Here comes Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.7 with Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty support.

Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.7 added support for Ubuntu 14.04, this means you can tweak some 14.04 specific settings.

Like in Nautilus, you can enable the “Recursive Search”:

With Unity desktop, you can enable the “click to minimize app” feature, so you can minimize the window of app by click the icon.

There are other small fixes of Ubuntu Tweak

• Fix the nautilus scripts support for Ubuntu 13.10 and later (Bug #1242379)
• Going to workspace adjustement automatically add keyboard shortcut for fade screen (Bug #1240005)
• Missing options: fonts, desktop icons,window, file manager (Bug #1250252)
• Never crash when sources.list is not parsable (Bug #1246348)

The PPA for Ubuntu Tweak is ready, you can update Ubuntu Tweak from terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

or download the package to install.

Enjoy!

It’s not about Ubuntu Tweak, it’s about my new role and new project.

First let me tell a short story:

When I look back, I can’t image that I’ve developed and maintained Ubuntu Tweak for more than 6 years! I can recall very clearly the moment that I start this project: 6 years ago, It was a very free time when I was in college, I just started to learn programming. I wanted to make something to practice my programming skills, also can be useful to the people in the world. I was learning Ubuntu too and very interested in tweaking my system, so that’s why Ubuntu Tweak project came out.

If you are an old user or a reader of this blog, you may know how this project starts, how this project grows up. Among the 6 years, many things happened. Especially the last year, under the pressure of releasing Ubuntu Tweak 0.8, I announced “The development of Ubuntu Tweak is stopped“.  This news shocked the Ubuntu community, I received a lot of support and encourages. I changed my mind three days later, I wrote “Thank you, Ubuntu Tweak will continue“, and started to develop and maintain Ubuntu Tweak in a very relaxing way.

Now Ubuntu Tweak project is still under developing (The last commit on Github is 4 days ago), I also feel much better with the current status than last year, no pressure from this project any more.

Actually, many things have been changed since last year. I quit my last job in the middle of this year, now I have been a  full time freelancer for about 5 months. My main focus in on the Apple platform (Mac & iOS).

Being a freelancer is not so easy, I feel a lot of pressure. It’s totally different from doing a free software in part time, everyday I think about how to improve my product and how to sell my product.I work for myself day and night, really.

OK, I’m not going to write something about how I feel of being a freelancer. Today I want to show my new project: Manico. It’s a new project for OS X, but the idea comes from the Unity desktop of Ubuntu.

As a long term user who uses both Ubuntu and OS X, I like the shortcuts of Unity desktop very much, I want the same thing at OS X. So I developed Manico, a Unity style shortcuts app for OS X.

One screenshot is enough:

This app is very easy to use, just like what you do in Unity desktop: hold the Option (Like Super key for Ubuntu), the app launcher will display, then pressing the num key, the target app will be launched or switched. That’s it!

During years of developing Ubuntu Tweak, I received a lot of feedback and bug reports, I found many users use Ubuntu on MacBook like me. They may also use OS X, so I think I need to announce this new project here.

Oh, I forgot to mention that Manico is not free software, it is a commercial software which sells for 3$ (with free trial). As Ubuntu Tweak is my first free software project, Manico is my first commercial software project.

I never argue about the topic like “free software and commercial software which is better”, I just want to make good software to make life much easier. That’s all.

Here’s the link:

• Manico homepage (Standalone version): http://manico.im/
• Mac App Store link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/manico/id724472954?ls=1&mt=12

I hope you like it, just like Ubuntu Tweak. They are both my “children”

Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.6 supports Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy, and also comes with some critical bugs fixed.

Here’s the main changes:

The PPA for Ubuntu Tweak is ready, you can update Ubuntu Tweak from terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

or download the package to install.

Enjoy!

After the last release of Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.4, Ubuntu Tweak got officially support of Ubuntu 13.04. However, there are still some bugs remain, such as

• “Browse as root” script error （LP: #1177169)
• ubuntu tweak crashes on updating software list (LP: #1081235)
• wrong german translation for reporting a bug (Melden/Berichten) (LP: #1177128)
• Ubuntu 13.04 Possible bug in fonts selector and window configurations (LP: #1173275)
• Can’t change window theme [Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.4, Raring] (LP: #1172760)

The last two bugs are Ubuntu 13.04 specific, all of them has been fixed now.

With Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.5, you can now re-position the window control button under Ubuntu 13.04 like this:

Set window theme and font also work under Ubuntu 13.04 (I know it’s too big :D)

OK, just these, nothing exciting. Hope you enjoy the full-featured Ubuntu Tweak with Ubuntu 13.04!

