Xubuntu Geek

I use two programs to view ePub files: FBReader and calibre. Bellow you'll find a brief description of each one of them and instructions to installed them. If you're just looking for a simple and light program to view ePub files, my suggestion is to choose FBReader. None of the announced applications support editing of ePub files, so I also suggest a third application, sigil . View FBReader FBReader is an e-book reader for Linux/Windows XP PDA/UMPC/desktop computer. It not only supports ePub file format, but for instance it can also be used to open chm and rtf files. A file can be opened in FBReader using the file manager. An other way of opening files is using the built-in library management system; FBReader looks for supported files in directories listed in the Book Path option. Install FBReader Open a terminal window and run: sudo apt-get install fbreader Once installed you can find it in the Applications Menu's Office group, as "E-book reader...

Overlay scrollbars allow to save some screen space. Some say it's a usability issue because the target is smaller, so accordingly to Fitt's Law the time to complete the action will be longer. But I find no difficulty in using overlay scrollbars and I definitely enjoy the extra screen space (specially when using my Eee pc). Not all toolkits implement overlay scrollbars, so at the moment, it isn't possible to get a uniform look from all applications (some will display the classic toolbars). But I understand that efforts are being made into developing support for other toolkits (xul , qt, vcl, swing , nux). Clementine, Thunderbird and gVim are some applications that I use and don't display overlay scrollbars. Install Open a terminal window and run: sudo apt-get install overlay-scrollbar liboverlay-scrollbar-0.2-0 References Overlay Scrollbars - Update @Canonical Design Overlay Scrollbars on different toolkits @Blueprints for Ubuntu Full Circle Magazine...

VLC 2.0 has been released. Faster decoding, support for more video formats, a reworked web interface, experimental BluRay Discs support are some the its highlights (click here to see a complete list of changes). Install Open a terminal window and run: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:n-muench/vlc sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install vlc References WEB UPD8 VLC 2.0 Twoflower Changes between 1.1.13 and 2.0.0

Tilda is a terminal emulator that can be accessed using one keystroke, popping-up like a Quake terminal. Install Open a terminal window and run: sudo apt-get install tilda Run Hit Alt+F2 and type: tilda. Once tilda is running, hit F1 to open the terminal pop-up. Suggestions Add tilda to startup and type this as the command: tilda -h Open a new tab hitting Ctrl+Shift+T and change tabs using Ctrl+PageUp/Ctrl+PageDown If you like the wallpaper, check out: Wilson's Sketch Blog References Tilda Documentation Related Posts Add application to Xfce/Xubuntu session startup

The nautilus-open-terminal is a nautilus extension that allows to open a terminal emulator on the current opened folder. When installed in Xfce the extension opens xterm . To modify it so that it opens xfce4-terminal instead, run the following line in a terminal: $ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.default-applications.terminal exec /usr/bin/xfce4-terminal References: Setting nautilus-open-terminal to launch Terminator rather than gnome-terminal (Ask Ubuntu)

By default, when the computer is inactive for 120 seconds the screen brightness is automatically reduced. This is a great idea, except that the brightness is also reduced when playing a video file with VLC,  suddenly everything gets darker and is annoying to move the mouse every 2 minutes to restore the brightness level. So to fix this all we have to do is get rid of this option. Open the Power Manager Settings and then on the " On AC " and " On Battery " sections select the Monitor tab. Adjust the third slider all the way to the left, as shown in the picture bellow. Related posts: Edit Xfce Settings with graphical interface

If you want to open text files in Gvim via file manager, open the ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list and add the following to the [Added Associations] and [Default Applications] sections: application/x-perl=gvim.desktop text/plain=gvim.desktop text/x-chdr=gvim.desktop text/x-csrc=gvim.desktop text/x-dtd=gvim.desktop text/x-java=gvim.desktop text/mathml=gvim.desktop text/x-python=gvim.desktop text/x-sql=gvim.desktop text/x-tex=gvim.desktop References: http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/mime-actions-spec