ubuntu7.04: Top 27 cool apps to install on Ubuntu..

Ubuntu 7.04 is undoubtedly one of the most popular Linux distribution especially for Linux newbies , now overall it is extremely usable and good but a very limited number of applications are by default shipped with Ubuntu 7.04 .In this article we look at a number of really good applications that are not shipped by default with Ubuntu as well as instructions on installing them : -

Installing/Enabling additional Repositories
Now many applications need additional repositories to be installed or some to be enabled in Synaptic package manager so before trying out steps given below ensure that repositories in order.

launch Synaptic Package Manager (System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager ) , then in Synaptic package manager go to (Settings -> Repositories ) you will find window like this .

Ensure that all the check boxes are marked leaving source code(if you want to you can enable this also but you are not going to need this unless you are software developer) the dialog box should look like this .

Now you have to add additional repositories , close synaptic package manager and type the following command in the terminal window (Application -> Accessories -> Terminal )

¨wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add - ¨

and

sudo wget http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/sources.list.d/feisty.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

after completing above steps type

¨ sudo apt-get update ¨

Now your system should be ready for installing extra codecs .

1.Deluge-Torrent Client

Deluge is a nice Bittorrent client for Linux and Unix , it has been created using Python and GTK+ . It was created with intentions of providing a full featured bit torrent client for GTK based environment like Gnome and XFCE infact it was initally called gTorrent but then name wa slater changed as gTorrent gave indications it was only Gnome based torrent client .
Some of the features of Deluge Torrent is : -

Torrent creation built into main client

Plugins implemented as modules

Supports network features such as Peer_exchange , UPnP and NAT-PMP

Encryption in many ways at many levels

To install type the following command in the terminal window : -

wget http://www.dipconsultants.com/ubuntu/feisty/deluge-torrent_0.5.2-1_i386.deb

and

sudo dpkg -i deluge-torrent_0.5.2-1_i386.deb

However if u find some dependency error type

sudo apt-get -f install

To correct dependencies
After completing above step launch deluge from (Application -> Internet -> Deluge Bittorrent Client )

2.Wine doors

Wine Doors is an application that is still in early stage of development but allows easy installation and managing of Windows application on Linux desktop .
This what Wine Doors Website has to say : -

Wine-doors is an application designed to make installing windows software on Linux, Solaris or other Unix systems easier. Wine-doors is essentially a package management tool for windows software on Linux systems.

Since Wine-Doors is basically to manage applications installed through wine and simplify their installation through wine so installing wine is must (provided you dont have wine installed already)
To install Wine : -

sudo apt-get install wine

And after completing above step type the following command in the terminal window to install Wine-Doors

wget http://www.wine-doors.org/releases/wine-doors_0.1-1_all.deb

and

sudo dpkg -i wine-doors_0.1-1_all.deb

After completing above steps launch Wine-Doors from Applications -> System-Tools -> Wine-Doors .Now Wine-Doors would download and install some necessary apps and when all this inital confiuguration is over you would find a dialog like this providing you a easy way of installing a number of popular windows application.

3.XMMS

This is the WinAmp alternative for the Linux platform and has been in existence for quiet some time now , it is based on mpg123 library for playing mp3 files . The application has look similar to winamp application and can be beautified with a number of skins , also XMMS supports a large number of plugins that add extra functionality to the player. Besides having ability to play mp3 files it can be used for plying WMA files also by installing external plugin.(http://mcmcc.bat.ru/xmms-wma/)
To install XMMS type the following command in the terminal window :-

sudo apt-get install xmms

and after completing above step launch XMMS from (Applications -> Sound & Video -> XMMS )

4.Synfig

Synfig is open source 2D animation and graphics program , Synfig allows easy creation of animation on Linux platform . It is still in early stages of development but still feature set it provides now is very impressive .
Text taken from Synfig website : -

2D Animation has traditionally been very expensive because every frame must be drawn by hand. Even with today's digital inking and painting software, the process still relies on individuals hand-drawing each frame. This laborious task is called “tweening”.
Our animation technology eliminates the task of manual tweening, producing smooth, fluid motion without the animator having to draw out each frame individually.
This allows you to produce 2D animation with fewer people while producing a product of a higher quality.

