Gnome Do : Attractive and Functional launcher for Gnome

Gnome Do is an innovative launcher for the GNOME desktop environment similar to Quicksilver available on "Mac OS X" . Gnome Do tries to provide best of Keyboard driven interface(providing short-cut keys and command terminals) and cursor driven interface(menus , attractive buttons and icons), thus making it useful to both novice and experienced users. It is extensible and supports number of plugins thus increasing the functionality of GNOME Do.

GNOME Do allows you to quickly search for many items present in your GNOME desktop environment (applications, Evolution contacts, Firefox bookmarks, files, artists and albums in Rhythmbox, Pidgin buddies) and perform commonly used actions on those objects (Run, Open, Email, Chat, Play, etc.).

Installing GNOME Do on Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron

To install GNOME Do on Ubuntu 8.04 issue the following command in the terminal window (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal) :

echo "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/do-core/ubuntu hardy main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list

and

echo "deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/do-core/ubuntu hardy main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list

and

sudo apt-get install gnome-do

After issuing the above command GNOME Do should be properly installed , you can launch GNOME Do from (Applications -> Accessories -> GNOME Do) . Once GNOME Do is running you can type in commands/search phrase/application name and as you type it will show relevant matches which you can the run by pressing the enter key.

GNOME Do running on my desktop :)

Also if GNOME Do disappears from the desktop you can bring it back on by pressing the "Super" key ( The Key with Windows sign on your keyboard) and space bar simultaneously . Though if you want you can configure different set of key combinations also from GNOME Do preference box for doing this.

GNOME Do can also be configured to run automatically on startup by clicking on the Small arrow sign on the top right corner of GNOME Do which would bring the following dialog box allowing you to configure among other features(like installing plugins , keyboard shortcuts etc) option whether you want to start GNOME Do automatically when GNOME starts.

Sadly for some strange reason plugins did not work properly on my Ubuntu 8.04 installation :( . I am not sure whether it's a bug with GNOME Do or some dependency or some other issue with installation of GNOME Do on my installatio. So am providing few Screenshots of GNOME Do from David Siegel(Cretor of GNOME Do ) blog .

Switching Between open windows of GIMP using GNOME Do and Pidgin Integeration with GNOME Do

Plugins available in GNOME Do and Skype integration with GNOME Do

Overall GNOME Do is an interesting application that is not only attractive but also improves your effectiveness by providing you easy access to your applications , files , chat history etc with pressing of few buttons.

Article Written by : Ambuj Varshney (blogambuj@gmail.com)
For Desktop on Linux Blog , http://linuxondesktop.blogspot.com
(C) 2008 , Ambuj Varshney