Downloads

ubuntu-tweak 0.8.5-1_all.deb

Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.4 is still a maintenance version, the support for Ubuntu 13.04, and fixed some critical bugs. Like this one:

You may encountered unexpected issues while installing apps through Ubuntu Tweak: download fails, network is down, then Ubuntu Tweak will popup an error dialog to tell the truth. In the old versions, Ubuntu Tweak will hang after you click the “Close” button, and you have to force close it and launch again. In 0.8.4, this bug is finally fixed! Now enjoy with installing third party apps without any pain

And the following bugs have been fixed too:

• Ubuntu 13.04 should upgrade the path of scripts (LP: #1155854)
• creating of a hard link to a directory crashes UT (LP: #1092086)
• Janitor only shows “System” (LP: #1101264)
• Window button tweak error in 13.04 (LP: #1114576)
• Ubuntu Tweak crashes on updating software list (LP: #1081235)

Download

As usual, you can update to Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.4 from the Stable PPA, or just download this deb package and install it.

 ubuntu-tweak_0.8.4-1_all.deb

Enjoy!

Here’s the updates:

Mirrors for Apps data

In Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.3,  there’re two mirrors for the Apps data have been added. This means the access of Apps will be more stable than before, it might also be faster.

The change is transparent for the users, because Ubuntu Tweak will choose one of the three mirrors automatically. And it will load the remote data only when you use the Apps feature.

Overlay Scrollbar Settings for Ubuntu 12.10

Ubuntu 12.10 has a hidden feature, that’s the “Touch Mode” for Overlay Scrollbars. What’s is “Touch Mode”? This means, you’ll never have the overlay shows upon the scrollbar.

This tweak is located at “Tweaks” -> “Miscellaneous”.

And there’re some bugs fixed.

• Ignore the Unity WebApp specific action like S0 ~ S1 (LP: #1076417)
• Fix ubuntu-tweak crashed with SIGSEV in PyGILState_Ensure() (LP: #1074853)
• Improve “Auto detect text encoding for Chinese in Gedit” (LP: #1074572)
• thumbnailcache_plugin uses deprecated path (LP: #1090364)
• File Manager module encountered error while loading (LP: #1073795)
• ubuntu-tweak is top crasher on errors.ubuntu.com (LP: #1086722)

Download

Here’s deb link (PPA is ready).

Enjoy!

And today I’m very pleased to announce that Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.2 is released. The goal of this version is support for Ubuntu 12.10 and improving the Apps.

Let’s get started from the release notes:

Overview of Changes

• Show apps installation status
• No more Desktop Recovery and Shortcut for 12.10
• Add option to turn off Unity Web Apps
• Remove “show User indicator” option for 12.10
• Love Wallpaper HD is ready

Bugs fixed

• Quicklists load failed in 12.04 (LP: #1073004)
• Window control button position not working for Ubuntu 12.10 (LP: #1061218)
• Window titlebar font setting is not working under 12.10 (LP: #1069669)
• Window theme setting is not working under 12.10 (LP: #1069670)
• Error in Translations it.po (LP: #1069028)

The back of tweaks

First of all, Ubuntu Tweak is Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal ready from 0.8.2, this means you can tweak the window control button position, window theme and other settings like in Ubuntu 12.04. So enjoy tweaking again!

In this version, I also removed some features that don’t work since Ubuntu 12.10, like Desktop Recovery (because it only works with Gconf) and Shortcuts. You can still set arbitrary commands with shortcuts through CCSM.

Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.2 also provided some Ubuntu 12.10 specific tweaks, like “Web Apps Integration”. If you don’t need the Web Apps feature in Ubuntu 12.10, you can turn it off easily.

Apps with installation status

In Apps, now you will see a green icon that indicate if an app is installed. And as you can see, some latest apps for Ubuntu have been added, like Polly, Stormcloud.

You will always get the latest and coolest apps from Apps in Ubuntu Tweak, currently I will make approval for these apps .

Find the wallpaper you love in Love Wallpaper HD

The “Love Wallpaper HD” is officially introduced, you can browser the random wallpapers that fit your screen size in it. By clicking “I’m Feeling Lucky” you can always get new pictures, by double-clicking the picture, Ubuntu Tweak will download and set the wallpaper for you automatically.

The picture will be saved at ~/.config/ubuntu-tweak/lovewallpaper.jpg, if you like it, you can move it out.

Notes: this is a service that located in China, so you may encounter the network access issue. Currently there’s no way to solve it, I will keep an update if the service provider has some news.

 Download and Install

Here’s deb link (PPA is ready).

Enjoy!

I’ve created the donate page 4 years ago and I have received many donations. I was really happy at that time, when I was a student, the donation helped me to cover the charge of website host.

