Utility to easily install most requested applications

[katasuka]

Greetings,

For awhile now I've been working on a bash script to help the user install most requested applications utilities and so forth on Ubuntu based distros. The script was designed for dapper and therefore needs updating, however after installing and using linux mint, i find it very good and very close to what i want to see in a linux distro. great job devs!

well i will be making a new updated version for linux mint soon. however, i know a gui would be useful which is something i cant do. if someone has the knowledge of maybe python and a gui for it, or maybe know how to make a gui for bash script, feel free to use my script.

my idea is a gui utility to install most requested applications easily. easyubuntu and automatix dont really fit the bill as they dont include the most requested, only a minimal set of applications that are most needed for ubuntu. however linux mint has a lot of the things already that automatix and easyubuntu wants to install. this is where a custom utility would be useful.

im good with bash but thats about it. if this utility sounds like a good idea, post a reply. i will be editing this post within a few days after i get the new bash script updated for linux mint.

[clem]

Hi,

What packages/software would the script allow to install? Can you give us some examples?

Also, if you want an easy way to make GUIs for Python/Perl...etc you can look at Glade.

Clem

[Crashmaxx]

What do you wish to install that is so difficult to do now? I mean, synaptic works great for the majority of things I user could dream of installing. And along with the add/remove version in the program menu, which is even easier to use and shows popularity, I don't see what is so hard.

Automatix and easyubuntu are just for the more difficult to install and configure things, which as you mention, most of which are in mint already.

So I'm just wondering what is left to make easier? Any examples?

[scorp123]

What do you wish to install that is so difficult to do now?

Ahem ... how about kdenlive 0.4 ... That one is a b***tch and a serious pain in the a** to compile + install. And I am pretty far away from being a "noob".

I mean, synaptic works great for the majority of things I user could dream of installing.

Did you try cinepaint ... ? It crashes if you take the version provided by synaptic. So either you have to search for a repo where they offer a working version or you have to install it manually too ...

So I'm just wondering what is left to make easier? Any examples?

cinepaint
kdenlive
jahshaka (there is a repository for dapper ... but still, this is not really clean this way)
lives
cinelerra (I'd really love to have a version that actually compiles without errors ... or just a package!)
emovix (only available if you know where to find it ...)

I personally would really welcome a script that takes care of such bleeding edge packages that are not in the repos yet!

I have seen that Debian Etch already has some of this stuff in its own repos, maybe the script could be modified so that it grabs things from Etch repos and then repackages whatever it took for Ubuntu / LinuxMint ??

And yes, I of course know about alien and that it is possible to download *.rpm packages and convert them one by one ... But still, this is more or less a dirty dodgy hack. A script that grabs all dependencies and repacks those bleeding edge packages I mentioned above would really be welcomed by me!

Just a suggestion of course

Regards to all,
Scorp123


[ EDIT -- added comment about "alien" ... ]

[katasuka]

well yes i know theres synaptic, and i like useing it and i use it all the time. however, most new users dont "know" what the name of the things they want or need but know what the things do.

for instance, ftp, users know they may need ftp but dont know any names.. doing a search in synaptic for ftp brings up a lot of results... the script installs gftp which is a good overall ftp client. in the future whenever filezilla releases a stable linux port of their client, it will be included as i find filezilla awesome. currently their linux port works great for me, but its still in testing so its not good enough for widespread use yet.

below is a list of the current progs that the user can install with my script.. note some programs and codecs were removed from the ubuntu version of the script since linux mint already contain them. i will be adding to this list b4 i release the linux mint version. at this time i havent released it as it seems it wont run on linux mint so i have to find out why.

Code: Select all

* Lexmark z25-z35 Printer Drivers
* VLC Multimedia Player
* Tools needed to Compile Source Code
* Firewall Manager (Firestarter)
* CD Burning Program (GnomeBaker)
* HTML Editor (Quanta)
* StreamRipper
* StreamTuner
* FTP Client (GFTP)
* BitTorrent Client (BitTornado and GUI)
* XMMS Audio Player with Skins and WMA Plugin and Mp4 Plugin
* Kernel Sources
* Battle for Wesnoth (Game)
* Battle for Wesnoth Extra Campaigns
* Battle for Wesnoth Map Editor
* LinCity-NG (City Simulation Game)
* Gmail Notify
* Billard-GL (3D Billard Game)
* FreeCraft (Warcraft 2 Clone. NOTE: This game must be started with the run dialog as freecraft)
* Frozen Bubble (Game)
* SuperTux Game (Simular to Super Mario Brothers Game but with Tux)
* Widelands Game (Simular to Settlers II)
* Lmms (Simular to FruityLoops but free!)
* Gaim-Encryption Plugin (Encrypts Data sent between you and others who use the plugin in Gaim)
* Official Nvidia Drivers

[clem]

Well it doesn't cover all the list but check that application: Applications->Add/Remove...

Clem