Banshee plugins/settings

When I first install Banshee:

• Enable the Library Watcher plugin.  It will keep anything new that gets added to my library actually showing in Banshee without me having to manually reload them.
• Click the Last.Fm item from the sidebar in Banshee's main window and select Account Settings and hit Account Settings on the bottom pane.  Then just log in in your browser and allow Banshee access to Last.Fm.  This is great and suggests similar music.
• Enable the Banshee indicator applet for full better integration into the panel using the following steps which I got directly from OMG! Ubuntu!
• sudo apt-get install libappindicator0.0-cil banshee-extension-appindicator
• In Banshee, click Edit>Preferences and click the Extensions tab and enable Application Indicator for Banshee under Community (if you don't see it, try exiting and restarting Banshee).

Customize your desktop

There are lots of cool apps (such as Docky, Gnome-Do, various other dock apps) that add serious eye-candy and fun features, but for me at this point the most well integrated only will do.  So, without further ado:

• Install Nautilus Elementary for a less cluttered and overly-complex Nautilus interface.  This is really a slick deal.
• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:am-monkeyd/nautilus-elementary-ppa
• sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && nautilus -q
• Install the Elementary theme which is gorgeous.  For this, I use the PPA (
• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:elementaryart/ppa
• sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get install elementary-theme elementary-icon-theme
• System>Preferences>Appearance and then under the Theme tab select Elementary
• If you have a nice video card, make sure your drivers are installed and enable System>Preferences>Appearance and enable Extra effects under the Visual Effects tab for some more snappy, fun (and completely unnecessary) eye candy.

More to come.

Day one

Windows 7 is already installed on one hard drive.  I've downloaded the x86 version of Ubuntu 10.04 for increased stability over the 64 bit version of the OS and I'm going to install it on my other hard drive and dual boot.  I'm going to attempt a custom partition scheme to allow for a separate partition for my /home directory, which I will opt to leave unencrypted to allow recovery of the data more easily if it becomes necessary.

This is after an update broke Grub beyond my ability to repair it on my last install.

Deluge Plugins

Two plugins that make Deluge essential and endlessly more functional than Transmission for me are:

• Categorize (which must be downloaded) - Organizes completed downloads for you.  Hint: make sure you go to the plugin settings by choosing Edit>Preferences and selecting the Categorize category (heh) and change the directories things are sorted into to match those on your computer.
• Blocklist (which can be found in the list of plugins accessible from Edit>Preferences and selecting the Plugins category) - Blocks certain undesirable IPs, such as those suspected of being RIA-associated

My tilda settings

I leave most settings at default, except:

• Under General, enable "Start Tilda hidden"
• Under Appearance, change width percentage to 100 and enable transparency and set level of transparency to 50.  Then enable Animated Pulldown.  (These settings will likely not be optimal for some users on older hardware.)
  
• This is not really a Tilda setting, but be sure and add Tilda to your startup apps.  To do this, go to System>Preferences>Startup Applications

If you have something you think deserves to be on this list, please tell me!

Essential installs

I've just installed or will be installing shortly

• Nonfree Unrar app - I realize that many would take an idealogical stance against using closed-source, proprietary software but my understanding is that it may have more functionality and that's where my priorities lie.  I'd rather not make sacrifices in functionality just in the name of being a FOSS soldier.  So, the closed-source unrar utility can be installed by:
• sudo apt-get install unrar
• Chrome/Chromium (I chose Chromium simply because it's in the repositories, and then I set up syncing through options>personal stuff and also selected "never save passwords" because I use lastpass for that).
• Lastpass (for password management)
• Tilda (for easy access to terminal for quick command-fu)
• Terminator (tiled terminal emulator, for when I'm actually doing heavy command-driven work)
• Replace Transmission with Deluge (I like the plugin that blocks certain IPs)
• Nicotine (a Soulseek client.  Best p2p music network in my opinion, specifically for those with obscure tastes).
• Replace Rhythmbox with Banshee (only because I'm constantly told how great it is.  I'm still getting used to not using Amarok after giving up on KDE four years ago, and have in the past liked Exaile).
• Replace F-Spot with Shotwell (less cluttered interface, probably a bunch of other advantages that I'm not familiar with)
• Gnome-Do (super key [read: Windows key]+space bar for access to all sorts of commands and applications.  Very extensible.  Endlessly useful.) Hint: in settings, make sure Gnome-Do is launched at startup and make sure that you select the option for Quiet Mode.  If you don't do this and don't change some defaults in Tilda, you will have a bunch of junk on your screen when you first boot up after installing these apps.
• Musicbrainz Picard - A music tagging application specifically tailored to be most suitable for full albums.  It looks up the closest match to your album in their database (account needed) and will tag and rename files for you.  I tweaked the settings which you can see if you follow the above link.

Will update as I add more things.