RhythmCat: Simple and a Lightweight Music Player for GNU/Linux!

RhythmCat is a music player that's written using Python as the programming language and GTK for the GUI design and comes with a minimalistic of appearance.

It doesn't have a huge list of features but comes with more than enough of 'em to let you easily manage a lot of audio files with ease + as mentioned in the title, it requires little system resources when comparing with some other ones as well.

It use the Gstreamer multimedia framework and if you have installed the proprietary codec pack in Ubuntu (I'm using it for testing this), then just download and install the player which is gonna take like below 0.7 MB concerning file size!.

Don't be fooled by the word "simple" because RhythmCat comes with a decent amount of useful features.  

Main features...

*. Excellent playlist support - Add multiple ones easily, export/import existing ones, removing, renaming and re-scanning (RhythmCat calls it "refreshing), etc.

*. Import music files by using either folders or individually.

*. Built in plug-in support so you can expand its features easily.

*. Has the ability to play file types such as Vorbis (also known as OGG), MP3, WMA, WAV, FLAC... as said it's based on Gstreamer so the list should be quite long :).

*. Excellent Equalizer with built in presets and save your own ones manually.

*. Play/Pause/Stop/Next... you know the usual "buttons".

*. Repeat or play files randomly.

*. "Mini mode": once activated the player switches itself into a very minimal looking GUI, may not always be useful but pretty cool.

*. System tray support (minimizing, etc).

*. Has 3 main themes.

*. Album-art display (but I don't think it's implemented actually because it just displayed the default art-work image all the time!). 

*. And a "settings" window that lets you configure few advanced options of the player itself.

You can install RhythmCat in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal by downloading the latest build for Ubuntu/Debian or other GNU/Linux distributions from this downloading page.

Although you can't search for files within it's main window, etc ... so may not be the best of its kind if you want to manage or find music quite easily as with Banshee, Rhythmbox, etc.

But if you want something that a lot faster and light on your system resources then RhythmCat is a pretty excellent one without a doubt!.

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How to Install Amarok 2.4.3 "Berlin" in Ubuntu/Kubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal and 11.10?

Amarok is one of the most famous applications/portions of the Qt toolkit written KDE desktop. As promised by the developers with the recently released 2.4.2 beta1 version... it did undergo some GUI and few other major changes which was their preparation for the upcoming 2.4.3 release.

And now the developers have officially announced the availability of the Amarok 2.4.3 "Berlin"!. With this release they've decided to remove the lower "status-bar" and from now on notifications will be using that "space" which could be cool (or maybe not).

Main features...

*. Few more dynamic playlist related enhancements that were triggered in the 2.4.2 beta version such as Quiz-play bias and a new podcast integration with the Gpodder aggregator, etc.

*. Now you can use drag-n-drop to copy/move your local music collections (including inside the playlists) which was again introduced with the recent beta version but it seems that the playlist in general has been "cleaned" here and there so much more easy to understand (in their own words).

This is actually a true screenshot of 2.4.3 (too from the official site) but it's a damn shame that they've used MS Windows 7 for the screenshot rather than using GNU/Linux. So I cropped out the borders *put the angry dude here*. Man this attitude of KDE just pisses me off sometimes!...

*. Thanks to a bug-fix now Amarok geeks :) can configure individual podcast episode names.

*. Automatic scrolling in Lyrics applet.

*. The ability to  scrobble the composer as artist to Last.fm + a lot of bug fixes (such as CD ripping related, last.fm, dynamic playlists, etc) as usual.

We can install Amarok 2.4.3 "Berlin" in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal by using the Kubuntu team's back-ports PPA, but here's the thing.

The team haven't come up with the 2.4.3 version since it's so new and only released it like few hours ago. But perhaps when you read this it maybe available. If it is available then you can install it by using the below commands.

