it means the following:
1> Cinnamon is immature. If enterprise dont use a particular desktop environment it will be a long time before it becomes usable.
2> The underlying OS is not well put together.
3> Drivers, most likely if your OS breaks when installing proprietary drivers it means something is wrong with OS build...which itself means many things
kernel being used also makes difference. If you get an OS working with prop drivers then that is SUCCESS.
4> Most linux and BSD software being used for real world scenarios are 'thrash' tested, which means they must not fail in the most extreme circumstances... Theemahn does it with Ultimate...on Arch which is rolling you have to do it..whereas the Debian guys have all the hardware they can get their hands on.....with Gentoo you have to make the glue before you can build the OS from the bottom up. .
Its a skill that takes years to develop and you must have a Nose(literally) that can smell something is wrong and troubleshoot your way through....if problem arises your best help is Google search, without pretense.
Something that looks good and works well on one system, will spell disaster on someone else's.
If icon size keeps changing or you get a disarrayed desktop its most likely a driver issue. Drivers need to work in tandem with Display manager, Desktop environment and compositor all together and in harmony...