Create Your Own Customized Ubuntu System - Remastersys

Remastersys is a tool that can be used to do 2 things with an existing Debian,  Ubuntu or derivative installation.

 * It can make a full system backup including personal data to a live CD or DVD that you can use anywhere and install.
 * It can make a distributable copy you can share with friends.  This will not have any of your personal user data in it.

The resulting ISO file can be used on any other PC that still meets the original minimum requirements of Ubuntu or Debian.  Things like the graphics card and other hardware will be configured and setup automatically and you do not have to use identical hardware.  Ubuntu's live boot tool, casper, currently blacklists Nvidia and AMD proprietary drivers so they will not be available on the live system and will need to be reinstalled after installation of your custom system.

Currently there is a size limitation imposed by the genisomage tool in Ubuntu and Debian.  This tool is used to create the ISO file.  This limits the maximum single file size for the ISO to be set at 4GB which means the entire compressed filesystem.squashfs file (your complete compressed system) must fall under this size.  If it does not then the ISO file will not be created.

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Record / Play Keystrokes and Mouse Movements - Xmacro

The XMacro package contains two simple, C++ programs (xmacrorec and xmacroplay) for recording and replaying keyboard and mouse events on an X server. This functionality is achieved through the XTest extension. The programs are heavily based on the xremote utility of Jan Ekholm (chakie at infa.abo.fi).

xmacrorec:
Grabs all the control over your local display and send the mouse and keyboard events to the remote display. In the meantime it emits KeyStrPress, KeyStrRelease, ButtonPress and ButtonRelease lines to the standard output. It emits MotionNotify lines only if the event struct of the above four events contains different coordinates than the previous event or a mouse button is pressed during the movement.

xmacroplay can be used to playback recorded events or send any other mouse/keyboard events you choose. It is very handy for scripting an X display - for example running some smoke tests on the GUI application.

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E-Mail, RSS Feed and Tweets Notification Application - CloudSN

Cloudsn is a gnome application that check for new mails, tweets, feeds etc. It is developed for Gnome and tested in debian and ubuntu. Cloudsn try to implement the MVC pattern and it separates the providers, configuration, indicators and notifications

The providers check accounts against different services. Currently cloudsn has these providers implemented:
 * GMail
 * GReader
 * Pop3
 * IMAP
 * Twitter
 * Identi.ca

The indicators are a list of accounts and its unread items indicating the state of every one. Currently you can choose between use one of these:
 * Status Icon: Show the cloudsn icon and a list of active accounts with the information
 * Indicator-applet: Uses the indicator applet to list the accounts with the information

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Open-Source Folder Comparison and Synchronization Tool - FreeFileSync

FreeFileSync is an Open-Source folder comparison and synchronization tool. It is optimized for highest performance and usability without restricted or overloaded UI interfaces.

FreeFileSync Key Features:
 * Detect moved and renamed files
 * Copy locked files (Volume Shadow Copy Service)
 * Detect conflicts and propagate deletions
 * Binary comparison
 * Full support for Symbolic Links
 * Run as a batch job
 * Multiple folder pairs
 * Support very long path names > 260 characters
 * Transactional file copy
 * Cross-platform: Windows/Linux
 * Access variable drive letters by volume name (USB sticks)
 * Native 32 and 64-bit builds

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GUI Interface to Compress & Optimize Image Files - Trimage

Trimage is a cross-platform GUI and command-line interface to optimize image files via optipng, advpng, pngcrush and jpegoptim, depending on the filetype (currently, PNG and JPG files are supported). All image files are losslessly compressed on the highest available compression levels. Trimage gives you various input functions to fit your own workflow: A regular file dialog, dragging and dropping and various command line options.

Trimage Installation:
If you're on Natty (11.04) or oneiric (11.10), Trimage is available in the official repositories:

sudo apt-get install trimage

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