As usual, Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre has helped me fix my idea problems. When I was in Ireland I realized that I wanted a “extras” package for Ubuntu. Things that I would normally kickstart or add to a friend’s machine when I’m hooking them up. Apps like Pitivi, Miro, GTG, etc.
Such a side project would need to be classy; adding great apps, as if we had a larger CD, but not swapping out apps or anything like that. I had the idea of having something like a b-side to a record. Now before you think “crap apps that don’t make side a”, think of things like “Garage Days”. Awesome songs that are better than most hits, but apps people use, so it’s not a big wildcard.
Thus my idea for b-sides was born. I got a lame metapackage started and Mathieu actually made it work. Here’s the PPA and here’s the list of apps. Add the metapackage and it’s like Matt and I coming to your house and adding to your Ubuntu experience!
Thanks to Matt for making my idea work! Thanks to David Siegel for the name, and mpt and Ryan Paul for the initial app suggestions. We’ll likely keep these apps static, so if you want to modify it, please feel free to take it and make your own remix! Remixes I would like to see:
K-sides (hah, guess what this would be!)
Sysadmin Remix (with your htop, terminator, etc.)
Mega-art remix! (With tons o’ artwork)
This saves me time because I can just tell people to install b-sides instead of remembering what apps I install over and over. Enjoy!
UPDATE: Someone was keen enough to point out that this is basically the “Fifth Toe” from the old GNOME days, but for Ubuntu. That sounds about right.
jorge's stompbox 
Pretty cool, man. I’ve been wanting this kind of thing for development installations or for audiophile/DJ installations. It’s kinda like a separate spin of the CD without really needing a separate spin.
Something which would be REALLY cool is a site which generates a metapackage and permits users to pre-select the packages which they want to install. They download the CD, and while it’s downloading, they can select the software which they’d want. It’s a bit of a time killer, really. Once the CD is downloaded, they can download the their custom deb and everything just installs. If they ever reinstall, they don’t have to worry about remembering what they always generally install–they can log in to this service and download their personal deb.
Unfortunately, this might be kinda against the idea of managed apt repositories, as this idea might reach a point where everyone has a custom deb installed which is not in any repo…
One thing I’ve talked to evand about in usb-installer is to be able to spawn off the software center, add what you want, and then spit out an image. And then you’d be able to export a text file from that with all your goodies, and then people would just swap their little files around. It’d basically be like an on-the-fly kickstart file like so:
+banshee
-rhythmbox
+ppa:chromium
or whatever, no need for another .deb file or something like that, just something you can pipe to apt or the software center.
@Colin Dean: Have you looked at ubuntu studio? Pretty much ideal for what you are after I would think: http://ubuntustudio.org/
@Jorge, as I said on FB, this is cool. have you proposed the “k-sides” to the kubuntu team yet?
Nice! I like this idea. A lot.
Nice selection of applications ! I install most of them on a fresh system.
For the sys-admin remix, don’t forget openssh-server 😉
Very cool idea! Look forward to checking it out soon.
Since you’re including gnome/arc-colors, how about including shiki-colors to complete that theme?
Good idea. We’re going to give it a day or two to collect feedback from people, then make a bunch of changes.
community-themes would be good as well
Some more suggestions from the art/design side:
create-resources – brushes, palettes and other resources for gimp, inkscape and other apps to share
openclipart – a packaged, sorted snapshot of the Open Clipart Library (OCAL), in both SVG and PNG.
agave – colour scheme creator. Or color scheme, for the Americans. 🙂
Glad to see Inkscape in there already!
is it possible to include media codecs in it?
It pulls in ubuntu-restricted-extras.
I just created a list for switchers from Windows which included:
flashplugin-nonfree, DownThemAll and UserAgentSwitcher in Firefox
aMSN, which gives very much the MSN experience
Thunderbird, and transfer all accounts and email
Skype
Autoloading the Windows partition within ~/home so that all existing data is available (in addition to backing up the disk, and duplicating critical data on the Linux partition)
VLC (seems to include most useful codecs as dependencies – but checked that MP3, aac and encrypted DVD work)
iPod support – used Rhythmbox which was perfectly serviceable, but not the iTunes experience.
Great idea and a nice selection. What I really miss there is a good feed reader like ‘liferea’!
What about Ubuntu-Tweak ?
Hi,
congrats for the idea. Most of Ubuntu users will love it I’m sure.
What about including medibuntu [1] repos?
[1]: http://www.medibuntu.org/
How about including a more traditional audio player — preferably xmms, but failing that audacious2?
Really a nice idea. I just went through the list and discovered a few apps I didn’t know about.
I really like their voice and the music is great! But seriously KEEP YOUR CLOTHES ON!!! YOU’LL GET MORE? RESPECT