Cos who need to look out a window, right?

Cast your minds way, way, way back in time and see if you can remember an app we wrote about called WeatherPaper.

WeatherPaper was a simple GUI app that would automatically change your desktop wallpaper to an image matching the current weather conditions in your location.

So, for example, if it started raining outside your wallpaper would change to a rainy vista, but when the clouds moved on and the sun popped back out you’d get a sun-filled background.

It was a simple concept and wonderfully neat. Sadly, WeatherPaper was discontinued a long time ago.

Introducing WeatherDesk

OMG! Reader Bharadwaj Raju liked the concept of WeatherPaper so much that he set about creating a continuation of it.

The result is a new Python 3 app called WeatherDesk.

WeatherDesk works with most modern Linux desktops, including Unity, Cinnamon and MATE. Heck, it even runs on Openbox. KDE users are out of luck though as Raju says the DE doesn’t offer a way to change wallpapers programmatically.

The GPL v3 licensed app is written in Python 3 and requires no dependencies — but it does require a bit of effort to get it up and running.

You can head on over to the Github project page linked below for full details on how to download, configure and run the app. Alternatively see our simplified instructions below.

WeatherDesk on Github

Use WeatherDesk on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

First things first, get the latest version of the app via Github:

Download WeatherDesk from GitHub

Extract the archive to your home folder.

Next, open a Terminal and run the app using the following command:

python3 ~/WeatherDesk.py

Assuming you’re in the right directory the app should complain that there are no wallpapers in the ~/.weatherdesk_walls folder it creates. You’ll need to download some (see below for more on that).

If you want to specify a specific wallpaper folder location run:

python3 ~/WeatherDesk.py --dir /path/to/wallpapers

By default the app will ascertain your location based on your IP address. You can override this by using the –city Name argument:

python3 ~/WeatherDesk.py --city Riga

Finding Wallpapers

Although WeatherDesk is set up to handle weather wallpapers it doesn’t come pre-bundled with any.

Instead you’ll need to find some (e.g., Googling and saving images) and name them accordingly:

WEATHER | FILENAME Clear, Calm, Fair: | normal.jpg Thunderstorm: | thunder.jpg Windy, Breeze, Gale: | wind.jpg Drizzle, Rain: | rain.jpg Snow: | snow.jpg Cloudy: | cloudy.jpg Other: | normal.jpg

If you plan to use the –time flag you’ll also need to add wallpapers with the following prefies: day-*, night-* (for –time 2) plus evening-* (for –time 3) and morning-* (for –time 4).

If you intend to use the default settings you do not need to add these wallpapers.

For a pack of wallpapers ready to use with this app check out the custom set recommended by the app author called ‘Firewatch’ or a basic pack I whipped up together in a couple of minutes.