35 Cools Applications to install on the most popular Linux distribution: Ubuntu (Chapter V).

29. 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 )

Bluefish

30. 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 )

31. 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

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

    gimp

Splash Screen of GIMPshop

GIMPshop in Action (Note this screen shot was taken from GIMPshop website and running on Mac OS X)

32. 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

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

Comix : -

A Number of people are having trouble with comical , so you may try comix .
Comix is a very good Comic Book Reader with ability to read .cbr , .cbz files.

Here is the text taken from comix website abt comix :-

    Comix is a user-friendly, customizable image viewer. It is specifically designed to handle comic books, but also serves as a generic viewer. It reads images in ZIP, RAR or tar archives (also gzip or bzip2 compressed) as well as plain image files. It is written in Python and uses GTK+ through the PyGTK bindings.

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

    sudo apt-get install unrar

    sudo apt-get install comix

after completing above step launch comix from (Applications - > Graphics -> Comix )

Comix in Action

33. Tuxpaint


Get Paid to Blog About the Things You Love

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 .


TuxPaint in action


34. 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

Audacity Interface

35. 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 )


GCompris in Action

Notable additions (Added Later) : -

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

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 )


Deluge bittorrent client

Wine Doors 0.1 & Wine

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

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.

I Was highly impressed by the ease with which it is possible to install many popular application using wine-doors really impressive .


Wine-Doors in Action

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 )

XMMS in Action


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

sudo apt-get install synfigstudio

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

Synfig in Action(Taken From Synfig Website )

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 .

You can read more about Songbird here in one of my previous post

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

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.

Here is what inkscape website has to say abt inkscape:-

    Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3CScalable 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

For more details abt Inkscape visit this website

To install inkscape type the following command : -


    sudo apt-get install inkscape

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

Inkscape

For more information about inkscpae visit their website :- http://www.inkscape.org/