The Linux Minimalist?

Allow me to inaugurate a new feature of ThermionicEmissions - The Linux Minimalist.

For the past few days I have been reading more and more about people trying out software with more bling than a rap video.  If, heaven forbid, the author doesn’t recommend a High Bling Application, the commenters swoop in and pronounce him hopelessly 19th century.

Since it seems to piss people off, I figured why not do it in my own space?  Thus the Linux Minimalist.

The Linux Minimalist will be devoted to how I do things: with a minimum of style and a maximum of substance.  In fact, it has been said that I have no style.

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Sometimes I wonder how I manage to remain alive.  I have never worn a bicycle helmet.  I only started wearing seatbelts because I couldn’t afford the tickets.  There was probably lead paint all over the place when I was little (which might explain a lot of things).

And worst of all, I have never used Compiz.

In my reading, this seems like it should be punishable by death.  Personally, I reserve the death penalty for people who don’t use their turn signals and drunk drivers, but that’s just me.

I somehow manage to get my work done without a simulated rotating 3D cube onscreen.  Imagine that!

What’s more, I don’t have experiences; I use the computer.  There is no user experience.  There is no web experience; I just use the $*#@ing browser.  I don’t want an experience - I want everything to work.  I know, I know - it’s silly and outdated.

SO WHAT DO YOU USE?

Xubuntu, of course.

I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t here, which I find alternately hysterical and sad.  One group will tell me that there are much more minimalist setups.  The larger group will whine that there’s nowhere near enough bling to make a satisfactory user experience.  They can both suck eggs.

I just upgraded this laptop to 9.04 from 8.10.  This includes the updated XFCE desktop also.  I seem to be almost alone in my disdain for having menus up top.  Or maybe it’s my Windows experience talking.  Regardless, I find menus up top to be very uncomfortable to use.  If I have to learn how to use it, it’s not working for me.  It’s like trying to enjoy drinking beer: you do or you don’t.

So I have a hiding menubar at the bottom, where it belongs, and some indicators in a small bar up top, where I don’t have to click on anything.

If it makes the Bling People any happier, I often use a vertical gradient of two colors instead of wallpaper.  I pick two absolutely hideous colors, like chartreuse and hot pink, and set them in a gradient.  It annoys the hell out of anyone who sees it.  It doesn’t bother me and I get my work done, plus the satisfaction of seeing the reactions.

MULTIMEDIA

You simply can’t run a computer without multimedia and neither can I.  Across a number of setups, I find that VLC plays almost everything on almost every operating system.  Every now and then Totem has a plugin that VLC doesn’t.

A friend is in love with Amarok.  He raves about the user experience.  And the way it manages his collection.  Quite frankly, I don’t want my player to manage my collection.  I want my player to play the collection.  Are you keeping up with me?  Do I have to bring in Vince with a few ShamWows to clean up?

I used Rhythmbox for a while because I was impressed at the way it handled all sorts of media, including podcasts.  Unfortunately it proved a bit unreliable and I moved podcasts to my RSS reader (RSSOwl).  No more Rhythmbox.  Fitting for a person with no rhythm, I’d say.

Listen gets honorable mention as a very light player.  For burning CD/DVD’s, there is Brasero.  If I really want to get fancy, I use K3B (but not too often these days).

RSSOwl is a bit of a compromise, as all linux RSS readers seem to be a compromise.  I found one or two interesting ones for a different OS but they don’t run on linux (or WINE).  RSSOwl runs on top of Java, making it very slow and resource-sucking.  Once it starts, it’s pretty well-behaved though.  I like that it lets me categorize individual posts, in more of a database format, rather than a TAGGED or NOT TAGGED scheme.

I have used Akregator as well as Liferea.  Neither thrilled me or provided me with the database-like functionality I was looking for.  Forget the ones that run in a browser.

THE INTERNET

There are still way too many sites that won’t run correctly on a real browser, so occasionally I have to use IE, in the form of ies4linux, which runs IE under WINE quite successfully.  Otherwise I use Firefox or Opera.  If Opera had plugins, it would be my favorite.  Plain and simple, just the way I like it.  Firefox just has so many options via plugins that it gets more use.

Filezilla is a full featured ftp/sftp client that really does the job.  It probably does a lot more but it works fine for me as-is.

There are any number of bittorrent clients available for linux but I prefer (are you ready?) one for Windows.  I like utorrent.  It works beautifully under WINE.  My favorite linux client is Deluge but it has this problem that’s been around since its inception: it starts up then immediately dies.  You can imagine this to be a very inconvenient feature, to be polite.  I’ve been on the forums where this behavior is blamed on everything including wind, linux version, and day of the week, but it’s confirmed and happens for a percentage of linux users to this day.  Failing that, Ktorrent works.  I have tried Transmission but I’m not too crazy about it.  It’s small but doesn’t seem to work near as well as the others.

No one gets out without email, which is where Thunderbird comes in.  If it could do Exchange natively, I’d be running it at work too.  Evolution is humongous and I’ve had many bad experiences with it, even if they were not Evolution-related.

What about IM, Twitter, and social media?  Screw that.  I’m secure enough not to need them.

I’m all about anti-social media.

OFFICE APPS

I could toe the party line and say Open Office but I won’t.  I prefer AbiWord and Gnumeric spreadsheet.  I use Open Office as a backup.  You will not catch me dead with any sort of presentation app.  PowerPoint is the tool of the devil and is only good for one thing: Meetings.

I also use NoteCase as a form of sticky pad notes.  Mousepad is an excellent lightweight text editor.

FILE MANAGERS

I loved Konqueror, way back, many months ago, when it used to be the most versatile file manager, browser, and pancake maker ever produced.  But then the Bling People invaded KDE and gave us Vista… err…. I mean… KDE4.  As a result I use a combination of XFE, Pcmanfm, and Emelfm2 for dual-pane file managing.  Not a blinky light in the bunch.

Btw, if you’re an XFCE person, or mostly any person who doesn’t use GNOME, AVOID NAUTILUS.  Nautilus has a tendency to eat KDE and XFCE configurations when it comes up.

It took linux forever to come close to Windows in terms of multi-pane remote access clients.  Vinagre is an answer to many prayers.

Xterm is a very light terminal.  Tilda is an extremely versatile popup terminal.

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Thus ends the first and most comprehensive installment of The Linux Minimalist.  Next time I’ll have to find some theme music or something.