Install Elementary's Marlin in Ubuntu 11.10 (development PPA)

Submitted by razvi on November 6, 2011 - 23:15
Marlin

Marlin is Elementary's file browser focused both on eyecandy and functionality, designed probably as a notorious Nautilus Elementary step forward.

We announced Marlin months ago and, while in Ubuntu 11.04 didn't quite fit, is properly designed and built for Ubuntu 11.10 (Marlin is fully GTK+3).

The look is simple yet properly organized in three main areas (when in fullscreen mode):

  • the more user-oriented left area starts with Personal folders (Home, Downloads, etc) followed by Devices and Network
  • the middle area commonly presents files&folders
  • the right-area acts as a details previewer and appears only in fullscreen mode giving a decent amount of informations to the user
  • first time when you run Marlin, the navigation bar is immediately observed with its elegant design and its double nature (as a button and a typing area)

By default, the interaction with files is 1-click based, so, you can run a file by simply clicking on it.

The properties dialog is simple but easy to maneuver with a button-based Permissions configuration (adding "Execute" permission is done by clicking on Execute button that immediately change the permission number bellow it) and a handy bottom file preview.

In non-fullscreen mode, the right-area details area moves to the bottom so that files&folders have plenty of space to be dealt with.

Marlin 0.1 features a small but well picked number of configuration options, just navigate to Marlin-->Edit-->Preferences and select your desired preferences (Single click to open ON/OFF, option to make Marlin the default file manager, sidebar icon size, etc).

How do we install Marlin 0.1?
Add the following development (probably unstable) PPA (Oneiric)

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:elementary-os/daily

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install marlin

Run Marlin via the Dash (type marlin in the search area).

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