Desktop applications on Linux
24 February 2009
I often see circulating questions on blogs, where you answer a set of questions and then pass them on. Most of them are rubbish, but they help to get discussion going.
I recently noticed a set that were at least relevant. So here are my answers to the circulated questions.
- Which desktop manager do you use more often?
Metacity. I assume they really mean 'what desktop environment do you use most'; so that would be GNOME, at least as long as it takes to start GNOME-Terminal.
- Which desktop application you would not like to see implemented again on Linux? and why?
Microsoft Office.
If an office application is the answer, it means you are asking the wrong question, or you are contorting the question to match yesterday's technology. I hope that we can leapfrog to programs that are far more inconspicuous, far more specialised, but also far more usable.
I know OpenOffice and others are doing this, and so we might need to have an office suite so people thinking about moving to Linux, yet still stuck in the Windows mindset, are not put off, but I hope we do not need to to use it.
- Which desktop application you definitely would like to see implemented on Linux? describe it briefly or point out to a similar application.
I would like more widgets and applets and other things that are not rectangular windows that fill the screen. If I know the name of an application, then it is a failure. If I have to 'open' an application, then it is a failure.
Repeating what I mentioned in the previous question, the best programs do their job inconspicuously without making a big show and dance about it.
- Write the name of the last project (not the very best, the last!) that made you wish to thank their developers so you can thank them now! :-)
Continuing this theme, even though I have only 4 applications open in my bottom-panel, according to ps -e | wc -l, there are 148 processes running on my system, I have no idea what half of them are doing. So thankyou to all the developers who make the inconspicuous programs and libraries that I do not notice.
What are your answers?
Let us know in the comments below, or if you have your own site, blog it yourself and post the link below.
1 Larry says...
Application I'd like to see. I don't "blog" and dont usually participate in forums. When I started as a user of linux-Ubuntu, I started with Dapper and finally upgraded to Hardy.
Very quickly I found myself never booting windows, but one thing I miss is something similar to a search application available in win. called webferrret by ferretsoft I think. Anyway it permits boolean search, permitted using engines that you wish, and opened a result in any client- browser you wanted. It presented results of search - line at time - and showed an intro of the site when you used a "mouse-over". It also let you limit the number of results.
Not being geek oriented, I have not found anything similar avail. to me. Perhaps there is, and I am too much of a "noobie" to recognise it.
Tnks Larry
Posted at 1:11 a.m. on February 25, 2009
2 Scott says...
Which desktop manager do you use more often? KDE.... if you mean window manager like metacity, i dont even really know what that is.
Which desktop application you would not like to see implemented again on Linux? and why? Another text editor?
Which desktop application you definitely would like to see implemented on Linux? describe it briefly or point out to a similar application. I like the omni suite for mac. omnigroup.com I think. Omnifocus, omnigraffle, omninote. They are invaluable for me.
Write the name of the last project (not the very best, the last!) that made you wish to thank their developers so you can thank them now! :-) Switchproxy on windows?
Posted at 3:32 p.m. on February 25, 2009
3 David Mackintosh says...
'bloged (or wiki'd, which might be more accurate) here: http://wiki.xdroop.com/space/Linux+Desktop+Meme+2009
Posted at 3:45 p.m. on February 25, 2009
4 Dirkgen2ly says...
I don't do memes.
Posted at 9:06 p.m. on February 25, 2009
5 Raja says...
A Growl like feature for linux. Ubuntu seems to be experimenting with desktop notifications, hopefully that will be ported over to other distros once its stable.
Posted at 1:08 a.m. on March 2, 2009
6 Michael Foord says...
So people who use office suites (spreadsheets and wordprocessors) are "stuck in the Windows mindset". Aren't they often the people who actually get things done? Seems like a very odd attitude.
Posted at 8:45 a.m. on March 3, 2009
7 Paul Boddie says...
Michael writes, "Aren't they often the people who actually get things done?"
For some people Excel is the first thing they'll reach for when they have data to inspect. Sadly, Excel (and OOo) are quite good at ruining data by being clever. Myself, I'd rather import datasets into a real database instead of pressing Page Up and Page Down a lot and thinking, "I'm really doing stuff here!"
Data visualisation is the one thing people like about spreadsheets that I can understand, however.
Posted at 12:38 a.m. on March 8, 2009
8 jordanwb says...
I'd like to see a linux version of Microsoft's Streets & Trips and Intuit's Quickbooks. If those two programs had a linux counterpart, Windows would cease to exist in this house.
Posted at 7:09 p.m. on October 7, 2009