To install Synfig type the following command in the terminal window : -

sudo apt-get install synfig

and

sudo apt-get install synfigstudio

and after completing above step launch Synfig from (Applications -> Graphics -> Synfig Studio )

5.songbird

Songbird is a extremely user friendly music player based on on Mozilla's XULRunner platform and is cross platform it has a number of really good features and also has integrated web browser .

6.Quod Libet : -

Quod Libet is an extremely versatile music player based on GTK+ that is extendible via plugins , has a rich feature set and has really unique feature of building playlist by searching for particular kind of music files based on search terms or regular expression . It has been programmed in Python programming language and hence it's plugin are also created in Python. A number of plugins are available including ones that help in copying songs to digital audio players , last.fm plugin , advanced editing features and many more .
Quod Libet uses GStreamer framework of GNOME to play audio files and hence integrates quite well the the GNOME desktop environment , also audio format supported would be same as the one supported by GStreamer so you may want to install mp3 support since by default many linux distributions these days dont come with mp3 support installed.
To install Quod Libet type the following command in the Terminal Window : -

sudo apt-get install quodlibet

and after completing above step launch quod-libet from (Application -> Sound & Video -> Quod Libet )

Quod Libet Website : - http://www.sacredchao.net/quodlibet

7.Inkscape

Inkscape is very powerful vector graphics editor available on Windows , Linux and Mac OS X . It is free and open source . Its stated goal is to become a powerful graphic tool while being fully compliant with the XML, SVG and CSS standards.

Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. Supported SVG features include shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, patterns, and grouping. Inkscape also supports Creative Commons meta-data, node editing, layers, complex path operations, bitmap tracing, text-on-path, flowed text, direct XML editing, and more. It imports formats such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and others and exports PNG as well as multiple vector-based formats. standard

To install inkscape type the following command : -

sudo apt-get install inkscape

and after completing install launch inkscape from (Application -> Graphics -> Inkscape Vector Illustrator )

visit their website :- http://www.inkscape.org/

8.aMSN

aMSN is a MSN Messenger clone for Linux operating system , it tries to emulate look and feel of MSN messenger as close as possible allowing linux newbies to use aMSN easily .
aMSN has features not present in MSN Messenger. Users can set alarms, are able to see others who have removed them from their contact list, and are able to open many profiles at once. It is also very customizable, with extensions and themes available at the main site.
To install aMSN type the following command in the terminal window : -

sudo apt-get install amsn

and after completing installation launch aMSN from (Applications -> Internet -> aMSN )

9.Gimpshop

GIMPshop is a modification of the free/open source graphics program GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP), intended to replicate the feel of Adobe Photoshop. Its primary purpose is to make users of Photoshop feel comfortable using GIMP.

This is what developer had to say : -

"My original purpose for GIMPshop was to make the Gimp accessible to the many Adobe Photoshop users out there. I hope I’ve done that. And maybe along the way, I can convert a Photoshop pirate into a Gimp user."

GIMPShop tries to replicate Photoshop's interface as close as possible , hence many tutorials designed for Adobe Photoshop could be followed for GIMPshop !! . Now besides all the interface change it adds naming convection similar to photoshop to Gimp . Other than this all the features of GIMP are preserved .Like GIMP which is crossplatform and runs on Windows , Linux , OS X ,Solaris GIMPshop too is crossplatform .

Since GIMPshop is based on GIMP so it has all the features of GIMP .
To install GIMPShop type the following command in the terminal window : -

sudo wget http://www.plasticbugs.com/blogimg/gimpshop_2.2.11-1_i386.deb

and

sudo dpkg -i gimpshop_2.2.11-1_i386.deb

and

gimp
in the terminal window.

