This is the most important version for the three years of Ubuntu Tweak release cycle, because it’s the first time that Ubuntu Tweak start to help make the Ubuntu Desktop more stronger.

Let’s see how Desktop Recovery make your Ubuntu life easier again.

As a Ubuntu user, you always get excited when you see something new in Ubuntu world. You play with new applications, new themes, new applets…After playing with them, you may find something break the desktop, and you don’t know how to recover to the original style.

That’s what the Desktop Recovery will help you.

Desktop Recovery is the tool integrated into Ubuntu Tweak to help people safely tweak with desktop settings, and never worry about how to go back.

It has three basic actions:

• Backup: backup the current settings, keep as many as backups you want;
• Recover: recover to the backup;
• Reset: even you don’t have any backup, you can also reset to the default settings;

And what items does Desktop Recovery can backup? Here’s it is:

• GNOME Desktop settings: Panel, Themes, Background;
• Application settings which use GConf: gedit, Compiz, Empathy, Nautilus…You know, almost every desktop applications;
• System components: Input method (ibus), network-manager, proxy…

You can see, Desktop Recovery covers almost everything of desktop/applications.

One thing You MUST know: it will only operate with the setting, not the files related with the setting. E.G. It will backup the setting about the background name, but not the real background file.

Now let me show you some screenshots.

Desktop Recovery comes with an easy-to-use interface, it has three categories of settings to backup: Desktop, Applications and System.

When you select on category, you can backup all the sub-settings under it at once, of course you can also backup the individual setting by selecting it.

Desktop Recovery supports unlimited backup items, so all the backup history will be listed. You can rename, or delete it.

Let’s start from a real-world case.

My desktop panel is broken like this, how can it go back? It’s quick and easy!

Open Ubuntu Tweak, enter the Desktop Recovery, select the “Applications”->”panel”. Even I haven’t  backup before, I can still press “Reset” to go back.

After resetting, you should logout and login, finally, the original desktop has came back!

How do you like this feature?

Besides the Desktop Recovery, now almost all options in Ubuntu Tweak are followed by a “Reset Button” to revert to the original default value.

You know how to use it, the tool-tip will tell you the default value, then just click it.

OK, that’s all. I hope you like it.

Download

The package in the Ubuntu Tweak source is now ready, and you can also download the package by using the link below:

http://launchpad.net/ubuntu-tweak/0.5.x/0.5.6/+download/ubuntu-tweak_0.5.6-1_all.deb

UPDATE

All the backups will be saved under: ~/.config/ubuntu-tweak/desktoprecovery/

So you can easily to save these files, or sync with Ubuntu One.

Enjoy!

Now I’ve made a big step to it, A totally new feature to backup, recover and reset your desktop settings has been finished.

As always, before the official release, I need more testing to make the feature stable. And of course, translator is needed.

If you’re interested in testing the latest version of Ubuntu Tweak, please visit this link: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-tweak-testing/+archive/ppa

For translators, please visit this page to translate the new strings: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu-tweak

Thank you!

The screenshot of “Desktop Recovery”:

After releasing Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.5, I got a lot of responses and bug reports from you. Again, I would like to thank you for supporting Ubuntu Tweak!

Before preparing the next major or bug-fixed version, I have another news for you: UTCOM(http://ubuntu-tweak.com) have just been updated!

As the applications/sources web center, UTCOM plays an important role for supporting Ubuntu Tweak.

UTCOM is designed for user oriented, this means everybody can submit or rating applications/sources (more exciting features are coming and it’s still under development).

After about half-year’s running, I’ve already seen that you’ve contributed lots of applications/sources. Many of them have been included into Ubuntu Tweak.

UTCOM hasn’t got any improvement in the past half year, because I have been busy with my work and Ubuntu Tweak itself. Now it’s started again, this first wave of update comes.

Let’s see what’s new:

The Category Page (http://ubuntu-tweak.com/app/category/ or http://ubuntu-tweak.com/source/category/)

The old category page was ugly, because it was merely a semi-manufactured product.

Now it’s got a beautiful design, which shows the top 4 applications of each category. Lovely, isn’t it?

