The Linux Setup - Meg Ford, GNOME Developer
Meg’s setup reminds me a lot of Dave Neary’s: simple and taking advantage of stock tools, rather than reinventing the desktop experience. Of course, given Meg’s GNOME work, she actually gets to reinvent the desktop experience professionally, so it’s probably a less compelling need for her when she’s not developing. Also, Meg mentions Documents in her interview. I didn’t realize it was the default GNOME document manager, which I don’t usually use, but which seems to be a great dashboard which integrates local documents with cloud-hosted ones. It’s something I might explore down the line. It’s kind of funny how, like many Linux users, I have all of this interesting software installed and at my fingertips, yet I haven’t fully explored what’s available to me. It’s a nice problem to have.
You can find more of The Linux Setup here.
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Who are you, and what do you do?
I am a member of the GNOME foundation and an MS in Computer Science student. I contribute to GNOME’s Documents application, co-organize monthly Linux user group meetups and GNOME hackfests in Chicago, and help out with the Chicago Python Workshop. I’m working as a web developer while I complete my degree.
What distribution do you run on your main desktop/laptop?
I’m running Fedora 18. I use the GNOME desktop environment.
What software do you depend upon with this distribution?
I run the current version of Documents from git master for managing and editing my Google and local docs and for developing and testing the software itself.
I use Pidgin for communicating on IRC, Tomboy for note taking, and GIMP and Inkscape for svg and picture editing.
I usually use Firefox (with HTTPS Everywhere, Ghostery, AdBlock, and GNOME 3 extensions) for browsing the web, and Google Chrome when I need smooth integration with Google services.
When I program for GNOME I use gedit and the terminal. For web development I use Bluefish. In school my primary language is Java, so I use Eclipse and JGrasp. I just started learning C this semester, and I’m going to try using Emacs. There’s a steep learning curve with Emacs, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to invest the time to learn it.
What kind of hardware do you run it on?
I have a Thinkpad T61.
What is your ideal Linux setup?
I think I work on GNOME in order to help create the “ideal” Linux. It’s really exciting to me to try out new features as they are built, and contribute to the vision and development happening in our community.
Will you share a screenshot of your desktop?
Interview conducted January 25, 2013
The Linux Setup is a feature where I interview people about their Linux setups. The concept is borrowed, if not outright stolen, from this site. If you’d like to participate, drop me a line.
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The Linux Setup - Stephen O’Grady, RedMonk
RedMonk reports and blog posts are always a treat in that they tend to focus on coders rather than corporations. It’s no surprise their work seems to gravitate around open source projects. And it’s no surprise that RedMonk’s Stephen O’Grady uses a lot of open source projects in his day-to-day work. All of that is great, but O’Grady’s ideal Linux setup is what really caught my attention. Like him, I wish there were more of a way to access certain parts of my desktop remotely, but also easily. As O’Grady points out, a lot of desktop functions are cloud-syncable, not everything.
You can find more of The Linux Setup here.
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Who are you, and what do you do?
I’m Stephen O’Grady, and I’m the co-founder of RedMonk, a developer-centric industry analyst shop. We believe that developers are increasingly setting technology agendas, and our job is to understand what they use and why.
What distribution do you run on your main desktop/laptop?
When I initially switched to Linux from Windows, I was a Gentoo user, and I still recommend that distribution for anyone looking to learn more about how Linux actually works and is built. These days, however, I’m an Ubuntu user (12.04), simply because it mostly just works. I’m not in love with Unity, but then I’m not really a fan of any of the desktop user interfaces these days, OS X included.
What software do you depend upon with this distribution?
Because I use a variety of platforms (Android, Linux, OS X, and occasionally Windows), many of the tools I use day to day are SaaS based — we’re a Google Apps shop, for example. But I use a few native clients as well. Most of my work consists of some combination of research, analysis or writing. For research, I generally rely on Chrome. The performance is excellent, and some of the features like tab sync are excellent, particularly if you’re an Android user, as I am. As far as writing goes, things I’m collaborating on with colleagues are created as Google Docs, but all of my own research is composed in Emacs, leveraging the MarkDown plugin. My analysis is generally done in R, and lately I’ve left the command line for the Linux builds of RStudio, a rather nice environment for R research.
