Ubuntu / Linux news and application reviews.

Ambient Noise (ANoise) Player Fixed For Ubuntu 16.04 And Newer

| Date: June 14, 2017 | View Comments | Tags: anoise, cinnamon, gnome shell, media player, productivity, sound, unity

Ambient Noise, or ANoise is a simple, lightweight application for playing ambient noises, such as waves, rain, fire, and so on, useful to help you stay focused and boost productivity, or fall asleep.

The application didn't work in Ubuntu 16.04 and newer until recently, when it was updated to GStreamer 1.0 and Python 3, along with some bug fixes.


Fix VirtualBox 5.1.x Focus Issues On GNOME Desktops (Not Being Able To Move VM Windows In GNOME Shell, Clicking On Indicators In Unity)

| Date: March 09, 2017 | View Comments | Tags: fix, gnome shell, linux, tweaks, ubuntu, unity, virtualbox

If you use VirtualBox 5.1.x with a GNOME desktop (GNOME Shell, Unity and possibly other GTK-based desktops as well), you may have noticed that there are some focus-related issues:
  • in GNOME Shell (host), virtual machine windows can't be moved unless clicking on another window, then moving the virtual machine window;
  • in GNOME Shell (host), the Activities Overview can't be accessed if a virtual machine is focused;
  • in Unity (host), clicking on an indicator while a virtual machine is focused results in the indicator menus not being displayed.

Here's a screenshot showing what happens in Unity when indicators are clicked while a VirtualBox 5.1.x virtual machine is focused:


Argos Lets You Create GNOME Shell Extensions From Scripts (W/ BitBar Plugin Support)

| Date: February 28, 2017 | View Comments | Tags: bash, bitbar, cli, extensions, gnome, gnome shell

Argos is a tool inspired by the BitBar app for Mac, which makes it easy to create your own GNOME Shell extensions, using information provided via scripts.

Being a GNOME Shell extension itself, Argos adds a button with a dropdown on the GNOME Shell top panel. This button can display or expose functionality provided by a script, be it Bash, Python, Ruby, and so on (remember to make it executable or else Argos won't use it).

Here's Argos in action (gif via Argos GitHub page):


GNOME Pomodoro: A Pomodoro Timer With AppIndicator And GNOME Shell Support

| Date: February 23, 2017 | View Comments | Tags: appindicator, gnome, gnome shell, linux, pomodoro, time tracking, ubuntu, utility

GNOME Pomodoro (not an official GNOME app) is, like the name suggests, a Pomodoro timer for GNOME. The application website mentions that it's currently only for GNOME Shell, however, an AppIndicator is also available.

GNOME Pomodoro AppIndicator
GNOME Pomodoro AppIndicator

6 Cool Internet Radio Players For Linux

| Date: February 01, 2017 | View Comments | Tags: appindicator, cli, gnome shell, internet, linux, radio, ubuntu

There are quite a few Linux applications that can play Internet radio, but I thought I'd make a list of some of the most interesting apps that focus on this.

The list includes lightweight Internet radio players, a fully fledged desktop application, a command line radio browser and player, as well as a GNOME Shell extension.

`Dash To Panel` Is A Cool Icon Taskbar For GNOME Shell

| Date: January 27, 2017 | View Comments | Tags: customization, dock, extensions, featured, gnome, gnome shell, linux, tweaks, ubuntu

Dash to Panel is a fairly new GNOME Shell extension that moves the dash into the top bar, to achieve a single panel (combined app launchers and system tray) design similar to that of KDE Plasma or Windows 7+.


The extension provides numerous features, including the ability to move the panel to the top or bottom, change the panel size, live window previews, and more.

How To Easily Create AppFolders In GNOME Shell Using GNOME AppFolders Manager Or GNOME Software

| Date: June 16, 2016 | View Comments | Tags: customization, gnome, gnome shell, linux, tweaks, ubuntu

By default, the GNOME (Shell) overview displays applications in two views: "all", where all the applications are listed in alphabetic order, and "frequent", in which the frequently used applications are displayed.

GNOME Shell supports grouping applications in app folders, and there are two such predefined folders, "Utilities" and "Sundry". Some might not know how to create custom app folders, so here are two ways of achieving this.


Get Chrome And Firefox 52+ To Support Installing GNOME Shell Extensions From The GNOME Extensions Repository

| Date: March 29, 2016 | View Comments | Tags: extensions, gnome shell, google chrome, linux, ubuntu

[Quick tip for GNOME Shell users] By default, users are able to install GNOME Shell extensions from extensions.gnome.org only by using Firefox or Epiphany (Web) browsers.

Until GNOME Software will be able to install and update GNOME Shell extensions, Google Chrome / Chromium users are a bit left out, at least as far as the default experience goes. 

However, there is an easy way of installing GNOME Shell extensions using Chrome: with the help of a Chrome extension and a native connector that provides integration with GNOME Shell and its extensions repository, extensions.gnome.org.

Update 1: the extension also supports other Chromium-based web browsers such as Opera and Vivaldi.

Update 2: Chrome GNOME Shell now also supports Firefox. This is important because with version 52, Firefox no longer supports NPAPI plugins.

Google Chrome GNOME Extension Repository integration
extensions.gnome.org integration for Google Chrome

Mailnag Email Notifier 1.2 Released With New IMAP Folder Chooser, Updated Popup Menu Layout For GNOME Shell, More

| Date: March 25, 2016 | View Comments | Tags: cinnamon, email, email notifier, gnome, gnome shell, linux, linux mint, mailnag, ubuntu

Mailnag is a desktop-independent email notifier for Linux. The application supports both POP3 and IMAP servers and on email arrival, it performs various actions like visual or sound notifications, allows executing a script and more.

For Unity and GNOME Shell, there are two Mailnag extensions that further integrate the application with the desktop. 

Mailnag email notifier Unity
Mailnag Unity integration with Messaging Menu

Using the Mailnag Unity plugin, the application integrates with the Messaging Menu, while using the GNOME Shell plugin makes Mailnag available on the top panel, and it includes an email counter and popup menu (updated with the latest 1.2 version), which you can see below. 

Mailnag email notifier gnome shell
Mailnag GNOME Shell extension

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