Linux App Finder's mission is to catalog useful GNU/Linux programs and provide a great resource to discover new apps.

Getting Started

Browse

The Linux Apps link in the header menu allows you to browse the complete list of programs in our database. Ordering defaults to the highest rated first, but can easily be changed to an alphabetical listing. If you know the category you are interested in, direct links to each are available on all pages from the left sidebar.

Search

Three distinct search related methods are available. The most visible is the search box at the top right of every page. It provides a convenient way to search through Linux App Finder using Google. While useful in many cases, this method may not always be the best.

Method number two is a search box just above the app list on all category pages. It is capable of running boolean queries and returns a list of matching programs from the category you are viewing.

The final method is using the Filter Options link at the top right of a category page. This section allows you to restrict apps to those matching a criteria that you designate. Options include: interface type, free vs. non-free, and repositories. You must be logged in to use this feature.

Windows and OS X Alternatives

Many of us used Windows or OS X before switching to Linux. If this describes you, check out the Alternatives page where you can start your search with a Windows or an OS X program in order to find some Linux options. The listed programs aren't clones, but they are good replacements for many situations.

Registered users can designate an alternative from the detailed page for a Linux app

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Maybe you’ve just installed a dual boot system. It’s all going well and good, but when you start the computer, Windows appears at the bottom of the boot menu.

You might still want to use Windows as your primary operating system, and so pressing down a few times and Enter each boot time could get frustrating. You’d ideally like Windows at the top of the boot menu, and Linux second.

read more
 

AWN (Avant-Window-Navigator) Themes

For those of you who have installed the fantastic AWN (Avant Window Navigator) animated dock to add that last extra Wow! to your desktop, I give you the following AWN Themes. Remember you will need to first enable a composite window manager for AWN to display properly (Compiz Fusion is included by default in the new Ubuntu 7.10). For help installing AWN in Ubuntu, see this thread in the Ubuntu Forums.

To install AWN themes...

1. Pick a theme below and download by clicking the theme title.
2. Open up AWN Manager via System/Preferences or by right-clicking the AWN dock.
3. Drag the downloaded theme package into the themes window (or use the ADD button).
4. Choose the theme, hit apply and then use the refresh button at the bottom left. Sometimes you will need to restart AWN before your new theme applies itself fully.
5. All themes below can be switched from the Flat Bar style to the 3D Look style (and vice versa) in the Bar Appearance tab.

echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/reacocard-awn/ubuntu hardy main'  |  sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
echo 'deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/reacocard-awn/ubuntu hardy main'  |  sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list

echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/reacocard-awn/ubuntu intrepid main'  |  sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
echo 'deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/reacocard-awn/ubuntu intrepid main'  |  sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator-bzr awn-core-applets-bzr awn-manager-bzr

The repository will automatically keep you up-to-date in the same manner that ubuntu updates the rest of your software. You can update manually with these commands:

Code:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

sudo apt-get remove --purge avant-window-navigator-bzr awn-manager-bzr awn-core-applets-bzr libawn0-bzr

Install Compiz & Compiz Fusion plugins

If you're on Feisty, we need to add a third party repository to your /etc/apt/sources.list. (Not needed on Gutsy) (Help for this available at AddingRepositoriesHowto)

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/amaranth/ubuntu feisty main universe
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/amaranth/ubuntu feisty main universe

NOTE: If you currently have compiz installed on your system, it is important to remove all of this first.

Type

sudo apt-get remove compiz
sudo apt-get remove compiz-core

Then run

sudo apt-get update

That will update the package cache.

Now to install the packages:

From Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install compiz compizconfig-settings-manager

If you are running Kubuntu then use this command to install the most commonly needed packatges.

sudo apt-get install  compiz compizconfig-settings-manager  compiz-kde compiz-fusion-plugins-main compiz-fusion-plugins-extra  emerald librsvg2-common

If you are missing the window decorations, then you most likely need the compiz-kde, or emerald packages.

Run Compiz

To run Compiz for the current session, hold Alt, then press F2, then enter the following command, or for better trouble shooting, open up a Terminal window and use the following command.

compiz --replace

Configure

To configure Compiz and associated plugins, hold Alt, then press F2, then enter the command, or use any Terminal.

ccsm

If ccsm is not found its installable from the compizconfig-settings-manager package.

Alternatively, for Ubuntu: System -> Preferences -> CompizConfig Settings Manager

And for Kubuntu: KMenu -> Settings -> CompizConfig Settings Manager or KMenu -> Settings -> Advanced Desktop Effects Settings

You can select different themes with the emerald-theme-manager tool. To download the themes for emerald You must first install subversion, then activate the theme repositories.

sudo apt-get install subversion
svn ls https://svn.generation.no/emerald-themes

You can then use the "Fetch GPL'd themes" button of The "emerald-theme-manager" tool.

Window Decorators

Information on the 3 window decorators can be found at http://wiki.compiz-fusion.org/Plugins/Decoration

Currently there are 3 choices in what window decorator to use. They work with compiz to give your windows the various borders, and widgets.

For kde one normally uses the command

kde-window-decorator --replace

For Gnome the command

gtk-window-decorator --replace

If you perfer somthing different , the emerald decorator is worth checking out, Use it with.

emerald --replace

Add Compiz Startup (optional)

For Ubuntu

Go to System -> Preferences -> Desktop Effects and click 'Enable Desktop Effects'

For Kubuntu

Open Konsole (KMenu -> System -> Konsole) and type in these commands:

echo "compiz --replace" > ~/.kde/Autostart/startcompiz.sh
chmod +x ~/.kde/Autostart/startcompiz.sh

This creates a 'startcompiz.sh' script in the ~/.kde/Autostart directory, if you wish you may also want to have the script start up 'emerald --replace' or other window decorator for your system, such as in this example.

$ cat ~/.kde/Autostart/startcompiz.sh
compiz --replace  &
emerald --replace &