The article provides an analysis of improvements in Linux Mint 21.1 XFCE.

1. Linux Mint 21.1 has a new look.

The operating system looks cleaner and more modern. It is also more customizable and comes with a variety of themes.

1.1. All windows have rounded corners.

1.2. Large icons when switching active applications by pressing Alt+TAB

1.3 Windows can be divided between two three or more monitors and you can designate which ones will open on the main monitor.

1.4 New desktop icon sets
Application icons look fresher.

1.5 Windows cast shadows on the Desktop.

1.6 Internet browsers and the initial login page ("welcome screen") use a new triangle mouse pointer called "Bibata".

This pointer can be set in other windows (Start - Settings - Mouse and touchpad - Theme).

2. Desk

2.1 Changed the set of desktop icons

The desktop has been tidied up and now only shows the main items: the install icon, items you drop on the desktop, files placed in ~/Desktop, and attachments.

This is what the icons for removable devices and the Recycle Bin look like:

Also (from the desktop) the “Computer”, “Trash” and “Network” icons were removed.

This "improvement" can be canceled, i.e. Enable system desktop icons that are disabled when upgrading from version 20.3 to 21.1:Start - Settings - Desktop (change wallpaper and desktop manager behavior):

Enable:

You can enable two additional icons -File system and Home directory in the menu
Start - Settings Manager (the icon below is indicated by an arrow)

In Control Center, select "Desktop"

-> Icons -> Standard icons.

In this menu you can disable or enable icons for removable devices.

2.2 Added and changed Desktop icon themes:

Icon themes for a change icon colors can be changed to
Start - Settings - Appearance - Icons.

We removed the use of accent colors on the panel and menus and switched to yellow folders. So now you only see a little bit of green. We don't need to look green to be Linux Mint. We're Linux Mint no matter what, and we want to use a color that looks attractive out of the box.

An example of the appearance of the butts from the new theme "Mint-Y-Grey":

Appearance with the old "Mint-Y-Legacy" theme.

3. Colors (theme)

In the first launch window, which can also be launched from the menu "Start" -
"Settings" - "Welcome Screen", you can set the color accent of the Desktop environment.

and set with one click on the switch dark theme.

restore colors - for example, return a light color theme "Adwaita", or change to one of the new design themes,
you can in the menu:"Start" - "Settings" - "Appearance" - "Style",
or in the menu Start - Settings Manager - Appearance - Style
(This one setting is the same thing, but is called in two different ways).

Interestingly, when you specify a new set of colors, the theme changes instantly in Linux Mint.
The user can choose between new themes or the familiar Legacy.
For example, Mint-Y-Legacy-Darker:

Comparison of the color theme with Legacy themes:

It can be seen that the Legacy theme is calmer and more restrained, while the new one has higher color saturation.

Desktop background color in Linux Mint
You can also set the background color and background image in two ways:
1) Start - Settings - Desktop
2) Start - Settings Manager - Desktop.

The desktop color is applied if no wallpaper is specified (incorrect translation "icons" - "no icons" instead of "wallpaper" - "no wallpaper").

You can also easily create a vertical or horizontal gradient for your desktop background.

Result:

Desktop backgrounds are contained in the following folders:
/usr/share/backgrounds
/usr/share/wallpapers

Wallpapers can be taken from both this version, "Vera", and from previous versions of Linux Mint "Sarah", "Sylvia", "Ulyssa", "Uma":
*wallpapers.zip- Linux Mint wallpaper archive (217 MiB).

Window Manager and Window Composition

By default, Linux Mint 21.1 uses the XFCE desktop environment with a lightweight window manager Metacity based on the GTK library.

The system desktop panels are served by the xfce-panel application:

Special beauties, for example, animated window transitions, as in Compiz, not here in Metacity.
To temporarily enable jelly-like windows, you need to run the command at the command prompt

compiz --replace

Compiz is configured in the menu Start - Settings - CompizConfig Settings Manager, where you can enable, for example, the effect "Viscous windows", etc.

To go back to metacity, enter the command in the Terminal

metacity --replace

The metacity manager has no settings. But it can be changed to the xfwm4 or Compiz window manager.

How to enable matacity, xfwm4 or compiz permanently?

Start - Settings - Desktop Settings

Enabled by default "Metacity + window composition"

Can be changed to "xwm4 + window composition".

Two programs are responsible for setting up windows in the XFCE shell:

1) xfwm4 window manager settings are available in the menu "Desktop Settings", or from the command line:

xfwm4-settings

Here in the xfwm4 settings you can set the theme of the window titles (color, title alignment method) and whether the window will snap to other windows.

2) Advanced settings of the xfwm4 window manager are available by clicking the button "Fine tuning Xfwm4" by the button next to it, or using the command in the Terminal:

xfwm4-tweaks-settings

Also, the window manager setting affects the so-called "screen tearing" - random frame breaks during video playback, when the 25 Hz video frame rate does not coincide with the 60 Hz display refresh. In this case, an additional component helps for video:Comption. You can select it there:xfwm4+Compton:

4. Start Menu

In the Start menu, on the right side, there is a tree of menu items and sub-items for launching Programs.
On the left side of the Start menu, you can add programs to your Favorites (right-click).

Result of adding the fldigi program to Favorites:

Sources:

• New Features of Linux Mint 21.1 Xfce - Improvements
• Linux Mint 21.1 Xfce Edition - Installation