Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.4 is still a maintenance version, the support for Ubuntu 13.04, and fixed some critical bugs. Like this one:

You may encountered unexpected issues while installing apps through Ubuntu Tweak: download fails, network is down, then Ubuntu Tweak will popup an error dialog to tell the truth. In the old versions, Ubuntu Tweak will hang after you click the “Close” button, and you have to force close it and launch again. In 0.8.4, this bug is finally fixed! Now enjoy with installing third party apps without any pain

And the following bugs have been fixed too:

• Ubuntu 13.04 should upgrade the path of scripts (LP: #1155854)
• creating of a hard link to a directory crashes UT (LP: #1092086)
• Janitor only shows “System” (LP: #1101264)
• Window button tweak error in 13.04 (LP: #1114576)
• Ubuntu Tweak crashes on updating software list (LP: #1081235)

Download

As usual, you can update to Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.4 from the Stable PPA, or just download this deb package and install it.

 ubuntu-tweak_0.8.4-1_all.deb

Enjoy!

Here’s the updates:

Mirrors for Apps data

In Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.3,  there’re two mirrors for the Apps data have been added. This means the access of Apps will be more stable than before, it might also be faster.

The change is transparent for the users, because Ubuntu Tweak will choose one of the three mirrors automatically. And it will load the remote data only when you use the Apps feature.

Overlay Scrollbar Settings for Ubuntu 12.10

Ubuntu 12.10 has a hidden feature, that’s the “Touch Mode” for Overlay Scrollbars. What’s is “Touch Mode”? This means, you’ll never have the overlay shows upon the scrollbar.

This tweak is located at “Tweaks” -> “Miscellaneous”.

And there’re some bugs fixed.

• Ignore the Unity WebApp specific action like S0 ~ S1 (LP: #1076417)
• Fix ubuntu-tweak crashed with SIGSEV in PyGILState_Ensure() (LP: #1074853)
• Improve “Auto detect text encoding for Chinese in Gedit” (LP: #1074572)
• thumbnailcache_plugin uses deprecated path (LP: #1090364)
• File Manager module encountered error while loading (LP: #1073795)
• ubuntu-tweak is top crasher on errors.ubuntu.com (LP: #1086722)

Download

Here’s deb link (PPA is ready).

Enjoy!

And today I’m very pleased to announce that Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.2 is released. The goal of this version is support for Ubuntu 12.10 and improving the Apps.

Let’s get started from the release notes:

Overview of Changes

• Show apps installation status
• No more Desktop Recovery and Shortcut for 12.10
• Add option to turn off Unity Web Apps
• Remove “show User indicator” option for 12.10
• Love Wallpaper HD is ready

Bugs fixed

• Quicklists load failed in 12.04 (LP: #1073004)
• Window control button position not working for Ubuntu 12.10 (LP: #1061218)
• Window titlebar font setting is not working under 12.10 (LP: #1069669)
• Window theme setting is not working under 12.10 (LP: #1069670)
• Error in Translations it.po (LP: #1069028)

The back of tweaks

First of all, Ubuntu Tweak is Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal ready from 0.8.2, this means you can tweak the window control button position, window theme and other settings like in Ubuntu 12.04. So enjoy tweaking again!

In this version, I also removed some features that don’t work since Ubuntu 12.10, like Desktop Recovery (because it only works with Gconf) and Shortcuts. You can still set arbitrary commands with shortcuts through CCSM.

Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.2 also provided some Ubuntu 12.10 specific tweaks, like “Web Apps Integration”. If you don’t need the Web Apps feature in Ubuntu 12.10, you can turn it off easily.

Apps with installation status

In Apps, now you will see a green icon that indicate if an app is installed. And as you can see, some latest apps for Ubuntu have been added, like Polly, Stormcloud.

You will always get the latest and coolest apps from Apps in Ubuntu Tweak, currently I will make approval for these apps .

Find the wallpaper you love in Love Wallpaper HD

The “Love Wallpaper HD” is officially introduced, you can browser the random wallpapers that fit your screen size in it. By clicking “I’m Feeling Lucky” you can always get new pictures, by double-clicking the picture, Ubuntu Tweak will download and set the wallpaper for you automatically.

The picture will be saved at ~/.config/ubuntu-tweak/lovewallpaper.jpg, if you like it, you can move it out.

Notes: this is a service that located in China, so you may encounter the network access issue. Currently there’s no way to solve it, I will keep an update if the service provider has some news.

 Download and Install

Here’s deb link (PPA is ready).

Enjoy!

