Extra Software Suggestions

These are the following items that I have installed shortly after installing Zorin 8 Core.
Adding some of these to the default install would polish up an already great distro!


VLC (skinned) - Maybe you could add a Zorin Skin http://www.videolan.org/vlc/skineditor.html Something like DestroyVLC is a good start with the Dark Theme + Blue http://images1.videolan.org/vlc/skins2/destroyvlc.png

Clementine - Is much more full featured than Noise. http://www.clementine-player.org/downloads

vim - then alias vi to vim

Default templates in right-click menu - http://www.addictivetips.com/ubuntu-lin ... -menu-tip/

Arronax - Create launcher from the right-click menu on the desktop - http://askubuntu.com/a/164275

Alacarte - Editing the menus is useful!

OracleJDK - OpenJDK is fine most of the time but there are occasions where java programs make use of the sun packages or tools.jar (even though they shouldn't) -http://www.webupd8.org/2012/01/install-oracle-java-jdk-7-in-ubuntu-via.html

Fix trust issue with iPhones - Install libimobiledevice 1.6 deb for Ubuntu 13.10 http://askubuntu.com/questions/414490/u ... ust-iphone

System Settings - Keyboard - Key presses repeat when key is held down is too long in that it seems to not work. Make the Delay shorter.

Add Open in terminal to nautilus - sudo apt-get install nautilus-open-terminal

Skype: No need to emphasise how many people have Skype accounts.

Sublime Text Editor: This requires an extra ppa (http://www.webupd8.org/2013/07/sublime- ... lable.html) but looks and works so much nicer than gedit. Maybe you could make a Zorin theme for it http://tmtheme-editor.herokuapp.com/#/theme/KWrite

Picasa: Not sure if you can bundle this or not as you need to install with wine. However, if you can it will save people having to fiddle with the sign in bug (http://www.webupd8.org/2012/01/install- ... d-fix.html). The extra features like face recognition and the straighten tool set it apart from things like Shotwell.

Kingsoft/WPS Office: Even more controversial It has an updated look and and handles the latest MS Office formats very well. http://wps-community.org/

AmoK Exif Sorter - People have so many photos, having an application that can batch rename and move them based on Exif is very useful http://www.amok.am/en/freeware/amok_exif_sorter/ It is a java application and is much nicer than any of those mentioned here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Photos/BatchRenaming

Maybe pre-install a higher quality game like the World Of Goo Demo - http://worldofgoo.com/dl2.php?lk=demo You need to fix a few files to get it to work first
http://goofans.com/forum/world-of-goo/support/3529
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p= ... ostcount=9

These are all free but not all are Open Source. I don't know if that affects decisions or not.

Nice list - the only issue I would raise is if there is any software that is closed source - for example Kingsoft Office - if a user needs the screenreader to work with Kingsoft - it won't! Only LibreOffice/OpenOffice is compatible with Orca, the screenreader software!

Now that I have a better idea of what is in the Ultimate Edition (viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7738) I realise that some of this is encroaching on that version. e.g. Skype, VLC, better games etc.

However, I think this subset should be in the core:
vim - then alias vi to vim
Default templates in right-click menu
Arronax
Alacarte
Fix trust issue with iPhones
System Settings - Keyboard - Key presses repeat when key is held down is too long in that it seems to not work. Make the Delay shorter.
Add Open in terminal to nautilus

And something else that I just noticed:
Turn on Snapping Windows in Compiz to get the Windows 7 Aero snap to edges effect

Then for the 'Ultimate' edition you should probably consider Lightworks (http://www.lwks.com/index.php?option=co ... =206&tab=1) for its power and professional looks.

I don't know if there are still security issues with VLC (there was some a while back in Windows version). As for Skype this should be ditched for jitsi (http://jitsi.org) - not least for privacy considerations!

I think OpenShot is good enough for most peoples needs. Lightworks is clearly closed source - would prefer to have all options of open source so user can ditch the ones they don't need/get on with KDEnlive - (often referred to as the Sony Vegas of GNU/Linux), LiVES, Cinelerra, Pitivi.

Alacarte not needed if GnoMenu installed!

As for the iPhone trust thing you need to be lobbying Apple - NOT GNU/Linux!

Jitsi looks interesting as a SIP client, but I would hazard a guess that a large proportion of people already have a Skype account and contacts there.
Skype and VLC are in the Ultimate version already so they probably wont go in the core release anyway.

The iPhone trust thing has been fixed - see link in original post. You just have to make sure that a newer version of libimobiledevice is installed by default.

Does Alacarte not modify the Zorin menu?

Alacarte does - it is just nice to be able to right-click the Z and 'Edit' menus!

Note following correction, "Alacarte" does not work with editing "Zorin Menu"!

Zorin Menu Editor opens by right-clicking on Zorin Menu in the AWN panel in Zorin 9 after update which installed it to edit the menu of Zorin Menu (only). Alacarte makes changes to non-Zorin Menu menus and can be tested while using gnome-panel in the GNOME 2 look in the Look Changer.

Both Alacarte and the Zorin Menu Editor looks nearly identical and appears in the menu editor with the same name "Main Menu". In order to tell them apart the only visual difference between the two is that Alacarte has a "Help" button in the bottom left corner of the window and the Zorin Menu Editor does not.

To get clarity to which one you have as "Main Menu" in the menu, that can be checked opening the menu editor and there the properties of "Main Menu(s)". There is the command line which points either to "zorin-menu-editor" or to "alacarte".