Decibel Audio Player

Decibel music player is a music playback application aimed at providing a very simple and uncluttered interface.It has a simple but powerful interface that answers all your music needs.Install Decibel Audio Player using the Synaptic package Manager.Use the explorer to browse through your music folders.Configure Decibel under the Preferences menu.There are a number of plugins and options available under the Preferences.Right from Last.fm to your IM client,it does it all.

Click on File Explorer and then Preferences to add more music locations so that you can browse through your music from the Decibel interface itself.Configure Notification,status icon and Album Covers also.Right click in the music playback area to create a play list.It can play windows media audio files also.
Decibel is a powerful music player using minimum resources.

Twitter Applications For Ubuntu

Do you twitter?If yes, then get a twitter client right on your ubuntu desktop.There are a few applications available in ubuntu that let you send twitter messages from your desktop without using a web browser.Let us first of all talk about the Prism Web Applications.Twitter is web application available as a part of the Prism set that you can install from the Synaptic Package Manager.The Other standard applications that let you twitter are Twitux and gtwitter.

Twitux is one such application that lets you send twitter messages from your desktop.Click here to download Twitux.Access it from the Internet menu.Once opened it rests in the notification area and notifies you on new messages.It fetches updates itself.Give your account information and start twittering.It also has an inbuilt spell checker.It also features a timeline auto updating of Friends ,user ,public and twitux.You can also set a time for auto updating.
Then we have the gtwitter which you can install using the Synaptic Package Manager (search for twitter).This also has pretty much the same kind of features and rests in the notification area.You can choose the Source on startup among the friends timeline and the public timeline.This application is still in beta phase.

Use both of them and decide the one you like.Please post your review in the comments box.Also try the prism option.

Gufw

You probably know that ubuntu 8.04 includes an inbuilt firewall called ufw or the uncomplicated firewall.But ufw is command line driven and there is no GUI for it by default.But now you can get yourself Gufw,a linux based firewall based on ufw.It is more appropriately a GUI for ufw.So you can create host based firewalls without typing in commands in the terminal.This is a great piece of application for beginnners.Open Gufw from the Internet menu and enable firewall by simply tick marking a radio button.Create IPv4 and IPv6 host based firewalls and even hide IP.The help file included in this package is great way to learn more about setting up new rules in the firewall.Once configured Gufw rests in the notification area and you can enable/disable it right from there.
Refer to screenshots for more.
Download the Gufw debian package.
Watch the video here.

The Ubuntu Studio Look!

Give a new,refreshing look to your Ubuntu system with the "Ubuntsutudio-look" package.Go to the Synaptic Package Manager and click on "Reload".Now search for Ubuntu Studio.Mark the packages titled "ubuntustudio gdm-theme","ubuntustudio-icon-theme","ubuntustudio-look","ubuntustudio-screensaver","ubuntustudio-sounds, "ubuntustudio-theme" and "ubuntustudio-wallpapers".Install all these packages.Now go to the Appearance section under the Preferences menu and select any of the ubuntu studio wallpaper and also apply the ubuntu studio theme.Select from a list of four wallpapers.Go to the Login Window in the Administration section and under the "local" tab select the ubuntu studio GDM theme.Have a look at the floating ubuntu studio screensaver also.If you wish to change the usplash theme also the install the "uspash-theme-ubuntustudio" package as explained above.You can later revert to the original splash theme using the Startup Manager.

Avant Window Navigator!

Avant Window Navigator is a MAC OS like dockbar for linux.It is a panel to which launchers can be dragged.Besides launching applications ,it is a window navigator displaying the active windows.It is written in C and brings with itself some eye candy in the form of transparency and zoom features.It looks beautiful in the Gnome Desktop Environment and is a wonderful replacement of the regular Gnome panel.Awn can be customized from the Awn Manager in the Preferences section of the System menu.Here you can change the colors of the dock and change its behaviour also.Play around with the icon effects under the general tab (Have a look at this video).You can also choose to auto hide the dock when not in use.Change the look from the "flat bar" to "3d look" under the Bar Appearance tab.Instead of dragging launchers to the dock,you can add them directly from the Launchers section,but dragging is simpler and quicker.
Download additional themes and applets for AWN and install them using the Awn Manager.Install this dock using the Synaptic Package Manager (search for avant).
To set an automatic startup for the Avant Window Navigator,add it as a Startup Program in the Sessions window under the preferences section (Refer to the screenshot).
Click here to download Avant Applets.
Click here to download Avant themes.

Gnome Do!

Do things Quickly with Gnome Do!
Gnome Do is a launcher for your Gnome Desktop Environment.With Gnome Do ,you can quickly launch your favourite applications,open folders and even work with bookmarks.
To install Gnome Do go to the synaptic package manager and search for "gnome do" and mark it for installation.After installation go to the Accessories section of the Application menu and click on Gnome Do.Now start typing the name of your favourite application.As you type in the keyword,Gnome Do displays the list of possible applications or folders.If you see the application of your choice press enter.Press down the arrow key to view more options.The screenshot shows the launch of the Rhythmbox media player by just typing in "rh" in Gnome Do.Gnome Do provides the option of opening a web page by typing in the web address.This application is plugin based and can be extended by adding more plugins from within the package manager.Browse through artists ,albums and add tracks to the playing queue using the Rhythmbox plugin.Add Gnome Do to a panel to make it more useful.
Although made for the Gnome,it works with other window managers as well.
Watch the Gnome Do video here.