Now, for those of you who are new to Ubuntu, you might not be aware of Gnome Do, so be sure to check out our article on Gnome Do here.  What Ubiquity does, is provide a command interface for Firefox that knows everything about you that Firefox does (it can access your Gmail, Facebook, Flickr, or Twitter if you have chosen to stay logged in in Firefox), and also likely has commands for your most-used web services either already installed, easily downloadable, or soon to be released.  Ubiquity is still in the earliest stages of its sure-to-be revolutionary existence so even a lot of web developers haven’t discovered it yet.

To install Ubiquity, you will need to click here and  allow Firefox to install the add-on.

Firefox will ask you to retart the application to enable it.  When you first relaunch Firefox, Ubiquity will display its documentation page.

Be sure to note the shortcut or set your own here.  When you summon Ubiquity it launches a command interface window with a text field.  The default shortcut,  alt-space  doesn’t work well for me, so I set mine to  shift-space  instead.

As you type it displays the closest available commands, and gives you a description of their usage.  You can navigate the list up and down using the arrow keys and you can auto-complete with tab.

Some of the most useful commands are Google, Twitter, Facebook friend search and Wikipedia, but some of the other tools like Google maps, tinyURL and define make reference simpler than ever.

Not only does Ubiquity save you time, but it’s also themeable and highly customizable making it easy for anybody to make a theme or a command plugin.

Watch this video to see some of the things you can do with Ubiquity…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XpfwvOvtO0

I’m pleased to introduce you to Gnome Do, a launcher that takes inspiration from Quicksilver for mac.  The goal of Gnome Do is to simply appear with a keystroke, search for the program or file you start to type as you are writing it, and then do something with it.  Here, lets go on a little tour of the software.

First we need to find Gnome Do, if we don’t have it installed already.  To install Gnome Do go into your menu and locate synaptic  System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager.  Search for gnome-do and then mark for installation and apply changes to download and install the latest version of Gnome Do.

Now, find Do in the applications menu after installation here  Applications > Accessories > Gnome Do and launch the program.  You will notice that the program opens a small icon in the menubar in the system tray and clicking on this will show the launcher.  If you go into the preferences by right-clicking on the icon, you can set a keyboard shortcut (I use Alt~ for mine) and then I never have to take my finger from the mouse to launch anything.

If the result you intended doesn’t show up right away, you can continue typing until it does or navigate through the search results by using the up and down arrow keys.  Some files will have multiple actions associated with them, so to switch the actions press  tab to move the focus from the first pane to the second, and then use up and down arrows to navigate through possible alternate actions.  Go ahead, explore!

There are many plugins available, including internet and chat related, web browsing, file managing and program controllers, so no matter what software you use already, it is likely ready to be enhanced by Gnome Do.  To activate a plugin go to the ‘Plugins’ tab of the Gnome Do Preferences window and check the boxes for the plugins you wish to enable.

Here’s a video showing off the best parts of Gnome Do:

Gnome See, Gnome Do from uSource Magazine on Vimeo.