Update: Thanks to "jepong" (see below comments) there's actually a PPA that exists created by Philip Johnson and using the we can finally install this "thing" ;-). I have replaced the original commands with this new PPA but if you want to try the official Kubuntu back-ports (they still haven't come up with it yet) then just replace the text in "Green" with the below one.

kubuntu-ppa/backports

For Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal users...

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:philip5/kubuntu-backports

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install amarok

For Kubuntu 11.04 users use the below command instead.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:philip5/kubuntu-backports

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

But luckily for the Ubuntu (Kubuntu included) 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot users it seems that Amarok 2.4.3 is already in the repositories!, for the obvious reason of we're like few hours away from the official Ubuntu 11.10 Alpha 3 release. So it'll be included in the Alpha 3 ISO image it seems.

Anyhow, if you don't daily update the existing 11.10 Alpha version then you should be able to manually install the latest version by using the below command.

sudo apt-get install amarok

As for the 11.04 users, a little patience goes a long way. I know it's hard but but... :).

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How to Install FocusWriter (Professional Writing Application) in Ubuntu Linux?

If you're a professional writer who'd like to have a simple text editor or a professional writing to be precise with minimal of distractions, then you'd find most of the built in ones that come with almost all the GNU/Linux desktop environments to be a bit of a pain in the as* :).

Although I'm not blaming the developers by any means since they've done an excellent job of creating all purpose, easy to use text editors of their own (such as Gedit, Kate, Leafpad, etc) but as said since the needs of a "true writer" is a bit different than with most of us, thus most of these applications may not simply meet your needs.

Now I've already talked about an excellent one recently which is known as Pyroom but it lacks few things such as no built in spellings checker and other few advanced options. But that being said, if you're looking for a very minimalistic writer app then it's pretty darn good.

But if you're looking for a much more closer to professional writing application for GNU/Linux, then Focuswriter (written in Qt toolkit) is simply an amazing application.

This is in the "windowed" mode... by default it runs in Full-Screen...

Main features...

*. Not just for GNU/Linux actually, this is a cross-platform utility thus you can use it under MS Windows, Mac OSX as well.

*. Has a built in spell checker which as said something that most other applications don't have these days.

*. Find and replace text.

*. A lot of built in text editing features such as - screen alignments, add smart quotes, bold/underline/italic/strike through/, change font, size and colors + redo/undo, etc.

*. Switch between full screen and windowed mode by pressing the "F11" on your Keyboard.

*. Customize the look-n-feel by changing background colors, font colors, etc.

*. Few built in language support.

*. Printing support.

*. Save in different formats.

*. Add a third party dictionary.

*. Save text automatically (you'll have to enable it via the "preferences window").

*. It can even output typewriter sounds! :)... these are just a very few of its features to mention.

You can install Focuswriter in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 11.10, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the developer's personal PPA. Just open your Terminal window and enter the below commands.

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:gottcode/gcppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install focuswriter

In Unity desktop you can search for "focuswriter" or put it in your command-line OR from the main application menu go to: "Applications" -> "Office" -> "FocusWriter". That's it!.

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SystemClean: A Simple Script to Clean Your Ubuntu Linux and Apps Temporary Files!

Just like with any other operating system with GNU/Linux, we also gotta do some application and other temporary files cleaning from time to time. And sometimes even after removing an app in say Ubuntu (in this case) some of the installed dependencies might not be removed automatically by the package manager for various reasons.

Although if you know your way around "apt-get" ;-) then you can do some house cleaning manually ... but what about cleaning the Firefox, Google Chrome or Chromium web browser cache or removing temporary "left-overs" of many other applications in Ubuntu?.

Well you can use the famous (and excellent) Ubuntu Tweak utility (which is more than a "temporary file remover") for instance. But would you like something that's pretty darn small in both size and system resources + would let you do those things pretty much automatically??, heck ya you would :D.

There is such an excellent application, a (Nautilus Script actually), it's called SystemClean. It's like few kilobytes in size and once installed lets you do things like...

