Dave Richards – City of Largo Work Blog: Gnome 2.30 & main-menu

September 20, 2010

Dave Richards – City of Largo Work Blog: Gnome 2.30 & main-menu

This isn’t an Xfce-specific issue (or even an Ubuntu issue), but Dave Richards once again brilliantly makes the case that the perfect desktop experience isn’t about the OS, but about how the OS conforms to user expectations. Linux makes this possible but not nearly enough people take advantage of this in an enterprise setting.

Desktop managers are important tools that often seem to be treated with the least amount of thought and respect.

Unless you’re lucky enough to have Richards working for your organization.

The Power of Rebooting

September 20, 2010

I lost Internet for a few days due to the crazy weather here in New York City. I finally got back online this afternoon and had some updates waiting for me, including a kernel and Firefox update. I updated my machine but ignored the restart messages, since I was kind of in a work groove. Eventually, Firefox crashed and I had to do a manual power-off-power-on (even Alt-PrtScrn+R+S+E+I+U+B didn’t work).

I restarted my machine a few times and couldn’t get past the initial boot screen. I was kind of annoyed, but I have the live CD, so I figured I had a solid plan B.

Amazingly, though, when I rebooted after dinner, everything was fixed.

I don’t understand why, but it seems like a lot of Linux problems can be fixed with enough reboots. It’s magical.

It makes me wonder if a lot of Hollywood producers are secret Linux fans.

Debunking the 1% Myth – O’Reilly Broadcast

September 13, 2010

Debunking the 1% Myth – O’Reilly Broadcast

A few years ago, I was at a Linux conference, and someone from a huge Linux vendor said Linux would never make inroads on desktops and laptops because people are too attached to Microsoft Office. I wonder if Linux has gained market share as people have grown satisfied with cloud-based Office substitutes.

These are very interesting numbers, though. I’m a zealot and even I underestimated the progress Linux was making on PCs and laptops/netbooks.

Music Management on Xubuntu: Waiting to Exaile

September 11, 2010

I’m not a huge user of song management software since I don’t listen to much music on my ThinkPad. Mostly I just download music and move it to my Nokia N810.

If I want to listen to music, I can just plug the Nokia into my stereo.

Syncing the Nokia with Rhythmbox in Ubuntu was kind of a pain since the Nokia has an internal memory and an external card. It would read as two separate devices, plus it would take a few minutes to index all of the songs. Moving music in Rhythmbox pretty much always resulted in a crash, so I just started using Nautilus to handle the music moves.

Xubuntu comes with Exaile, though, which is a pretty nice, light music manager.

Like Rhythmbox, I haven’t had much luck using it to manage my Nokia, but I think a lot of that is because I’ve gotten in the habit of moving music via folders.

The CD burining functionality isn’t there, either. I asked about it on the Exaile forums, which seem to have disappeared, and on Ubuntu Forums, where I didn’t get an answer.

I wound up downloading Sound Juicer to burn CDs, although I just noticed Xubuntu comes with Brasero natively. The next time I burn a CD, I’ll see which one seems easier and remove the other one.

It would be nice if Exaile could handle the burning on its own, though. Especially since every time I put in an audio CD, Exaile kicks on.

I know that by not using Rhythmbox, I’m missing out on the Ubuntu Music Store, but I simply can’t imagine it’s any easier than just downloading music directly off of Amazon. I should probably check out the music store one day, though, so see if I’m missing anything.

Incidentally, if you want to use Amazon MP3 on a system without easy access to the Amazon MP3/Firefox download tool, there’s a small, command-line application called clamz that’s amazing. Just enter the directory where the music has been downloaded to and then unpack all of the music with clamz *.amz.

I found that utility insanely useful back when I was on Arch and there wasn’t an Arch package for the download tool.

Music management makes me feel old, though. I’ve been reading all about the new iTunes and every time I read something about it, I wonder why you would want a program making that many choices for you. Like why use music management software to move files when you can do it yourself in just about the same amount of time? Why use music management software to download music for you, when you can just as easily do it through the browser?

I admit that a lot of that is because I don’t move music back and forth very frequently, so syncing has always been unnecessary for me.

Still, for those odd times I do find myself needing to play music on my laptop, Exaile has been fine. And despite the Apple-whining up above, I have been considering getting a refurbished Nano, since my Nokia is pretty large for a music player. Exaile/iPod support seems like it’s set, so maybe that will result in my getting more usage from Exaile.

I’m also glad to see others are excited about Exaile.

Music management doesn’t need to be overly complex just because that’s the Apple model.

Oh. And one final thing. Linux Journal did a nice music management round-up a few months ago. I read it at the time and didn’t even notice Exaile was in there. But it is, along with all of the other big Linux music management names.

How I Tweaked My Font Settings

September 8, 2010

I thought my fonts were rendering just fine in Xubuntu, but for whatever reason, I decided to look into my font settings a bit more.

Changing them from default to what you see below (Hinting=full; Sub-pixel order=RGB) has made a nice difference, though. The default font is thinner, but also a lot more readable.

To change your settings, go to the Settings Manager, then Appearance, and then use the font tab.

It takes a minute and you’ll be pleasantly surprised how much nicer your system looks.

Xfce fonts interface

When Xubuntu Isn’t Pure Fun

September 4, 2010

It’s been about a month or so with Xubuntu and so far it’s just been a magical journey. But there are some things about it that I wish I could change:

  1. I wish Thunar let you switch the default drag-and-drop function from copy to move. I know you can just move stuff by holding down the shift key but it seems fairly out of step with current expectations. And if the Thunar developers really think the default should be copy, there should at least be a preference setting to let the user switch it to move. It’s a great file manager, though. Way, way easier than Nautilus. And less prone to freezing and hiccups.
  2. I wish suspending caused the screen to lock. It’s supposed to, but it doesn’t. It’s supposed to be fixed for 10.10, but I also think it’s been fixed before. Right now, I use the screensaver options to cause the screen to lock, but it takes a few minutes for the lock to kick in. It doesn’t seem very secure.

