An all-new version of Stacer, a system cleaner and optimizer tool for Ubuntu and other Linux desktops, is available for download.
The first update to the app in more than a year add a handful of new features to the useful utility.
As mentioned, Stacer isn’t new. We’ve written about the handy tool many, many times before, praising the ease with which it lets you clear caches, remove cruft and get shot of other clutter that tends to accumulate over time.
Read on to be (re)introduced to Stacer and to learn more about the latest features. Plus, we list a couple of reasons why you might want to use this tool on your own system.
Let’s go!
Stacer: Cleaner & Optimizer Tool
Stacer is a user-friendly front-end for optimising, monitoring, and cleaning desktop Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and Fedora.
It’s perfectly suited to occasional maintenance and cleaning tasks, but without the need to use several different apps or commands to do it.
Stacer is not as comprehensive at cleaning as, say, Bleachbit, but it’s much less intimidating as a result. It’s a great fit for regular users looking to do a bit of basic (but not destructive) upkeep.
Stacer can do a bunch of different task, all from the same window. Think of it as part system cleaner, part resource monitor, and part tweak tool.
Stacer has 13 separate sections, each tailored around a different task or activity.
There is a section that gives an overview of CPU, RAM and storage usage; a section that lets you add or remove startup apps; and even a section that surfaces a small set of GNOME Shell desktop tweaks.
But it’s the system cleaning features for which this app is famed, and on that front it doesn’t disappoint.
Stacer provides one-click cleaning of application caches, package caches, and crash reports. It can even empty the trash for you (if you’re prone to forgetting to do it yourself).
New Features in Stacer 1.1.0
The latest version of Stacer adds to and expands on the tool’s core feature set with a few (possibly superfluous) additions.
The application management section in Stacer 1.1.0 has a new tab that lists any installed Snap apps on your system. Like regular apps Snap apps can be removed via Stacer in bulk.
The new file search feature looks promising, offering both root, regular expression and regex searching, but it has a few kinks.
First, it doesn’t automatically search a directory, you have to set one. I’m not mad for thinking it should assume I want to search my computer, right? Secondly, search is a bit slow and a bit buggy. Definitely a beta feature for now.
The host manager is an interesting, if not entirely obvious, addition, unlike the system storage pie chart added to the bottom of the ‘Resources’ section — everyone loves a pie chart breakdown of where their disk space is going!
Worth installing? Absolutely
We’ve looked at simple ways to free up space on Ubuntu before, and name checked popular solutions like Bleachbit and (though rarely updated) Ubuntu Cleaner.
If you’re conscious about keeping a clean system, them the Stacer system optimizer is a great “all-in-one” tool for maintenance and upkeep.
Download & Install Stacer
You can download and run the latest version of Stacer as a 64-bit AppImage. This is a standalone runtime that runs on pretty much any distributions (just don’t delete the .appimage after running it).
Prefer to install your apps in a more traditional fashion? Me too, so I’m pleased there’s a traditional 64-bit Ubuntu installer for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and later.
There’s also an official Stacer PPA providing updated packages for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, 18.04 LTS and the latest release, Ubuntu 19.04. To add this to your list of software sources run:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oguzhaninan/stacer
sudo apt update && sudo apt install stacer
Finally, source code is also available for those who enjoy building things by hand!
H/T Andrew