Other native tools I use regularly include Dropbox for file sync — it just works, on any platform — and VirtualBox. VirtualBox maintains all of my virtual images of Linux, Solaris and Windows variants. One relatively recent application change was my abandonment of native music clients like Banshee or Rhythmbox. Tired of maintaining separate playlists on separate machines, today I generally just stream my music from Google Music and maintain playlists there.
What kind of hardware do you run it on?
When I’m on the road, I use a MacBook Air 11” running regular old OS X and the new Nexus 7 tablet. But most of my actual work is done in the office, where I’m lucky enough to work off of a Dell T7500 workstation that they loaned to me for testing purposes. It’s an absolute beast. Connected to it are 30” and 24” monitors (Dell) and a couple of 1.5 TB hard drives for larger datasets and backups. I’m particularly fond of my keyboard, which attempts to replicate the feel of a Thinkpad keyboard for desktop machines, complete with trackball. Interestingly, Ubuntu supports it just fine, but Windows does not.
What is your ideal Linux setup?
We’re pretty close to my ideal setup these days from a compatibility perspective; it’s very rare these days that I use hardware that isn’t supported by Ubuntu. Even more obscure hardware, like screencams, generally just work when plugged in. But I wish that Linux distributions would embrace online services more fully, a la the Google Chrome desktops. Given how heavily users rely on services like Dropbox, Evernote, Facebook, Google Apps, Twitter and so on, it seems strange that they’re not more fully integrated into the desktop experience; particularly because Apple and Microsoft would likely not replicate those abilities for strategic reasons.
In a perfect world, I’d also have more integration with the cloud. It’d be nice, for example, to have my R workspace accessible from any given machine, in the event that I need to work away from my workstation. Not full VDI, as I’m not comfortable with those tradeoffs, but some portability of workloads. I feel confident this will be arriving soon, however, at least in the use cases I care about. It already has for music, as noted above.
Will you share a screenshot of your desktop?
Sure.
Interview conducted July 29, 2012
The Linux Setup is a feature where I interview people about their Linux setups. The concept is borrowed, if not outright stolen, from this site. If you’d like to participate, drop me a line.
You can follow us on Google+ here and subscribe to our feed here.
The Linux Setup - Tom Chandler, Writer
Tom’s setup is interesting because he’s not a tech guy, although he obviously has some interest in technology. But mostly, he’s just a person trying to use computers to do his job. His setup reflects that. He’s got things he needs to do and he chooses software to help him best get everything done. It’s another great example of how Linux isn’t a novelty so much as it’s a viable alternative for “normal” (ie, non-tech obsessed) people who don’t enjoy using Windows or OS X.
You can find more of The Linux Setup here.
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Who are you, and what do you do?
For the last 26+ years I’ve fed and clothed myself primarily as a writer (mostly writing marketing/advertising copy). Along the way I built a Top 10 Writer/Copywriter’s blog and a top fly fishing blog.
I wrote my first handful of assignments on an electric typewriter (I simply wasn’t man enough for a manual), bought a 128K Mac in 1985, then moved to Windows in the 90s when my Macs refused to stop crashing.
I never really liked Windows, but my corporate clients used it and Microsoft was very good at keeping competing word processors away from MS Word’s files. Eventually I ran headlong into Windows Vista and realized I already had one mother and didn’t want another, so I decided to try Linux, which was supposed to have gotten easy.
Turns out it was easy. And fast. And uncluttered. I installed it on an old laptop, and within days it was on all my machines. That was four years ago, and I haven’t looked back. Ubuntu is a great platform for writers who are willing to tear free of MS Word.
What distribution do you run on your main desktop/laptop?
I’m an Ubuntu guy, though the advent of Unity has pushed me to try the other Ubuntu flavors like Xubuntu and Lubuntu (both of which are running on my netbook and laptop). Xfce might just become my standard desktop; I launch everything using Synapse anyway, and Unity’s universal menus and lack of document identification don’t work for me.
What software do you depend upon with this distribution?
Because 95% of my writing is headed for online pastures (where embedded codes only get in the way), I spend most of my writing time in programmer’s text editors like Sublime Text, Komodo Edit and Emacs.
I used Emacs for a couple months — long enough to learn the navigation key bindings (I use them on my other text editors). But getting it to perform all that magic was always just out of reach of a non-programmer. Komodo Edit and Sublime Text aren’t as powerful, but they’re far more accessible.
I often work in the Markdown text markup language (I’ll code in HTML for short posts), and use Pandoc to convert text documents to PDF, LibreOffice or MS Word formats.
