I think you may like it, so here comes the article.

As a programmer, the first thing after entering my desktop is “Opening Terminal”. I’m using Ubuntu Desktop, so it’s GNOME Terminal.

GNOME Terminal is great, easy to use with tab support. But it doesn’t support a feature: Search the selection text on Google.

So I hacked the terminal to add the support, now it looks like this:

When you done some jobs on terminal, the output message may make you confused, you can select the text and right-click, the menu with “Search On Google” is there!

So…How to get the “GNOME Terminal with Google search”?

Think about Ubuntu Tweak! I’ve already included this PPA to Ubuntu Tweak now!

Open Ubuntu Tweak, go to “Source Center”, enable “Google Terminal with Google search support”,  Click “Refresh”. You can get it so easily!

If you are interested in the code, you can visit here: https://code.launchpad.net/~tualatrix/ibentu/gnome-terminal

Let’s do more interesting hacks to make Ubuntu more powerful!

jonolumb joined the development, and help to improve the English.

You can see our cooperation here: http://github.com/tualatrix/ubuntu-tweak/commits/master, he corrected a lot of  English words, at the same time, I fixed some bugs. Thanks very much to him.

It is very meaningful that Ubuntu Tweak is developed by more than just one person, especially as a open source project.

So if you’re intertested in Ubuntu Tweak development, don’t hesitate to join in.

The guide is here: http://wiki.github.com/tualatrix/ubuntu-tweak/get-involved-with-ubuntu-tweak-development, I will continue to improve the guide.

Of course, to help with Ubuntu Tweak, develop isn’t the only way, transition is important too.

You may wait a long time. These days, I was done much of Ubuntu Tweak. I’ve overcame some technical problems, now Ubuntu Tweak have much improvement.

Let’s go and see what it looks like now.

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Few days ago, I’ve seen sedra12′s comment on How to fix the startup problem of 0.3.2. He pointed out that Ubuntu Tweak is becoming a bloatware. That’s true.

While more and more new features had been added to Ubuntu Tweak, its startup is becoming more and more slowly.

Do you know why the version 0.3.2 has a startup splash screen? Yes. Just because of its slower startup.

So these days, I’ve done many work to optimize the code of Ubuntu Tweak. I’ve changed the startup mode from “load all when startup” to “load when request”.

Now Ubuntu Tweak can startup in just one or two second(in your computer’s performance) when its first start. When it has started, it is also fast to access the functions you want to use.

Not only Ubuntu Tweak is speed up, but also a major feature is included in it. That’s “PolicyKit” mechanism.

Through the “PolicyKit”, Ubuntu Tweak have the ability to do more privileged operations.

At present, I’ve added a new feature using PolicyKit to Ubuntu Tweak. That’s “Third-Party Sources”. You can add the Third-Party Sources through Ubuntu Tweak with simple operation, after that your system will be able to follow the latest application in your mind.

For example, if you like to play with Compiz Fusion, you can enable the third-party source of Compiz Fusion. After updating, your system’s Compiz Fusion will be the latest, so you can play with more plugins with it. That’s what I like to do.

Here’s the three pictures show the PolicyKit on Ubuntu Tweak and “Third-Party sources” feature. I think you may be familiar with the “Unlock” button and the authenticate dialog.

It’s welcome that you can provide your favourite third-party sources, I’ll add it to Ubuntu Tweak.

Other advice is welcome too.

BTW: all the Third-Party sources that I collect is coming from the Launchpad PPA repository. So it’s stable and safe to use.

As I often write program to test, I need to write the same code by all times. If I can easily create the template of program, then fill it with other code, I’ll be more efficient than before.

Do you have the same experience like me? I think if you often deal with many documents, you’ll need this feature.

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Ubuntu Tweak will give you an simple interface to create or modify your templates, but it’s powerful.

By default, Ubuntu Tweak will provide a set of common templates for you, such as “plain text document”, “OpenOffice TextDocument”, “OpenOffice Spreadsheet” and so on. You can add or delete the template just by dragging and dropping what you need.

You can also drag the template to Ubuntu Tweak that created by yourself. It’s freely!

The screenshot below can explain it:

After you selected the templates you need, you can easily create in your gnome desktop. In your desktop or the nautilus, right-click your mouse, in the popup menu, Create Your Document by templates!

This feature isn’t finish now, but it will come soon. I hope you like it!

Another news about Ubuntu Tweak is: helped by other good man, Ubuntu Tweak will been ported to other Linux distribution. Such as Fedora Tweak, Suse Tweak or Gnome Tweak. There’s no schedule table yet, but we will make it out finally.

It is wonderful if all GNOME users can tweak their desktop more easily, isn’t it?

If you read the code of Ubuntu Tweak, you’ll know that it is written by C language.

Why I choose C to write Ubuntu Tweak? the reason is simple, I’ve never learned any other language except the C.

In these days, I learned Python, and I found that Python is so powerful! It’s suitable that use Python to write Ubuntu Tweak.

Now I’ve started rewrote the Ubuntu Tweak last week. The progress is smoothly. And Python made me reduce 50% code of C version Ubuntu Tweak.

It’s joyful that use Python to write desktop application!

Please wait for the new version of Ubuntu Tweak( 0.3?)

Thanks for your support!