These are both very small annoyances, though. The vast, vast majority of my time in Xubuntu, it’s smooth sailing.

Xfce is a great desktop manager. 90% of the defaults are perfect for me and it’s not overly complex to manage. As I’ve mentioned repeatedly, I’m not sure it’s appreciably less system intensive than GNOME, at least within the context of Ubuntu, but speed kind of isn’t the point for me. I wanted a solid experience and so far, Xfce is giving it to me.

Echofon for Firefox Broken on Linux; Not a Minor Issue

August 28, 2010

If you use Echofon for Firefox in Linux, you’re probably now familiar with this error message from their most recent update:

Echofon does not support this platform or custom build Firefox. (Can’t get OAuth signer.) / Cc[‘@naan.net/twitterfox-sign;1’] is undefined (Fx version 3.6.8 / ABI x86-gcc3)

This is the reason why. I’m not sure I like being considered part of a minor platform.

Echofon is nice, though. You can find the downgrade link here (it’s 1.9.6.4, not 1.9.6.5 as previously linked). I’m hoping they’ll fix this for 1.9.6.7, but given how they see Linux machines, I’m not super optimistic.

Linux.com Gives Xfce Some Respect

August 27, 2010

Linux.com had a nice piece on the glories of Xfce.

I’m always happy to see Xfce get some attention, since I think a lot of people assume GNOME is the only option for desktop management. And the more cutting-edge Linux people seem to be interested in KDE.

Like I said earlier, though, it might be time to stop calling Xfce lightweight. While it can be lightweight, given what most people expect of their desktop experience, I think it’s no longer a given Xfce will be lightweight.

I know people running Xfce on Debian and Arch say it’s super fast, but I always wonder if things get bogged down as they add more GNOME-derived applications to perform more complex tasks.

It’s great to see Xfce getting some love, though. But I think we’ve reached the point where Xfce can be seen as an almost-equal to GNOME and KDE, rather than the sickly sibling that requires less contemporary hardware.

First of all, the Xfce experience gets more complete each development cycle. But also because it’s no longer a given Xfce will work well on less robust systems.

Xfce is just a nice desktop environment. Qualifying that statement only creates expectations that might not be met.

Xubuntu Standing On Its Own Two Feet?

August 23, 2010

Christopher Tozzi has an interesting post about Xubuntu 10.10 trying to establish more of its own identity, including using less GNOME-centric applications, like the GNOME task manager.

The article is interesting, but Tozzi has a great comment in the comments section, though:

Sometimes I think Xubuntu might be better presented not as a lightweight version of Ubuntu, but merely as one with an alternative desktop environment which happens to be a little lighter on resource usage than Gnome but whose chief value is an alternative desktop experience, not its resource consumption.

I’ve never thought Xubuntu was fast enough to satisfy people who want a truly lightweight system, but I do find certain aspects of Xfce’s interface and way of doing things preferable to Gnome’s. If I switched to Xubuntu, it would be for the interface, not because it uses a bit less memory than Ubuntu.

It’s a great take on Xubuntu and one I agree with. Xubuntu isn’t especially light, but it is different. It’s a different desktop environment that I suspect a lot of people would prefer, were they to be exposed to it.

The beauty of Linux is that it gives the users so many choices. But it seems a lot of users aren’t aware of the level of choice that they have.

Xubuntu lets you run Ubuntu, and all of the convenience that includes, but with a different desktop environment. Not necessarily a better one, but a different one.

So I agree with Tozzi. Xubuntu is interesting not because it’s quicker but because Xfce is an interesting desktop environment.

Having said that, I’ve always liked that Xubuntu is kind of an afterthought within the Ubuntu world. I’m not sure I want Canonical paying a lot of attention, trying to craft an experience. I’d be happy if they just implemented more Xfce-native applications.

Finding the Perfect Xubuntu Text Editor

August 21, 2010

gedit text editor

I’m not a programmer but like a lot of people, I prefer to work in text editors, rather than word processors.

Finding a good text editor is kind of a big deal.

Basically, I want something responsive, semi-decent looking, and with a persistent spell check.

When in Windows, I use Notepad++, which isn’t ideal (you have to actively run the spell check), but is good enough most of the time.

Within Linux, I bounce between Scribes and gedit.

In earlier Ubuntu iterations, gedit seemed to get hung up on long URLs, which is annoying if you’re a blogger. That’s how I discovered Scribes, which is flexible and responsive.

As I upgraded Ubuntu distros, though, gedit seemed to get better.

When I switched to Xubuntu, I was hoping Mouspad, the native Xubuntu text editor, would prove to be eye-opening for me. Unfortunately, it’s just a plain text editor lacking customization and spell-checking.

So right now I’m back with gedit, even though it’s not Xfce native.

It runs just fine, though, so I guess I can’t complain, even though, obviously, it involves downloading some GNOME dependencies.

It would be great if Xfce had its own native version of something like gedit or Scribes, though. This way, people could work with a strong, versatile text editor right out of the box.

Most people just want a text editor to do very basic things, but there’s a growing segment of people who need something more robust out of their text editor. It would be nice for Xfce to have its own take on that text editor.

NOTE: I’m aware of Emacs and vi. Both are too complex for me. I spent about a year working with vim and GVim and at no time was I comfortable using either. I also failed at Emacs.