*. Remove application "left-overs" as mentioned above via "apt-get" package manager such as - Auto remove, clean its cache (you know downloaded package cache, don't worry it won't un-install anything), remove broken packages lists, etc.

*. Remove un-needed files (referring to the temporary folder in my case, but perhaps it may remove others .. so be careful).

*. Remove Memory Cache (the developer himself has added a warning for this, so again use it at your own risk).

*. Clean the Trash.

Or if you didn't choose any of those options (didn't click on any "check boxes) but click on the "OK" button then you'll be taken into another window that lets you clean cache of a huge list of apps such as -

Chromium, Firefox, Pidgin, Compiz, LibreOffice, Google Earth, OpenOffice (what's that! :P), Miro (excellent multimedia player), wallpaper cache, Seamonkey (a powerful Internet application "suite"/collection), Nautilus thumbnails (7 days old), Clementine (a music player)... are just a few to mention!.

*. It also gives you a report afterward concerning what it did and how many space it recovered, etc. 

How to install it in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal? (might also work in 10.10, 10.04 or other versions)

Well, we gotta install it manually since there are no PPA s at the moment but the installation is pretty much simple and does not require any other dependencies (in my Ubuntu Laptop anyway).

1. First download it from here.

2. Now extract the content, say to your desktop.

3. Then open your Terminal and change your directory to the extracted directory.

4. Now, enter the below command (use "sudo" if you want it to be installed for everyone).

/.setup

OR

After extracting it you can open that folder in Nautilus file manager and double click on the file called "setup" and when asked simply choose "run in terminal". That should also do it if you don't like to play with the command-line that much :).

Then as shown in the below screenshot you'll be asked to choose your Language and simply click the "OK" button and you're done!.

How the heck can I launch it?

Simple. Just right click on your desktop and from the menu (below screenshot) choose: "Scripts" -> "SystemClean".

Although I'm not entirely sure why, but it says that you should have an Internet connection to run it but I did run it without any Internet connection and it worked just fine. Enjoy and a again, a big thank to the developer for this amazing little script :).

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Foobnix (a music player) for Android is Released!

If you haven't heard then Foobnix is an excellent, cross-platform music player that can be used on GNU/Linux, MS Windows and Mac OSX in the past. But the latest news is that now the developer has released it for Android too!.

So if you're using Android and would like to have a powerful local and online music player (it's famous for that) that has a simple GUI and loads fast... then you should check out the Foobnix in this Android market page.

Although it has been like 2/3 weeks since its official Android release, but it's a bit new thus there could be bugs but from the user ratings... I think it's already a "hit"! nonetheless.

Main features...

*. It's completely free and not free like with filled with Ads ... no ads... nothing, nada, free as in freedom :D.

*. Last.fm and VK integration, so you can easily share and listen to music all day long.

*. Playlist support with play similar songs, search for files (+ including tags), etc or find songs using online source by genre, artists, name...

*. Fetch album art/covers from Last.fm.

*. Create and delete music folders.

*. Separate download manager.

*. Lyrics support.

*. Super fast updates (bug fixes and new features).

As said it's totally free of charge and requires you to have A Android version of 1.6 or higher to use it. You can learn more about recent updates and news from this official Foobnix android page as well.

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How to Install Deluge (bit-torrent client) in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04?

Although Ubuntu Linux 11.04 and other latter versions do come with a bit-torrent client of their own which is called "Transmission" which actually is pretty good in my humble opinion.

But after getting familiar with "torrents" and if you're looking for something that lets you configure a lot more + with a lot of built in features, etc than the Transmission... then Deluge is a pretty darn amazing application!.

Deluge is a cross-platform bit-torrent client that can be used in GNU/Linux, Windows and Mac OSX. The GNU/Linux version comes with a features-rich GUI (written in GTK tookit) and uses Python as the programming language, it seems.

Main features...

