Ubuntu / Linux news and application reviews.

Hide Files And Folders In Nemo Or Nautilus Without Renaming With This Extension

| Date: February 07, 2017 | View Comments | Tags: extension, linux mint, nautilus, nemo, ubuntu

I recently stumbled upon Nautilus Hide, an extension that adds a context menu option to hide / unhide files or folders without renaming them, and I decided to port it to Nemo file manager.

The extension hides files or folders without renaming them (without adding a dot prefix or a tilde suffix), by adding them to a file called ".hidden", which can be used by most major file managers to hide files.

Alternative System Monitor Applet For LXDE, Xfce, And MATE: Multiload-ng

| Date: August 15, 2016 | View Comments | Tags: applet, customization, linux mint, lubuntu, lxde, mate, ubuntu mate, xfce, xubuntu

Multiload-ng is a GTK2 graphical system monitor for the Xfce, LXDE, and MATE panels, forked from the old GNOME Multiload applet. It can also run in a standalone window.

Multiload system monitor Lubuntu LXDE

How To Get A Unity-Like HUD (Searchable Menu) In Xubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Linux Mint, More

| Date: June 24, 2016 | View Comments | Tags: customization, desktop environment, hud, linux mint, menu, tweaks, ubuntu mate, xubuntu

You're probably familiar with the Unity HUD, or Head-Up Display, which lets you search through and application's menu. Thanks to Rafael Bocquet's i3-hud-menu (and J.A. McNaughton's fork), you can use this menu search feature in pretty much any desktop environment (and in any Linux distribution in which you can install unity-gtk-module).

i3-hud-menu allows searching and navigating through an application's menu using the keyboard, with the use of dmenu (dmenu doesn't have mouse support by default). Here's how it looks like in Xubuntu 16.04:

i3-menu-hud Xubuntu

Mailnag Email Notifier 1.2 Released With New IMAP Folder Chooser, Updated Popup Menu Layout For GNOME Shell, More

| Date: March 25, 2016 | View Comments | Tags: cinnamon, email, email notifier, gnome, gnome shell, linux, linux mint, mailnag, ubuntu

Mailnag is a desktop-independent email notifier for Linux. The application supports both POP3 and IMAP servers and on email arrival, it performs various actions like visual or sound notifications, allows executing a script and more.

For Unity and GNOME Shell, there are two Mailnag extensions that further integrate the application with the desktop. 

Mailnag email notifier Unity
Mailnag Unity integration with Messaging Menu

Using the Mailnag Unity plugin, the application integrates with the Messaging Menu, while using the GNOME Shell plugin makes Mailnag available on the top panel, and it includes an email counter and popup menu (updated with the latest 1.2 version), which you can see below. 

Mailnag email notifier gnome shell
Mailnag GNOME Shell extension

Configure Qt5 Application Style, Icons, Fonts And More With Qt5ct

| Date: November 10, 2015 | View Comments | Tags: fix, linux, linux mint, qt, tweak, ubuntu

Unlike Qt4, Qt5 doesn't come with a configuration tool to allow setting the icon theme, fonts or the style and instead, it tries to use the settings from the running desktop environment.

This works well for KDE and GNOME (as well as Unity) but you may encounter issues under other desktop environments such as Xfce, Cinnamon, MATE and others (I'm not sure what Qt5 versions are affected by this, but it seems to be fixed in the latest Qt 5.5.1 according to THIS comment).

Here's an example (Audacious 3.7 using the Qt5 interface under Linux Mint 17.2 with Cinnamon):


Create A Custom Ubuntu Or Linux Mint ISO With PinguyBuilder

| Date: October 06, 2015 | View Comments | Tags: customization, linux, linux mint, pinguy os, pinguybuilder, ubuntu

PinguyBuilder is a script which allows creating a customized Live CD/Live USB (remaster) of Ubuntu or Linux Mint, that can be used either as a distributable ISO or as a backup.


The script is a fork of remastersys, created by the Pinguy OS developer and it's actually the tool used to build Pinguy OS.

Install LibreOffice 5.0 In Ubuntu Or Linux Mint Via PPA

| Date: August 10, 2015 | View Comments | Tags: libreoffice, linux mint, ubuntu

LibreOffice 5.0 was released last week and it includes numerous changes, such as UI improvements, better HiDPI support, new icon theme by KDE called Breeze, much improved Spreadsheet, better filters for documents and more. For a complete list of changes, see THIS page.

