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Get Linux is a portable and open source download client, which interacts with a server side library for downloading numerous Linux-based operating systems. With the help of this utility, you can download up to more than 100 Linux distributions, by simply selecting their name from the available list. This makes it easy to obtain the most updated Linux OS, without having to manually search and download the ISO file via a browser. Along with the selected operating system, Get Linux downloads also downloads a PNG and JPG image, as well as OS.cfg (Script File).

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It appears that Gnome shell forks are being updated quite regularly, with new and improved user interface changes that are being designed to deliver the functionality lacking in the original Gnome shell. In a previous post, we reviewed the Linux Mint Mate, which is an alternative session for the Ubuntu desktop. Recently, a new version of a Gnome fork was released, known as Cinnamon.  It comes with a Gnome 2 style classic menu and Gnome Shell Activity icon.

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Clementine is a cross-platform music player based on Amarok, which provides a quick interface for searching and playing music from a number of websites. Last year we reviewed the Windows version of Clementine. Recently, it has been upgraded with added support for Spotify, Grooveshark, digitally imported di.fm and Sky.fm radio stations, a new global search feature, which enables searching for music and radio, audio CD support, addition of Amazon as an alternative album art cover provider, and more.

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qshutdown is an open source application for scheduling shutdown, reboot, suspension and hibernation of Linux computers. It not only provides the option to schedule system shutdown, reboot etc, according to a specified time frame within the current date, but also provides a calendar for selecting the exact date and time to schedule such a system task for a future date. This program is handy for users who might require running automatic system tasks, after which they might wish to shutdown their computer to conserve power. qshutdown is quite similar in functionality to Easy Shutdown; however, it provides more advanced options, such as custom date selection for executing system shutdown. The program is compatible with Ubuntu and Ubuntu-based operating systems like Kubuntu and Xubuntu. According to the developer, this application might also work on UNIX and FreeBSD, but it has not been tested by him.

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Kazam Screencaster is an open source Linux application, which makes it easy to create and share screencasts via YouTube and VideoBin. It impeccably records the on-screen activity, and additionally, provides the option to captures system audio (if enabled), to provide a robust screencast experience like other useful tools of it’s kind, such as Screencast-O-Matic for Windows. During testing, we experienced no lags or functionality issues with Kazam, and the video recording and uploading feature was extremely smooth.

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Amarok is a famous cross-platform music player, which provides many options to organize a library of music into folders according to genre, artist and album, and allows editing tags, associating album art, attaching lyrics to audio files, and automatically scores music by keeping a play count record of played music files. Recently, a new version for Amarok (i.e. version 2.5) has been released, and is now available in the Ubuntu PPA for Oneiric Ocelot. Amarok  2.5 comes with many improvements, including gpodder.net podcast synchronization, iPod plugin fixes, auto save feature for playlists, Amazon MP3 store and more.

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devtodo is a program aimed to help developers manager their to do lists from the Ubuntu Terminal. It maintains a list of items that are yet to be completed, allowing programmers to track outstanding bugs or items by adding them to a to do list. You can prioritize items according to importance (e.g., low, medium, high etc), and display them in a hierarchy within the Terminal window. With the use of some small shell scripts (scripts.* in the doc directory of the source distribution), Devtodo can also display the outstanding items in a directory as you make changes to it. For example, if you use the cd command into the source directory for todo itself, you can see a list of outstanding items (if any).

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Sometimes, it can become quite a complicated task to make a package work on an Ubuntu machine. The reason for this is mostly associated with the requirement of installing a few package dependencies. In such a case, you are also likely to come across a pop-up dialog box, informing you that the package cannot be installed as the required package dependencies are not installed. apt-rdepends is a utility that performs recursive dependency listings of any Ubuntu and Debian packages. This tool searches for and lists all the package dependencies by looking through the APT cache.

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Drive encryption is meant to secure your hard drive in case your computer is stolen or compromised with critical information in it, such as bank account credentials, credit card or social security number. During the installation of Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, an option is provided to encrypt the Home folder to secure your files and folders. In case you haven’t selected this option during installation, you can easily do it using the ecryptfs-utils command line. eCryptfs is a cryptographic stacked Linux file system, which stores cryptographic metadata in the header of written files, to allow encrypted files to be copied between hosts. The file is then decrypted using the proper key in the Linux kernel keyring.

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