10.Comical

Comical is extremely user friendly comic reader allowing you to read CBR and CBZ comics easily on your linux desktop . It has been created using wxWidgets .
To install Comical type the following command in the terminal window : -

wget http://debian.xmixahlx.com/packages/unstable/comical_0.4-1_i386.deb

and

sudo dpkg -i comical_0.4-1_i386.deb

11.Tuxpaint

TuxPaint is extremely simple graphical bitmap editor for children as young as 3 years old . The user interface is intuitive with bright icons , audible feedback, textual hints and brightly colored. Also there is cartoon Mascot to keep children interested .
It has a number of really interesting features , including one which allows teachers to turnoff certain features of TuxPaint . Also there is an option for allowing slideshow to be seen as flip book animation .

To install Tuxpaint type the following command in the terminal window :

sudo apt-get install tuxpaint

and after completing above step launch tuxpaint by typing tuxpaint in the terminal window .

12.Audacity

Audacity is open source cross platform software for recording and editing sound files . The Graphical interface of Audacity was created using wxWidgets library .

some of Audacity's features include:

Importing and exporting WAV, AIFF, MP3 (via the LAME MP3 Encoder, downloaded separately), Ogg Vorbis, and other file formats
Recording and playing sounds
Editing via Cut, Copy, Paste (with unlimited Undo)
Multi-track mixing
Digital effects and effect plug-ins. Additional effects can be written with Nyquist
Amplitude envelope editing
Noise removal
Support for multichannel modes with sampling rates up to 100 kHz with 24 bits per sample
The ability to make precise adjustments to the audio's speed, while maintaining pitch, in order to synchronise it with video, run for the right length of time, etc.
Large array of plug-ins available

To install Audacity type the following command in the terminal window : -
sudo apt-get install audacity
After completing install launch audacity from (Applications-> Sound & Video -> Audacity )

13.GCompris

GCompris is a educational software for children and has a number of activity to keep children engaged , activities like : -

omputer discovery: keyboard, mouse, different mouse gesture, ...
Algebra: table memory, enumeration, double entry table, mirror image, ...
Science: the canal lock, the water cycle, the submarine, electric simulation, ...
Geography: place the country on the map
Games: chess, memory, connect 4, oware, sudoku ...
Reading: reading practice
Other: learn to tell time, puzzle of famous paintings, vector drawing, cartoon making, ...

To install type the following command in the terminal window : -

sudo apt-get install gcompris

After completing above step launch GCompris from (Application -> Games -> Educational Suite GCompris )

14.Adobe Reader

On Ubuntu/Linux a number of good pdf reader exist that are quite functional and less resource hungry as compared to Adobe Reader , However if you still want to install Adobe Reader 7.0. you can either download package from adobe website or type the following command in the terminal window .

However note , the following command would only work if Medibuntu repositories are configured properly so be sure you have installed it correctly as described in the beginning of article .

¨sudo aptitude install acroread ¨

15.Nvu/Kompozer

Nvu is one of the most popular

WYSIWYG HTML editor available on Windows and Linux and is open source and free . Nvu is based on Composer component of Mozilla Application Suite . Nvu allows novice or beginners who have little or no knowledge of CSS/HTML to create attractive web pages .Nvu was started by Linspire . As of now Nvu development has ceased and there is a project called Kompozer which if fork of Nvu and is unoffical bug-fix release of Nvu .

To install Kompozer type the following command in the terminal window : -

wget -c http://internap.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/kompozer/kompozer-077-i686.tgz

and

tar -xvzf kompozer-077-i686.tgz

and

sudo mv kompozer /opt/

and

sudo ln -s /opt/kompozer/kompozer /usr/bin/kompozer

After completing above steps
type kompozerIn the terminal window to launch Kompozer .

16.Google Earth

To install Google Earth type the following command in the Terminal Window (Application->Accessories -> Terminal ),keep in mind that googleearth is downloaded from Medibuntu repositories and not Ubuntu hence be sure you have activated the repositories correctly as described in first step of this article.

¨sudo aptitude install googleearth"

After downloading is over you will get a screen like this press ¨Yes¨ to accept the license agreement and complete software installation.