Sources supporting Maverick

UTCOM is ready for the upcoming Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat. Why not submit some experimental PPA/Sources for Maverick? UTCOM will accept them, and they might comes to Ubuntu Tweak finally.

There’s still many works to do for adding more user-oriented feature for UTCOM.

Interested in contributing to UTCOM?  Don’t forget to checkout this guide: How to help UTCOM grow up

Thank you!

In this version, you can delete those PPA packages that might make your system unstable or that you simply don’t like by only a few clicks! Those barriers or worries that keep you from tasting the latest, coolest applications on PPA has been broken into pieces or dissolved!

Before introduce the Purge PPA, let’s see the overview of changes:

• Add support for Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick
• File Type Manager supports edit multi-types in once, Thanks muzuiget!
• Add support for determining Lubuntu, Netbook Edition
• Add SVG support in GNOME Panel icon (LP: #593513)
• Add SVG support in Login Windows Logo settings
• Add Compress PDF script
• Add PPA Purge support in Cleaner

Bugs fixed:

• LP: #573441 change screen logo on login settings in 10.04
• LP: #583213 LCD brightness slider is working contrariwise
• LP: #587815 Stop enabling the Ubuntu Tweak PPA
• LP: #590013 Update manager in ubuntu tweak fail in Maverick Meerkat
• LP: #576625 Ubuntu Tweak, Desktop-settings error
• LP: #597498 sudo ubuntu-tweak-daemon: os.mkdir error
• LP: #596970 Ubuntu Tweak user files should be in $XDG_DATA_HOME instead
• of ~/.ubuntu-tweak
• LP: #581880 in lubuntu , ubuntu lts lxde dont work many functions
• LP: #585728 compiz module crash in ubuntu netbook edition
• LP: #585268 Changing .recently-used.xbel into a folder breaks VMware Player 3.1.0

Now let me introduce the Purge PPA feature.

Back to the July 2008, two years ago, it was the first time that Ubuntu Tweak  introduced the “Third-Party Sources”(Now renamed to Source Center). Do you know how does it look like? OK, here’s the screenshot:

As you see, it was too simple, only included few PPA to use. But after about-two-years improvement, the Source Center is becoming more and more powerful, It supports syncing sources with network, supports multi-distributions. Of course, it included a lot of useful and latest PPAs.

It was still no good enough.

There’s a defect in Source Center, users might find it hard to revert to the previous version of package if they don’t like the one they’ve just installed from the PPA. Though apt-get is a powerful package management system, it does have problems in coping with package downgrading.

Well, no more complaining! Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.5 fills up that deficiency and save your life!

The “Purge PPAs” is integrated into the “Package Cleaner”, but it is used for cleaning PPAs instead of packages.

First, It will list all the PPAs you’ve enabled, and you can purge it by just select and press “Cleanup”.

You should know that it supports selecting multi-PPAs and clearing them at a time!

For example, I need to purge “Elementary Desktop PPA”, firstly I should select it and press “Cleanup”, a dialog will pop up and indicate how many packages will be downgraded and the exact version of these packages.

You may ask if other two or more PPA provide the same package in different versions, how will Ubuntu Tweak handle that in such a case?

Ubuntu Tweak is smart enough to handle this. For instance, P1 and P2 are two PPA sources, they provides the same packages in different versions(P1 is newer than P2 which is newer that the original package in the Ubuntu Official Repository. P1>P2>Repo). P1 might be the daily build channel, P2 could be the latest stable and, you know, Repo possibly provides ancient packages sometimes. Assuming that you’ve tried out the daily build package(P1) and its instability has been driving you crazy. You just can’t wait to revert back to your preference, P2, the latest stable package. Ubuntu Tweak just knows you better than you could ever imagine! It detects all different versions of the same package and roll down to the less latest package. So, in this case, it just won’t ridiculously remove this package at all or downgrade to the ancient package in the Repo. Happy! In case you wonder, what if there’re P3, P4 and P5? (P1>P2>P3>P4>P5>Repo) Don’t panic, neither does Ubuntu Tweak. It will do just fine.

Click “Yes”, the purge and downgrade work will start immediately. You can see the progress in the “Details”.