I’ve created the donate page 4 years ago and I have received many donations. I was really happy at that time, when I was a student, the donation helped me to cover the charge of website host.

I rarely asked for donation, every time after releasing new version, I just said “Enjoy”. I hope you’re really enjoying my work.

This time, I’d like to ask you for supporting my effort on developing Ubuntu Tweak by donating, it will help me put more energy on this project and reach the 1.0 version. So I tried to create a new way to donate, I hope it works now.

If you want to know more or fund the development of Ubuntu Tweak, please follow this guide, Thank you!

New way to donate: http://blog.ubuntu-tweak.com/donate

PS: the version with full support for Ubuntu 12.10 will be 0.8.2 and target to release soon, the Apps service will be available again too. If you are a translator, now you can start the translation.

You made me know that Ubuntu Tweak is still valuable, and as the first software project I made 5 years ago, it is just like my baby, I don’t really want to give up the development.

I will explain something in this post, hope this time everything is clear.

You’re wondering that what the “free” meaning in “If making free software is not free any more”. I’m sorry for this, because English is not my native language, I should give enough information about “free”. Here I mean “freedom”, just like I wrote in my Chinese blog.

Why I don’t feel freedom? These days, I spent a lot of time on this project, I was always thinking about the motivation. Back to 5 years ago, I developed it just because of my practice on Linux programming, I felt freedom when I make things on Linux (Although I didn’t have developing experience on Windows and Mac then). But now I don’t feel any freedom about developing this software any more. The initial motivation is changed, and I’m still looking for new motivation.

This is because the new release of Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.0 makes me feel a lot of pressure, the high network traffic made the server almost out of bandwidth. This project gives me more pressure than happiness, I found there is a lot of work to do:

• Optimize the server side
• Optimize the client side
• Add support and do more tests on Ubuntu 12.10
• More work that I wrote in 0.8.0 release
• …

I never felt that I have so many work to do, even more than my daily work. As Ubuntu Tweak 0.8 comes, it is not a simple desktop application, it has became a C/S application. In the past, I can release a new version, then take a break for days, and start developing new feature again. But now, when I release a new version, I have to monitor and maintain the server, I’m the only one to do all the work from developing and maintaining the server side to the client side.

I never felt such pressure from development a free software, especially when you have so many users. It’s hard to find a way to balance my current work, my personal project and my life, find which is more important. I don’t really want to have “two jobs”, it’s hard to balance.

With all of this, especially the increasing work from Ubuntu Tweak, I felt the things just became out of control. So I decided to stop and take a break.

I got no pressure from any other ones, I just made this decision by myself. There’s no relation to Ubuntu/Canonical. I do have some thoughts on the amazon search result, but as you see, you can turn it off now. About the donation before downloading Ubuntu, it’s OK, I think I can also try such way to receive donation for Ubuntu Tweak.

I hope you understand what I’m writing, I have a little confused for myself. I do like developing Ubuntu Tweak and receiving the likes from you. I just don’t like the current status that I have spent so much time on it.

Thanks all of you, with your words and support, I have changed my mind, the development of Ubuntu Tweak is not going to stop, although the development will slow down, the “Apps” will come back until I solved the network traffic/bandwidth issue. I will finally find out which is more important to me, and then make some changes, maybe try to make Ubuntu Tweak a donation/paid project so that I have chance to work full time on it. At least, I will never kill Ubuntu Tweak, my first software project, and also the longest project I’ve been working on, Ubuntu Tweak is my baby. It’s clear.

And…Here’s Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.1, actually I have done it before my last announcement.

It just fixed some bugs and works better on Ubuntu 12.10:

First, add the lost of “Apps” shortcuts, although the “Apps” is not working now.

The QuickLists Editor is working under Ubuntu 12.10 now, with the support for ordering Unity specific items.

And one more thing: Love Wallpaper HD, this is made by Kevin and me and added by accident. I plan to add this feature in the future. But when packing for 0.8.1 I forgot to disable it. Anyway it still works, and you can choose the wallpaper you want by double clicking on it.

Download Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.1

Here’s deb link (PPA is ready), and the release notes.

I think everything will go well.

No matter how you got this news, what I want to announce is the same: I want to stop the development and maintenance of Ubuntu Tweak. This means you will not be able to use “Apps” (Since it is a web service), I will not response for the bug report, the last commit of the code will be: Add cache support for Apps, only available in Ubuntu 12.10, so sad…

You may ask why I made this decision to stop the development of Ubuntu Tweak, I may write 10,000 words to describe how I start this project, how I feel happy from this project, how I feel bad from this project…But I just want to say:  If making free software is not free any more, why still doing this?

