Top 10 Ubuntu Downloads

Frankly, that there's now even a need for something like "Ubuntu Tweak" to do stuff that should be in "advanced options" in the base install is turning me off Ubuntu and Linux in general. With XP at least I can run Photoshop.

corneliuscrab

@Donkey_Pasta: I agree on CheckGmail - very nice. :)

Can I ask why you use Hamachi instead of an SSH tunnel?

@jbruced:
I never understood the appeal of GNOME.
KDE has always been easier to use and superior feature-wise. And now that KDE 4 is as good as stable, I really don't see a reason to stay with GNOME which doesn't seem to evolve much at all at the moment.

I guess because it comes default with ubuntu, and ubuntu probably being the most popular home distribution at the moment, people are used to it.

shinchan

@krank23: Nowhere near the same.

One more vote for tilda. I remember reading about it here in Lifehacker!

Here is another Ubuntu 9.04 Post Installation Guide

@quixote: I believe he meant that it's separate from the rest of the OS. The wording wasn't the best if this is the case.

I've had suggested to me that you can simply make a tar of / (or /home, if that's all you care about) and store it on an external HDD for backup purposes. Unfortunately all my attempts to produce one using the terminal have, thus far, resulted in an incomplete backup.

@chappell101: brilliant, looks like it's just what I was probing for. Thanks a lot :)

I agree that DO is all kinds of awesome.

Songbird was a pain to install if you have more than one profile on the computer. I found the Songbird .deb available here [www.getdeb.net] was very painless

Well, uh... Wine, Sunbird, Tasque, xCHM, Zim, Bluefish, Kid3-qt... And lots and lots of others... Especially Wine, since I do need to run windows apps now and then.

krank23

@Phoshi: Launchy?

krank23

@David Clark: Reboot? Some of us like to conserve energy by not having our computers on 24/7.

krank23

ubuntu-tweak and yakuake are great suggestions, thanks! the only one i would really argue with is songbird. amarok wears the crown.

planning on reformatting my laptop currently running 8.10 with 9.04 soon (after i finish some backups). Anyway, already planned to install 8/10 of these. Good list.

Audi5000

why suggest yakuake if there's tilda?

cetheriel

Great post and excellent comments. Thanks, all! I've learned about some really useful things even though I've been using Ubuntu for years.

@quixote: (Um, no offence to kylenalepa ;-) but I was referring to mattkatzenberger's tip about apt-urls)

@chappell101: I'd never heard of Remastersys. I've been looking for something like that for ages. Thanks!

@kylenalepa: Yet ANOTHER fabulously useful comment. Thanks!

@cs_student: Are you sure about the option for automatic backup of everything when you first make a /home partition? I've installed ubuntus going back to Dapper, and don't remember ever seeing an automatic backup option. Or is this new in Jaunty? (I'm waiting for the servers to calm down to upgrade. Maybe Monday ;-)

@TaterTom: I don't think it's the same issue.

@kseve: Might want to try to Googling for how to remap your m key to something like a spare Alt key, but to just disable it...

First, find out which keycode corresponds to the m key. Go to terminal, type xev then hit your m key and the keycode will come up. On USA keyboards m is 58.

Then go to
System - Preferences - Session
Under Startup Programs tab click Add
Fill in the fields as follows:
Name: Disable m key
Command: xmodmap -e 'keycode 58='
Comment: Disable key by code
Press OK, then Close then restart your computer.

To enable the m key again, just go back to Startup Programs tab click Disable m Key, then click Remove, then Close, then restart your computer.

Or to re-enable a key without restarting, Remove Disable m Key then go to terminal and type
xmodmap -e 'keycode 58=1'
But re-enabling the m key in Terminal will be problematic, since you can't type xmodmap without the m key...you'd have to copy and paste from somewhere.

@mattkatzenberger: That is, actually, decidedly awesome.

kylenalepa

@Todd Maxfield: I did not realize there was a .deb That will surely make it much easier...thanks!

Dude, with those mentions of Songbird and, the sexiest piece of software ever, Do (for GNOME, we all know and remember you in our prayers, Quicksilver =P) you just reconciled me with Lifehacker.

Sorry, but your editor .. I just plain old don't like.

Anyway, thanks. =)

skaiuoquer

@wewillchange: I just installed the latest Songbird on Ubuntu 9.04 and haven't had a problem with it at all ... what do you find is the problem?

Hi All,

This thread could ramble on and on forever.

I've backed up everything, am now running openSuSE11.1, and will wipe my HDD in a day or two.

I prefer Amorak, Streamtuner, XMMS, and all those codecs - I'll get them - to keep running free!

