Reader folkefiende mailed in yesterday with a question: –
“Why don’t you write something about EasyShutdown?”
Having never heard of this particular application before my first port of call was the official projects’ launchpad page. Here I learnt that EasyShutdown was a: –
“GUI to turn a computer off after specific time.”
That sounds pretty nifty. Due to my ‘download happy’ nature I had already hit the downloaded link for the provided .DEB installer before the page had even loaded. 10 seconds later – 7 of which were spent waiting for the Ubuntu Software Centre to launch – EasyShutDown was installed, launched and I, being of simple mind, sat there rather impressed.
See, I’ve got a thing about small one-use applications. I guess on some level they remind me of toys: they are what they are and that’s good enough.
EasyShutDown lets you specify a time at which your computer will shutdown. You can either manually enter a time using the application window or, thanks to some slick Unity integration, right click on the application icon to choose a pre-set duration.
It’s not going to appeal to everyone – and that’s good: not every application should.
Download links and more can be found @ launchpad.net/easyshutdown
ComplexShutDown
The application also has a ‘big brother’ named ‘ComplexShutdown’. Aside from sounding like an emergency protocol for a Nuclear power station, the name is largely a misnomer as ComplexShutdown isn’t “complex” or concerned simply with “Shutdown” – you can restart, standby, launch an app, etc. all at a set time.
The application interface makes it easy to use; you choose an action followed by a date and then hit the ‘Play’ button to enable the countdown. Easy.
You can specify further options – including an audio alert at a set period before your action takes effect, as well as setting a few other bits and bobs.
Unlike ‘EasyShutdown’ this version lacks any Unity integration, but like its sibling it can also be downloaded in .Deb installer form from the official project homepage: –