I hope you are not surprised for my decision. If your reaction is “well” or “fine” , that’s the best support to me.

Thank you.

Installing and managing apps are really common tasks for an utility tool like Ubuntu Tweak. that’s why I brought it back and continue to work on it.

Now in Ubuntu Tweak 0.8, a new exciting thing is introduced: the “Apps”, combination of App Center & Source Center.

Apps In the Old Days

Back to 4 years ago, when Ubuntu Tweak was in version 0.3.4, I first introduced the “Add/Remove” to let you install the most commonly used apps, and the “Third Party Software Sources” to let you use the most commonly used sources.

If you’re an experienced user of Ubuntu Tweak, you may still remember this screenshot

And this one is the “Third Party Software Sources”, really simple.

After years of development, the “Add/Remove” has become the “App Center”, and the “Third Party Software Sources” has become the “Source Center”. both of them support syncing data from the remote server, keeping the data always up-to-date without updating Ubuntu Tweak itself.

This is Source Center now, in Ubuntu Tweak 0.7.3.

But, it still has a lot of problems:

• Not easy to use: you have to enable the source, update the cache, then install the updated app;
• Not always up-to-date: due to the lack of my maintenance work, it is not always up-to-date and some sources are out of date.

So, I need to redesign this feature, to make it easier to use, and also make it the best place to install the latest and coolest apps for Ubuntu.

Now, Ubuntu Tweak 0.8 is coming, the first step to achieve this goal.

Apps in Ubuntu Tweak 0.8

Open the Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.0, you will get the changes immediately, the “Apps” tab is the place where you will play with the apps, the apps that are not possible to install from Ubuntu Software Center, or not the latest version in Ubuntu Software Center.

When you enter the Apps tab, you will see the interface like this. Left side is the categories for app, and the right side is the app icons. Click the target category or app you want to  operate, like “Google Chrome Stable” (The stable version of Google Chrome)

Next, you will see a simple page with the basic information of Google Chrome Stable and a source and a “Not Available” button.

So what’s this? It means, Google Chrome is not available in Ubuntu official repository, and you have to enable the “Google Chrome Official Source”, then you can install it.

Now check the ”Google Chrome Official Source” box, then the “Not Avaiable” button will become “Update”, click it, the next step is what you expect to happen: update the source and install Google Chrome for you.

If you try to update an app which is already installed, the operation is the same way: enable the source and click on the update button. Like the Chromium Browser, you have to choose to install a development version or a stable version, rather than the out dated version in Ubuntu repository.

Yeah, that’s all. Isn’t it easy and simple to use? Although it is still not perfect and there’s also much space to improve, you won’t need to open terminal again to install the apps now after the combination of “App Center” and “Source Center”.

And, this is totally “an online feature”. It means, if you don’t have Internet connection, you will not be able to use this feature. On other side, every time you use it, it is new. You don’t have to sync the data manually, you can just forget this task.

By now, you can still use the old App Center and Source Center in Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.0, use Source Center to purge the source and downgrade the apps, until all the features are ready in the new Apps.

Next Action

The “Apps” in Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.0 is still the early implemented version after planning for a long time. It has a lot of problems yet:

• It is too simple so that you can only install one app for one time;
• It currently only supports English;
• There’s still no way to vote, to report broken apps/sources;
• …

But just like others thing I’ve done before, when in Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.1, 0.8.2 and 0.9, until 1.0…, everything will be ready.

I hope you understand and help me to make Ubuntu Tweak better.

Download and try Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.0

Do remember that Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.0 is not fully adapted to Ubuntu 12.10, so there may be some issues when you try it under 12.10 for tweaking something.

Here’s deb link:

ubuntu-tweak_0.8.0-1~precise1_all.deb

And the release notes.

Do not forget to tell me and your friend if you like Ubuntu Tweak, report any issue to Launchpad or fork Ubuntu Tweak at Github.

Enjoy!

PS: Help spread Ubuntu Tweak on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook!