Despite being a type fiend, I write in monospace fonts (Inconsolata and Droid mono). I was surprised to discover it’s easier to spot misspellings and spacing issues, but perhaps I shouldn’t have been. Programmers spend more hours in front of a monitor than even writers, and they use monospaced fonts and low-contrast color themes — both of which I’ve adopted.
When I need to write corporate video scripts — which require specific (and odd) formatting — I use Celtx. It’s an open source product that supports the double-column “documentary” script format (few other screenwriting apps do). It’s powerful but the interface is clunky, and I just noticed the much sleeker FadeIn Pro software now offers AV format. Hmmm.
Life, it seems, is a series of choices.
Other software includes Firefox (using the Firemacs extension), GIMP, Audacity (audio editor) and the OpenShot Linux video editor.
After a pretty rocky start, I’ve grown dependent on Ubuntu One, though I could ditch it for Dropbox if the urge to try another Linux distro overpowered me.
What kind of hardware do you run it on?
I own two desktops and a netbook. My main computer is an AMD Phenom six-core, 8GB desktop. I just added a 128GB SSD, so now it’s way, way faster than any writer needs it to be.
My 24” display is huge by Old Guy Standards, though today’s wide-format monitors don’t really do writers — who need vertical pixels — any favors.
I use an upstairs desktop (a slower, older version of the first desktop) and a System 76 Starling Netbook which I use on the road (it’s great, but its wireless issues have been a disappointment).
I’m trying a Toshiba Thrive android tablet (built-in HDMI & USB ports), and while it’s a fun toy, the technology feels immature, like I’m just getting a glimpse of what’s coming. I mostly read on it.
What is your ideal Linux setup?
I’m pretty happy. Ubuntu could be a little less fussy with media and I’m not sure we’re heading in the right direction on the desktop environment front, but my real want is an integrated writing platform; something that offers a powerful, configurable text editor (optimized for writers, not coders) that’s married to version control and a system that converts text files into whatever you need — manuscripts, screenplays, formatted PDF files, MS Word, etc.
It’s possible to build something like that today using Emacs, Git and LaTeX, but not by me. A lot of it is command line stuff, which would be a tough sell to writers.
Will you share a screenshot of your desktop?
Interview conducted June 21, 2012
The Linux Setup is a feature where I interview people about their Linux setups. The concept is borrowed, if not outright stolen, from this site. If you’d like to participate, drop me a line.
You can follow us on Google+ here and subscribe to our feed here.
The Linux Setup - Chris Forster, Academic
I was very excited when Chris Forster agreed to participate, because the academic perspective, especially the humanities perspective, isn’t always very visible within the Linux community. Chris does more than get academic work done, though. He does it with a fairly hardcore setup that might make some computer science faculty gulp in fear and wonder.
You can find more of The Linux Setup here.
Who are you, and what do you do?
I just defended my doctoral dissertation in the English Department at the University of Virginia on the literature of the early twentieth century and obscenity (if you’re thinking of Ulysses and Lady Chatterley’ Lover, you’re in the right ballpark).
Like most graduate students (particularly in the humanities), I earned money chiefly by teaching—often first-year composition. I’ll be staying at UVA for one more year as a postdoctoral teaching fellow, teaching courses on twentieth-century literature. (After that, I’m looking for work; so if you need a scholar of modernism let me know.)
What distribution do you run on your main desktop/laptop?
I spend too much time tinkering around with distributions. There are machines somewhere in my house running SliTaz, Slackware, and CrunchBang (which runs great on the eee, though I use that machine less frequently since buying a new laptop battery). Right now my primary desktop computer (the main, “family” computer) is running Ubuntu 11.04. I know I’m in a minority, but I quite like the Unity interface—or, I like it theory. In practice it is still a little buggy, but I’m trying to give it a fair chance.
On my laptop, I just started running Arch Linux (with XMonad as my window manager) a couple of weeks ago. It is definitely a learning experience, but I am really loving it. The rolling release schedule is attractive, package management is great, and I’m learning more about my system and how to best configure it.
I also have a home server which I use to store files and serve media. It runs Amahi on top of Fedora 12.
What software do you depend upon with this distribution?
