Want to get some wallpapers for your Ubuntu Desktop? Here’s a simple tool to browse, download, and apply wallpaper from huge collection of wallpapers.
Wonderwall is a simple graphical utility that allows to browse through the world’s largest collection of online 4k and Ultra HD Wallpapers.
You can search wallpapers via colors, tags, categories, resolution, popularity, views, or by just typing a keyboard in filter.
Simply click on a picture, you’ll get the menu with image details and download buttons.
For downloaded wallpapers, you can crop / scale selected wallpaper to make it fit into your screen resolution. And of course, there’s an option to set as wallpaper.
The settings window allows you to change the desktop back-end, open the download folder, change content scaling, and search settings.
How to Install Wonderwall in Ubuntu:
Wonderwall seems to be closed source software as I can’t find the source code and the developer website refers to a tech reviews website.
And the binary package is ONLY available as Snap package. You can install it easily by searching from either Ubuntu Software or App Center.
Or, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal, and install the package by running command in terminal:
Looking for a Reddit client for Linux desktop? Giara is a modern new GTK app for Reddit written in Python 3 with GTK.
Giara is a free open-source software created with mobile Linux in mind. It comes with most Reddit features including new text, link, media posts, search subreddits and users, up vote, down vote, post rely, dark mode support, and more.
How to Install Giara in Ubuntu:
It is recommended to install the software using flatpak package, see Giara in flathub.org.
For those prefer native DEB package, I’ve uploaded the packages into the unofficial PPA for Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 20.10.
1. Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/giara
2. Then refresh package cache and install the app:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install giara
Note for Ubuntu 20.04, the app window border and top-bar buttons are not looking good due to old system libraries (upstream issue).
Uninstall:
To remove the PPA, either go to Software & Updates -> Other Software tab or run command in terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/giara
And remove the Reddit app if you want by running command:
For Mac users want to change keybinds in Ubuntu Linux or Windows, Kinto is an easy system-wide solution with setup wizard and system tray indicator.
The software description says:
‘Type in Linux & Windows like it’s a Mac. Seamless copy and paste with all apps and terminals. The zero effort solution.‘
Kinto works for standard Windows, Apple and Chromebook keyboards. Different to most other re-mappers, it is a complete system-wide remap of your base level modifier keys.
GUI keys:
Physical
Ctrl
Win/Alt
Alt/Cmd
Spacebar
Virtual
Win/Super*
Alt
RCtrl
Spacebar
Terminal Keys:
Physical
Ctrl
Win/Alt
Alt/Cmd
Spacebar
Virtual
LCtrl
Alt
RCtrl
Spacebar
How to Install Kinto in Ubuntu:
Make sure you have python 3 installed, then follow the steps to grab the source and set it up.
1. Open terminal and run command to clone the source:
git clone https://github.com/rbreaves/kinto.git
2. Then run command to navigate to kinto folder, and run the setup.py script.
cd kinto && ./setup.py
If everything goes well, a setup wizard will pop-up
Just click on ‘Agree’ button, follow the wizard, hit Enter, and you’re done! The system tray indicator is not enabled by default, you can enable it from the File menu.
Looking for an XMPP Jabber client for Linux? CoyIM is a free open-source GTK+ client that focus on safety and security.
CoyIM is written in Go programming language with GTK+ framework. It works on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS. The chat client has built-in support for Tor, OTR and TLS.
The Tor support allows users to become anonymous while chatting, OTR makes end-to-end encryption of communication possible, and TLS adds another layer of encryption for the communication with chat servers.
Detection of Tor (if installed) and connection through it.
Use of Tor Onion Service for a known server.
Use separate Tor circuits for each account.
Insert random delays before connecting each account.
SRV lookup for the server over Tor if available.
Import from Pidgin, Adium, Gajim or xmpp-client.
Save all your configuration in an encrypted file.
