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This question is present as a matter of historical interest. While you are encouraged to help maintain its answers, please understand that "big list" questions are not generally allowed on Ask Ubuntu and will be closed per the FAQ.

I installed Ubuntu 11.04 on one of my systems and I am using the Unity interface. Unity is working quite well so far but I really miss panel applets for net speed, cpu temp, and system monitor.

These applets are useful for viewing quick info. Unlike 10.10, there is no other way to get this info onto the panel or unity launcher. There are solutions like screenlets and conky but they don't feel appropriate for a clean desktop look.

If you know one then please list out any third party indicators with links so that they can be found.

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This is an incredibly helpful question. I'm glad it was allowed to stay. – Andrew Jul 10 '12 at 16:33
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61 Answers

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+50

StackApplet

Category: Other

StackApplet is a GNOME panel applet that monitors your activity on any StackExchange site.

stackapplet

stackapplet Install stackapplet in Ubuntu Software Center

Update:

As indicated in comments, the version of stackapplet in Ubuntu Software Center is old and broken. To install, use instead this ppa.

The first time the application is used, run

python /usr/share/stackapplet/stackapplet.py &

from a terminal.

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8  
The URL's on stackoverflow have changed slightly recently and this app has the old ones and so it is currently busted. – HDave Dec 2 '11 at 16:10
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Thanks for this very important metric! I have no idea what the numbers mean but have noticed that the higher the numbers, the better the machine runs. * wink * – stefgosselin Mar 29 '12 at 18:20
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up vote 157 down vote

System Load Indicator

Category: System Information

indicator-multiload in Ubuntu Software Centre from the command line like this:

sudo apt-get install indicator-multiload

or from the ppa repository:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:indicator-multiload/stable-daily
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install indicator-multiload

Network, memory and cpu usage indicator; this is a port of the original System Monitor GNOME Panel applet (gnome-system-monitor applet).

enter image description here

In Preferences you can customize the output to fit it to your desktop theme:

preferences dialog

Note: It will not show network traffic of Mobile Broadband because of bug.

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12  
this indicator as it seems, according to this bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/+bug/720446 that it causes a memory leak in unity. so be aware. – suli8 May 9 '11 at 3:15
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I would love for the way the scaling of the network throughput works to be a user setting. I prefer a fixed scale rather than the indicator scaling up and down as throughput demands. Other than that, interesting. – mvexel Aug 22 '11 at 4:59
4  
This indicator is now available from the Ubuntu Software Center and, unless one wants the dev version, the ppa route may not be necessary. Correct? – vasa1 Apr 29 '12 at 5:03
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The memory leak bug is when it works in tandem with compiz...so no compiz (which is buggy anyways) equals happy and safe indicator.. :) – charlie May 8 at 13:08
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up vote 81 down vote

Weather Indicator

Category: Weather Forecasting

Warning. This indicator is not being updated anymore and will probably not work in current versions of Ubuntu.
UPDATE ! Development continues! https://launchpad.net/weather-indicator/+announcement/11516

Displays the current/extended weather, multiple locations and notifications support.

Weather Indicator

indicator-weatherInstall indicator-weather in Ubuntu Software Centre

or project's PPA: ppa:weather-indicator-team/ppa
Please note! The latest builds of Weather Indicator require updated versions of pywapi, Python Weather API: ppa:pywapi-devel/ppa

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1  
@Glutanimate It does have that unfortunate habit and occurs with latest version, ofter after resuming from standby. I think it is upstream issue so developer can do little about it. It seems to do it less after switching to the Yahoo feed. Bugs List – Cas Sep 24 '12 at 0:37
5  
my-weather-indicator (launchpad.net/my-weather-indicator) is better maintained and more stable that this one. – HDave Oct 17 '12 at 22:10
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up vote 65 down vote

ClassicMenu Indicator

Category: Application starter

Provides a simple way to get a classic GNOME-style application menu for those who prefer this over the Unity dash menu. Like the classic GNOME menu, it includes Wine games and applications if you have those installed.

enter image description here

Get the most recent version from its web page (PPA available for Ubuntu 11.04, 11.10 and 12.04).

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up vote 64 down vote

CPUFreq

Category: System Information

cpu-freq-screenshot

If you have a laptop or Netbook and want to be able to cool down that chip that's burning your hand and save some battery power this will be useful.

sudo apt-get install indicator-cpufreq

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3  
indicator-cpufreq appears not to work with Ubuntu 12.04 – Inkayacu May 5 '12 at 16:48
1  
The PPA threw a 404 for me when I tried to add it, but it turns out is was already in the repos for 12.04, so I installed that and it appears to be working just fine. – Nick DeMayo Jul 15 '12 at 14:15
2  
The PPA is no longer needed, the indicator comes with Ubuntu 12.04. It also does work (but you need to start it manually, such as by typing indicator-cpufreq on a terminal) – Scott Ritchie Jul 27 '12 at 0:33
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up vote 60 down vote

Hardware Sensors Indicator

Category: System Information

Application Indicator showing hardware sensors.

sensors

First add the repository: 

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:alexmurray/indicator-sensors

Update: 

sudo apt-get update

And then install the package:

sudo apt-get install indicator-sensors

Then launch Hardware Sensors Indicator from Unity or run indicator-sensors from a terminal.

