It’s great being an Ubuntu dabbler, as every time I come back to it I find a new app to play with. Or something old that’s had an interesting overhaul. This time around it’s Gnome Do – which just keeps getting better every time I revisit it.

The basic premise of Gnome Do is to reduce the entire desktop experience to natural-language text commands. So instead of opening the browser, heading to Gmail and typing your email, you just type “email mum” and your message into Gnome Do and away it goes.

Want to update your Twitter status? Install the Twitter plug in for Gnome do, and just type “Twitter” and your message into the application. Anybody’s who played with Ubiquity will be on familiar ground, but instead of being hedged in by the browser, Gnome Do’s tentacles stretch into all aspects of the desktop – allowing you to search, run apps and set preferences. In fact, pretty much anything you can do on the desktop is accessible through Gnome Do assuming somebody’s written a plug in, and given that it’s an open-source project they’re appearing at a rate of knots.

The really nice bit though is the dock. Previously, I’ve been an AWN user, which is brilliant but less stable than a three legged dog on a trampoline. Gnome Do’s dock is equally lovely but populates dynamically based on frequently used commands. So, typing in endless Twitter messages for example will add a Twitter icon to the dock. Nifty. A right click on the icons also brings up a menu of additional behaviours supported by Gnome Do.

Anyway, if you haven’t played with Gnome Do yet I really recommend giving it a whirl. Ubuntu users can get it through the Add/Remove command. Everybody else go take a look at the Gnome Do site.