Ubuntu Hacks for Higher Productivity

Software developers prefer to tweak their tools and operating system to make them more effective and programmer-friendly.

I prefer Linux as the OS because of the customizations that can be done on it.

There are many reasons to use Linux as my most preferred OS for software development — it’s free, open-source, powerful command-line, and many more. Another great reason to use Linux is the number of customizations that it provides.

Ubuntu distro is no different when it comes to customizations and alterations you can perform. I love Ubuntu and have been using it for more than a decade. I use these tweaks on the daily basis to make my day more productive.

Zsh

Bash is the default shell on Ubuntu, and no doubt, it is one of the best shells. I prefer Zsh for daily work. Zsh extends Bourne shell and has many new features and supports plugins and themes. It includes features of Bash, ksh, and tcsh.

Source: Wiki Commons

Zsh is great and easy to use. It makes your terminal look cool and colorful. The colors are not only attractive but are great to distinguish between different characteristics of files, selection, etc.

The plugins and themes are fantastic too. Worth giving a try.

Awesome Desktop Environment

If you love using the terminal and can effectively use terminal editors like vim, Awesome is a great desktop environment for you.

It brilliantly arranges the terminals on the screen with various patterns. You can seamlessly navigate between the terminals and can easily add or remove a terminal.

The best part of this environment is its simplistic view that is distraction-less.

Gnome Tweak Tool

I don’t use Awesome always. I love to use GNOME for all non-programming activities. When it comes to this default desktop environment, I use GNOME Tweaks to customize the environment.

It allows you to customize almost every visual element of the environment. You can change fonts, add new startup applications, add or alter new elements in the top bar, and Workspaces parameters can be changed.

Vundle

I love to use Vim for writing code. Barebone vim is a great editor, but I make alterations to it. Alterations like my own shortcuts, color schemes, tab settings, keymaps, etc. For this purpose I use Vundle. It is a plugin manager for Vim.

Vundle helps you use, manage and customize numerous plugins available at your disposal. Customized Vim lets me write code and navigate faster. It saves a lot of time for me.

Closing thoughts

I did not cover the IDEs and their plugins in this article. These are the changes I prefer in the operating system and the visuals that assist me in writing code and being more productive.

Also published here.