After a successful package downgrade, PPA will be disabled at the end of the process. That’s it.

It’s EASY, isn’t it?

I hope you like it!

And in Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.5, there’s another feature that has been improved. The feature is contributed by muzuiget.

File Type Manager was first introduced in Dec, 2008 with Ubuntu Tweak 0.4.4, have you ever played with it?

Now it finally supports multi-types edit, you can edit multiple file types at a time.

Image that you’ve installed a new audio player and love it, you want it to be the default application for all your media files. OK, it’s easy to do.

In File Type Manager, select the File Type you want to change (holding Shift to select multiple objects).

Then press “Edit”, in the opening dialog, choose the audio player you want. After that, all the types of media files will be opened by the application you set earlier.

That’s the two major improvements for Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.5.

There are some other minor improvements, such as the GNOME Icon settings supports SVG files, new script called “Compress PDF” has been added. Of course, lots of bugs has been fixed.

Another thing need to be informed is that Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.5 supports Ubuntu 10.10 now.

During the development of Ubuntu Tweak, I was wondered that I received a lot of bug reports from the Ubuntu 10.10 users. It’s amazing that a lot of people have started testing Ubuntu Tweak on Ubuntu 10.10, I highly expect that, on Oct 10, 2010, there will be a perfect Ubuntu 10.10! Also, I will continue to contribute more features for Ubuntu Tweak and bring surprises for you.

Download

The package in the Ubuntu Tweak source is now ready, and you can also download the package by using the link below:

http://launchpad.net/ubuntu-tweak/0.5.x/0.5.5/+download/ubuntu-tweak_0.5.5-1~lucid1_all.deb

Enjoy!

Sorry about these days, I haven’t updated any news for Ubuntu Tweak. Because I was busy with my life and work. But I can tell you Ubuntu Tweak is still under development.

The next version will come soon, shipping with “PPA Purge”.

The PPA Purge is inspired by the PPA Purge in Launchpad (https://launchpad.net/ppa-purge), I rewrote it with Python and integrated into Ubuntu Tweak Package Cleaner. Here’s how it looks like:

By using PPA Purge, you can use the PPA sources more safely. From now on, you can recover back to the original packages easily.

Currently, I need more tester. If you want to help in testing Ubuntu Tweak, Please enable the testing source of Ubuntu Tweak. You can do that simply by using the following command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-tweak-testing/ppa

Thanks!

Overview changes:

Bugs Fixed:

Here’s the screenshot of Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.4.1 that runs under Xubuntu. Now you can tweak the Login Screen(GDM) under the Xfce Desktop Environment.

Remove the Select Button in Update Manager, now the interface is simpler.

Download

The source isn’t ready yet. In case you can’t wait to upgrade it,  you can get the package here.

http://launchpad.net/ubuntu-tweak/0.5.x/0.5.4.1/+download/ubuntu-tweak_0.5.4.1-1_all.deb

Enjoy!

Although the planned Ubuntu Tweak 0.6 is impossible to be released with Ubuntu 10.04 on the same day, Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.4 still provides you some exciting updates and let you enjoy your unforgettable journey of experiencing  the brand new awesome Ubuntu 10.04.

Here it comes.

I think most of you have upgraded to Ubuntu 10.04 already, haven’t you?

For me, I’ve already upgrade to Ubuntu 10.04 since last week by using the official Update Manager. Everything was OK. But something is annoying: Update Manager disabled all the third-party sources. I have to enable them one by one.

Ubuntu Tweak has an easy-to-use Source Center for you to play with Third-party Sources. Why not integrate a smart  feature into Ubuntu Tweak to let people re-enable the lucid-workable third-party sources?

So that’s what Ubuntu Tweak  brings you.

Overview Changes

Let’s see the overview changes:

• Add support for Linux Mint 9: Linux Mint is Ubuntu based, Ubuntu Tweak should support it.
• Singleton support for Ubuntu Tweak, you will never launch two Ubuntu Tweak instances.
• The Ubuntu Tweak Stable source will be enabled by default, so that you won’t miss the major release version.
• New Login Settings to let you control the appearance and behavior of your login screen
• New feature to upgrade the usable sources.