*. It has a GUI that's very familiar with many other clients thus you'd feel at ease almost immediately.

*. A lower "status" section that shows: uploading/downloading speed, Seeds and Peers, availability, enable/disable downloading selected files within the main torrent file, etc.

*. System Tray support (you know, minimize to tray, etc).

*. Change upload/download speed, pause, stop, resume torrents.

*. Port forwarding facility (a must have if you want to achieve the best possible speeds if you use a router).

*. Enable protocol encryption.

*. Change other various things such as - maximum connections, upload slots, maximum opened connections, etc.

*. Manually edit/add trackers (another thing that can speed things up a bit :D).

*. Excellent plug-ins support: It comes with a decent amount of built in plug-ins that lets you expand a lot of its features (notifications, IP blacklists add-on, etc).

*. Change cache, proxy settings, add files to queue... are just a few to mention.

You can install Deluge in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04 by using their official PPA channel. For that, as usual, open your Terminal window and enter the below commands.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deluge-team/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install deluge

All right, that should do it... but don't do anything "bad" with it ;-) (kidding).

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How to Install GNU Emacs in Ubuntu Linux ? (11.04, 10.10, 10.04, etc)

GNU Emacs is one of the most "colorful" parts of the GNU/Linux operating system. In fact it's actually quite older than the GNU/Linux itself (introduced around 1970s) and the one who invented Emacs is the philosopher and the founding father of the "GNU way of doing things" ... Richard Stallman. 

So what is Emacs anyway?

Emacs is mainly a very powerful real time (meaning that as soon as you make the changes to the text it appears on its window which is the most basic and a must have standard for all modern text editors anyway) text editor.

But basically the reason for it's not installed by default even after it having a "such a history" and powerful features as a text editor is because it's actually aimed at computer programmers (especially the Emacs Lisp programming fork of the original Lisp) and advanced users rather than the "usual users" (like you and me) + according to the official GNU/Emacs page, at its core lies the GNU Emacs Lisp interpretor "engine".

So it's basically a programmer's heaven, in a way :).

I ain't your "average text editor" mate! :)... (not kidding though)

But that's not to say that you can't use it as an advanced text editor, in fact it's actually one of the most powerful ones out there as well. To show you how old it is... it's current version is 23!.

Main features...

*. Editing a pure text file to HTML and source-codes such as Ruby, XML and A lot more (+ even has the ability to read PDF and postscript files!).

*. Change font.

*. Change background and foreground colors.

*. Line wrapping (wrapping long lines, etc).

*. Show/Hide text line numbers.

*. Supports almost all human languages and scripts! ("one love ... one heart... let's get together ..." ;-) )

*. Find and replace text.

*. Open and save in different formats.

*. Check for spellings.

*. Use a new or switch to a different buffer (a temporary location on your RAM where the text file is located before saving into the HDD).

*. Compile using the above mentioned Emacs Lisp interpretor, etc.

*. This might sound a bit confusing but it also has a calender of its own!, a calculator, programmable calculator, and also the ability to send/receive e-mails (using other apps, built in support via add-ons), read news, project planner, etc + even has some built in Games too!. 

The reason for this, is because: some programmers spend most of their time "inside" the Emacs app rather than doing any other thing thus Emacs is designed to act as a bit of a separate "environment" of its own + that's also why most of 'em they're single :D.

*. Encrypt and Decrypt (chosen text or an entire region, etc).

*. Version control system integration.

*. Execute shell commands. 

*. Debugger ... are just a fraction of its main features to mention!.

So as you can see this is not yours or mine's average text editor because the default GUI and it's filled without options certainly looks a bit complicated for the usual users. So it's certainly more than a text editor. That's why the desktops have created text editors of their own as well :).

Anyhow, you can install this legendary GNU Emacs in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04 (including all other Ubuntu versions!) by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install emacs

Currently it has like 23MB or more in size... so be patient while it installs. Enjoy! (or you many not this time :D).

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