LIbreOffice 5.0

Global Menu Applet For Cinnamon Desktop: `Global Application Menu`

| Date: May 18, 2015 | View Comments | Tags: cinnamon, customization, global menu, linux, linux mint

A much requested applet was released to the Cinnamon Applets website recently: Global Application Menu.

Global Application Menu is a Cinnamon (the desktop environment used by default in Linux Mint Cinnamon edition) applet which allows displaying the application menu on the Cinnamon panel, either as a horizontal menu or as a menu button:

Cinnamon global menu

Install Oracle Java 9 In Ubuntu, Linux Mint Or Debian Via PPA Repository [JDK9]

| Date: February 25, 2015 | View Comments | Tags: debian, Java, jdk, linux, linux mint, ubuntu

Update April 2018: Oracle Java 9 has reached end of life and its binaries are no longer available to download, so the installer in this article won't work. Use Oracle Java 17 LTS instead.

Oracle Java logo
Update September 25, 2017: Oracle JDK 9 is now considered stable. There are currently only 64bit builds available in the PPA (no other builds are available for download).

Because I've received quite a few requests for this, you can now install the latest Oracle Java 9 (early access release) in all supported Ubuntu / Linux Mint versions, by using the WebUpd8 Oracle Java PPA.

Whisker Menu 1.5.0 Released, Install It In Xubuntu Or Linux Mint Xfce

| Date: February 19, 2015 | View Comments | Tags: application menu, linux mint, xfce, xubuntu

Whisker Menu 1.5.0 was released yesterday, bringing new options for setting the background opacity and displaying your profile picture, customizable recently used limit and more, as well as quite a few bug fixes.

WhiskerMenu Xubuntu

Use A Global Menu In Xubuntu Or Linux Mint Xfce Via A New TopMenu Plugin [PPA]

| Date: February 19, 2015 | View Comments | Tags: customization, global menu, linux mint, ubuntu, xfce, xubuntu

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Remember TopMenu? It's a standalone global menu which until recently only shipped with a MATE panel applet. Well, the TopMenu developer has added a new plugin, which allows using TopMenu under Xfce (Xfce Panel).
TopMenu Xfce Xubuntu

Quick File Previewer `Gloobus Preview` Updated To Work With Ubuntu 16.04, 15.10, 14.04 / Linux Mint 17.x

| Date: January 06, 2015 | View Comments | Tags: customization, gloobus preview, linux, linux mint, nautilus, nemo, ubuntu

Gloobus Preview is a quick file previewer which supports images, documents (pdf, odf, ods, etc.), source files, audio (mp3, wav, ogg and more), video (avi, ogg, mkv, flv, etc.), folders, archives, fonts, plain text files and more.

Gloobus Preview

The tool stopped working with recent Ubuntu versions but thanks to György Balló, you can now use Gloobus Preview in Ubuntu 14.04 and 14.10 (and obviously, other Linux distributions). Update: the PPA now also supports Ubuntu 16.04 and 15.10.

György has fixed various bugs and ported the application to use the latest technologies, along with some new features:

Get A Global Menu In MATE 1.8 Or 1.10 With TopMenu (PPA For Ubuntu And Linux Mint)

| Date: December 17, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: customization, global menu, linux, linux mint, mate, ubuntu, ubuntu mate

You may also want to see: Alternative Global Menu For MATE And Xfce: Vala Panel AppMenu [PPA]

One of the most requested MATE features is the addition of a global menu applet. However, such an applet (called TopMenu) already exists, though it's not available in any PPA and that prevents many Ubuntu / Linux Mint users from installing it.

To make it easier to install, I've packed TopMenu in a PPA for Ubuntu 14.04 (requires using Ubuntu MATE or upgrading to MATE 1.8 via PPA), 15.04 and 15.10 as well as Linux Mint 17 or 17.1 (MATE edition, obviously).

TopMenu is compatible with MATE 1.8 and 1.10 (a MATE 1.8/1.10 panel applet is shipped) and it fully supports GTK2. According to its homepage, GTK3 is partially supported (I didn't encounter any functionality issues in my test) and there are additional plugins for Qt4 and Mozilla apps (Firefox and Thunderbird). I should also mention that unlike Unity's AppMenu, TopMenu doesn't autohide and it's always visible when an application is focused.

Here are a few TopMenu screenshots taken under Ubuntu MATE:

TopMenu - GTK2 app

Linux Mint 17.1 `Rebecca` Available For Download

| Date: November 29, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: cinnamon, distro, linux mint, mate

Linux Mint 17.1 "Rebecca" has been released and is available as usual in two main editions: MATE and Cinnamon. Let's take a look at what's new!

