In the next article we are going to take a look at BreakTimer. This is a software for manage and remind ourselves to take regular breaks when we work in front of a screen. This seeks to reduce visual fatigue and repetitive strain injuries that can be produced in the user's view. The program is open source and free for Gnu / Linux, Windows and macOS. It is released under the GNU General Public License v3.0.
BreakTimer is free and open source software. It was originally developed by Tom Watson for his own needs, and is now shared with the world for free. The program will allow us to configure our working hours, the colors of the application and the messages that will be shown just before breaks, among many other things.
BreakTimer general features
- Set your schedule. BreakTimer will allow the user set the frequency and duration of breaks.
- Customize your experience. Users can choose the app colors to display during breaks. We will also be able to personalize message content.
- Set working hours. This software will allow the user to make sure that they only interrupt their work when they really want to.
- Notifications. BreakTimer will allow us to know when the breaks are going to start, what will allow us to skip / postpone it if necessary. We will also be able to configure if we want it to show us a simple notification or a full screen pause window.
- Idle reboot. Breaktime it can intelligently restart the countdown when it detects that we are not ahead of the team.
Install BreakTimer on Ubuntu
Ubuntu users will have various options to install BreakTimer. We will find this program available as snap, AppImage and .deb package.
As a .deb package
From the link above that leads to the BreakTimer page on GitHub, we will be able to download the latest version of the application in .deb file format. Another option will be to open a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) and use wget to download it:
wget https://github.com/tom-james-watson/breaktimer-app/releases/latest/download/BreakTimer.deb
After download, for installation all you have to do is use dpkg to install the package:
sudo dpkg -i BreakTimer.deb
Once the installation is finished, we can run the program by searching for its launcher on our computer.
uninstall
For remove this program from our team, in a terminal we will have to use the command:
sudo apt remove breaktimer
How to snap
This program can also be found available as snap pack in snapcraft. If we have snap packages enabled in our Ubuntu, we just have to open a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) and execute the following installation command:
sudo snap install breaktimer
After installation, all you have to do is go to show apps in the Ubuntu Gnome Dock and write breaktimer in the search box to find your launcher. We can also execute it by typing in the terminal:
breaktimer
uninstall
To remove this program from our computer, in a terminal we will have to use the command:
sudo snap remove breaktimer
Use as AppImage
To use this program as AppImage, you just need to address your download link. We can also use wget to download the file. For this, you have to write in a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T):
wget https://github.com/tom-james-watson/breaktimer-app/releases/latest/download/BreakTimer.AppImage
After the download, you will have to write the following command in the same terminal to change file execute permission:
sudo chmod +x BreakTimer.AppImage
Another possibility to change the file permissions is to right click on the downloaded .AppImage file and select Properties. Then we will only have to go to the tab "Permissions"And check the option"Allow to run the file as a program".
We can finally run the following command to start this software:
./BreakTimer.AppImage
This program will allow us set required breaks when we work in front of a screen in a simple way. It will also give us the possibility to personalize them and will remind us that we must take them. For more information about this project, its installation or how to use it, users can consult the project website or on repository on GitHub.