SSHMenu: Gnome Panel Applet For Managing SSH Connections

SSHMenu is a GNOME panel applet that keeps all your regular SSH connections within a single mouse click. But why use an applet for SHH connections? Well, SSHMenu has a really interesting feature which I for one find it extremely useful: it uses terminal profiles to add something distinct to a SSH terminal so that you don't mix commands between machines:

Imagine if every time you connected to a production server the terminal window had a red-tinted background, to remind you to tread carefully. Using terminal profiles, SSHMenu allows you to specify colours, fonts, transparency and a variety of other settings on a per-connection basis. You can even set window size and position.

I cannot test SSHMenu, as my VDS server account expired so if you try out SSHMenu, please let us know your impression in the comments.

Download and Install SSHMenu

Ubuntu users can install it from the repositories:

sudo apt-get install sshmenu-gnome

However, if you want to install the latest version, add the SSHMenu repository (for Ubuntu/Debian):

sudo bash -c "echo 'deb http://sshmenu.sourceforge.net/debian stable contrib' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"

Add the key:

gpg --keyserver subkeys.pgp.net --recv-keys 4CC00851
gpg --export --armor 4CC00851 | sudo apt-key add -

And install SSHMenu:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install sshmenu-gnome

Downloads for other Linux distribution -> see the SSHMenu sourceforge page.

Image credits: SSHMenu sourceforge page. | Special thanks to Web Upd8 reader Adam for suggesting this Gnome panel applet!