I keep switching back and forth from .rpm and .deb distros. Its Ubuntu's turn.

With all the goodness that I heard - it rocks!

I'll have to try out Yakuake. I use a shell often enough that I keep one open all the time.

Unetbootin also seems quite useful - I'll have to give it a shot here in a couple weeks when I start my semi-annual upgrade and distro-test-fest.

I'm defintely going to have to try out VirtualBox.

I rarely see my actual desktop - it's always buried under at least one layer of application windows. So things like Screenlet are pretty much useless to me. I just keep a tab open in Firefox for iGoogle. Makes it easy to use other computers.

The first few things I add to a new install are ddclient (dyndns.org) OpenSSH-server, and Apache. Function over form. (The second thing I do is turn off virtually all the "pretty" crap that just eats up processor cycles.) :-)

Because I have a webserver running directly on my machine, I can replicate DropBox features with anything from a simple linked folder to a specific file hosting application.

David Clark

Something that should have been mentioned about virtualbox is that it now will run compiz/3d on the guest. I dunno how long this has been working, but a fellow 'tom' can tell you all about it:

[tombuntu.com]

@kseve: Bump. I wonder if the fix for your issue would be related to my touchpad on/off button not working in Ubuntu. FWIW, the light changes colors, but there is no effect, not even the dialog popups I've heard others say it does on their laptops.

@benjamen: Not to mention virtualbox now will run compiz:

[tombuntu.com]

aside: where did 'preview comment' go [again]?

@redmonke255:

Why would you want to reboot a linux box?

David Clark

@Al Iguana: Remastersys it makes a clone of your computer to DVD or a distributable LiveCD/DVD if you want! I use after changing a new release to my liking with software, themes, DVD mp3 support ect and make a liveDVD version to make it really easy to install on the rest on the computers in the house! It great for repairs to!

anyone know how to disable certain keys on the keyboard in ubuntu? ive got a laptop and the m key has some issues would like to disable it as a string of M's get typed into every document i open

I'd say Guake [trac.guake-terminal.org] is better, also if you want to swing it as a "based on gnome" then Guake wins that above Yakuake

Doug Aitken

@hybrid-kernel: I was never able to get Tilda to fire up in my xubuntu setup -- is it GNOME-dependant/only?

gyffes

@chappell101: I downgraded Amarok 2 back to Amarok 1.4 and will continue to use it until Exaile fully supports MTP (that said, I like Exaile a lot).

freddybob

These suggestions have really helped as I decided to give Ubuntu another shot after seeing LH talk about Jaunty Jackalope being released. So far it has been a much better experience now that I'm taking it slow (last time one of the first issues I had to deal with was figuring out how to tether my Verizon phone and use it as a modem for web access, not at all easy for someone who has never used Linux before), as well as finding all these suggestions for getting programs I need up front without much hassle. Ubuntu Tweak has already helped tremendously.

mozplugger is an amazing little plugin for Firefox (not available for Windows). It does all sorts of things, but probably my favorite is that it opens pdfs using Evince ("Document Viewer") *embedded* in a firefox tab. This makes installing acroread unnecessary. Dope.

nortexoid

@chappell101: No bugs found yet for me, on version 1.1.2. Basically songbird is the only option available for importing one's iTunes library including ratings etc. And the fact that's it's cross-platform is a bonus.

Amarok is a KDE app, and I wouldn't touch it in Ubuntu.

nortexoid

I know it's incredibly useful, but I've never been a big fan of Gnome-Do. I have honestly preferred AWN over Gnome-Do every time I give it an honest shot. I install some of the basic applets, skin it to the Human theme, set it to auto hide and basically use it as a helpful panel. I don't do much command line work, don't use twitter and if I wanna send an email, I'll just take the extra step and open Firefox.

As for Songbird, I have long loved Ubuntu's default Rhythm Box. It is one of those applications that just works. As for Songbird, I use it to great effect in Windows, but it just seems buggy to me in Linux.

Sarcastic Steve

@cs_student: yeah, what I meant was: when I install Windows, and my software, I make an image than I can go back to. Just wondered if there was a similar thing in Ubuntu. I don't mean an incremental Time-Machine type thing.

I've got to nominate Avant Window Navigator for an honorable mention. AWN is a beautiful, 3-D dock. It's still a bit flaky and some of the applets (such as trash) seem to break pretty frequently, but when it grows up, I'd like to see gnome pick it up as an alternative to the bottom panel. Of course, if gnome-do's Docky had a 3-d option, I'd be all over that.

acrididae

@Kevin Vesga:

How heavy can conky and screenlets be? I know Gnome isn't the lightest environment, but what I was wondering is if the newest version had things going a little bit peppier.