Cinnamon 2.4 Brings A Smoother Experience, Improved Settings

| Date: November 03, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: cinnamon, desktop environment, linux, linux mint, ubuntu

Cinnamon 2.4 was released recently and it comes with improved settings, a redesigned toolbar for Nemo along with various other changes which bring a smoother overall experience.

Cinnamon 2.4

Folder Color Gets Caja And Nemo File Managers Support, Other Changes

| Date: October 29, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: caja, customization, folder color, linux, linux mint, nautilus, nemo, ubuntu

Folder Color is a file manager extension that allows you to easily change folders  icon color, useful for instance to organize your folders, make some important folder stand out, etc.

The latest Folder Color, which already supported Nautilus, adds support for Caja (the default MATE file manager) and Nemo (the default Cinnamon file manager):

Folder Color Caja
Folder Color for Caja file manager

Variety Wallpaper Changer 0.4.19 Adds Support For Panoramio, Fixes Flickr And Wallpapers.net Sources, More

| Date: July 15, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: customization, linux, linux mint, ubuntu, variety, wallpaper changer, wallpapers

Variety, a cool wallpaper changer that works with most desktop environments (KDE, LXDE, Xfce, Unity, GNOME Shell, Cinnamon or Pantheon), reached version 0.4.19 today, bringing support for Panoramio as image source, support for the Enlightenment desktop environment, fixes for Flickr and Wallpapers.net and more.

Variety Wallpaper Changer

For those not familiar with Variety, this is a wallpaper changer that automatically downloads wallpapers from sources such as Wallbase, Flickr, Wallpapers.net, Desktoppr, custom RSS feeds, NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day as well as World Sunlight Map: a live Earth wallpaper which changes throughout the day. Using it, you can get a new, beautiful wallpaper automatically at the interval you set in the application preferences.

The application can even apply fancy filters to the images: grayscale, heavy blur, oil painting, charcoal painting, pointilism or pixellate as well as display quotes or the time on top of the wallpaper.

Ambiance And Radiance Colors Theme Pack Gets 3 New Colors, Full Cinnamon Support

| Date: July 02, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: cinnamon, eyecandy, linux, linux mint, mate, themes, ubuntu, unity, xfce

Ambiance & Radiance Colors, a theme pack that provides Ambiance and Radiance in various colors, was updated today with 3 new colors: Aqua, Teal and Manila, to match the latest Humanity Colors icons. 

The new release also includes full Nemo / Cinnamon support (with a Cinnamon theme) and other changes.

Ambiance Radiance Colors

Install gThumb 3.3.2 in Ubuntu GNOME 14.04 / 14.10 Or Linux Mint 17 With Cinnamon Via PPA

| Date: May 19, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: cinnamon, gnome 3, gthumb, image viewer, linux, linux mint, photo manager, ubuntu, ubuntu gnome

gThumb is an image organizer/viewer that can export images to PicasaWeb, Facebook, Flickr or Photobucket, comes with some basic image editing features such as cropping, resizing, rotation, image enhancing, has video support, supports WebP images, can import images from digital camera and many other cool features.

gThumb 3.3.2 in Ubuntu 14.04 (under GNOME Shell)

Ubuntu 14.04 had gThumb 3.3.1 in its official repositories at some point but because starting with version 3.3.0, the application uses header bars (also known as client side decorations) and they don't work properly under Unity, gThumb was downgraded to version 3.2.7. And that's ok for Unity but how about Ubuntu GNOME and Linux Mint 17 (with Cinnamon 2.2.x) users?

Well, to make it easier to install, I've uploaded the latest gThumb 3.3.2 in the WebUpd8 gThumb PPA for Ubuntu GNOME 14.04 and Linux Mint 17 with Cinnamon users.

Confirmed: Next 3 Linux Mint Releases Will Be Based On Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

| Date: May 14, 2014 | View Comments | Tags: distro, linux, linux mint

Linux Mint logo

A while back I was telling you that Linux Mint might use the same LTS base for Linux Mint 17 as well as the next 3 releases. Well, Clement Lefebvre, the Linux Mint Project Leader, announced today that the decision was made and indeed, the next 3 Linux Mint releases (and Linux Mint 17, obviously) will stick to the LTS base.

License: (cc) BY-NC-SA WebUpd8 | Privacy