Install Nemo File Manager in Ubuntu

The upcoming changes in Nautilus 3.6 created controvery among desktop Linux users. The latest version of the file manager application from GNOME project has been completely redesigned so that it is much simpler in term of visual design, and also in its functionality.

Despite its better looking and consistency with other GNOME apps, removal of its features including compact view, tree view in sidebar, extra pane, and many other features available in its predecessor that are considered important features for many, has made users consider to find and use alternatives.

Ubuntu team has decided to stick with Nautilus 3.4 for its upcoming Ubuntu 12.10. Other Linux distro, Linux Mint team has had even more further move, by forking it, creating Nemo, a Nautilus 3.4 fork that keep its features, with some other useful addition.

Nemo is a full featured file manager, like Nautilus 3.4 plus more. Some of its features are all the features that Nautilus 3.4 had and which are missing in Nautilus 3.6 (all desktop icons, compact view, etc..). It also has better looking compared to Nautilus 3.4, especially its toolbar and also sidebar:

Nemo vs Nautilus 3.4

Other features are customizable toolbar, and also built-in useful context-menu items like "open as root (administrator)" and "open in Terminal".

For you who want to try to use Nemo in Ubuntu, you can install it in Ubuntu 12.04 and Ubuntu 12.10. Here's how.

Install Latest Nemo in Ubuntu

Install Nemo Stable

This is stable release, recommended for most users/systems.
Open up Terminal, and run the following commands (one-by-one):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nemo nemo-fileroller

Install Nemo Nightly (Testing)

This version provides more features, but less stable, contains more bugs.
Open up Terminal, and run the following commands (one-by-one):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-nightly
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nemo nemo-fileroller

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Note that installing Nemo will also install latest Cinnamon (currently Cinnamon 1.6) into your Ubuntu installation (but it's O.K, it wont replace your default Ubuntu session; it just add a new entry in login session list).

Additional Notes

As of now, most GTK themes available today are still not yet "compatible" with Nemo, because they were not designed specifically for Nemo, so Nemo won't look good when using those themes. Don't worry, you can use my theme, the theme I use for the above screenshots. Download here.

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Update

2012-09-25

New packages have been added recently into the above Cinnamon repository. One of the most important ones is nemo-fileroller, an extension that integrates the File Roller (compression utility) service with Nemo. I think a compression/extracting utility is a very basic/standard feature which should be there in any file management app including Nemo, so I updated/added nemo-fileroller package to the installation instruction above.

Now Nemo is perfect: fully-featured and good looking. And with added extension, it can be used as a full replacement of Nautilus file manager, at least for me. I use Nemo over Nautilus for everyday file management task now, even in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

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Update

2013-01-06

Read this post if you want to replace Nautilus with Nemo as default file manager in Ubuntu:

How to: Integrate Nemo in Ubuntu
(set Nemo as default file manager/folder handler)

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Install Nemo File Manager in Ubuntu by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)