DavidKaplan

I use ALL of those programs with the exception of Yakuake but I use another program which does the same called tilda.

Great minds think alike ;)

hyperhead

Hamachi is a must for me on any OS (although it's a pain to set up). I mainly use it for secure VNC usage and file pushing. I also use CheckGMail and as an app launcher I use Launchy.

Donkey_Pasta

"VMWare is better if you're serious about running multiple, uber-efficient virtual machines in a development environment"

I'm not sure I agree with that statement. On Linux I've found VMware to be more unstable than VirtualBox, you have to compile it from source, and reconfigure it every darn time there's a kernel change. It also starts up a bunch of processes that are always running even if you're not using it. If I wanted that I'd still be running Windows.

Then if you're trying to use server 2.0 it seems like breaks every time there's a Firefox update. Although I have to say I just don't like the way it uses the browser for an interface instead of a standalone app.

I haven't done a head to head speed comparison, but I generally feel less frustrated using VirtualBox than VMware.

[maketecheasier.com]

After one night of sleeping on why my USB persistence wasn't working in 9.04, I awoke with the solution, and quickly went to the referenced site. Some more excellent links available.

Most folks will most likely want Hamachi which is super easy once the tuncfg and hamachi-init commands are issued.

[maketecheasier.com]

Have fun. Oh, K3b and VLC and VNC and PuTTy--I use them; others maybe not.

One sweet distro on my system.

rainbowsky

@DavidKaplan: The programs you pick are just heavy. Also Gnome Desktop isnt very light to begin with.

Kevin Vesga

I finally switched to Kubuntu. So much more flexible for me. KDE is my favorite add-on for Ubuntu. I stuck with Gnome for a year, it's now time to move on.

Bruce

Gnome-Do is awesome, especially with the "docky" theme enabled, thus letting me get rid of the erratic AWN.

And for dropbox sign ups - use my referral link and you'll get an extra 250 mb on top of the 2 gigs. (I also get bonus storage for you signing up so we both win!) It's seriously an amazing service that "just works."

Here's the link: [www.getdropbox.com]

@wewillchange: Try the .deb installer for the newest version of Songbird... so much lighter weight now! I too was frustrated by the past releases, but the newest is great, and the deb installer makes it idiot-(yes, with linux)-proof.

Todd Maxfield

@DavidKaplan: Launchy in no way = gnomedo, but launchy can do most of the stuff.

I used Ubuntu for about two years. One of the main reasons I got off of 8.10 and switched back to XP was because it felt like the addons I wanted (screenlets, wallpaper clocks, etc.) were just dragging my system down a lot. It didn't seem to happen as much if I had similar add ons in XP. Any one have any thoughts to this? Is it better in Jaunty?

On a side note, I've been able to replace all my favorite linux gadgets in XP (if you take Launchy = GnomeDO), except for conky. I know there are similar programs, but I always find myself missing conky. I don't know why.

DavidKaplan

Re the Screenlets:

Holy weather icons, I've just taken a Weather Channel time warp! (Which is a good thing, because TWC's new icons are horrible.)

I use Jungle Disk for off-site backup. After I did a fresh install of 9.04 I downloaded JD and did a restore. Worked flawlessly.

TristaPython

@Charax: It's not related to it, it is it.

PsychedelicsSquid

@cs_student: actually, a few of the core programs (plus some badly-written third party stuff) of those desktops are "GNOME-based" or "KDE-based", as they pull in nearly the entirety of GNOME/KDE as indirect dependencies.

But yeah, generally a program will require only GTK or QT as opposed to the full environments.

And yeah, you can have the look of your chosen gui in both, via either QGTKStyle (makes Qt apps copy the appearance of your chosen GTK+ style) or GTK-QT-Engine (which makes GTK+ apps copy the appearance of your chosen Qt style). These both install as a theme in their respective GUI. You should never use both, as they would reference each other as the theme, and cause an endless loop.

PsychedelicsSquid

@hybrid-kernel: Another alternative is Guake-Terminal.

Kevin Vesga

@[nealylitalo.net]) set to show a notification when a new song starts (if Sonata isn't loaded, as that does its own notifications)

It's a little more involved to set up in the first place, but it's surprisingly flexible. Also, you can connect any of its clients to it over a network.

PsychedelicsSquid

@mattkatzenberger: ...that's awesome.

@Charax: Hm, ok, replace N64 with "N64 Emulator"

@Phoshi:
Bad analogy, the N64 isn't a *game*

Ubuntu *is* a download related to Ubuntu

Charax

Dear Lifehacker,

If you want to link to the packages so that they can be installed from the link, you can use apt-urls.