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up vote 46 down vote

Dropbox

Category: Cloud Computing

Dropbox

Download and install the deb.

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up vote 38 down vote

Ejecter

Category: Mounting/Drive Removal

Handy applet if you are swapping out usb sticks, cards and hardrives on a regular basis.

enter image description here

You can install ejecterInstall ejecter without using the PPA - it's in the default repositories.

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up vote 37 down vote

Caffeine

Category: Power Management

Caffeine helps prevent Ubuntu from ‘sleeping’.

enter image description here

ppa:caffeine-developers/ppa and install package caffeine

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1  
Watch out that caffeine currently has an issue with notify-osd, as all notifications other then critical will be suppressed with caffeine. For further reference see this bug on Launchpad. – B_E Jul 9 '11 at 16:18
up vote 37 down vote

My Weather Indicator

Category: Weather Forecasting

this is an indicator that will show weather information in your area, as well as other valuable information such as time of sunrise, sunset and moon phase

enter image description here

Find out whether you need to wear a jacket, a t-shirt or a waterproof suit... If you click on the indicator, you will get more information about, humidity, dew point, feels like, wind velocity and wind direction, weather condition.

My-Weather-Indicator informs you about sunrise ans sunset time, and the lunar phase

Information

You can get the forecast for your area for next three days:

The forecast

You can get information of the weather of two cities at the same time:

Two cities

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/atareao
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install my-weather-indicator
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up vote 37 down vote

Virtualbox Indicator

Category: Virtualization

Provides a quick way to launch virtual machines.

For Precise onwards (Python 3 version):

indicator-virtual-box

PPA: ppa:thebernmeister/ppa Package: indicator-virtual-box

For Natty, Maverick & Lucid (Vala version)

indicator-virtualbox

PPA: ppa:michael-astrapi/ppa Package: indicator-virtualbox

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up vote 35 down vote

Sysmonitor Indicator

Category: System Information

Nice and simple just shows as text the current processor and ram usage, and also various temperature sensors detected in your system.

indicator-sysmonitor 0.3 with temperature sensors

ppa:alexeftimie/ppa and install package indicator-sysmonitor

It is possible to add own scripts for customized output:

preferences dialog

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5  
May not be currently available in ppa form for 12.04. – vasa1 Apr 30 '12 at 2:16
1  
It seems that the developer has started supporting it again. One can install it in Quantal via his/her PPA. – onse Jan 9 at 18:06
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up vote 34 down vote

SSHPlus

Category: Network

A simple version of SSHMenu with a list of your regular SSH connections (previously called SSHlist). SSHplus supports sshmenu configuration files, and adds the entries automatically.

sshplus

  1. Download sshplus.py from here

  2. In Terminal make the file executable and copy to /usr/local/bin

    chmod a+rx sshplus.py

    sudo cp sshplus.py /usr/local/bin

  3. Create a .sshplus file in home directory and add ssh hosts - one per line

    gedit ~/.sshplus

    Configuration example provided here.

    • Run sshplus

    Run Command Alt+F2 and type sshplus.py

    • Optionally add to Startup Programs list so it runs upon login.

Source

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up vote 34 down vote

Places Indicator

Category: File management

This is a simple indicator that shows common folders and all bookmarks, the indicator updates automatically if bookmark was added or removed.

Places Indicator screenshot

  1. Download the latest version
  2. Extract the files
  3. Run indicator-places.py
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up vote 31 down vote

Jupiter

Category: Power management

A really helpful power management indicator. You can use it to change display settings as well as simple power management schemes, or to disable your touchpad or wifi adapter on laptops.
It can either run with the new applet system, or with the old notification area system.

enter image description here
This little icon has helped me a lot in keeping my laptop's temperature under control.

The screenshot was taken in Elementary OS 0.1 Jupiter, wich still uses the old nitification area system. But I've used this in Ubuntu 11.04 as well and it worked as an applet as well.

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2  
Jupiter has now been ported to python and it actually uses an indicator... the screenshot should be updated :) – Alin Andrei Apr 13 '12 at 11:06
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up vote 30 down vote

F.lux indicator

Category: Computer health

enter image description here

f.lux makes your computer screen look like the room you're in, all the time. When the sun sets, it makes your computer look like your indoor lights. In the morning, it makes things look like sunlight again.

ppa:kilian/f.lux and install package fluxgui

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4  
Also have a look at RedShift – John Nilsson Aug 2 '12 at 19:51
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up vote 28 down vote

Redshift

Category: Computer Health

Redshift adjusts the color temperature of your screen according to your surroundings. This may help your eyes hurt less if you are working in front of the screen at night.

