Multimedia (MP3, MPEG-4, AVI, DiVX, etc.) support in Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin)

Why doesn’t Ubuntu support MP3 ‘out of the box’?

Ubuntu cannot include support for MP3 or DVD video playback or recording. MP3 formats are patented, and the patent holders have not provided the necessary licenses. Ubuntu also excludes other multimedia software due to patent, copyright, or license restrictions, such as Adobe Flash Player and RealNetworks RealPlayer.

That doesn’t mean you can’t play .mp3 files in Ubuntu, it just takes a bit of work (not much).

Follow these instructions to get mp3 and other multimedia support on your Ubuntu 12.04.

Medibuntu (Multimedia, Entertainment & Distractions In Ubuntu) is a repository of packages that cannot be included into the Ubuntu distribution for legal reasons (copyright, license, patent, etc) as explained above.

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Simple and Easy Task Manager for Linux - Nitro

Nitro is a light task manager, that presents via a simple yet fancy interface a place to add, edit and manage task lists with due dates, importance level and logbook support.

Nitro Features:
 * Smart Lists: Use smart lists to organize your tasks depending on when you want to complete them.
 * Drag and Drop: Easily organize your tasks with the power of drag and drop.
 * Search: Instantly search through notes and tasks with Nitro's ultra fast search.
 * Notes: Use notes to easily keep your ideas together. Store notes along with tasks for additional information.
 * Prioritize: Easily see which tasks are most important. Give your tasks priority to decide which tasks need to be done first.
 * Due Dates: Set due dates for your tasks and experience the magic of Nitro sorting your tasks.

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Free, Easy, Personal Accounting Application - HomeBank

HomeBank is free software. Use it to manage your personal accounts. It is designed to easy to use. Analyse your personal finance in detail using powerful filtering tools and graphs.

HomeBank benefits from more than 16 years of user experience and feedback. It is available for ~50 languages on GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, Microsoft Windows, MacOSX.

HomeBank features
General
 * direct add of payee and categories from the register dialog
 * auto completion whenever possible
 * dual pad of cheque and automated cheque number increment
 * easy transfer between accounts, which can be automated
 * dynamic minor currency display toggle for Euro countries

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All in one - Multi-Panel Tabbed File Manager for Linux - SpaceFM

SpaceFM is a multi-panel tabbed file manager for Linux with built-in VFS, udev-based device manager, customizable menu system, and bash integration

SpaceFM Features:
 * Lightweight - Written in C with GTK2 stability, inotify kernel and libudev support
 * Responsive - Built-in vfs runs fast with low resource usage (no gvfs, etc)
 * Flexible - Can appear very simple or very complex depending on configuration
 * Multiple Windows - A single instance opens multiple windows
 * Multiple Panels - Each window contains up to four independently configured and interactive browser panels plus a task manager pane
 * Tabbed - Each browser panel supports multiple folder tabs
 * Side Panes - Any browser panel can show Devices, Bookmarks, and Directory Tree side panes
 * Desktop Manager - Includes a built-in, lightweight DM mode with custom commands - works great with Openbox
 * Device Manager - Built-in libudev support for manual and automatic device management, plus easily format, backup and restore partitions and MBRs
 * Task Manager - Control or eliminate popup dialogs with multitasking abilities - no waiting to move on to your next task

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Stock Market Observation Tool for Linux - Grism

Grism is an open source stock market observation tool. It allows you to easily track the evolution of stock prices through watch-lists, portfolios and charts.

Grism uses Yahoo! Finance for its quote data. This means that with Grism, you can observe stocks, ETFs, indices and mutual funds from every major stock market in the world. All you need is the stock's symbol that interests you.

Grism Features:
Watch-lists - Monitor the evolution of a stock's price from a starting price through the last trade.
Portfolios - See the current gain/loss calculation for a set of stocks.
Charts - View dynamic, historical price charts for monitored stocks.

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Educational Software Suite and Games for Children's - GCompris

GCompris is completely free educational software suite which contains a wide range of activities. It offers various activities aimed at covering a variety of fields such as the functioning of the computer, using the mouse and keyboard, general learning, reading, writing, foreign languages, algebra, as well as various activities such as memory and logic games, scientific experiments etc. In GCompris you will find many individual software packages which together make up the complete GCompris suite of activities. Unfortunately, it is difficult to follow and maintain them as each one offers different graphic interfaces which vary widely in quality. The purpose of GCompris is to provide a development platform for educational activities. GCompris is part of GNU project and is placed under the GPL license.

Below you can find a list of categories with some of the activities available in that category.

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Convert Audio and videos from one format to the other - Panther - Panther

Panther is free and open media converter that you can use to convert your music and videos from one format to the other. No more format incompatibilities! Just convert your song your video to the format you want!

Featuring a simple and easy to use interface, it can get you started on your conversion task within a moment. A fast conversion engine and also features a simple UI for newbies and an advanced one for the pros! Special features include reducing the size of audio without affect the quality much! Also supported presets for converting videos!

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Media Collection Manager - Griffith

Griffith is a media collection manager application. Adding items to the collection is as quick and easy as typing the film title and selecting a supported source. Griffith will then try to fetch all the related information from the Web.

Griffith is a cross-platform application and is known to run on GNU Linux, Microsoft Windows and MacOS X systems. Probably, it will run on other POSIX compatible operating systems where a gtk+ environment is available, including FreeBSD, OpenBSD and Solaris.

Griffith features:
 * Integrates well with a database (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite3 used by default) to keep tabs on your library
 * Can backup/restore your database
 * Exports to CSV, PDF, XML and HTML files
 * Imports from CSV files

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Improve Battery Life of a Portable Linux Computer - Jupiter

Jupiter is a light weight power and hardware control applet for Linux.  It is designed to improve battery life of a portable Linux computer by integrating with the operating system and changing parameters of the computer based on battery or powered connection.

Additionally, Jupiter provides quick access to some of the commonly needed hardware controls like screen output and resolution, WIFI, and bluetooth.

If you use Linux on a portable computer, let Jupiter take the effort out of going mobile.

Jupiter Features:
 * Automatically adjusts CPU mode for AC or battery
 * Automatically tunes the kernel for AC or battery
 * Automatically tunes hardware for AC or battery
 * Supports Asus Super Hybrid Engine (SHE)
 * Remembers and applies last selected configuration
 * Fast and efficient, low resource utilization
 * Easily Customizable

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Text Based RSS/Atom Feed Reader - Newsbeuter

Newsbeuter is an open-source RSS/Atom feed reader for text terminals. It runs on Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X and other Unix-like operating systems. Newsbeuter's great configurability and vast number of features make it a perfect choice for people that need a slick and fast feed reader that can be completely controlled via keyboard.

Newsbeuter features:
 * Subscribe to RSS 0.9x, 1.0, 2.0 and Atom feeds
 * Download podcasts
 * Freely configure your keyboard shortcuts
 * Search through all downloaded articles
 * Categorize and query your subscriptions with a flexible tag system
 * Integrate any data source through a flexible filter and plugin system
 * Automatically remove unwanted articles through a "killfile"
 * Define "meta feeds" using a powerful query language
 * Synchronize newsbeuter with your bloglines.com account
 * Import and exporting your subscriptions with the widely used OPML format
 * Freely define newsbeuter's look'n'feel through free color configurability and format strings
 * Keep all your feeds in sync with Google Reader

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