While Nemo 2.6 wasn't officially released yet (Cinnamon 2.6 is currently undergoing testing in the Linux Mint Romeo repository), its source has been available for some time on GitHub.
I've been using Nemo 2.6 (2.6.5) for about a week and it works great, so I've decided upload it to the WebUpd8 Nemo (with Unity patches and without Cinnamon dependencies) PPA.
There's no official changelog yet but from what I can tell, Nemo 2.6 includes the following changes (I may have missed some improvements though):
- added a plugin manager which allows easily enabling and disabling Nemo actions, extensions and scripts;
- all toolbar buttons now use symbolic icons (except pathbar icons);
- simplified context menus (with an option to show all available actions);
- improved thumbnail generation;
- bookmarks are now sortable;
- improved Preferences dialog;
- fixed support for org.freedesktop.FileManager1 dbus interface - this should allow apps that support opening a folder and highlighting a file in that folder to work properly (like Firefox - clicking on the folder icon from Downloads);
- added a simple transition when toggling the location bar/pathbar;
- show icons for templates in the "create new document" menu;
- show location entry when "/" is entered;
- file operations (such as 'copy') now use a queue system (paused until the previous job completes however, you can manually start new jobs).
The official Nemo extensions haven't been updated to fully support the new Nemo plugin manager, that's why you'll see "No information available" for each extension in the plugin manager. However, all v2.4. extensions should work with Nemo 2.6.
Also, the unpatched Nemo 2.6 can detect if the app generates thumbnails while running as root and prompts to fix this issue however, this depends on libcinnamon-desktop4 and since the purpose of the Nemo version I maintain is to be Cinnamon-free, I've removed this functionality for the PPA packages.
Even so, this is an issue that shouldn't happen if you use Nemo properly: running it via pkexec (or via the Nemo contect menu > Run as Root, which uses pkexec) doesn't cause this issue. As an alternative way of fixing such issues, you can simply run "sudo rm ~/.cache/thumbnails".
Two more notes regarding the patched Nemo from the WebUpd8 PPA:
- in the Plugin Manager, you'll notice two "Change Desktop Background" Nemo actions - that's because one is for Unity and one for GNOME (Shell) and it's only used if you enable Nemo to draw the desktop;
- the "Create a new launcher here..." Nemo action only shows up in the Nemo context menu on the desktop and it requires gnome-panel to be installed or else it won't work.
Install Nemo 2.6 (with Unity patches and without Cinnamon dependencies) in Ubuntu
To install the latest Nemo 2.6 with Unity patches and without Cinnamon dependencies, see THIS article.
Important: don't install this Nemo version in Linux Mint or if you're using Cinnamon desktop in Ubuntu, because it has all it's Cinnamon-specific features removed.
