We recently introduced you to Neofetch, a neat command-line based system info tool for Unix-based systems — and you really seem to love it!
More than 60 of you have shared a screenshot of Neofetch running on your desktop with us in comments section of that post. And you’re not all using Ubuntu, either as Arch, (Bash on) Windows, macOS and Android appear in the mix.
But i’m back to waffle about the app again. Why? Because it’s just received a big ol’ update…
Neofetch 2.0
Neofetch 2.0 sounds like the title of a cyberpunk anime series I’d probably really dig — but it’s not. It is, however, the very latest version of this nifty terminal tool.
“This is the biggest release of Neofetch in a long time,” the software’s developer Dylan Araps writes in an announcement to signal the release.
“[The] majority of the script has been rewritten, restructered and cleaned up. Every function and variable name follows a proper naming scheme and a large number of bugs were fixed.”
Among the changes on offer in Neofetch 2.0:
- Improved ASCII art handling, including default OS fallback when distro not detected
- ASCII colour tweaks for select distros, including Arch
- Support for HyperTerm
- GPU info is cached until reboot
- Dedicated GPU preferred over integrated
- ‘Now Playing’ support for select music players
- Wallpaper detection on Cinnamon desktops
- Improved documentation & wiki
In addition to Linux, Windows, macOS, and Android (and a bunch of other operating systems) Neofetch 2.0 is able to run on GNU Hurd, Haiku and iOS on the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.
Among the list of ‘info’ snippets: distro model kernel uptime packages shell resolutionde wm wm_theme theme icons cpu gpu memory font disk battery song local_ip public_ip users birthday term term_font cpu_usage.
The Basics Are The Same
If the change-log above sounds frightfully confusing, I’ll calm you: the “tl;dr” is that the way you install and run the app, and the info you see when you do, hasn’t changed. You still simply run ‘neofetch‘ to display details about your distribution and desktop set up.
You can get creative with your own custom config for the app, swapping ASCII distort logo for a cleverly cropped square snatch of your current wallpaper, for instance.
See the Neofetch Wiki for more information on how to customis the data Neofetch displays.
Install or Upgrade to Neofetch 2.0 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS+
You can download Neofetch 2.0 as source straight from Github.
Alternatively, you can install Neofetch 2.0 on Ubuntu by adding the Neofetch PPA to your software sources, refreshing your sources, and then installing (or upgrading):
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dawidd0811/neofetch
sudo apt update && sudo apt install neofetch
If you don’t want to add a PPA, you don’t have to. You can download an installer package for Neofetch 2.0 directly from the PPA’s packages page.
If you’re running Ubuntu 17.04 (daily) you can install an older version of Neofetch direct from the archives, no PPA required.
To ponder: I call this app a ‘system information tool’ but is that the most accurate description? How would you word it? Let me know your thoughts on that (and anything else about this release) in the comments below.