And some bugs fixes:

• LP: #546331 Empty places in the list while deleting sources file
• LP: #540215 Link failed with Permission denied
• LP: #568454 The feature on “change the main menu icon” does not work in mylucid
• LP: #564942 Default Folder Locations does not expose input method

Now start with some screenshots

Third-party Sources Upgrade

After a successful distribution upgrade, all third-party sources will be disabled by default. If you want to use them, you have  to enable them again one by one, it will take you a lot of time.

Here’s what the disabled sources look like:

OK, from now on, with Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.4, it will be very simple to do the Source Upgrade task.

When you enter the “Source Center”, you will be notified like this:

Just press “Yes”, all the sources which marked as “disabled on upgrade to lucid” will be enabled again(only  if the source supports Lucid).

After upgrade, it will look like this.

It’s so simple, right?

Login Settings

The Login Settings is a new feature of Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.4. Here you can control the appearance and behavior of the Login Screen(GDM).

I will show you how to use Login Settings to custom your login screen.

Before customization, the logo and background will look like this:

Now I’m changing the login screen logo to “Ubuntu Tweak”, and replacing the original background with a blue-green-black one.

After the customization, logout and check out your new login screen, it’s been changed and just suits your taste.

From now on, you  can customize you own logo to login screen easily with Ubuntu Tweak. Of course, it is easy to “Revert” too.

Other small improvements

You know the PPA sources are slow in some countries. In some cases,  you may want to upgrade your system with PPA sources temporarily disabled. So in the Ubuntu Tweak’s Update Manager, PPA sources  can be disabled  temporarily  by simply  checking the new option.

Some users reported the Default Folder Locations is inconvenient to use. Because some operation had to be done through the context menu.

I re-designed it and add buttons for it.

Just “Change” and “Restore”, no more “Refresh” now.

Downloads

Due to the problem of Launchpad, the PPA source for Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.4 is not yet available.

If you can’t wait to try it out, just download the package below and install it. Here’s the link(It works both on Ubuntu 9.10 and Ubuntu 10.04):

http://launchpad.net/ubuntu-tweak/0.5.x/0.5.4/+download/ubuntu-tweak_0.5.4-1_all.deb

Enjoy your incredible Ubuntu Lucid journey!

Some people like buttons on the left, and some like the right side.

I think  the important thing is: how user can change it.

So that’s what Ubuntu Tweak does.

It was 0.5.1 when Ubuntu Tweak supports arrange the window titlebar layout.

In order to make it much more easier to let user switch the place, I improved this feature in Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.3. Here’s what it looks like.

First, you can easily switch from right to left by just one click, it will take effect immediately.

The switch from left to right is the same.

When you need more customization, click the “Custom”, then you can arrange them freely.

If you don’t need some control buttons, such as “menu”, you can uncheck it.

How do you think of this improvement?

Now you can download Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.3 from here: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu-tweak/0.5.x/0.5.3, or update through the source.

Enjoy!

Yet another version of Ubuntu Tweak released. It’s 0.5.2!

It doesn’t introduce any new feathers, but I recommend that everyone should update.

This version mainly fixed a lot of bugs.

And I’ve add the highlight support for the new items in Application Center and Source Center.

Here’s the screenshot:

As you see, after a  successful  sync. Ubuntu Tweak may adds new cool applications. How can you find it? Yes, with unread count in category and “New!!!” in application title.

I think you will like this minor improvement.

Now update to the Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.2: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu-tweak/0.5.x/0.5.2

If you have new application or source and want to share with others, don’t forget to submit to Ubuntu-Tweak.com!

Enjoy!

Here is the guide.

First of all, UTCOM is slight different from normal application, it is website application powered by django, mainly consists of three parts: appcenter, sourcecenter and utcom.

You can start translate by choosing one “series”, by default it is “utcom series”, but “appcenter” and “sourcecenter” need to be translated too.

If you can’t find your language, you need to set which language translation will be available for you. Visit this link to set: which languages you want to work with

Finally, You can start the translation. I will merge your work to the website regularly.

Thanks all the contributors! For more details, you can visit: Launchpad Translate Help