I rarely asked for donation, every time after releasing new version, I just said “Enjoy”. I hope you’re really enjoying my work.

This time, I’d like to ask you for supporting my effort on developing Ubuntu Tweak by donating, it will help me put more energy on this project and reach the 1.0 version. So I tried to create a new way to donate, I hope it works now.

If you want to know more or fund the development of Ubuntu Tweak, please follow this guide, Thank you!

New way to donate: http://blog.ubuntu-tweak.com/donate

PS: the version with full support for Ubuntu 12.10 will be 0.8.2 and target to release soon, the Apps service will be available again too. If you are a translator, now you can start the translation.

You made me know that Ubuntu Tweak is still valuable, and as the first software project I made 5 years ago, it is just like my baby, I don’t really want to give up the development.

I will explain something in this post, hope this time everything is clear.

You’re wondering that what the “free” meaning in “If making free software is not free any more”. I’m sorry for this, because English is not my native language, I should give enough information about “free”. Here I mean “freedom”, just like I wrote in my Chinese blog.

Why I don’t feel freedom? These days, I spent a lot of time on this project, I was always thinking about the motivation. Back to 5 years ago, I developed it just because of my practice on Linux programming, I felt freedom when I make things on Linux (Although I didn’t have developing experience on Windows and Mac then). But now I don’t feel any freedom about developing this software any more. The initial motivation is changed, and I’m still looking for new motivation.

This is because the new release of Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.0 makes me feel a lot of pressure, the high network traffic made the server almost out of bandwidth. This project gives me more pressure than happiness, I found there is a lot of work to do:

• Optimize the server side
• Optimize the client side
• Add support and do more tests on Ubuntu 12.10
• More work that I wrote in 0.8.0 release
• …

I never felt that I have so many work to do, even more than my daily work. As Ubuntu Tweak 0.8 comes, it is not a simple desktop application, it has became a C/S application. In the past, I can release a new version, then take a break for days, and start developing new feature again. But now, when I release a new version, I have to monitor and maintain the server, I’m the only one to do all the work from developing and maintaining the server side to the client side.

I never felt such pressure from development a free software, especially when you have so many users. It’s hard to find a way to balance my current work, my personal project and my life, find which is more important. I don’t really want to have “two jobs”, it’s hard to balance.

With all of this, especially the increasing work from Ubuntu Tweak, I felt the things just became out of control. So I decided to stop and take a break.

I got no pressure from any other ones, I just made this decision by myself. There’s no relation to Ubuntu/Canonical. I do have some thoughts on the amazon search result, but as you see, you can turn it off now. About the donation before downloading Ubuntu, it’s OK, I think I can also try such way to receive donation for Ubuntu Tweak.

I hope you understand what I’m writing, I have a little confused for myself. I do like developing Ubuntu Tweak and receiving the likes from you. I just don’t like the current status that I have spent so much time on it.

Thanks all of you, with your words and support, I have changed my mind, the development of Ubuntu Tweak is not going to stop, although the development will slow down, the “Apps” will come back until I solved the network traffic/bandwidth issue. I will finally find out which is more important to me, and then make some changes, maybe try to make Ubuntu Tweak a donation/paid project so that I have chance to work full time on it. At least, I will never kill Ubuntu Tweak, my first software project, and also the longest project I’ve been working on, Ubuntu Tweak is my baby. It’s clear.

And…Here’s Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.1, actually I have done it before my last announcement.

It just fixed some bugs and works better on Ubuntu 12.10:

First, add the lost of “Apps” shortcuts, although the “Apps” is not working now.

The QuickLists Editor is working under Ubuntu 12.10 now, with the support for ordering Unity specific items.

And one more thing: Love Wallpaper HD, this is made by Kevin and me and added by accident. I plan to add this feature in the future. But when packing for 0.8.1 I forgot to disable it. Anyway it still works, and you can choose the wallpaper you want by double clicking on it.

Download Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.1

Here’s deb link (PPA is ready), and the release notes.

I think everything will go well.

No matter how you got this news, what I want to announce is the same: I want to stop the development and maintenance of Ubuntu Tweak. This means you will not be able to use “Apps” (Since it is a web service), I will not response for the bug report, the last commit of the code will be: Add cache support for Apps, only available in Ubuntu 12.10, so sad…

You may ask why I made this decision to stop the development of Ubuntu Tweak, I may write 10,000 words to describe how I start this project, how I feel happy from this project, how I feel bad from this project…But I just want to say:  If making free software is not free any more, why still doing this?

I hope you are not surprised for my decision. If your reaction is “well” or “fine” , that’s the best support to me.

Thank you.