How to Install CoyIM:
For Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 20.04, you can simply install the chat app from the universe repositories by running command in terminal:
sudo apt install coyim
For the latest release, as well as Windows / Mac OS packages, go to the official download page:
The Linux package is a single executable file. Simply add executable permission via file’s Properties > Permissions dialog and then run it to launch the software.
Looking for a Linux music player to manage large local collections? Mpz is a new open-source player that does the job.
If you like to organize your music in folders, then this player might be for you. It doesn’t try to index all the files into a library, but rather treats your files and folders as a library and provides a convenient way to create playlists directly from folders. Similar to Foobar2000’s Album List, but it’s not an attempt to clone.
The main feature is 3-columns UI allows you to quickly create playlists from folders via middle-click and switch between playlists.
Looking for an image editor similar to Windows Paint.Net or Mac OS PaintBrush? LazPaint is the open-source image editor that works on Linux.
LazPaint is an image editor with layers and transparency. It’s written in Lazarus (Free Pascal) and uses BGRABitmap library. With OpenRaster format support it can interoperate with MyPaint, Gimp and Krita.
Features include:
Read and write a variety of file formats, including layered bitmaps and 3D files.
Tools: many tools are available to draw on the layers.
Select parts of an image with antialiasing and modify the selection as a mask.
View: color window, layer stack window and toolbox window.
Command line support.
Keyboard shortcuts support.
How to Install LazPaint in Ubuntu:
The image editor offers .deb packages available to download at the link below:
Just grab the latest deb package, and install it by running command in terminal:
sudo apt install ./Downloads/lazpaint*.deb
Once installed, open it from system application launcher and enjoy!
(Optional) To remove LazPaint simply run command in terminal:
Want to play games or control any desktop application with a gamepad on Ubuntu Linux? There’s a graphical tool AntiMicroX that may help.
AntiMicrox is program used to map keyboard buttons and mouse controls to a gamepad. Useful for playing games with no gamepad support.
The program can be also used for generating SDL2 configuration (useful for mapping atypical gamepads to generic ones like xbox360).
Install AntiMicroX
The software offers both .deb and .appimage packages in the release page:
You can either grab the single executable .appimage package that runs the program without install, or download the .deb package and install it by opening terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:
Want to check your IP address, listening ports, or local network devices but hate Linux commands? Well, What IP is a simple graphical tool to do the job.
What IP is a free open-source tool written in Python 3 with GTK+ 3 framework. The software features:
Display public, local, and a virtual interface’s IP addresses,
Display the public IP location,
List the ports listening on your system, and check if they’re publicly reachable,
List all devices on local network.
display ip address
listening ports
How to Install What IP in Ubuntu:
The software is available as flatpak package in Flathub repository. Open terminal and run following commands one by one to install it in Ubuntu 20.04 (Ubuntu 18.04 needs to add flatpak PPA first).
For GNOME fans, there’s now a GTK 4 BitTorrent client that has a stylish user interface looks native in Ubuntu, Fedora Workstation or other Linux with GNOME desktop.
The software was originally written in Vala as a GTK3 app. By the 2.0 release (in beta at the moment), it’s rebuilt from scratch using Rust. Along with libadwaita library, it has an adaptive UI that fits well in small displays (e.g., Linux mobile or tablet).
Fragments adaptive UI
Fragments is based on Transmission, the out-of-the-box BitTorrent client in Ubuntu. Besides deep integration with GNOME desktop, the key features so far include:
Automatic clipboard detection. Click or copy a magnet link, it will handle the downloads automatically.
Control remote Fragments or Transmission sessions.
Say you have a Linux machine running as a ‘download server’ either with desktop environment or not. After setting up the remote access functionality in Transmission GTK or CLI, user may use Fragments’ menu option ‘Add Remote Connection‘ to remote control the server via RPC protocol.
Fragments add remote session
Once connected, the header-bar turns purple and it displays ‘Remote Control “Name”‘ as subtitle indicates that you’re in control of the remote session. A little server icon appears in header-bar, allows to switch between local and remote sessions.
