Amazing applications that others may not be aware of

[thamarok]

rezound - ReZound is a great audio file editor for Linux which supports JACK, Ogg/Vorbis, MP3, WAV and FLAC. It uses the xlibs for its GUI and has many many effects which makes it alot better than audacity (ReZound also supports LADSPA effects).

[rickh]

Why is checkinstall available in stable and unstable but NOT in testing?

At one time checkinstall was completely pulled from Debian repos for general bugginess and lack of mainenance. At that point, it was already in Sarge, so, of course it stayed.

Since then, the developers have evidently cooperated enough to get it back into Sid, but it will probably never get beyond that. In The Debian System, Martin Krafft explains clearly why it should never be used by serious Debian users.

In a nutshell, the packages it creates have no mechanism for following Debian protocols related to program installation.

[AgenT]

Why is checkinstall available in stable and unstable but NOT in testing?

At one time checkinstall was completely pulled from Debian repos for general bugginess and lack of mainenance. At that point, it was already in Sarge, so, of course it stayed.

Since then, the developers have evidently cooperated enough to get it back into Sid, but it will probably never get beyond that. In The Debian System, Martin Krafft explains clearly why it should never be used by serious Debian users.

In a nutshell, the packages it creates have no mechanism for following Debian protocols related to program installation.

Thank you for the Debian System reference. I will make sure to read it! Martin Krafft's book is just amazing.

[AgenT]

A few more:

Tunapie: Listen to online radio and watch online TV. A GUI based program for displaying Shoutcast or Icecast video and radio streams. Streams can then be played using an appropriate media player, defined in preferences. Tunapie also allows streams to be recorded using streamripper. Recordings can be set to start and stop at specified times.

Kompare: Kompare is a graphical user interface for viewing the differences between files. It can compare two documents, create a diff file, display a diff file and/or blend a diff file back into the original documents.

Kbabel: This is a suite of programs for editing gettext message files (PO-files). It is designed to help you translate fast and consistently.

[DeanLinkous]

hmmm.....

speedometer
http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/speedometer
Monitor network traffic or speed/progress of a file transfer. The program can be used for cases like: how long it will take for my 38MB transfer to finish, how quickly is another transfer going, How fast is the upstream on this ADSL line and how fast can I write data to my filesystem.

zoneminder
http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/zoneminder
ZoneMinder is intended for use in single or multi-camera video security applications, including commercial or home CCTV, theft prevention and child or family member or home monitoring and other care scenarios. It supports capture, analysis, recording, and monitoring of video data coming from one or more video or network cameras attached to a Linux system. ZoneMinder also support web and semi-automatic control of Pan/Tilt/Zoom cameras using a variety of protocols. It is suitable for use as a home video security system and for commercial or professional video security and surveillance. It can also be integrated into a home automation system via X.10 or other protocols.

linuxdcpp
http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/linuxdcpp
This package provides the linux port of the famous windows client dc++ for the P2P network Direct Connect.
This project uses the core dc++ with a rewritten GTK user interface, so most of all the killer features of dc++ are in it!

[akraix]

edit of german posting: i am sorry, i thought i was in the german debianforum. stupid!

for me bitlbee is an absolutely unique application. it is an instant messaging-client that does not display anything, it just sends everything to an irc-client. that means using bitlbee i can use irssi for everything concerning written realtime-communication.
this is what i inserted into my ~/.irssi/config to make bitlbee connect and reconnect automatically:

Code: Select all

  {
    address = "localhost";
    chatnet = "im";
    port = "6667";
    use_ssl = "no";
    ssl_verify = "no";
    autoconnect = "yes";
  }
(...)
  im = {
    type = "IRC";
    autosendcmd = "/^msg nickserv identify password";
  };


greetings,

akraix

[AgenT]

Bitlbee ist erstaunlich und Ihre config ist nützlich, danke.

[plugwash]

Why is checkinstall available in stable and unstable but NOT in testing?

At one time checkinstall was completely pulled from Debian repos for general bugginess and lack of mainenance. At that point, it was already in Sarge, so, of course it stayed.

Since then, the developers have evidently cooperated enough to get it back into Sid, but it will probably never get beyond that. In The Debian System, Martin Krafft explains clearly why it should never be used by serious Debian users.

I don't see any evidence it was ever removed from sid, it does indeed seem it was removed from etch (and iirc I remember the bug and it was a very nasty one). It has now migrated to lenny as well and doesn't seem to have any rc bugs for the moment.

I agree its a crappy tool though and i would avoid it where possible.

[mzilikazi]

I agree its a crappy tool though and i would avoid it where possible.

What would you suggest in its place for those times when only a source code build will do?

[plugwash]

there are situations in which is may be the only reasonable choice to use checkinstall (such as a horrible inflexible or unautomatable build or install system from upstream)

most of the time though it is much better to do the packaging properly. Read the debian new maintainers guide for hints and remember debian provide all the source needed to build any package in thier repositry including all the scripts etc.

[Pobega]

I agree its a crappy tool though and i would avoid it where possible.

What would you suggest in its place for those times when only a source code build will do?

dh_make?

[mzilikazi]

debian provide all the source needed to build any package in thier repositry including all the scripts etc.

The key words here are "in their repository". I speak specifically of software that is either not in the Debian repository or is not current.

[plugwash]

if its not current you can still use debians work as a base for your new package.

otherwise building a package isn't that hard provided the source is sane.

[nepoez]

This may be somewhat off-topic, but it's close enough that it may qualify as an amazing application that may or may not be in the Debian repositories, but I definitely don't know about it. I'm looking for anything that allows a person to edit video in Etch. I'm dealing primarily with .wmv, .asf, .mpg, and .avi type formats. Suggestions, anyone?

Anyone know of an amazing app that can do that? In the Debian repositories?

try cinelerra
u might need this in ur sources.lst
deb http://www.kiberpipa.org/~minmax/cinele ... /athlonxp/ ./

[diego1116]

Alltray
http://packages.debian.org/testing/x11/alltray

Small and useful program. Available for testing/unstable only, but, if I'm not mistaken, it works in Etch without any dependency problem:

Package: alltray (0.69-1)
Dock any program into the system tray

With AllTray you can dock any application with no native tray icon (like Evolution, Thunderbird, Terminals) into the system tray. A high-light feature is that a click on the "close" button will minimize back to system tray. It works well with Gnome, KDE, XFCE 4*, Fluxbox* and WindowMaker*. (*) No drag 'n drop support. Enable with "-nm" option.

Homepage: http://alltray.sourceforge.net/