Is there any alternative for Windows gadgets in Ubuntu?
I am new to Ubuntu and would very much like to see a weather gadget (aka widgets).
Can anyone recommed a simple add-that could give me a little weather, Clock, Twitter Crawl, etc?
Thanks
There are few options:
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Screenlets
Screenlets are the Linux alternative for "Windows Gadgets". Screenlets are small owner-drawn applications (written in Python) that can be described as "the virtual representation of things lying/standing around on your desk". Sticky notes, clocks, rulers, ... the possibilities are endless.
Hare's a preview of a weather screenlet:
To install Screenlets, open terminal by hitting Ctrl+T and run following commands:
sudo apt-get install screenlets
To install a complete pack of Screenlets:
sudo apt-get install screenlets-pack-all
Some sources to download Screenlets: Gnome-look, KDE-look.
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Cairo-Dock
Cairo-Dock is an attractive, Lightweight eye-candy dock to launch your applications. I'm mentioning it hare because of it's ability to add add-ons. It comes bundled with many applets including this weather applet. You can use applets inside dock or detach and use them as gadgets.
To install Cairo-Dock, open terminal by hitting Ctrl+T and run following command:
sudo apt-get install cairo-dock
You can find some third party add-ons hare.
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Conky
Conky is an advanced, Highly configurable system monitor for Linux. It's little hard to configure, Specially for new users. Hare's an example of conky
Follow these steps to setup
HTC Conky
:-
To install Conky, open terminal by hitting Ctrl+T and run one of following commands:
To install a standard conky:
sudo apt-get install conky-std
To install a full conky with most compile options enabled:
sudo apt-get install conky-all
Download Conky HTC Home and extract it.
Press Ctrl+H to show hidden files. Copy ".conky" from downloaded folder to your home directory.
Open the "fonts" folder and copy all the fonts to Home/.fonts/
Go to AccuWeather and find your location and copy web address.
open Home/.conky/htc_home/accuweather/accuw_script with text editor and replace the location address with the web address you just copied from AccuWeather.
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To put conky into startup applications, Hit super key (Windows key) and search for "starup applications" and open it.
Click on add, and fill respective fields as follow:
Name: HTC - Conky
Command: bash -c "sleep 15; conky -c $HOME/.Conky/htc_home/conkyrc"
Comment: Conky
and save it.
To start Conky for the first time, Hit Alt+F2 and run the following command:
conky -c ~/.Conky/htc_home/conkyrc
That's it...!
For more Coky themes visit: DeviantArt, Arch Forums, Web UPD8, Ubuntu Forums.
Plexydesk is frigging awesome. This app creats an environment for widgets for Ubuntu, like Plasma of KDE.
Don't ever bother of Screenlets or gDesklets, they are out-of-dated.