Ubuntu for Chemists

If you're much into Chemistry, which I often call 'The science of wonders' (thanks to its wonderful impacts and implications), you might like to customize your beloved Ubuntu for chemistry applications. Well, there's certainly no app using which you can manufacture common salt or citric acid from your laptop, but a few handy utilities can be very cool.

First of all, it might be a biased and personal opinion, but I do find a laptop much more comfortable to use for scientific purposes compared to a desktop. What adds to its beautiful portability, is Ubuntu's natural support for portable systems. The power consumption might be a bit depressing for most people still, but adjustments can be made to minimise that. Now, first of all, to customise your system for Ubuntu, heads up and install the following pieces of software for your system:

• Kalzium: When you need a feature-packed periodic table with multiple nice utilities, nothing can beat Kalzium. Created by the German developers, Kalzium is a strong piece of integrated software, that gives you a sense of 'United yet compact work-tool'. You have your own Molecular Editor, in which you can view molecular models in 3D, and even create new ones (I would recommend Avgadro for that, though), your Isotope Table with precise data, a Chemical Data-plotter and a feature-rich Chemical Calculator, built into your software. Click on any element, it gives you a nice overview complete with electronic configuration and other important pieces of info, ranging from mass, charge, symbol etc. o even discovery information. I'd say, this is one of the best tools available for chemistry till data, so far as Linux is concerned. The only drawback is that, it's built for KDE. So, you need to install a few extra core KDE utils to support it, and it may not be as fast in GNOME as it's in KDE. 

• The GNOME Chem Utils: This is essentially a suite of 4 commonly used programs for chemical drawing and calculations. While not high-quality apps by their own right, they can come handy if you regularly make analysis of chemical charts and make your projects using your computer. It contains the four nice apps for your chemical use, namely:
• GChemCalc: A handy calculator which you can use for calculating molecular masses and similar staff. Nothing Kalzium can't do, but the benefit is the easy integration with GNOME and faster speed. It's also smaller in size and memory consumption, so call it with your launcher (my favourite being kupfer) whenever you need it, and your friendly buddy is at your disposal. :) The idea is simple, you're given a dialogue box, just enter a formula and hit enter. You're shown the mass percentage of each of the constituent elements.
• GChemTable: A small and fast periodic table of elements built specifically for handy use in GNOME desktops. Much faster and less feature-rich than Kalzium, it can be used for easy and quick lookups on the periodic table. Click on any element and you're shown some important pieces of data related to that.
• GChem3D: It helps you view 3D molecular structures. I haven't used it much, and all I can say it that, it's small and fast like its brothers. Avogadro provides a much better interface compared to it, but if you have a large collection of cml files for example, you can always use it to view them quickly. But don't expect much control.
• GSpectrum: It is used for Spectrum analysis and viewing. Bundled with other GChemUtils, it forms the last block of the tightly bundled yet less tightly integrated bunch of chemistry utils. 
• Ghemical: It is used to draw high-quality 2D chemistry drawings and models. Mostly used for drawing and editing structures, it can prove real handy when you do much chemistry drawing. 

• Avogardo: No list of Chemistry utilities in Linux would be complete without Avogadro. Named after the Italian genius, Avogadro can help you setup your ideal environment for chemistry. Make and edit your own 3D models of molecules, design new ones, view them in every possibly way ranging from 'Ball and stick model' to Van der Waal's force-field structure analysis, Avogadro can always come to your rescue. Store your models in folders, demonstrate them before your professors or mates and impress them. While there are many similar programs for Microsoft Windows, Avogadro is one of the best I've ever seen. When you are into Linux, surprises are endless. If you are much into programming, extend Avogadro with your own models and scripts. You have the entire code at your disposal, Sargent. :)

• Jmol: It's another modecular viewer built using Java. The interface is similar to GChem3D's, but you certainly have to expect less speed and more features. 
• EasyChem: This is one nice software used for making high-quality diagrams and formula for chemical compounds. It was originally built to be used in making diagrams for books. The user interface is minimal, and you require to get a bit familiar with the controls before you start working.
• A nice notebook: Zim! Hands down!
• A word processor such as LibreOffice Writer or AbiWord might come handy if you like to print your findings and research materials on papers. :)

Additionally, you can use a nice browser (in my case it's always Chromium) for research. The tool that I find invaluable if you research collectively, is Zotero. The Zotero handle is available for Chromium. Besides, the cups-pdf feature is a nice add-on for your chromium, using which you can save entire web pages as PDFs, such that you can access them later. 

Last but not the least, please remember that articles are idea mines, rather than ideas themselves. So, you are always welcome to try other apps, or develop your own apps for chemistry if you want. :)

PS: All of the above software can be installed easily from Ubuntu Software Centre, for which I am not presenting all the necessary apt-get codes here. Just enter Centre and search for 'Chemistry', and you'lll get most of these apps easily. Well, then, see you.