As well, it displays statistics about current session, such as overall network usage, and allows to select encryption type and toggle dark mode, and more.
How to Install Fragments in Ubuntu & other Linux:
The software is available as Flatpak package. Open terminal by searching from ‘Activities’ overview screen. When it opens, run following commands one by one:
1.) Install Flatpak framework if you don’t have it installed via command:
sudo apt install flatpak
2.) Add flathub, the main repository hosts a large list of flatpak packages:
Looking for screen capturing application for your Ubuntu desktop? Here are 7 popular graphical tools you can try.
1. Gnome Screenshot
GNOME Screenshot is no longer default since GNOME 40 (meaning Ubuntu 22.04 and higher). Install it either from Ubuntu Software or by running sudo apt install gnome-screenshot command in terminal.
First of first, if you just want to take a screenshot. use the default screenshot tool by pressing PrintScreen, Alt + PrintScreen, or Shift + PrintScreen on keyboard to take screenshot of whole screen, focused app window, or selected area.
You can also launch the tool by searching for screenshot from system application launcher.
2. Flameshot
Flameshot is a powerful yet simple to use screenshot software. It starts as indicator applet with option to capture selected rectangular area.
The software features editing tools around screenshot selection area. As well, it supports for uploading to Imgur, and commands.
To install Flameshot, either search for and install it via Ubuntu Software or run command in terminal:
sudo apt install flameshot
3. Shutter
Shutter is a feature-rich screenshot application with a built-in editor.
It’s one of must installed applications on my Ubuntu. The software features:
Capture rectangular area.
Capture active window, or select an app window to capture.
whole screen, workspaces.
Capture app child window.
Capture menu or cascading menus from an app.
Capture tooltips.
Upload to Dropbox, Imgur, etc.
Edit with built-in editor, or auto-open with other system image editor.
Ubuntu removed Shutter from its universe repositories due to old Gnome 2 dependency libraries. Now, the project is working on removing old libraries and getting back to Ubuntu main repositories.
To install Shutter, either install snap package, or run commands one by one to get it from PPA:
Screencloud is a screenshot sharing software that works on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS.
It starts as an indicator applet offers menu options & keyboard shortcuts to take screenshot of selection, full-screen, and window.
Screenshot URL is automatically copied to clipboard, if you have pre-defined settings, for easy sharing with your friend. Supported online services include: Dropbox, Imgur, Google Drive, OneDrive, FTP/SFTP, Shell Script.
The software is available as Snap, so you can easily install it from Ubuntu Software. For choices, an Appimage is also available to download in the link below:
Grab the .appimage package, make it executable in file “Properties -> Open With” dialog, and finally run it to launch the tool.
5. GIMP
If you edit images regularly with GIMP image editor, try its built-in screenshot function by going to menu File -> Create -> Screenshot ….
You’ll see a child window with options to capture window, full-screen, and selected area. And screenshot will be opened in a new GIMP window automatically.
6. Ksnip
Ksnip is a Qt-based screen capture with a built-in editor. It works on X11 and Gnome / Plasma Wayland.
It includes most features that other screenshot tools have (e.g, upload to Imgur, hotkeys, etc), and can be a great alternative to Shutter. Although it’s not perfect at the moment, the development is updating regularly.
7. Kazam
Kazam is a simple screencast application which also include features to capture screenshots. Similar to the default Gnome screenshot, it only offers basic options to capture, full-screen, window, and selection area.
To install Kazam, either use Ubuntu Software, or run command in terminal:
sudo apt install kazam
Summary:
There are also many other screenshot tools (e.g., KDE Spectacle, Deepin screenshot, xfce4-screenshooter, lximage-qt) that are either not desktop independent, or not working good in my case.
So the previous 7 tools are the best for Ubuntu so far in 2020 in my private opinion.