[wiki.ubuntu.com]

mattkatzenberger

@Charax: No, just like the number one N64 game isn't the N64. It's kind of a prerequisite.

There is also conky gui [conkygui.sourceforge.net] to help with editing conky files.

cs_student

@[crunchbanglinux.org]

There are some nicer ones in the latest posts in the forum, but they all suit big screens which I know isn't for everyone!

Shouldn't the #1 Ubuntu download be Ubuntu?

Charax

GNOME-Do deserves that #1. I honestly miss it when I'm in windows, now.

Tilda > Yakuake

also tilda is for gnome

hybrid-kernel

Small FYI: CrunchBang Linux includes a simple conky setup if you wanna check it out.

Kevin Vesga

@trethlyn: The usb-creator (actual name of app) is only used for Ubuntu iso's/cd's, but it has the advantage that it makes them persistent. Won't work for Fedora/Suse though. (or anything else) just Ubuntu.

Can I recommend kgrub editor? Editing grub is such a hassle, and it's a good gui to use (I find).

I am in love with Songbird. I tried just about every media player for Mint. None did what I wanted. Some did nothing. Songbird lets me manage my music, videos and pre-existing playlists. It has never crashed. Easy to skin, I mean feather. Plugins are awesome. I'm using it right now.

For automatic and scheduled back ups I use Back in Time. Backs up what you want, when you want to where you want. It took about a minute to set up.

For simple DVD copying I use K9copy. It's for KDE but works in Gnome. A couple of clicks and off you go.

@wewillchange: I use gtkpod to manage my ipod and banshee to listen to music. If you ask most Linux users this is what they will recommend.

cs_student

@jaxxstorm: Usually programs aren't "Gnome" or "KDE" based, they use the qt or gtk gui library (which Gnome and KDE are based of. But with the release of qt4.5 this is no longer a problem because qt now has the ability to use native gtk skins. If you have an up-to-date system you won't have any problems with running apps on the different desktop environments anymore.

cs_student

@wewillchange: Try Exaile. I found it really good.

@Al Iguana: When you install ubuntu you are given the choice to make a /home partition which will automatically back up all your stuff for you (unless your hdd catches on fire or something crazy). Check out the ubuntu forums to see if you already have this or a good tutorial on how to set it up.
There is also software specifically for backing up your files as well, but I don't know what they are.

cs_student

I use gtkpod for my ipod and it works perfectly out of the box.

cs_student

UNetbootin is awesome. Likes it's one thing FOSS has gotten right. So idiotproof to make a bootable USB drive.

johnsmith1234

@Back-In-Time.

bjstirling

@Al Iguana: I use Remastersys for making a LiveCD backup of my exact computer setup for worst case scenarios, but I haven't found a good automatic file backup solution yet?

I've heard TimeVault is quite good even though its in alpha(ideas?) I just manually use Dropbox to give me theft/fire cover ect.

@chappell101: I'm using Rhythmbox and love it. I can also port the song data to Conky for my desktop. I haven't tried many of the others but Rhythmbox makes it easy to stay for me.

bjstirling

@wewillchange: It is quite buggy right now and a memory hog but its not like my old favourite Amarok is any better Amarok 2 is still missing so many features of 1.4.

Banshee works quite well, what are other LH's using for their music then?

how about some kind of backup/mirror/ghosting software? or is that built-in?

These are all great choices I use, especially glad to see Screenlets in the list as I'm a big fan of the wallpaper clock screenlet which comes as a default now!
Wallpaper Clock Screenlet [gnome-look.org]
Gallery of ready made Wallpaper Clocks to download [www.vladstudio.com]
How to make your own [www.vladstudio.com]
I cant wait to see examples of it in use with Nice Conkey scripts and custom Gnome Themes on the Lifehacker Desktop Show & Tell page [www.flickr.com]

Some things are missing from the list the sorting of DVD support, VLC, and Flash an annoying repeat process upon every fresh install!

I agree with wewillchange about Songbird. It's nothing but a pain. Listen (XFCE's default player) has always been hassle free.

As for drop down terminal, guake wins hands down, and it's GNOME based

jaxxstorm

Doesn't Ubuntu come with a usb creator by default now?

I'm going to have to try Ubuntu Tweak soon probably before I reinstall.

trethlyn

I found Songbird to be nothing but a hassle in linux. Works great in windows but the set-up and configuration is picky. But maybe thats because I'm addicted to GUI.

