# nautilus-my-computer puts back the panel GNOME deleted

> A Nautilus extension by Yann Masoch restores a Computer view for GNOME Files, grouping drives, volumes, removable media and network mounts into five categories with usage bars and per-group visibility. It is packaged for five distributions plus a universal script, and its metadata contradicts itself about which Python versions it supports.

**yannmasoch/nautilus-my-computer** — My Computer for Nautilus, what GNOME Files should have always been

- Repository: https://github.com/yannmasoch/nautilus-my-computer
- Stars: 464 · Forks: 18
- Language: Python
- License: MIT
- Published: 2026-09-20 · Updated: 2026-09-20 · Language: en
- Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/yannmasoch-nautilus-my-computer

## The panel exists because GNOME deleted Other Locations

The stated motivation is one sentence: GNOME dropped the Other Locations view and left nothing in its place, so the author built what should have always been there. What lands in the Nautilus sidebar is a Computer panel listing drives, volumes, removable media and network mounts grouped by type, with disk usage bars and mount and eject controls, plus a Preferred Folders group at the top for pinning folders and other locations. Computer sits at the top of the sidebar; clicking opens the panel and right-clicking opens options. Version 0.13.2 is current, with 0.13.0 and 0.13.1 released within days of each other in August 2026 and a push to the default branch on 2026-09-29. The extension also ships by default in stillOS, a distribution billed as maintenance-free Linux, which is the one channel that needs no package manager at all.

## Five groups, and Merged is the interesting one

Storage is sorted into System (root, boot, EFI and swap partitions), On this Computer (internal drives and partitions), Removable (USB drives, phones, cameras), Disc (optical drives and mounted ISO images) and Network (shares and remote filesystems). Every group except On this Computer carries three states, set from the right-click menu on the Computer button: Visible as its own labelled section, Hidden so it disappears from the panel, or Merged, which folds the group into On this Computer and leaves one flat list. Merged is the state that answers the cluttered-sidebar complaint, since a laptop with one USB stick and two network mounts can collapse all three into a single section.

## Computer is the one sidebar entry you cannot switch off

The extension also takes over the sidebar itself. The default GNOME Files sidebar shows every built-in location whether you use it or not, so My Computer adds per-location visibility for Home, Recent, Starred, Network and Trash. Computer is always shown, on the reasoning that it is the point of the extension; everything else is yours to remove. Two smaller additions come with it: right-clicking a bookmark offers Change icon with a searchable picker of symbolic icons, and the Preferred Folders row can be hidden entirely or reordered by dragging. Captions follow the native Nautilus captions, so showing or hiding them stays a Nautilus preference rather than a second setting.

## Settings are stored under one GSettings schema id

Everything configurable hangs off a right-click on Computer, and all of it persists through GSettings under the schema id `io.github.yannmasoch.nautilus-my-computer`, which is also the name of the gschema file at the repository root and the value the Makefile installs into `share/glib-2.0/schemas`. The settings cover opening GNOME Files directly on the Computer view at startup, showing or hiding system partitions, the visibility state of each group, which sidebar locations appear, which folders sit in Preferred Folders, and the colour of the disk usage bar. Column View arrives as a separate Public Beta feature, Miller-style columns where picking a folder opens its contents in the next column, described as a Nautilus feature that never shipped natively.

## Six install routes that write to different places

Native packages cover Ubuntu through a PPA, Fedora through COPR, openSUSE through OBS, Arch through the AUR and Nix through a profile install. Ubuntu is the interesting case because the supported series list is explicitly forward-moving: currently 26.04 LTS and 26.10, on the argument that non-LTS releases get about nine months of support.

```bash
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannmasoch/nautilus-my-computer
sudo apt update
sudo apt install nautilus-my-computer
```

Nix is one line:

```bash
nix profile install "github:yannmasoch/nautilus-my-computer?dir=packaging/nix"
```

Everything else falls back to a script fetched from the repository, with the promise that nothing is written outside your home directory:

```bash
git clone https://github.com/yannmasoch/nautilus-my-computer.git
cd nautilus-my-computer
./install.sh
```

Arch takes a single AUR invocation, `yay -S nautilus-my-computer`, and the packaged route is the one that installs system-wide, dropping the extension into `/usr/share/nautilus-python/extensions` with the gschema compiled into the system schema directory. Running the script as `./install.sh` rather than `bash install.sh` is deliberate: that is what makes it install from your clone instead of downloading, which also avoids GitHub rate limits.

