Top 5 Widgets/Applets
Written by Andrew Min
KNotes
Homepage: http://pim.kde.org/components/knotes.php
One of the best ways to get things done is to use sticky notes. My biggest problem with them is that I'm always at the computer, so I don't see them. That's why I use KNotes, a virtual sticky notes program for GNU/Linux users. Just type Alt-Shift-N to create a new note (or right-click on the KNotes icon and click “New Note”). You can set alarms, send notes to other computers (if they use KNotes as well), email notes, print notes, save notes to text files, change the colors and fonts, hide notes, keep them above or below all windows, create notes from the clipboard (Alt-Shift-C), search notes, and much more. As an added bonus, it will show up in Kontact (the KDE PIM suite) under the Notes section.
If you use Kubuntu, KNotes is pre-installed. All other Ubuntu users can install the knotes package from the repositories.
SideCandy Network
Homepage: http://www.gdesklets.org/
SideCandy Network has a simple job, and it does it well. All it does is report information on your Internet connection. It will show your device (which you can change in the configuration), your IP address, and the upload and download speeds. Everything that you need to know about your Internet is packed into a tiny widget that takes up virtually no space. It's one of those little tools that is forgettable but invaluable.
To install SideCandy Network, you'll need gDesklets (a GNOME widget engine) installed (the gDesklets package in the Ubuntu universe repository). Open gDesklets, navigate to the System/Net section, and double-click on SideCandy Network.
Quote of the Day
Homepage: http://www.gdesklets.org/?q=desklet/view/181
Quote of the Day pulls quotes from multiple sources and displays them in a widget on your desktop. It supports backgrounds, resizing, and does its job well. Now you can quote sayings by everyone from Confucious (“Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon and star”) to Juan Ramón Jiménez (“If they give you ruled paper, write the other way”).
Quote of the Day is another gDesklets widget. However, unlike SideCandy Network, Quote of the Day isn't installed with gDesklets. You need to download the Quote of the Day archive from its site. Then, open gDesklets, click File > Install Package... browse to the archive you downloaded, then double click on Quote of the Day.
liquid weather++
Homepage: http://liquidweather.net/
Weather reporting is one of the most popular uses for widgets. Liquid weather ++ (aka lwp) does a fine job of reporting the weather from three weather forecasting services (Weather.com, Accuweather, and the BBC). But more than just give the current weather conditions, it will also generate a five day weather report, show wind speed and direction, visibility, UV, earthquakes, webcams, email or print current conditions and/or 5 day forecast (ReportLab required), give reports on multiple cities and supports skinning.
To install liquid weather++, you need SuperKaramba (a widget engine for KDE users, available in Ubuntu universe repository). You'll also need to have ImageMagick (imagemagick in the Ubuntu repositories) and PyQt installed. Once all the requirements are met, download the .skz file from the lwp site and double click it (or open SuperKaramba, click Open Local Theme, and choose the file you downloaded).
BuildAMon
Homepage: http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/BuildAMon+-Build+Your+Own+System+Monitor?content=53736
No widget article is complete without mentioning a system monitor (a monitor that reports CPU usage, memory usage, HDD temperature, and other system information). However, it is virtually impossible to choose which one to use. After all, some people think that certain resources are more important than others (I personally like to know how much RAM I have free, while others might be more interested in a hard drive usage monitor). That's why I love BuildAMon. Instead of offering just one widget, it provides you with tons of sensors, gauges, and graphs, and lets you customize it according to your needs (there is a bunch of useful comments in the code, so even people who don't know how to program will feel at home). It features sensors for system information (username, hostname, kernel, uptime, etc), CPU usage, CPU (and GPU) temperature, HDD temperature, fan speed, memory usage, disk usage, Wlan signal level, gateway text, hard disk SMART info, reports on the users logged in, has network graphs, and much more.
To run BuildAMon, you'll need SuperKaramba. Then, download and extract the BuildAMon tar.gz, open one of the example .themes, and start editing. To run your creation, double click on the .theme file (or open SuperKaramba, click Open Local Theme, and choose the .theme).
