Adept is the graphical package management program included with Kubuntu, which is also available for Debian and other Linux distributions that use the apt package management system.

While Adept does the job for most software management tasks, it isn’t exactly the quickest application when it comes to starting up.

KDE Software Installer is an alternative program for installation of applications from the Debian and Ubuntu repositories. I thought I would put it through its paces briefly.

I downloaded the .deb file for Kubuntu Hardy Heron, and double-clicked it to install. Once installed, it goes into the System category on your K menu, and is labelled as Add/Remove Applications (much like the GNOME version of Ubuntu’s default package installer).

It does not replace the Add/Remove Programs entry, however, on the root of the K menu, which still launches the standard Adept installer. This could potentially be a little confusing as to which program is which.

Once you have got the new App Installer launched, the interface looks like the following screenshot.

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Keeping organised can be tough sometimes and there are lots of different applications and tools designed to help you get organised.

Tasque is designed to be a very simple todo list application, designed specifically to link in with popular online todo service Remember The Milk.

It is written in C#/Mono, so you will need all the relevant Mono gubbins already installed to get it up and running. Here on Fedora 8, there isn’t a package yet, so I’ll run you through how to install it from source.

First of all, head to the Tasque download page and download the archive in whichever format you want. Once you’ve got it, extract it somewhere, then open a terminal in that directory.

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This one is probably aimed more at the geekier end of the market, but it is an application well worth covering.

There are many reasons why you might want to capture the raw network traffic that is entering and leaving your system. This can be for diagnostic purposes when something has gone wrong, finding out if there’s a rogue program on your network, or if you’re just curious about what communications are going on.

Wireshark (formerly Ethereal) is one of the most well known free software packet capturing and analysis tools available. It is cross platform, and runs on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and many other Unix-like operating systems.

A basic capture can be started by clicking the leftmost button on the toolbar and then selecting your primary network interface and clicking Start.

From that point on, Wireshark will capture all of the packets that are entering and leaving that interface. You can now get to work as normal, or do some action and come back and analyse the results later.

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