Above all, I’ve come to rely on emacs. I regularly use flyspell and AuCTeX for writing, and yasnippet for editing html. I also use org-mode pretty extensively. Org-Mode is, I think, the killer app for emacs. I started gradually using it to organize notes; soon I was using tags and other things. I am now keeping all my notes for reading, writing, and teaching, as well as other to-do lists, in .org files. I like the idea that emacs is old, time-tested software. As Kieran Healy writes, emacs will “be there when the icecaps melt and the cities drown, when humanity destroys itself in fire and zombies, when the roaches finally achieve sentience, take over, and begin using computers themselves - at which point its various Ctrl-Meta key-chords will seem not merely satisfyingly ergonomic for the typical arthropod, but also direct evidence for the universe’s Intelligent Design by some six-legged, multi-jointed God.”
Org-mode is made even more useful by keeping everything sync’d with Dropbox. I know there are other syncing options (and emerging security concerns); but Dropbox is just so easy right now. It works great in Arch (where I don’t even have nautilus installed).
Most of my dissertation and most of the papers I wrote as a graduate student were written before my infatuation with plaintext, in OpenOffice (or, more recently, LibreOffice). I allow students to hand papers in electronically; most students send various Word formats as email attachments. Open/LibreOffice has been able to handle them all without any issues.
Academics, or anyone responsible for organizing a large number of bibliographic citations, should be using Zotero. Zotero keeps me using Firefox when I might otherwise have fully switched to Chrome. Given my emacs-orientation, I’ve also played with Conkeror which is nice.
I know many people treat conky as though it were just geeky eye-candy, but I find it invaluable. Particularly given my tendency to leave too many tabs open in Chrome, it is helpful to keep an eye on how much memory I’m using.
I tinker a bit with some programming: Python and the Natural Language Toolkit and Processing. (There is processing minor mode for emacs, but it hasn’t been working for me lately…).
For media I used to swear by Amarok (1.4); it managed podcasts beautifully, recognized my iPod without hassle, and was really just amazing. I’ve since switched from an iPod to a Sansa player which is not nearly so attractive, but automounts as a mass storage device with no fuss—so iPod support is less important. With the new Ubuntu I’m trying Banshee which is okay; but it feels too sluggish to really fall in love with it. On the laptop I’m using mpd with Sonata as the front end. So far so good (it does handle radio streams quite nicely). To be honest, the Amazon Cloud Player is good and seems stable enough that it may end up being my primary music player. I use bashpodder now for grabbing podcasts (or Chess Griffin’s—whose Linux podcasts are just wonderful—modification, mashpodder).
For photo management I’m trying Shotwell which is an improvement over F-Spot; but I have yet to find a photomanager which reall impresses me.
(And you folks know about Handbrake, right?)
What kind of hardware do you run it on?
The desktop is a pretty cheap (~$300) box I built: an AMD Athlon dual-core processor and 2GB RAM, running on an ASUS motherboard. It has an nVidia video card with the MCP61 Chipset (or so lspci informs me). With the nVidia proprietary drivers I can run a dual monitor setup without too much hassle—and dual monitors is something I’ve come to really appreciate (two LCDs picked up from a University equipment auction).
The laptop is a Dell Latitude D510 which I purchased used a few years ago. It is old enough that neither wireless nor video drivers give me any trouble.
The Amahi server is an old Compaq Presario (2.8 Ghz Pentium 4) running headless in my laundry room.
What is your ideal Linux setup?
I would love to have $500 to throw at a linux-based HTPC, running XMBC. That would be great fun.
I frequently have Mac laptop envy. I’ve never seen any non-Mac laptop which matches Mac laptops for sheer attractiveness. I would happily settle for an X series Lenovo ThinkPad, though.
I would also like an HD webcam and a really nice mic.
Emacs and AUCTeX would really hum if I had the really gorgeous fonts which come pre-installed on Macs these days too.
And, in an ideal setup, all this would be tied together via a home server with a little more storage and a little more power than mine has (and a faster connection than DSL). I’d also love a lot more knowledge, so that when I port forward connections from my router to my home server I don’t feel like I’m taking my life in my hands.
Will you share a screenshot of your desktop?
Here is the desktop, where I’m writing this very response:
And here are a couple of the XMonad laptop. Clean (that is Velasquez’s Las Meninas as wallpaper—from Wikimedia Commons):
Working with PDFs in Evince and writing in emacs:
htop, sonata, and alsamixer (which I’m using to control volume because I haven’t got media keys working… yet):
Interview conducted June 21, 2011
The Linux Setup is a feature where I interview people about their Linux setups. The concept is borrowed, if not outright stolen, from this site. If you’d like to participate, drop me a line.