redshift

gtk-redshiftInstall gtk-redshift in Ubuntu Software Centre

Customise Colour Temperature

You can change the colour temperature by adding -t DAY:NIGHT to the Redshift commmand in Startup Applications, here is a popular example:

gtk-redshift -t 6500:5500
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up vote 27 down vote

Ubuntu One Indicator

Category: Cloud Computing

For monitoring the sync state of your Ubuntu One account.

enter image description here

ppa:rye/ubuntuone-extras and install package indicator-ubuntuone

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1  
Instructions: iloveubuntu.net/… – kilaka Jul 22 '12 at 21:58
up vote 26 down vote

Chars Indicator

Category: Other

Chars indicator is a replacement for the old character applet. It allows you to store characters, which are potentially not available on your keyboard directly, in order to use them conveniently without searching the full chaaracter map (such as fancy unicode chars).

A click on a symbol in the menus copies the selected character to the "middle mouse button" clipboard so it can easily be inserted.

Configuration is really easy: Create a file .indicator-chars in your home dir. Every line in this file represents a set of char (menu items in the main menu) and the single characters are selectable from the corresponding sub-menu.

Screenshot of Chars Indicator in action

Source code

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up vote 25 down vote

Radio Tray

Category: Multimedia

A minimalistic radio player that runs in the notification area. One can also add many other radio stations by adding there URLs.

enter image description here

ppa:eugenesan/ppa and install package radiotray

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up vote 21 down vote

Pastie

Category: Clipboard Manager

One of many clipboard managers this is considered to be the pick of the bunch but we will leave opinions to the bloggers as that's their job.

pastie

ppa:hel-sheep/pastie and install package pastie

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1  
Not available for precise. (Although workarounds are present: xubuntugeek.blogspot.de/2012/05/…) – math Jul 26 '12 at 7:04
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up vote 21 down vote

Syspeek

Category: System Information

SysPeek is a system monitor indicator that displays CPU usage, memory usage, swap usage, disk usage and network traffic.

syspeek

ppa:emptythevoid/syspeeknew and install package syspeek

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up vote 20 down vote

Shutter-indicator

Category: taking screen-shots and editing them.

An indicator for shutter program (a program for taking screen-shots and editing them)

shutter-indicator

ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8 and install packages indicator-shutter

you can also download and install .deb package from here

And the program now has a quick-list by default.

shutter-quick list

source

UPDATE 3 Aug 2012: The new version of shutter (0.89) has an indicator itself, installation: 

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:shutter/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install shutter libgtk2-appindicator-perl

Shutter indicator screenshot

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up vote 20 down vote

Tomate

Category: Concentration / Get things done

This is a simple indicator that helps keep concentrated. You start it before a complicated problem and you have to keep concentrated for at least 10 minutes after it becomes green you can continue to work on your problem but you get thing done.

You can find more information about this concentration technique on the official website.

Often when you start to work, you continue and tomate give you feedback of the time it took to fix the task.

tomate

  1. Download the latest version
  2. Extract the files
  3. Run tomate.py

EDIT: If direct download does not work the first time, wait a little and try again. Instead you can also run:

git clone https://git.gitorious.org/~natim/tomate/natim-tomate.git
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up vote 17 down vote

USB Safe Removal

Category: Mounting/Drive Removal

A little appindicator for flash drive safe removal.

usb safe removal

To add this indicator, download & install the deb

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up vote 16 down vote

Keylock Indicator

Category: System Information

This one shows which key locks you have enabled caps, num, scroll etc.

enter image description here

ppa:tsbarnes/indicator-keylock and install package indicator-keylock

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up vote 16 down vote

Disper Indicator

Category: Monitor Switching

Disper-indicator provides a simple user interface for Disper. Disper-indicator detects which monitors are currently connected to the computer and provides options to enable single screens, clone or extended screen configurations.

disperind

ppa:nmellegard/disper-indicator-ppa and install package disper-indicator

This indicator requires Disper to be installed

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up vote 15 down vote

Glipper

Category: Clipboard Manager

A clipboard manager for the Gnome desktop, it can store text from both keyboard and mouse so you can easily access the clipboard using a hotkey.

glipper

glipperInstall glipper in Ubuntu Software Centre

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up vote 14 down vote

Lookit

Category: Screen Capture

Lookit is a screen capture tool that can be used to capture an area or the entire screen. After capturing, you can save it on your desktop or upload to a FTP, SSH server or Imgur.

lookit

ppa:lookit/ppa and install package lookit

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3  
Alternatively, you can use Shutter (install) which does this through a Quick List. Once it's installed, drag it to the Unity panel on the left, and right click the icon - it should have these same options, plus more for capturing windows. – Clay Smalley May 5 '11 at 1:33
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up vote 14 down vote

Workspaces Indicator

Category: Workspace

A little indicator to make it easy to switch workspaces.

enter image description here

ppa:geod/ppa-geod and install package indicator-workspaces

Note: Does not currently have a 11.10 repository. See this answer on how to install in 11.10.

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