Alternatives to Everything You Can Think of (And Probably More) Seth Kenlon
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Alternatives Alternatives to Everything you Can Think of (and Probably More) Seth Kenlon unny thing about computers: there lation, but many of the features OS X are two popular operating systems introduces with each new iteration is Fthat insist on people doing things often uncannily similar to various their way, and yet no one uses a computer GNOME 3 features). in quite the same way as anyone else. For- J KDE 4 – the Plasma Desktop is de- tunately, Linux is open source, so everyone signed for customization and power. who has a unique way of performing some No two Plasma Desktops are the common task has the ability to write an app same; if you spend a little time design- which we, in turn, can all use if we like their ing how you want your environment to method better! In fact, if Linux is criticized react, you’ll find KDE unequaled in ef- for anything, it’s usually for having too many ficiency and comfort. choices; for most Linux users, this is merely J Xfce – a back-to-the-basics desktop an embarrassment of riches. that features all of the usual functions of a computer desktop but avoids any- Change Your Desktop thing over-complex, fancy effects. Peo- Environment ple like Xfce because it stays out of Starting at possibly the most obvious set of al- their way. ternatives, there are a number of dif- ferent graphical user interfaces that you can use to interact with your com- puter. This often surprises new Linux users, because we have been trained to think of the what we see as the “operating system” when actually the operating system is code running in the background that we rarely interact with directly. What we see is just the environment we choose to use, and on Linux that’s amazingly flexible. To try out different desktops, you can install them the same as any other software application, via your distribution’s package manager. Here are some of the most popu- lar: J GNOME 3 – a user-friendly, minimalist desktop with the goal of making interactions consistent and simple. You might think of GNOME 3 as the cutting edge of Mac OS X’s Finder (there is actually no re- Figure 1. Most package managers make it easy to try new desktops www.linuxidentity.com/us/ 21 Alternatives files around, placing files into .zip archives, making backups, mov- ing photos from a phone, and all of these kinds of tasks are done in what can be generically called a “file manager” application. On Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and Fedora, the default file manager is called Nautilus. On openSUSE and Mageia, it’s Dolphin. On Windows, you’re stuck with what’s called “Windows Explorer”, or simply “My Computer”. On Mac it’s the much-reviled “Finder”. Since you’re using Linux now, you can use any file manager you want, but one of the most respected of them all is the Xfce Desktop’s Thunar. Thu- Figure 2. The Old is New again when you combine classic UNIX desktops nar is fast and lightweight with all the with modern apps usual features of a file manager such J Unity – Ubuntu’s own spin of top with no windows, one small as icon views, list views, a side panel GNOME 3 technology. Usually panel, and no menus. If that for bookmarks, and so on. difficult to find outside of appeals to you, explore Flux! Probably its most popular fea- Ubuntu. J WindowMaker – if you were ture is its ability to rename files in J Cinnamon – Linux Mint’s using UNIX back in the early bulk. If you select multiple files and theme for GNOME 3; difficult ‘90s, then you’ll love Window- right-click on one, you can choose to find outside of Mint. Maker, a powerful desktop in- the Rename option and you’ll be J MATE – Linux Mint’s develop- spired by the NeXT interface. presented with the bulk renamer. ment of an older GNOME This allows you to replace common desktop that some people There are many more, like OpenBox, strings and patterns, like those an- seem to like. Difficult to find Afterstep, FVWM, IceWM, Awesome, noying DSC00059.JPG filenames outside of Mint. Emacs (actually not a desktop, but you get from your digital camera, J Fluxbox – a radically different close enough), and Rat Poison. with more meaningful names like take on the desktop paradigm. Some are charmingly “old school” summerVacation_59.JPG. Like KDE, it emphasizes quick while others radically change the and easy customization, but way you think of the computing pro- Network Managers with drastic minimalism. Imag- cess. Try them all! On Windows, you may have used the ines turning on your computer To log into a different desktop, just over-complex network settings control and seeing a nearly blank desk- install from your package manager, panel to configure and join networks. log out of your On Mac, you may have used the current session. overly-simple Airport control panel to Use the menu at join wireless networks or the Network your login screen Control Panel to configure wired con- to choose what nections. On Linux, you’ll be happy to desktop you’d find that you not only have a choice of like to use, and applications you can use for network log back in. settings, but that all of them are well- designed and strike a perfect balance Manage features with ease-of-use. Your Files The default network manager for One of the many distributions is called, quite most common simply, Network Manager but there tasks we do on is another popular tool for the same a computer is job called Wicd (wireless connection managing files daemon) which offers a variety of (or avoiding options including, perhaps most sig- managing files, nificantly, a command-line interface in some cases). in addition to its GUI. Creating direc- To install Wicd, use your distribu- Figure 3. Easily rename multiple files with Thunar tories, moving tion’s package manager, and then 22 Linux Identity Pack Alternatives launch it from your Applications menu. When you first run Wicd, you’ll be asked to authenticate as an ad- ministrative user since Wicd access- es your hardware directly. Wicd will launch and sit in the system tray like any other network manager, but its real power is in its configuration op- tions. From Wicd, you can easily set which network you want to autojoin, what protocol to use, whether that network requires a static or dynamic IP address, what back-end you’d like to use in order to sign onto the net- work, and much more. If you learning to use your com- Figure 4. Network management from the command line puter without a graphical interface, then you might find wicd-curses A few distributions bundle the ever actually altering the source particularly useful. The use cases popular F-Spot for photo organi- file! When you or the client decide for this are plentiful; say you need zation. It’s a good application if which version is best, the photo to configure a computer that has no you’re looking for a reliable, sim- with its filters can be exported as a screen, or say you need to ssh into ple photo manager with all the new photograph. your home computer and change its usual features like red-eye correc- Few distributions ship with Dark- network connection, or perhaps you tion, cropping, contrast control, table, so more than likely you’ll need just are using a minimalistic desktop and so on. It integrates nicely with to install it via your package manag- and would prefer to run your system the GNOME 3 desktop, since it is, er. Once installed, launch it. tools from a terminal. Whatever the after all, the GNOME photo man- The first screen in Darktable is case, you can run wicd-curses and ager. the Lighttable view; this is where get a simple, easy-to-use terminal- Some photographers need you can look at a directory or set of based interface that mimics the GUI something a little more robust, photographs for a broad overview. version in form and function. however, and so there is a profes- Photographers use this to eliminate The top half of the screen dis- sional-grade darkroom application the obviously inferior shots. Since plays the available networks, both called Darktable. This is a non- it’s digital, you can also add custom wireless and the wired. At the bot- destructive, filter-based applica- tags so that you can quickly filter tom of the screen is a list of avail- tion into which you can import and according to your own arbitrary tag able actions; pressing the right ar- organize your pictures according system. row over any network name will take to subject, session, client, or any To create a new tag, click the you into a configuration screen so other criteria that makes sense for Tagging palette. Create a new tag by you can define how you want to con- your work, and apply any number typing into the tag bar and clicking nect to that network, and pressing of color, light, and corrective soft- New. Attach the tag by selecting a the [C] key will connect to that net- ware filters. In this way, you can photograph (or a group of photos), work. Visit the overall preferences have several different versions clicking the tag in the Tagging pal- with the [P] key, and use [Q] to quit. of the same photograph without ette, and clicking the Attach button.