"Look, we get it-not everyone's a fan of widgets/gadgets/whathaveyou, and we totally understand; turning off Vista's sidebar was one of the first things we did on a new install. But the Screenlets application gives you access to any of the hundreds upon hundreds of Google Gadgets and other open widgets,"

If we're not fans of widgets/gadgets, why would we want Screenlets?

Yakuake's nice but I prefer Tilda. You might also.

Virtualbox: VMplayer seems to work the best of the emulators for me.

If I were making a list, it would include (in no particular order) VLC, RSS Owl, Firefox, Opera, Tilda, xfe (file mgr), Thunderbird, Deluge, utorrent, and vinagre.

@Al Iguana: Nah, most people don't backup their systems, its all about glitz and glamour and the latest buzzword compliant GUI screen doodahs.

Ubuntu 9.04 'Jaunty Jackalope' release on April 23 Was reading here for some updates http://www.techunits.com/content/list_all/19/ubuntu

ShelbyPapus

Don't use Gnome-Do, it's made with Mono, a C# language that microsoft controls. Show the developers we don't intend to support microsoft.

SusannaSiren

Here's my top 10:
1. Gnome Do: because it's Quicksilver plus a dock
2. Dropbox: for the reasons you mentioned
3. The Shiki-Colors theme: because it makes Ubuntu look awesome and really goes well with docky
4. Exaile: best audio player so far.. forget this songbird crap
5. Guake: Yukuake is for KDE.. use Guake
6. XMind: best (free) mind-mapper out there
7. Miro
8. Opera: well ;-)
9. World of Goo: not free but worth the (little) money.. great game
10. Bazaar: distributed version control software which is also great for document mangement. keep your projects versioned and easily uodate the code on staging or production servers

rawfan

one simple command. sudo apt-get install preload

RussellRacknagular

GnomeDO is phenomenally overrated. I've used it a few times and it just seems like a bit of a gimmick. I guess if you're a Twitter addict or something it'd be good, but honestly, it's never benefited me.

VanceApheidas

Guake Terminal is a GTK-based alternative to Yakuake. http://guake-terminal.org

PhilipHoeseph

@DavidKaplan: Let me get this straight, you quit ubuntu because enough people were not writing plugins to an optional application you felt was important to your user experience? If this is the best you can come up with, you are a fool.

rdw200169

I'm glad to see GNOME Do as #1. It was the first thing I thought of before I started reading the list. Very useful, and hard to live without.

There's also several other gems on here that I will have to try out.

jeremiah89

Try Clonezilla...www.clonezilla.org

SulakshanaLoralee

HardInfo is a nice Everest / Sandra replacement. Open Source, too: http://hardinfo.org

RenfredCerdo

There is also guake - programe with similiar functionality like yakuake. And it is in gtk, so you don't have problems with diffrent depences...

CrosbyHaechler

I use simple backup for automated backups. It's not an imaging program but it does backup everything you need very nicely and quickly. It's called sbackup in synaptic and apt-get.

SaravatiGalung

"Search out the app's name there to install it"

Fail. Just use an AptURL ([wiki.ubuntu.com]) so we can install it directly.

I can't believe these are really the "top ten" downloads. No, most of these are not in Synaptic Manager. One even implied it wasn't ready for use yet. Ubuntu Tweak, or was it the Kawasaki app.

Who writes these hype articles. It must all be paid content anymore.

Bob Meyers

@wewillchange wants you to @trackswine: Songbird worked fine for me but it lacks a lot of the basic features that I expect in a media player, like queuing songs or "stop after track/queue". There are plugins for that, but it's basic stuff and the plugins don't integrate as well as I'd like. Songbird focuses too much on doing something "cool" and not enough on doing something right.

@wewillchange wants you to @trackswine: i got a acer aspire one... i use XBMC to acces my vista-shares! when i am on the road my nokia N85's fm transmitter works quite well...

@David Clark: or you know... maybe its on a laptop?

No wine?

Wine is free and is a must if you want to use Windows apps on Linux. Granted, not all of them will work out of the box, but you'll find plenty of use for all your old licenses (they were good enough then, why not use them again?). It is also needed to run Audacity Windows Version and have no issues with audio compatibility over the pulseaudio stuff.

Songbird a hassle? LOL

Transmission! Torrents made extremely easy.

Thinkfree Office. The office suit that comes with free online storage for your files and is as close as it gets to MS' version.

K3b. IMHO a nice CD/DVD burning software, that's easy to get and works great.

Miro. YAY! Media viewer, podcast and videocast viewer...

Elisa Media Center. It's nice and good! Movies, pictures, podcasts and with plugins you get even more!

Picasa. Need I say more?

non-free plugins for mp3, dvd and flash playback are a must too.

whiskey