Ubuntu's B-Sides: Alternative Apps

Nov 30, 2009

In his blog, Canonical coworker Jorge O. Castro announces his so-called "b-sides" of Ubuntu, software that didn't make it into Ubuntu's standard installation.

Those not familiar with the term B-side have to go back to the vinyl recording days. Singles were 45 RPM records that on their A-sides usually had a cut from a band's newly released album. Because singles had two sides, the B-sides often had a less known track that didn't appear on the album. Although the B-sides didn't (with some exceptions) achieve the popularity of the tracks on the A-sides, they were more or less bonus material and highly sought after by collectors.

Such "b-sides" will now be available for Ubuntu. Castro together with Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre assembled a PPA for these "killer Bs" that provide a selection of programs that Castro considers needing to be "classy" but couldn't be included in the standard installation due to CD space considerations. A metapackage called b-sides would load the bundle of software. Castro is already considering further packages especially for admins or KDE users.

Castro provided a b-sides list that includes OpenOffice, GNOME Do, Gwibber, Jokosher, Miro, Inkscape, gimp-data-extras and GNOME Scan. To install the apps, Ubuntu users can update their systems' software sources with the PPA and install the b-sides package.

Related content

comments powered by Disqus
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters

Support Our Work

Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

Learn More

News