It *really* depends on what you use Twitter for.
I use it to track a number of people in a variety of technology sectors.
For my needs, Tweetdeck is awesome. Instructions for installing it on Ubuntu are here:
http://www.technixupdate.com/install-tweetdeck-on-ubuntu-linux/It allows you to define groups, each in their own pane, so you can read them with the priority and frequency you want and aren't constantly getting a single stream of a zillion updates. I have panes for Java, OSX, PowerShell, etc.
If you're just using it to track a few of your friends, this is total overkill, so again it depends on what you use it for.