If you're surfing around in FireFox and don't have a terminal fired up, why waste the extra keystrokes or mouse movements just to install a package? If you already know the package name, you can install from your browser simply by using:

apt:<package-name>

For example I want to install the super excellent diagramming software dia, I simply type:

apt:dia

And a GUI pops up much like it does when you select a package and hit apply in Synaptic.

Because of all the great response from the simple shell script, I've created a GUI using Zenity and Bash so that people new to the CLI or those who wish to select and deselect what packages to install or uninstall may do so. You'll be able to play DVDs, listen to your MP3s, have 5.1 Surround Sound playback enabled and more. This isn't a 'how-to' but rather a 'just-do-it'. If you want to know the how-to, just view the source of the script. It's basically doing some simple apt-gets with a GUI front-end.

Below is a screenshot of the window. Just download the shell script here on my server, -- you'll need to extract it (tar xvf ubuntuTasks.sh.tar.gz) then make sure it's executable (chmod +x ubuntuTasks.sh) and execute it (./ubuntuTasks.sh). You'll be greeted with a user-friendly GUI where you can select and deselect items.

steven@steven-laptop:~/fun$ chmod +x ubuntuTasks.sh
steven@steven-laptop:~/fun$ ./ubuntuTasks.sh 

Once you hit OK, you'll have to input your sudo password when it returns to the CLI. It shouldn't prompt you for anything else. Please shoot me a message if you need any help or have any suggestions.

So many interesting people, so little time. Go here to learn more about attending the Southeast Linux Fest (SELF) next year.

I'm the grinning nerd in the background helping out at the FSF table -- between the KDE guy in blue and the gentleman in white.
Here are my other FSF comrades.

It was an absolute blast. I hope to see some of you guys and gals there next year. Check out the entire album at http://www.flickr.com/groups/selinuxfest/

UPDATE: Please go here for the new GUI version of this script that also includes some extra items.
I was actually going to write an entry this morning about packages to purge or install upon a fresh Ubuntu build but Ubuntu Linux Help beat me to the punch. It's a great article and well worth the read. I've modified the list slightly and created a bash script to execute it. The file is here. Just extract it ( tar xvf ubuntuTaks.sh.tar.gz ) make sure it's executable ( chmod +x ubuntuTasks.sh ) and execute it using ./ubuntuTasks.sh
Below is the code inside in case you want to just copy and paste it into your own file:

#!/bin/bash

sudo apt-get remove --purge mono-common libmono0
sudo aptitude install sbackup
sudo aptitude install ubuntu-restricted-extras && sudo aptitude install w32codecs
sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts && sudo fc-cache -fv
sudo aptitude install vlc
sudo aptitude install k3b
sudo perl -pi -w -e 's/\; default-sample-channels \= 2/default-sample-channels \= 6/g;' /etc/pulse/daemon.conf

As always, this code comes with no warranties. I have run it on my system and all is well.

For those of us who prefer not to install or not rely on proprietary codecs, we can use Ogg Vorbis to freely listen to our music. It is not illegal to install the ubuntu-restricted-extras to listen to MP3 files (it's illegal for Canonical to pre-install them because they sell distros), and for many people this is a blessing since they don't care so much about 'minor' proprietary issues but just have some greater problem with Windows be it its overbearing market share or instability. For those of us who are trying to wean ourselves away from proprietary software altogether, there is a way to convert your mp3 collection to Ogg. You'll need to install mp32ogg (aptly named). From there its a simple command. I'm currently working on a friendly UI for mp32ogg. Currently OggConvert is a good GUI but is limited -as far as I can tell- to converting one song at a time rather than batch converting a directory. Here are the basic commands for converting your music:

sudo apt-get install mp32ogg
mp32ogg --quality=10 --rename=%t *.mp3

This will convert all files in your current directory. You can also use a --delete flag if you are hardcore and want to rid yourself of your mp3s but you may also want to hold onto them if you have a portable device that doesn't support Ogg Vorbis. You can, of course, modify the quality (1-10) and change the rename (from the manual entry: "Instead of simply replacing the .mp3 with .ogg for the output file, produce output filenames in this format, replacing %a, %t and %l with artist, title, and album name for the track").

I'll keep you updated on my GUI progress.

Mono is a tool that provides software to create and run client and server .NET applications of various platforms. One of the concerns many Free Software supporters have with Ubuntu is that it decides for us which proprietary software is good and which is bad. As one blog noted: "If Canonical is to be consistent, I should not have to a a hypocrite about some things and not others." -- specifically in regard to Ubuntu requiring you to install proprietary codecs manually (restricted-extras) but pre-loading software that is used to support a proprietary system.
Here's how to remove the offending program, courtesy of theopensourcerer:

sudo apt-get remove --purge mono-common libmono0

As theopensourcerer notes, you should check with your distribution and needs to see if removing Mono is the right decision for you. For most of us, it is.

Many people have the need to delete files older than a certain range. For instance, you may want to remove all podcasts that are older than a certain time period or delete other files that you receive regularly. Making use of the find command and mtime, you are able to delete them with ease.

find . -name *.ogg -mtime +7 -exec rm {} \;

The above one-liner removes all my ogg-based media files in my current directory that are more than a week old. It is best to use absolute paths -- ESPECIALLY IF RUNNING BY CRON. So the cron-safe code looks like this:

find /home/steven/music/ -name *.ogg -mtime +7 -exec rm {} \;

You can also use this with other command such as moving the file, batch renaming them (if you want all older files to have a .bak extension or whatnot), as well as many other uses. To move the files, simply:

find /home/steven/feeds/ -name *.csv -mtime +30 -exec mv {} /home/steven/feeds/old \;

With enough MAN pages and will, you can do all kinds of cool stuff.

I got this email from Microsoft this week:

"If you’ve ever lost files in a computer crash, you know the importance of backing up your documents. With Microsoft Office Live Workspace beta, you can easily store thousands of documents (up to 5GB) online.
Here’s how:"

It goes on to try to sell you their product. The words I love are "If you've ever lost files in a computer crash". It's a nice way of saying "If you've ever experienced a BSOD, virus, malware, trojan, permissions issues, etc because of our product...".
I know hardrives fail, memory goes bad, children put peanut butter EVERYWHERE but this is far less common that the BSOD. And since the majority of computer users try to function with Windows, they are specifically targeting their own consumers.
If you're concerend about backing up your data AND want to seamlessly have the files be updated on other machines, I suggest using the free (or paid version depending on your needs) Dropbox or the upcoming Ubuntu One.

This is a cool tip from Linux Journal

Basically you do an ssh session, throw in the C and X switches and specify what program to execute. Something like:

ssh -C -X user@coderswasteland.com gnome-terminal

Sweet, huh?