It’s been a little over two full months that I’ve been using Ubuntu Linux as my sole operating system (cold turkey switch from Windows) and I think it’s about time to share some thoughts, some links, and hopefully a little knowledge that I’ve picked up along the way.
First, if you’re brand-new to Linux or are about to be brand-new to Linux, prepare yourself. You’re about to feel like you’re on the “outside.” Linux is picking up steam at an extremely fast rate, yet at current it’s still very much in the minority amongst operating systems. Most people are still using Windows and Macs; some people even tend to look down their noses at people using Linux, but then again that may just reflect my personal experiences.
Second, if you need some suggestions for programs that are user friendly and feature-laden, here is my attempt to point you in a direction (notice I didn’t say it was the guaranteed “best” direction) regarding Linux applications.
NOTE: ALL THESE APPLICATIONS CAN BE INSTALLED VIA SYNAPTIC PACKAGE MANAGER
Internet browsing
For your Internet browsing, Linux or no, you’re really going to want to use Firefox. That’s a no-brainer. It’s the most used web browser by geeks for a good reason. You can’t beat it’s functionality and versatility thanks to the sheer number of free and open source add-ons and greasemonkey scripts. Not to mention the fact that it’s standards compliant unlike some other browsers <cough>IE7</cough>
Music collecting & playing
After browsing the Net what’s the next most important thing? Why, music of course! For collecting and listening to music you have literally dozens of good options; many of which will dock your iPod with their eyes shut. All four apps I list here will dock an iPod effortlessly. Songbird has a huge following but has too many extraneous features for me. Then there’s always the good ol’ standby, Rhythmbox, but that’s a little too vanilla for my taste. After trying most of the music organizers/players myself I’ve found that Banshee offers exactly the functionality and features I need. Others would say that Amarok has Banshee beat and while I’ll concede that it looks nicer, it doesn’t fit me as well. No matter what kind of player/organizer you’re looking for I can guarantee you’ll find something that “fits” you and your personality just right.
Text editor
SciTE is my text editor of choice thanks to a great writeup by Jon on how to include snippets functionality to the already robust app. If you need a powerful text editor then you need SciTE. If you just need a basic text editor then gedit should be fine for you. That said, gedit, the stock text editor that comes with ubuntu is light years ahead of notepad.
Eye candy
Everyone likes a little eye candy. If you enjoy tinkering with things and don’t mind having to reinstall your OS if you screw something up, then I highly recommend installing Beryl (not available via synaptic). It’s freakin’ awesome. But me, this is not only a personal computer, it’s what I use to work so I can’t afford to break it. Once Beryl is out of Alpha and into Beta I may install it but until that time I can’t afford to lose everything on my computer.
If you’re not that technically inclined and are looking for something stable to add a little pizazz to your desktop then you need to install gdesklets. Once you get it installed you may be looking for good weather desklet. The best one I’ve found is (ironically) called goodweather. You’ll want to get your city’s code so the desklet knows what weather to display for you. There are undoubtedly many ways to get your city’s code, but the option I used to obtain my city’s code go to weather.com and do a search for your city. Once finding it I look in my address bar. Here’s what mine looks like:
http://www.weather.com/weather/local/USGA0210?from=recentsearchSo, in this case my city’s code is USGA0210.
Along with gdesklets you need to check out gnome look for some new desktop backgrounds, icon sets, themes, etc. If you’re a blogger you’ve probably noticed that there are a TON more free themes, skins, and layouts available for open source blogging platforms (like WordPress) than there are for closed source (like Movable Type). This is largely due to the open source nature of the software. Everyone has full access to all the code they could ever need and use and the source code is completely open. This results in two things: 1. a massive following and 2. more people putting significant amounts of creative energies into developing the project.
Well, the same thing is happening with Linux. You have literally hundreds of desktop themes to choose from. Some are superb, some are not so. But no matter what way you cut it you’re options are virtutally limitless when you consider that you can combine any theme with any window border style with any icon set. Oh, and ALL OF THOSE can be manually edited to your liking should you so choose, just like a blog theme. There’s no need to rely on your proprietary OS provider to “let” you use a new theme. Go get yours.
The next two applications I’m about to list are a source of contention in certain circles. I won’t go into the arguments here but know that arguments do happen with somewhat regularity when discussing these apps.
Image editor
The Gimp. I used Photoshop (bootlegged) for quite a while before switching over to the Gimp. I was pretty good with Photoshop which made the switch awkward. The Gimp is laid out differently, very differently. There are different steps you have to do to achieve a given result. But now, after using The Gimp for two straight months as my only image editor I’m very comfortable with it and even if I were back on a Windows machine I wouldn’t go back to Photoshop. I truly enjoy using The Gimp. I’ve found that The Gimp was lacking two features that are needed by a web designer: layer effects and define pattern/brush. Fortunately, the active community surrounding The Gimp has given us two scripts that add these functions into The Gimp: layer effects and define pattern/brush. Even more features available via a great article I’ve linked before, but it’s so good it bears re-linking: clicky.
If The Gimp is a little too different for you, that’s understandable. There’s a project called Pixel. It’s not open source, nor is it free, but it’s currently being actively developed to imitate Photoshop. It may be a viable option for those of you using Linux who are having too hard a time with The Gimp and need something that has that Photoshop “feel.”
Office suite
Open Office. I love Open Office. It’s another one of those applications that has, for me, completely replaced it’s proprietary counterpart. Not only does it handle proprietary formats such as .doc, it completely utilizes the open document format meaning that a document you create in Open Office is completely readable in any other application that makes use of this free and open source format. I have also found it to be exceedingly powerful, easy to use, and feature filled. My favorite feature is being able to print a document as a .pdf with one click directly from OoWriter (I’m easily pleased, it seems). I’m not the only one who thinks this way either.
Overall I’m very pleased with my Ubuntu PC. I’m having fun learning about how my computer works, picking up new skill sets left and right, and meeting some cool new people through the community forums. I never see myself going back to Windows, nor do I envision myself switching to a Mac at any point in the near future. Both Windows and Macs are great machines and have excellent software but Linux meets my wants, needs, and desires to the “t”. It fits me like a glove.
