galternatives

Some days ago I discovered galternatives, a GNOME tool to manage the alternatives system of Debian/Ubuntu. It’s really smart I think.

For example to update the default editor for your system you need to update the alternatives system via:

update-alternatives --set editor /usr/bin/vim

There is also an interactive version available:

update-alternatives --config editor

To see available browsers you need to run

update-alternatives --list x-www-browser

However, the alternatives system is a nice idea I think, but it’s a bit confusing sometimes. And installing a new group or adding another entry to an existing group is pretty complicated and requires information from multiple other commands beforehand.

With galternatives you’ll get a graphical interface to manage all these things. That really brings light into the dark! Just install it via

aptitude install galternatives

You’ll be astonished if you give it a try! ;-)