Hello Linux Geeksters. As you may know, Nemo is the default file manager for the Cinnamon desktop environment. It is a fork of Gnome’s Nautilus, customized by the Linux Mint team.

In this article I will show you how to install the latest Nemo available on Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr, Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander, Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail, Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal and Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin, and set it as the default file manager, on your system.

Nemo 2.0.8 is available via the some third party PPA for Ubuntu 14.04, so installing it is easy, all you have to do is add the ppa to your system, update the local repo index and install the nemo and nemo-fileroller packages package:

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/nemo
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install nemo nemo-fileroller

To install Nemo 2.0.8 on Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 12.10 and Ubuntu 12.04, you have to add the Cinnamon PPA first, update the repo index and install the nemo package:

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

If the installation has been done successfully, let’s make Nemo the default file manager on Ubuntu:

$ xdg-mime default nemo.desktop inode/directory application/x-gnome-saved-search
$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background show-desktop-icons false
$ gsettings set org.nemo.desktop show-desktop-icons true

By default, Nemo is not added in the Startup Application list, to unlock it, just use this oneliner:

sudo sed -i 's/NoDisplay=true/NoDisplay=false/g' /etc/xdg/autostart/nemo-autostart.desktop