Now you can launch Google Earth from (Application -> Internet -> Google Earth)

17.RealPlayer

Realplayer is one of the most popular cross platform media player available on Windows,Linux , Mac OS and a number of other platform . RealPlayer plays popular .rm ,rmvb,.mp3 and other media formats.
To install RealPlaye r first download RealPlayer10GOLD.bin file from the following website assuming you have downloaded it to your home directory .

After installation is over type

¨chmod +x RealPlayer10GOLD.bin¨

and

¨sudo ./RealPlayer10GOLD.bin¨

for installation to begin . Follow the instructions as presented to complete installation .
After installation is over you can launch Real Player from (Application -> Sound & Video -> Real Player 10 ).

18.ePDFView

This is also a lightweight PDF viewer that is based on poppler library ( Same library that xpdf uses for rendering of PDF files), it's interface is neat and fast and renders pdf files quickly .
To install ePDFView type the following command in Ubuntu : -

" sudo apt-get install epdfview "

after above step is completed you can launch epdfview from (Applications -> Office -> ePDFViewer) .

19.Abiword

Abiword is a lightweight word processor created using GTK libraries , it is part of Gnome Office and have been available on Linux platform for a long time . It is crossplatform and is available on Windows , MacOS X ,BeOS and other Operating System . It's interface is similar to Microsoft Word and new users of Abiword should not have any significant difficulty in moving from Microsoft Word to AbiWord.

AbiWord is packaged with several import/export filters, including Rich Text Format, HTML, OpenDocument and LaTeX (export only). Plug-in filters are available to deal with many other formats, notably WordPerfect (wpd) documents. The native file format uses XML .

To install AbiWord
sudo apt-get install abiword

After completing above step launch abiword by going to (Application -> Office -> Abiword Word processor) .

AbiWord is also included with many lightweight linux distributions like Xubuntu and DSL.

Abiword supports the following features:

Speed and size efficiency.
Microsoft Word-like interface.
Support for tables, footnotes, and endnotes.
Support for tables of contents.
Equation editing.
Grammar checking.
User interface and spell checking in 49 languages.

20.PCMan File Manager : -

PCMan File Manager is extremely small and Fast file manager that supports Tabbed Browsing , it may not be as feature rich as Nautilus however it does the job of file manager well . It has been created using GTK2 Libraries and it's website claims it can start in one second .

Here is the list of features (Taken from it's website ) :-
"

Extremly fast and lightweight
Can be started in one second on normal machine
Tabbed browsing (Similiar to Firefox)
Drag & Drop support
Files can be dragged among tabs
Load large directories in reasonable time
File association support (Default application)
Basic thumbnail support
Bookmarks support
Handles non-UTF-8 encoded filenames correctly
Provide icon view and detailed list view
Standard compliant (Follows FreeDesktop.org)
Clean and user-friendly interface (GTK+ 2)

To Install PCMan File Manager download the debian package from here : - http://pcmanfm.sourceforge.net/download.html
Now You can install it graphically by double clicking it and launching the Graphical installation tool or issuing the following command in the terminal window after moving into directory where you have downloaded the debian package : -

Graphical installation of PCMan File Manager

or from Terminal window

" dpkg -i pcman* "

Now launch PCMan File Manager by going to (Applications -> System Tools -> PCMan File Manager )

21.Gnumeric

Gnumeric is part of Gnome Office and provides Spreadsheet capabilities , Gnumeric is a lightweight alternative to OpenOffice Spreadsheet program , besided occupying very less amout of memory it's installation files are only 2-3 Megabytes in size , based on GTK Libraries it integrates well with Gnome Desktop .Gnumeric was created and developed by Miguel de Icaza , and is now maintained by Jody goldberg .

Gnumeric has the ability to import and export data in several file formats, including Applix, CSV, Data Interchange Format, Microsoft Excel, HTML, LaTeX, Lotus 1-2-3, MultiPlan, GNU Oleo, OpenDocument, OpenOffice.org 1.x, Plan perfect, Quattro Pro, SpreadsheetML, Xspread and Xbase. Its native format is the Gnumeric file format, an XML file compressed with gzip

To install Gnumeric type the following command at the Console Window(Applications->Accesories -> Terminal)

" sudo apt-get install gnumeric "

After installation is over click (Application -> Office -> Gnumeric Spreadsheet) to launch Gnumeric Spreadsheet.

