Thursday, June 26, 2008

Software for Linux

Here is a list of Linux applications that I personally use on my openbox setup. I highly recommend every single application listed here, I also took the liberty of taking a screenshot of each application running on my computer. Most of the applications are found in Ubuntu's repos, just do a search otherwise you will need to find a deb or compile.

Catfish - A great search utility. I find it's better then the one Gnome uses.
Catfish Screenshot
Deluge - A very good Bittorrent client, similar interface to uTorrent.
Deluge Screenshot
Driftnet - A privacy invasion utility really, allows you to look at images that pass through your network. But it's also useful to save massive amounts of pictures that you view with your browser.
Driftnet Screenshot
Emesene - A perfect MSN clone, I find it more familiar than Pidgin.
Emesene Screenshot
GColor2 - A simple color selection utility useful for designing webpages or openbox themes.
GColor2 Screenshot
Gmrun - A simple run application.
Gmrun Screenshot
Nitrogen - A wallpaper selection tool, very useful for openbox.
Nitrogen Screenshot
Obconf - Openbox configuration utility.
Obconf Screenshot
Obmenu - An easy way to configure the openbox menu. Add remove applications with ease, add pipe menus, etc.
Obmenu Screenshot
Photoshop - Yes, Photoshop. Why not Gimp? Because Photoshop is a much better application in my opinion. Yes I know the Gimp can do most things if not all of them. The problem is that it's not easy to relearn the interface, shortcuts, etc. There are also a few minor limitations with Gimp which I prefer not to discuss. I run Photoshop 7 through crossover office, it runs alright. There are certain limitations, like slight mouse lag and minor text/menu glitches. However it's usable. For any serious multi-layer work like high resolution flyer design I do it on Windows, because it's not adequate on my aging machine to do it in Linux. Unfortunately :( I've only had Photoshop crash once over the last year.
Photoshop Wine Screenshot

SMPlayer
- A great media player, it offers everything and more that Media Player Classic offers on Windows. It uses QTk instead of GTK, but that doesn't stop me from using this great application. VLC is also good, but has no full screen controls and I find the interface lacking & sluggish.
SMPlayer Screenshot
Sonata & MPD - Sonata is a frontend for MPD, which means you can close it or even log out and music will continue playing (You can of course manage this functionality for MPD to stop if Sonata is closed in the settings). You will need to setup and run MPD before you can use Sonata. I find that Sonata is very quick, has a great interface which uses your default icons. I used to use Audacious (a Winamp clone), but I find the interface to be a bit sluggish and the playlist always glitches on minimize.
Sonata Screenshot
Sysinfo - A program that displays various System Information.
Sysinfo Screenshot
Thunar - An excellent and fast file manager. I would also recommend PCMan.
Thunar Screenshot
Xchat - Irc chat client, the Gnome version is horrible in my opinion so I use the default one.
Xchat Screenshot
Xnest - This great little utility allows you to login in to your computer in a separate window running a different session. I use it to get gnome shortcut properties and such.
Xnest Screenshot
For more applications I suggest you check out GetDeb (for Ubuntu) and take a look at this forum thread, cool applications you use that others might not know of. Furthermore urukrama's openbox guide offers a lot of software suggestions.

Openbox, Pypanel and Netwmpager

So I've been using openbox for the past month and it's definitely my favorite desktop environment so far. While I love gnome I find that it's too bloated, I love the ability to customize openbox with relative ease. Not only is it a lot faster, but it's also a lot cleaner and compact. Recently I installed pypanel after messing with fbpanel, I find both are similar in resources. However fbpanel lacks a little on customization, while at the same time offers a pager. However I added netwmpager as my pager and it's awesome, gives a lot of functionality and customization.

Here is my current openbox desktop:
Openbox, Pypanel and Netwmpager Desktop Screenshot
You might be asking yourself, how I have a skinned the taskbar with pypanel. The answer is that I cheated, I edited my wallpaper to include the panel and the background behind conky. Then I made both pypanel and conky transparent.

Here are 2 of the panels (and conky style backgrounds) I have created, they are transparent PNGs so you will need to edit them and add your background behind them. Both are sized to 1280x1024, you will need to resize/move or cut up the files to make them fit on your wallpaper. Both are made from scratch, you are free to do what you want with them. I cannot release the wallpaper versions because the wallpaper are not made by me, but it's easy enough to edit.
Blue Version:
Pypanel Panel Blue
Transparent Green Version
Pypanel Panel Transparent Green
You can download the BlueSmoke openbox theme I created from here. Give me a good rating if you like it :p

The wallpaper that I am using is called Dyrou, it's offered in a number of colors you can download it here.

Here are all my settings, make sure to edit them before using.
~/.pypanelrc
~/.config/netwmpager/config
~/.config/openbox/autostart.sh
~/.config/openbox/menu.xml
~/.config/openbox/rc.xml
~/.conkyrc
~/.conky/gmail.py
~/.conky/weather.sh
~/Files/System/Scripts/dzen_calendar (Taken from urukrama)
~/Files/System/Scripts/themeinfo.py (Taken from dbbolton)

~/.fbpanel/default (unrelated to this theme but I also have a edited fbpanel)

I'm using a GTK theme called Clorgon and the Elementary icon theme.

That should be all, I highly recommend reading urukrama's openbox guide and all of his openbox related postings, very well written and very informative. Also K.Mandla offers a lot of interesting openbox related information. If you want to see some great openbox related screenshots, check out urukrama's screenshots section.

Enjoy :)

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Ubuntu Cd Artwork (5.10 to 8.04)

Ubuntu Cd Artwork 5.10 to 8.04
Here are all the Ubuntu Cds I have ever received, I'm not sure if I'm missing any. Interesting to look at the artwork.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Ubuntu Hardy Screenshot

Haven't posted in a while, been busy with real life. But anyways here is my current desktop of Ubuntu Hardy.
Ubuntu Hardy Screenshot
GTK: Murrine-Colors (Murrine Brave)
Metacity: Shiftie Red Ed
Icons: Elementary 1.8 (Slightly Modified)
Wallpaper: Mupe Bay Dreams