If you are constantly confused over the command line, and wanted to look for an easy way to tweak your Ubuntu, then Ubuntu Tweak is definitely the application for you.
Ubuntu Tweak allows you to tweak many desktop and system settings without going to the terminal. It provides a single access point for you to change some of the hidden Ubuntu settings that are not available during your default desktop installation.
UT is currently designed for Ubuntu GNOME desktop only.
Install Ubuntu Tweak
Download the deb file from http://ubuntu-tweak.com/downloads. (As of this post, the latest version is ubuntu-tweak_0.3.5-1~ppa1_all.deb).
Double click on the deb file to install the package.
Once installed, go to Applications->System Tools -> Ubuntu Tweak to load Ubuntu Tweak
Tweak options
System Information
You can view your system information.
Install apps
Under the ‘Computer’ section, you can add/remove Ubuntu apps and install the widely used applications such as AWN, Opera, Skype and Compiz Fuzion.
Manage your session
Some of the session control that you can tweak include save changes to session, show logout prompt and show splash screen. In Ubuntu hardy, the splash screen is disabled by default. If you enjoy seeing splash screen, you can enable it by checking the box beside ‘Show Splash Screen‘ and click on the big image icon to insert your own image.
You can also decide which applications to autostart when you login to your Ubuntu. Unless you know what you are doing, it is not a good idea to disable some of the services.
Desktop settings
While there are many tutorials out there teaching you how to set your home folder as the desktop, or to show the ‘My Computer‘ on the desktop, what you really need to know is how to check the option box in this desktop tweaking section.
Personal setting
If you don’t like the way Ubuntu organize your folder, you can change the setting here.
Or you can enable some of the commonly used scripts on the context menu for easy retrieval. Some useful scripts include
Open with gedit (root) – Great when you want to edit system files as root
Move to – Move files easily
Copy to – Copy files to destination faster
Configuring your own keyboard shortcut
If you want to define your own set of keyboard shortcut, rather than using the default shortcut set by Ubuntu, you can do it here:
Power Management
Configure how Ubuntu manage your hibernation and power management when you are idle
Although Ubuntu Tweak does not allow you to tweak all the settings in Ubuntu, it does gives you an easy way to play around with some of the commonly used settings, without breaking the system. I am sure many users will appreciate this application, and hopefully, it can be included as part of the default package in Ubuntu.
What’s your say?
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Cool tool Damien! Though a lot of the tweaks can be done via the default GUI, I can see other stuff that is simply not possible without a command line. This does come in handy for noobs
Awesome tweaks dude. Very handy.
Jiff
http://www.privacy.mx.tc
Double clicking on a deb file does not install it.
An excellent application for tweaking Ubuntu indeed. Normally, I would use command line to configure those scripts, but this would probably help to simply the task a lot more!
nice guide there
http://yabblog.com
Neat.
This software looks great, its a toss up sometimes to see if things will work with my configuration. So I’m looking forward to testing this when I get back from my business trip. Thanks for the heads up
Its a good thing that Gnome doesn’t offer up too many options. That gives a great ecosystem for this kind of great software to flourish. Just putting all options into one application will be a great time saver for me.
@Bozo45 – Double clicking on a .deb file in Ubuntu does open the package installer, at which point you follow the one or two steps to complete installation, so yes you are right, a .deb file does not install itself like an .exe counterpart, but it does trigger the installer. Nerd.