Most of us who use Ubuntu and its variants are aware of the best-of-breed software that comes installed with it, or that a majority of the Ubuntu user-base is fans of. Things like OpenOffice, AbiWord, kTorrent, Amarok, Compiz, VLC… the list goes on. But what about those neat applications hovering around the periphery of your awareness? Here are a few good programs I’ve tried. Give them a shot.

1) Hyrdrogen - Even if you don’t like music, Hydrogen is a fun drum simulator. Hydrogen is, as an added bonus, dead simple to use. I’ve seen people with no musical training figure it out in under three minutes.

2) Tilda - If you’re one of those people who likes to have a terminal open at all times, give Tilda a shot. Hit whatever key you’ve mapped, and boom, there it is. Though the default fonts are a little wonky — oversize, ugly — once you change that, it’s magic. And useful!

3) Easytag - If you’re managing your music collection with MusicBrainz Picard and you’re wondering why nothing’s working right, why Picard is perpetually stuck at version 0.7, and why it can’t pass valid URLs to your browser (Python 2.5, by the way), why not use a different tagger? Or maybe you have a lot of music that isn’t in the MusicBrainz database and you understand that they have no good way to submit file-based metadata (even if you’ve confirmed it!): why not use another tagger. Easytag is exactly what its name means. Easy. Tag. It allows you to tag things easily.

4) PDFedit - On Windows, there’s a real lack of free, useful PDF editing and viewing programs. I can count the viewers on two fingers; I can’t find a free editor. Ubuntu, however, doesn’t suffer from that problem. Want to view a PDF? Built in. Want to print to a PDF? In the repos (and built-in to Gutsy, apparently). Want to edit a PDF? One quick Synaptic search or Aptitude command, and you’re on your way.

5) View Your Mind - Want to organise your thoughts? Have a messy mind? Here you go. One on many mind mapping applications, VYM has the added benefit of being able to export to OO.o Impress presentations (and of course from there, to MSOffice Powerpoint, if you absolutely must).

Tags: applications, lists, Ubuntu