## requires-python says 3.12 and the classifiers list 3.9

The packaging metadata contradicts itself. `requires-python` is `>=3.12`, while the classifier list advertises Python 3.9, 3.10, 3.11 and 3.12. One of the two is stale, and pip will refuse an install on 3.11 while the classifier list suggests it is supported. The same file labels the project `Development Status :: 3 - Alpha` at version 0.13.2, which reads oddly for something shipping packages to five distributions, though it may be an honest signal about Nautilus API churn. The single runtime dependency is PyGObject, and lint configuration is ruff with a 100-character line length.

## The Makefile points to a CLAUDE.md that is not in the tree

Build plumbing is unusually well commented. The Makefile installs the extension file and package directory into `share/nautilus-python/extensions`, compiles translations with msgfmt, extracts strings with xgettext using the `_` and `_n:1,2` keywords, and parses the version straight out of pyproject.toml with sed rather than duplicating it. Its header says local development against `~/.local` is covered by an install-and-test cycle documented in CLAUDE.md. No CLAUDE.md appears among the repository's top-level files, so the pointer to local development instructions dangles. A `tmp/` directory is committed at the root as well, next to assets, packaging, po and a pre-commit configuration.

## Where this is the wrong tool

Nautilus is the boundary, and it is a hard one. This is an extension for GNOME Files, so on KDE Plasma, XFCE, Cinnamon or a bare X session there is nothing to install and no equivalent offered, and a user who likes the current sidebar has no reason to add an entry that cannot be hidden. Within GNOME the Column View is still marked Public Beta, which is the feature that has changed shape before. The honest summary for an evaluator is that this restores one specific missing view and adds a settings surface around it; it does not attempt to be a disk utility, and the GNOME Disks application remains the place for partitioning work rather than browsing what is already mounted. A CHANGELOG.md and a ROADMAP.md sit at the root, so the intent for later versions is written down even where the Column View remains unfinished.

## Conclusion

nautilus-my-computer fits a GNOME Files user who lost the Other Locations view and wants drives, mounts and pinned folders in one sidebar entry with real disk usage. It does not fit KDE, XFCE or anyone not running Nautilus, and the Column View is still labelled Public Beta. Verify two things before installing: that your distribution has a package, since the list of supported Ubuntu series moves forward as older ones reach end of life, and whether the universal script is acceptable to you, since the packaged route and the script write to different places.

## FAQ

### How do I install My Computer for Nautilus on Ubuntu?

Add the PPA, refresh the package lists and install the package with sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannmasoch/nautilus-my-computer, sudo apt update and sudo apt install nautilus-my-computer. Supported series are currently 26.04 LTS and 26.10, and the list moves forward as older releases reach end of life.

### Can I install it without a native package?

Yes, with the universal script from the repository, which states that nothing is written outside your home directory. You can also clone and run ./install.sh, which installs from local files with no downloads and avoids GitHub rate limits; both paths uninstall with the --uninstall argument.

### What does the Computer panel show?

Drives, volumes, removable media and network mounts grouped into System, On this Computer, Removable, Disc and Network, with disk usage bars and mount and eject controls. A Preferred Folders group at the top holds pinned folders, which can be reordered by dragging or hidden.

### How do I hide partitions or a whole group?

Right-click the Computer button and pick a state for each group except On this Computer: Visible as its own section, Hidden to remove it, or Merged to fold it into On this Computer. Settings persist across sessions through GSettings under io.github.yannmasoch.nautilus-my-computer.

### Is the Column View feature stable?

It is labelled Public Beta. It browses folders as Miller-style columns where picking a folder in one column opens its contents in the next, a Nautilus feature the project says never shipped natively.

## Sources

- [Issues](https://github.com/yannmasoch/nautilus-my-computer/issues)
- [License: MIT](https://github.com/yannmasoch/nautilus-my-computer/blob/main/LICENSE)
- [README](https://github.com/yannmasoch/nautilus-my-computer/blob/main/README.md)
- [Releases](https://github.com/yannmasoch/nautilus-my-computer/releases)
- [yannmasoch/nautilus-my-computer on GitHub](https://github.com/yannmasoch/nautilus-my-computer)

---

Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/yannmasoch-nautilus-my-computer