customizing Ubuntu with new apps

To me it seems that some of Ubuntu Dapper’s default programs are not the best, and there are other simple things completely missing which need to be brought up to a more comfortable user-friendly standard.

There are various ways of downloading new applications–a very clean & simple guide can be found here. Basically, you have the “Add/Remove” button at the bottom of your main App Menu, the Synaptic Package Manager under your System -> Admin menu, and the ever so fast & clean Terminal (under Apps -> Accessories).

2 great little programs for automating this process are EasyUbuntu and Automatix (or follow this guide). I have used both, and they are perfect for installing very much needed multimedia codecs and flash for internet browsing.

As I mentioned earlier, Dapper’s default search utility is pretty cumbersome (actually useless to me), and it is quite annoying to install a program and not find it in your menu. These 2 problems can be alleviated by Beagle, a more robust searching tool, and Debian Menu, which puts an add-on to your main menu with most* everything ever installed. (you can install this easily by opening Terminal and typing “sudo aptitude install menu”, or follow this search for more details)

The default clipboard utility is also pretty useless, but can be upgraded to Clipboard Daemon easily. I installed Glipper instead, which is a small program in Asher’s Repository, along with Zim, a wiki-styled note-taking utility, and I’m thinking of installing Alltray next.

For internet browsing, I use Firefox exclusively, and for email I typically use Thunderbird which I like much more than Gnome’s native “Evolution” which seems too much of a MS Outlook knock-off to me. (note: I haven’t been able to set up Thunderbird to my liking in Ubuntu yet…it seems too bulky all of a sudden to me — perhaps I need a better Theme than the default fixed it here) (2nd note: Evolution is very much integrated into the Gnome desktop — the time/date button automatically brings up your Evolution Calendar — pretty neat, huh? See here to configure it with other calendars)

For chat/phone, Gnome has the default Ekiga built in. I didn’t register to get an account, since I don’t know anybody with it, but apparently it’s better (since it’s not proprietary & so you can communicate with people using certain other methods) than Skype. After trying Wengophone, another free non-proprietary phone utility, and not getting it to work at all, I decided to go right back to Skype[I am back to Ekiga, see my post here], which only has an ancient old version available for Linux. Oh well, at least it works and I know a couple people on it.
I also don’t care for the default audio player, Rhythmbox. It kept on doing some really buggy things to me, and I got fed up. Sorry to all you who love it. I really wanted something closer to my beloved Quintessential that I use in Windows. I searched and searched lists of recommendations as well as actual programs’ sites and screenshots. I like the minimal but fast/clean interfaces similar to Quintessential, and so I tried XMMS. It didn’t quite work well on my computer for some reason. So I took it off and tried Audacious instead. Not bad, easy to use, probably just what I need, and I’m happy for now. [1/4/07: I have since tried out Listen, a music player for Gnome, and I must say, I like it very much. It is a very well-thought out player, with several extras built-in, such as lyrics & last.fm artist suggestions. Apparently, it is similar to KDE’s Amarok]
Other than this, I have used only one extra added app worth mentioning: Gnomebaker, which burns CDs & DVDs. I used it to burn a DVD, and had no problems, so I’ll likely be using it again.

I tried using Wine to port my new favorite Windows application (Klipfolio) into Ubuntu. It didn’t really work well. Maybe I did it wrong, but it was too much for me to play around with, for an application not meant for Ubuntu? ehhh. Seems dumb to me. Quintessential almost worked with this method, but not enough for me to keep it. I gave up on that idea. So now I’m still in search of a good rss-feeder/forecast/stock tracker/everything like Klipfolio for Ubuntu. I never found that, but I did hook up my top menubar with each of these things (except the rss feeder) instead. Just right-click your menubar, click “Add to Panel”, and you will find a customizable weather and stock-ticker, among other cool little items. I also added a custom app launcher for both the nautilus File Browser as well as Terminal, so I don’t have to go through menus for them. Woohoo! Even better than having an application running in the background of my desktop (except I still don’t have an rss-feeder…I searched but did not find…I need clean/fast/simple, of course)

Speaking of desktop applications, I cannot go on without mentioning my absolute favorite: Rainlendar! Version 2 is now out, and it’s made for Linux too! [Note: I’m exploring other options here] I wish I could I possibly can integrate it into that little calendar under the time/date button I mentioned earlier though. I had to manually add Rainlendar to my menu (even with the Debian Menu) using the Alacarte Menu Editor (under Accessories), as well as to the Startup Programs list (under System -> Prefs -> Sessions)). [If other programs don’t startup automatically, remember that one]

So, for now I’m somewhat settled into my personal Ubuntu, though I know I have MUCH more to research & update on my computer. As time goes on, I’m sure a lot will change, but I’m happy for now, and have yet to spend much time on my Windows partition.

Note: 12/23/06 - wanted to watch a dvd, which was included in my fashion magazine… Had to install a bunch of stuff just to see this little video. Searched online and best, most up-to-date guide was here (the other how-to’s used freecontrib.org which didn’t work).