Hello, I was recently trying to help a friend who was asking how to share a folder in Linux like he was used to having come from Windows. When trying to help him with how it works on my computer running Zorin 17.3 we found that his Zorin 18 did not have the same option. So I went to my other PC that I dont use as much, that was also on Zorin 18, and it had the same options as my friend.
Specifically, in the right click menu when clicking on a folder, for example "music" I get this in Zorin 17.3:
Note that I do have the "create shortcut extension" installed so it has that one extra option on both systems that is not part of the default menu. But the main thing I am curious about here is the Local Network Share option that I have on all my v17 and is not on my v18 system.
So this has me curious. I checked a third computer, one also still running Zorin 17 and it too had the Local Network Share option available. So did I turn on an option somewhere that makes this selection visible to me and simply forgot about it? Was this option removed from Zorin 18? Is there some way for me to activate this option when running Zorin 18?
There is also a package named "nautilus-share", but I don't know how it works. I installed it but it did not change something in the context menu of nautilus.
Thanks for the explanation and how to fix it. Im sad to hear this was removed by default by Gnome. It is funny because this friend I was talking to has been trying out linux and trying to find ways to do things "entirely through gui only" with no terminal use, and here I was happy that I had found Zorin was able to completely do what he wanted in this case and we havent found a distro yet that could, and he goes and live runs Zorin 18 to test on his own only to find that we have had a regression in capability and ease of use. lol. Oh well.
That these removals affect Windows Migrants has been a topic of discussion for a while. Adding your experiences and voice in the Feedback forum can help bolster pressure.
The terminal seems daunting since it is less often that a Windows OS user falls back to cmd prompt. In fact, in Windows OS, this is often treated as discouraged behavior.
The terminal is fast, efficient and powerful and can be your best friend. The best approach is to respect it, not fear it.
That said: You can add the packages using All GUI means, as well. http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/n/nautilus-share/nautilus-share_0.7.5-0.3build2_amd64.deb
Great find! The nautilus-share extension was removed by default in Zorin OS 18 due to GNOME changes. Simply run sudo apt install nautilus-share samba to restore the Local Network Share option. Alternatively, install the .deb packages manually via GUI — no terminal needed. Hope this helps your friend!
