Can You Run MATE and XFCE Apps on Cinnamon?

If you have the Cinnamon desktop environment, can you run MATE and XFCE applications directly, or do you need to install additional components specifically for those applications?

General Compatibility

Generally, if you are using the Cinnamon desktop environment, you can run MATE and XFCE applications directly without the need for additional installation steps. This is due to the fact that most Linux distributions come with the necessary libraries and dependencies that allow applications from different desktop environments to coexist and run.

What to Keep in Mind

While it is possible to run MATE and XFCE applications on Cinnamon without additional steps, there are a few considerations:

Dependencies

Some MATE or XFCE applications may require specific libraries that are not included by default in all distributions. If you encounter any issues when trying to run a particular application, you might need to install these dependencies. For example, you might need to install additional GTK libraries or specific versions of libraries that the application requires.

Look and Feel

While the applications will run, they may not integrate perfectly with the Cinnamon theme. They might look slightly different or have different behavior compared to native Cinnamon applications. This can sometimes be mitigated by ensuring that the application is using the expected libraries and dependencies.

Package Management

Ensure that you have the appropriate package manager for your distribution to install any missing dependencies if needed. For example, on Ubuntu-based systems, you can use apt to install MATE or XFCE applications. Here are the installation commands for MATE and XFCE applications:

Install MATE Desktop Environment: sudo apt install mate-desktop-environment Install XFCE4 Applications: sudo apt install xfce4

These commands will install the full desktop environments, but you can also install individual applications if you prefer. Just replace mate-desktop-environment or xfce4 with the specific application package name you want to install.

Examples and Observations

On my Chromebook, I run GalliumOS, which has an XFCE desktop. However, I don’t like the file manager Thunar, so I run Nautilus instead. This is a prime example of the flexibility that Linux offers in terms of desktop environments and system management.

Most applications work seamlessly across the Cinnamon, MATE, and XFCE desktop environments. Their main graphical “engine” is GTK, which is the same as GNOME uses. Consequently, most programs running on these environments use mostly the same libraries to display their content. MATE and XFCE both use GTK2, and Cinnamon uses GTK3, yet there is a lot of backward compatibility between the versions. This means that it is actually very easy to install programs built for one on another, and they tend to have no issues whatsoever, even looking as if they were made for that desktop environment (DE).

It is when an entirely different graphics engine or library set is used that things can become a bit tricky. Installing a program built for KDE on one of these desktop environments would then require the Qt libraries, and it might indeed look a bit off. However, this is not a significant challenge because Linux handles installs through its package managers. When you install a program, it reads through the requirements, including dependent libraries. If something is needed and not yet installed, it adds it to the list for download. This means that you can click install on something like Kate, and if it needs the Qt libraries, these will be downloaded in addition to Kate itself—all installed from one single click, just like choosing a program specifically made for your desktop environment, albeit with more downloads and installations.

In rare cases, there might be a clash. However, in over 20 years of using Linux, I have only encountered one such issue where a library from Ubuntu's old Unity desktop clashed with the KDE Plasma desktop's alternate library, causing both to fail. I needed to uninstall that library through a command line. In all other cases, everything ran smoothly.

The flexibility and compatibility of Linux and its desktop environments make it a versatile and powerful ecosystem for users who may want to mix and match different applications and libraries to suit their needs.