be reinstalled, even when a new version becomes available, except for those instances when, for one reason or the other, you just need to reinstall.

The project was started in the middle of last year and has been active since. This is my first look at this distribution, and from what I’ve seen, it is a beautiful distribution.

Here are just a few screen shots from a live system.

As with most distributions, you can test the Live system or install it on you hard drive without stopping at the Live desktop. Cinnarch offers two installation methods – CLI Installer and Graphical Installer. The graphical installer, called Cnchi, is still under development. That’s why it is not selectable in this window. You may read the latest news and some screen shots of it here.

CLI Installer is actually a mouse-friendly ncurses installation program. This screen shot shows the options available.

The plain partitioning option (Auto-prepare), that is, no LVM, RAID or encryption configured, is very easy to use, even for new users.

Cinnarch has a graphical package manager called PacmanXG.

Here’s the main interface.

And here are the options available.

The package installer window could still use some work to make it more user-friendly.

The default desktop.

The desktop showing the menu.

The desktop with the menu showing installed Internet applications.

No Office suite or application is installed, just an installer for LibreOffice.

Cinnamon desktop Settings options.

You may download 32- and 64-bit installation images of Cinnarch here.