Been away from linux for about a year

[DustinW]

any must have packages,that make the ui better, or great utilities that are new? Just installed Ubuntu again on my desktop.

[foo]

well of course, but everyone will (mostly) have their own opinion about what kind of media player etc.. to install for each of those areas that make your desktop experience better

my list would be huge so i guess i'll let others chime in w/ their thoughts 1st

[dr0p]

conky is a must-have but that's about it...

[ArkNinja]

Conky, VLC 1.0, Chromium (Has flash Linux support now, crashes a little bit, and isn't 100% functional, but still great), and I think thats about it.

[redxine]

Firefox 3.5 is pretty rockin... and stable. :) Install ubuntuzilla and run ubuntuzilla.py -a install -p firefox

I'm pretty contempt using Rhythmbox with magnatunes.com.

Sun virtual box for either those rare occasions or to run pretty much whatever.

Wine has gotten much better after hitting version 1.0, and PlayOnLinux/Wine Doors is a must for the best wine experience.

Cinelerra for high powered video editing, with the occasional combination of kino and avidemux. QDVD author for publishing.

OOO for Writer/Publisher/Drawer/Presentation.

A few nautilus scripts here and there, namely send to image shack. Makes my life a tad easier.

ArkNinja: CrossOver Chromium? The native 'development' version is at 3.0.195.1, but still has no flash support.

[h3%5kr3w]

well, lemme ask you, you want really pretty minimalistic linux style or a full on wicked cool look. BTW, compiz has gotten a LOT better (and prettyier) since last time.