22.Bluefish

Bluefish is a free software/open source text editor Its use is suitable for many programming and markup languages, with particular focus on their use for web development. Bluefish is extremely useful for making webpages from scratch using HTML/CSS and other markup language. Bluefish has been created using GTK2 and uses GTK libraries .
To install Bluefish type the following command in the terminal window : -

sudo apt-get install bluefish

and after completing above step launch Bluefish from (Application -> Programming -> Bluefish Editor )

23.Opera Web Browser

Opera is a excellent web browser available on a number of different platforms including Windows,Linux and Mac OS X . Now opera has a number of really good features it includes a download manager , bit torrent client has a excellent rendering engine and a number of other really good features .

To install opera type the following command in the terminal (Application -> Accessories -> Terminal ) window : -

wget http://opera.eurenet.net/linux/920/final/en/i386/shared/opera_9.20-20070409.6-shared-qt_en_i386.deb

and

sudo aptitude install libqt3-mt

and

sudo dpkg -i opera_9.20-20070409.6-shared-qt_en_i386.deb

After completing above step launch opera from (Applications -> Internet -> Opera )

24.Downloader For X

Downloader for X is a nice download manager that allows downloading files from Internet , pausing them and downloading them later . It also supports splitting file into number of segments so that files could be downloaded quickly . However one thing that i didn't like about is it's interface is somewhat difficult as compared to some of the download manager available on Windows.

Anyways to install " Downloader for X " type the following command in the terminal window.

¨sudo aptitude install d4x "

After installation is over launch ¨Downloader for X¨ by typing ¨d4x¨ in the terminal window , or by going to (Applications-> Internet -> Downloader for X )

25.Skype

Skype is a popular VOIP application , allowing one to make voice calls over the internet . To install Skype type the following command in the Terminal Window (Application->Accessories -> Terminal ),keep in mind that Skype is downloaded from Medibuntu repositories and not Ubuntu hence be sure you have activated the repositories correctly as described in first step of this article.

sudo aptitude install skype

After completing above step you could launch skype from (Applications -> Internet ->Skype)

26.Scribus

Scribus is one of the most impressive Desktop Publishing application that is free and cross platform . Scribus is available on Windows , Mac OS X , Linux , OS/2 etc . It is highly suited for preparing file for professional quality image setting equipment .It has high end page layout features of the kind found in Adobe PageMaker, QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign.
It can also create animated and interactive PDF presentations and forms. Example uses include writing small newspapers, brochures, newsletters, posters and books.
Anyways , to install scribus type the following command in the terminal (Application ->Accessories -> Terminal )

sudo aptitude install scribus

and after completing above step launch scribus by typing "scribus" in terminal window.

27.VLC Media Player

VLC Player is another of popular video player available under Linux . It is released under GNU General Public license and is available for different platform including Windows,Linux,BeOS,Mac OS X etc. VLC player is based upon free open source libraries like libdvdcss,FFMpeg for decoding various video formats.

One Important feature of VLC Player is it's ability to play files over NetWork Protocols. The Frontend of VLC player is created using wxWidgets toolkit and it's appearance can be changed by using different skins. One Popular feature of VLC Player is it's ability to play files that are incomplete/broken or partially downloaded , making it useful for previewing file while downloading on file-sharing networks.
To install VLC Player type the following command in the terminal window : -

sudo apt-get install vlc

1 comment:

linuxpixie said...: Skype is not COOL at all. It is a bad maleware that masses with your files.
Do NOT install it. Instead use
OPENWENGO from wengophone, which is also an open source and Free as in Free beer.; October 1, 2007 at 9:27 PM

ubuntu7.04

Monday, October 1, 2007

Top 27 cool apps to install on Ubuntu..

1 comment:

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