Cumulus, another way to see the time in Ubuntu

Cumulus main screen

Cumulus main screen

To see the time in Ubuntu, in my case I use Indicator Weather which integrates beautifully into my desktop. But this does not exclude me from continuing to test and search for applications in the rich Linux world.

A few years ago, I used to use a very popular application called Stormcloud. One day I learned that the developer abandoned the application due to some problems, including problems with the Yahoo API that the application used. Since that day I have been moving between different applications.

Shortly afterwards some people in the Linux community tried to resuscitate the project by creating a fork called Typhoon. Unfortunately once again, this did not last long. Now another developer named Daryl Bennett with the help of four other developers, have resurrected the application. This new version is now called Cumulus.

Cumulus has been around for a while and does its job right. He comes to resurrect the dead Stormcloud. Like Stormcloud and Typhoon, Cumulus is a very easy to use and configure weather application. Furthermore, as with its predecessors, Cumulus is powered by Yahoo! Weather API and Open Weather Map. Cumulus is very lightweight and will not be a burden on your desktop.

Download and install Cumulus

Cumulus is written in Python. It is available for all Linux distributions, including Ubuntu and its derivatives. In the future, the developers are looking to release it as a Snap package. Until then, to install Cumulus on Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Elementary OS, or any other flavor or derivative of Ubuntu, we have two options.

The first will be via .deb package and to obtain it we only have to go to its page Github and then installing it via the software manager or by typing in the terminal:

sudo dpkg -i cumulus-xxx 

The other option we have to get hold of this application is from the terminal via PPA. First, we add the PPA to our source.list by typing in the terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cumulus-team/cumulus

Next we update the repositories and install the application by typing in the terminal:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install cumulus

Cumulus Features

  •      Shows current weather and temperature conditions.
  •      It gives us a 5-day forecast.
  •      Brings integrated location search.
  •      It works with the APIS of Yahoo! Weather and OpenWeatherMap.

How to use Cumulus on Linux?

Setting up Cumulus is pretty simple. All you have to do is write the name of a location. To configure, go to the gear icon in the upper right corner.

Cumulus configuration

From the screen that will be shown, you can change things such as the measurement you want to use: degrees centigrade, degrees Fahrenheit and kelvin. You can also change the wind speed data units between mph (miles per hour), kph (kilometers per hour), and m / s (meters per second). You can select the background color of the application from here. On the desktop, you can select the "show launcher count" so that the temperature value is displayed on the launcher. There is also a slider to adjust the opacity (transparency) of Cumulus.

To be an application to see the time, Cumulus does a good job. It is simple and easy to use. It's easy on the eyes and blends in well with all desks. If the developers are able to keep it running this time, I think the application will not stop improving and we will be able to receive the meteorological data in a simple and attractive application for what are usually Linux applications.

Cumulus Q.T.

Cumulus QT main screen

Cumulus QT main screen

Currently, there is a Qt version of Cumulus running. This it's basically the same app with a number of improvements such as: the ability to adjust the size of the application window. Possibility of adjusting the data without having to download it again. It shows us an icon of the tray, which will show us the temperature. And some others that you will have to discover.

Cumulus QT Configuration

This is a version that is worth trying because at the interface level it has gained a lot, making her even more showy than her sister.

To install it we have to download the installation file for linux from the following link. You can also download the source code to compile it.

Once downloaded, we give permissions to the file that we just downloaded:

sudo chmod +x Cumulus-online-installer-x64

And we only have to launch it to begin the installation. In this version it is done graphically.

./Cumulus-online-installer-x64

As I said at the beginning of the post, this is not my preferred option to check the time in Ubuntu, but it must be recognized that it is a very good option to consider.


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