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20 -May -2012 - 22:27
Wednesday, 23 November 2011 18:26

Pimp up your Terminal with Guake

Quake

These are Linux command line terminals, modified to behave like the console in the popular First Person Shooter (FPS) Quake.

Teaser

Guake is more than just a gimmick. They are useful utilities that can significantly boost your productivity.

Working with the command line, especially on modern desktops, usually requires using the mouse cursor to locate the terminal icon shortcut or find it buried in one of the menus, losing focus and wasting time. Guake and Yakuake, following the Quake-like behavior, are smarter. You can have the terminal without moving your "crosshairs off the target." Just like the gamers can't afford to move their mouse about looking for a menu.

Guake uses hotkeys and show up as semi-transparent drop-down console. It automatically grabs focus when activated and let go when closed, allowing to you to shuffle into the command line in seconds, do what you need, and get back to doing the desktop stuff.

Let's take a look:

Guake

Guake is a Gnome utility, but that does not mean you can't use it on other desktops, as long as you have all the supported libraries. Furthermore, you're likely to find it in just about any new popular distro repositories, making the installation a quick and painless affair.

For instance, on Debian-based distros with apt-get, you can have it installed in the matter of seconds by typing: sudo apt-get install guake.

Firing up Guake, you'll get a small popup message, informing you of the hotkey. Press once and Guake will drop down. Press again and it will roll up. Just like in Doom or OpenArena or any decent FPS.

Hotkey

In use


You can tweak the Guake behavior. Guake will have an icon in the system area on one of the panel. Right-click to access the properties and change them to suit your whims.

Properties

Guake is a cool little tool. It's an excellent addition to any Linux user, even beginners, although they might not rush to use the command line. For power users, it's a pleasant must.

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