Any Recommened Usefull Applications?

[Richb2004v2]

As a new comer to Linux, and only in the past month having settled with using Ubuntu, I have found a few simple but very useful functions or applications. The most recent tool I found was the ability to set the time to various locations and have the time and weather in that location displayed on the tab. I think this is great and wonder if there are other similar applications or tools. I think I have seen several in use on windows desktops. It would be good to have exchange rates displayed on the desktop too. Is there such an option or application? Does anyone have any other personal favorites tools or useful items?

Other than this I also installed and use k3B and Stellarium. Any recommendations?

[Richard-BKK]

What about Skype, it works wonders in combination with a 250 to 350 Baht "compatible" Skype phone from Phantip...

Other packages I have installed are Firestarter, just to keep the Firewall simple, Opera, just because I use Opera on my mobile and ..it is free.. so why not, aMSN as MSN messenger.. mostly only because it supports webcams....

For paid packages I have Crossover Office 7.10 and Crossover Games, but basically.. until now I did not encounter a game which not worked in Crossover Office which works in Crossover Games.... (investment statues = wast of money)

I use Nero Linux and I'm happy with it, it can burn audio CD's from MP3 and more options with build-in codecs...

I also bought VMware Workstation 6, which is now upgraded to Vmware Workstation 6.52, which supports DirectX 9.0c so games are better played in VM environment. Still I'm very happy with Crossover Office, as it let me run Windows programs on my Linux desktop.

[joncl]

A few free dloads via the synaptic package manager that spring to mind;

1. Miro - for internet TV, podcasts etc, A complete solution

2. Ktorrent - for torrents

3. Elisa - as a Media Center - a tad better than the MS Vista Media Center. A complete solution

4. Wine - as a ms windows emulator (will run many things - but no where near all things)

5. Kopete - a an instant messenger (or aMSN as mentioned above)

6. VLC - the best media player on all platforms

7. GIT - if you are into source codes/cdk/svn programming

8. SVN (Subversion) - as per line 7

and many more baby tools I am sure you already use.

Edited May 5, 2009 by joncl

[mingtien]

I just discovered this forum -- glad to see that there is a Thailand Linux forum :-)

My favourites:

Bundled with Ubuntu (9.04 Jaunty in my case:

Tomboy Notes -- I use constantly for keeping track of things and filing useful and semi-useful information for later use

Evolution -- manages my 2 work and 2 personal email accounts nicely, and good integration with Google Mail/Calendar with a bit of tweaking

Pidgin -- great for managing all of those various IM services in one place (aMSN is another very good one, with a slightly nicer interface, but it does not offer Evolution integration)

OpenOffice -- indispensable! Compatibility with Powerpoint and Excel is very good thus far (3 months, exchanging files with colleagues nearly every day)

Date/Time -- If you are using Ubuntu, configure the date/time to show the weather, and you can also set up multiple cities -- so if you travel, you can automatically reset to local time, and when you are not traveling this functions as a world time clock, displaying only the cities of your choice.

Not bundled:

(I had originally put the URL's for each of these to save people time, but this web site censors messages with URL's, so you will need to Google for them.)

Liferea RSS reader -- much nicer than reading RSS feed through a web browser

Picasa -- nice for sharing photos quickly

DropBox -- a handy 'box' to place critical files and data, to be replicated to a web site. I use it for files that I might want to access when I don't have my notebook with me, and as an additional backup point for dotfiles and small things that I can't live without.

Conduit -- A tool that helps transfer data between the various Google applets, dropbox, Evolution, Facebook, Tomboy notes, and various online photo sites (like flickr). I've only begun to find out how useful this really is!

ConvertAll -- for lazy people (like me!) who don't want to remember every conversion formula, this is a quick and easy utility. It even does Thai measurements like Rai and Ngaan!

(available in Ubuntu repositories)

Remastersys -- once you have installed your Linux OS, and downloaded all the bits and bobs to make it useful (codecs, various software, libraries that you need to compile things etc.), you can use this utility to create a bootable Live CD / Live DVD of your configuration of the operating system (also great for creating a master to go on many machines). There is also a backup option, which also includes your home directory (haven't tried that).

Ubuntu Tweak

Allows for configuration of all of the small things in Ubuntu that would normally require fiddling with lots of individual utilities and dotfiles. Of course I found this after I had fiddled with the dotfiles and individual utilities Review with screenshots:

[Dontdisturb]

A few free dloads via the synaptic package manager that spring to mind;

2. Ktorrent - for torrents

I would recommend Transmission instead of Ktorrent.

I'm a Mac and Gnome Desktop user, so ...

Edited November 22, 2009 by Dontdisturb