14 DAY TRIAL // Linux Mint users now benefit from a new bookmarking feature that should prove to be very useful, even if it seems to be something rather basic.
The ability to bookmark drives or other locations in the file manager should be something standard. Surprisingly, it's not a feature that's present everywhere and it lacks flexibility. Let's take the example of Ubuntu, which is used as the base of Linux Mint. Users can make bookmarks, even if it's a Samba directory, but they can't move them. This can be annoying, if you really want the power to change everything you want.
Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, but it doesn't use the same file manager. In Ubuntu it's Nautilus (Files) from the GNOME project, but on Linux Mint it's Nemo. The two are very different and they provide various options for their users.
Linux Mint is getting better
The Linux Mint developers have been doing a lot of listening in the past few months and they put forward a number of important changes. Some will be present in Linux Mint 17.1, with the new Cinnamon 2.4, but others – like this new bookmarking feature – are available now.
"We've had a few people over time ask for the ability to keep their bookmarks in Nemo's sidebar in a dedicated section, rather than as part of 'My Computer' - now you can. For new and old users alike, when you fire up nemo, all of your existing bookmarks will be where they always are, in the My Computer section."
"At this point, any new bookmarks you create via menus (Bookmarks->Add Bookmark, for instance) are placed in a new Bookmarks section:If you don't wish to populate this new section, you can just drag that new bookmark into the other section, and the Bookmark heading will disappear, so this is completely optional to use. Drag and drop creation or rearranging of bookmarks is even simpler: just drag the item wherever you want it," notes Michael Webster, one of the Linux Mint developers.
Webster also says that he is aware of a bug that causes all the bookmark folder icons to load with the default image for USB sticks and other removable media. This is being worked on and it should be fixed in the near future.
If you want to test and install Linux Mint 17 right now, you can download the ISO images from Softpedia. These are Live CDs and work really well in virtual environments.