Cumulus – A Real Time Weather App for Linux Desktops

Cumulus is a Yahoo! Weather Powered Desktop Weather App for Linux. It has a friendly user interface and is easy to setup. Cumulus is a small and light weight app that does not take up much space on your desktop window or system. No real Linux Experience required to install or configure Cumulus. Cumulus is written in Python so it can run on any Linux distribution.

Cumulus Features

1. Cumulus main feature is being powered by Yahoo! Weather. Cumulus shows real time weather, 5 day future forecast, chance of rain and wind speeds.
2. Cumulus supports the main units of temperature, Celsius, Fahrenheit and Kelvin. You can also change wind speeds to Miles per hour, Kilometers per hour and Metre per second. You can also change the program’s background color and opacity.
3. Unity integration support is also included.
4. The “Show Launcher Count” displays the current temperature on Cumulus Unity Icon. You do not have to switch back and forth checking the temperature outside.

After years of being in beta, Cumulus just released version 1.0.0. This is the latest version that supports “.deb” package or “testing package distribution” with Ubuntu/Mint.

How to Install Cumulus Desktop Weather in Linux

Cumulus cannot be found in the Ubuntu or Mint repository. You will have to download it from the Cumulus website.

1. https://github.com/kd8bny/cumulus/releases

There are two ways to install Cumulus on Linux. Installing with Ubuntu/Mint there is a “.deb” package. For other Linux Distributions you can install with python. I am going to show you how to install Cumulus with the “.deb” package.

First, we will download Cumulus package from the website using wget command from the terminal.

$ wget https://github.com/kd8bny/cumulus/releases/download/v1.0.0/cumulus_1.0.0_amd64.deb

To install Cumulus, we are going to use dpkg Package Manager. The “dpkg” is installed on both Ubuntu and Linux Mint by default.

$ sudo dpkg -i cumulus_1.0.0_amd64.deb

When the installer is done you will see Cumulus in Unity or Mints Start Menu. If you do not see Cumulus on the Unity dock just search within Unit and it will be there. Your done installing Cumulus, now its time to set it up.

How to Use Cumulus Desktop Weather App

Once you open Cumulus for the first it will ask you for your location.

You can enter your:

1. City and State
2. City and Country
3. Country
4. Zip Code
5. Coordinates or Longitude and Latitude

Cumulus uses Yahoo! Weather so, it works with any country all around the world.

After, you input your location, you have to click the check mark button of the text box. Thats it, your done setting up Cumulus.

To make changes to cumulus you need to click the settings button or the “gear” on the top right. From there you can change the Location, Temperature, wind speed, background color and Opacity. If you decide to change your location you must again click the check mark box.

Some Bugs Found in Cumulus

1. The support button or link does not work. When you click support you will be redirect you to a broken website. In the settings page the “how to” button also does not work.
2. When changing or adding your location, then pressing Enter to confirm does not work. You have to click the check mark box on the bottom. This also applies when your inputing your location the first time you install it.
3. Using longitude and latitude for your location does not seem to be very accurate. This seems like an issue with Yahoo! Weather.
4. Cumulus only seems to support the English Language.

Conclusion

In Conclusion, Cumulus is an amazing weather app. It is easy to use, setup and configure. No real Linux experience required. This app is great for anyone new to Linux.

Cumulus work great with Ubuntu or Linux Mint. The “.deb” made it easy to install and run. I had no issues installing Cumulus with Ubuntu Software Center or “dpkg”.

I love how Cumulus uses Yahoo! Weather to get its update date weather. With a trusted service like Yahoo! Weather behind it you can not go wrong.

The setting for Cumulus has everything a simple or minimalist app needs. No extra settings that you will never use or want. The main settings anyone is going to change or use is the unit of temperature, wind speed and background color.