Here’s Ubuntu Tweak 0.7.3:

First of all, let’s see some new features:

And a lot of bugs has been fixed too:

• LP: #993800 QuickList Editor lost Edits
• LP: #1019812 Ubuntu Tweak crashes on ubuntu 12.10
• LP: #1031741 Need to update utdata url
• LP: #1013656 module import error and administration doesn’t work
• LP: #1014799 Tweak tab hangs with 0.7.3.0 testing
• LP: #1016199 LightDM plugin should be active if lightDM is the DM
• LP: #1014300 Screen edges actions are reversed in right to left locals
• LP: #1015835 Janitor crash when try to select apt cache checkbox
• LP: #1017820 Error message when clicking on “Session indicator” when indicator-session is not installed isn’t clear enough
• LP: #1021290 AttributeError: ‘NoneType’ object has no attribute ‘present’
• LP: #1032883 ubuntu tweak scripts

Some screenshots:

 Ubuntu Tweak 0.7.3 runs under Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal

Turn on/off the “Guest account” easily

Old kernel will clean “linux-image-extra” package to free more space under Ubuntu 12.10

Downloads

You can now download the deb package to use Ubuntu Tweak 0.7.3, or you can wait for PPA package (several hours later).

ubuntu-tweak_0.7.3-1~precise1_all.deb

Enjoy!

In this version, 13 bugs has been fixed, 0 new feature has been introduced, and 1 minor improvement has been made.

Let’s see the change log:

• LP: #998184 Integration with Ubuntu’s System Settings app
• LP: #998411 Invalid values for resetting fonts
• LP: #998594 Ubuntu Tweak reported a negative number of bytes for removing old kernels
• LP: #998626 Pressed the file manager, an error message appears
• LP: #998742 crash while searching for old kernels to clean
• LP: #999072 ubuntu tweack “miscellaneous” crash
• LP: #1000682 Recently Used should not display the items doesn’t work for current desktop
• LP: #1001551 Janitor tab is empty
• LP: #1001779 Crash while trying to add a custom command in File Type Manager
• LP: #1002026 Click on Sessing module generates “this module encountered an error while loading”
• LP: #1002594 Houve erro ao carregar o modulo.
• LP: #1004172 NameError in utils.walk_directories
• LP: #1005485 Font settings are not displayed in gnome-fallback session
• LP: #1007859 launching desktop icond from within ubuntu tweak

The only notable change from user interface is that Ubuntu Tweak has been integrated into the “System Settings”. So you are able to launch Ubuntu Tweak from System Settings if you don’t put it into launcher.

OK, that’s all.

Please download Ubuntu Tweak 0.7.2 from the official website (PPA will be ready in about 8 hours): https://launchpad.net/ubuntu-tweak/+download

Enjoy!

Thanks for the people who like it, spread it and  report problems for it. Now, a new bug-fixed version is coming. It is Ubuntu Tweak 0.7.1, and of course, with some new features.

Ubuntu Tweak 0.7.1 fixed 11 bugs, they are:

• LP: #982632 Window module fails to load on Xubuntu, Lubuntu
• LP: #988564 ubuntu-tweak 0.7.0 (oneiric/unity-2d) crashes in Unity settings
• LP: #990270 Ubuntu Tweak crash after install in Ubuntu 12.04 system76 laptop
• LP: #992581 nautilus script-worker fails on 12.04
• LP: #995748 Natural Scrolling takes no effect in some places
• LP: #987573 Old kernel janitor in infinite loop
• LP: #988554 ubuntu tweak login settings crashes
• LP: #988659 If gedit is not installed, Ubuntu Tweak will crash
• LP: #993334 Update Dialog API in Source Center
• LP: #994980 The search icon is missing in Ubuntu 12.04 default theme
• LP: #995135 Quicklists editor crashed when no desktop file

And four little features:

The first feature is for Unity 2D desktop, The “Compositing Manager” makes your Unity 2D desktop with some desktop effects like drop-down shadow, window preview in Alt+Tab switcher. I think every Unity 2D users will like this feature.

And you can use “Number of workspaces” to add or reduce the number of workspaces, if you don’t like the default number: 4.

Overlay scrollbars can save your desktop space, but if you prefer the traditional scrollbar, you can also disable the overlay scrollbars in Ubuntu Tweak easily.

The QuickLists helps you edit your Launcher items easily, in this version, QuickLists Editor adds the support for “locale”, if your locale isn’t English, you will get the locale name of actions. E.G. The Chinese version of QuickLists Editor.

The last little feature is the “Show Desktop” icon in Launcher (Unity Desktop only). This is an alternative way to access your desktop, set it to “On” if you want it back.

And there is also update for the translations. If your language is still incomplete, you can help the translation here.

OK, that’s all, I hope you like this more stable version of Ubuntu Tweak!

Please download Ubuntu Tweak 0.7.1 from the official website: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu-tweak/+download

And it is also ready in the Stable PPA: https://launchpad.net/~tualatrix/+archive/ppa

Enjoy!