Even though I am a strong advocate of learning as much as you can about using the command line, I admit I like my GUI a lot (and Compiz of course ). The CLI can be really useful for repairing your system or just doing some task that takes far more clicks in the graphical interface. For instance, in Debian it is much easier to open the console and write apt-get install abiword than to wait for Synaptic to load, search for Abiword, click the check-box, confirm the install and close the front end.

Sometimes you will find yourself in a situation when you don’t want the app to stop working when X is restarted or broken. Sometimes you just want a very light application, and nothing is faster than a text interface. For example, when I install the new nvidia drivers on Debian it sometimes breaks my system - but I want to listen to a podcast while doing the repair work. If I used Banshee, the thing would stop playing when I restarted X. By opening a virtual terminal, by pressing say Ctrl+Alt+F4, I fire up sox and play the mp3 in there. Works great and X does not interfere with the playback!

So what can new users do with the command-line while enjoying the GUI? There is a multitude of applications that do the same jobs as their graphical equivalents, but are not dependent on X. Using them is just a matter of learning a few simple commands. You’ll be up and running in no time.

Also, check out CLI-apps.org where you can find lots more!

1) rtorrent is a powerful CLI torrent client. While the interface itself is very “empty”, it can do most of the things other full-featured torrent clients do. Find the torrent file by pressing Return (or Enter) and navigating to your torretn file. rtorrent.rc configuration file, you can normally find an example in /usr/share/doc/rtorrent/examples/rtorrent.rc

Even though the program will warn you there is no such file on first start, you may use this exampel configuration file to setup rtorrent for maximum speed, IP masking etc.
You can find out more about configuring it and a few mroe tips and screens here. An alternative to rtorrent is a similar program called (Enhanced) ctorrent.

2) w3m is a great little web browser for the console. It features tables, tabs, frames, SSL connections, color and even inline images on suitable terminals.  When you are not in X, w3m becomes a great way of searching Google and forums when you are troubleshooting. The navigation is very easy when you get used to it and w3m renders pages surprisingly well, even Gmail. Emacs uses w3m to display pages in the text editor itself.

Note: w3m’s homepage hasn’t been updated, so I’m not linking it. Just Google w3m to find otu more about it. Also, every distribution should have w3m either installed or in the primary repos.

3) bashpodder As a podcast listener, I must not forget to add bashpodder to my list. It is an extremely simple and robust command-line podcatching client written by Linc from the Linux Link Tech Show podcast. While the setup requires you to do some manual work, the program itself actually uses wget behind the scenes and is the perfect client for older computers or people who just like it simple - you only need wget, sed and bash.

There are GUIs available for bashpodder, too (like the depicted KPodder).

4) finch is probably already on your computer, if you installed Pidgin. This surprisingly advanced CLI multi-protocol instant messaging client enables you to use most of the features you get in Pidgin, without the need of a graphical interface. The UI is pretty simple, but at the same time easy to understand. Just run ‘finch’ in the shell and try it out, if you already have Pidgin on your machine.

5) Mutt and 6) Alpine are email clients for the command-line. They are the ‘mammoths’ of email, as they have existed for almost about ten years now. Bot have their advantages and disadvantages (for instance, Newsgroups support is much better in Alpine). Personally I would recommend using Gmail in w3m if you already want to have email in the CLI, though many people use text-based email clients, especially Alpine, which is a descendant of Pine.

Read more about these two mail clients here, where the author is much more knowledgeable about them than me. Even though it is a ghastly translation of a German article, I believe you won’t have any trouble understanding it.

Do you still use any CLI apps? What do you think about CLI applications? Tell us in the comments.

Even before I write this post, I know I’m going to get some real nasty comments. Bring it on, tough guys.

The freedom which FOSS gives us, enables everyone with a specific goal in their mind to create their own Linux distro. Most of the time, the goals/philosophy are cool and interesting, but it often happens that the “product” of the project, the one that should take you to the creator’s goal, turns out to be less than nothing. And we have quite a few examples of this in the Linux world. Let’s take a look at our Hall of Fail.

3.) gOS

I’m starting with gOS on the bottom, because I think it wasn’t half bad in the beginning. Most of the coverage came due to the low price of the gPC, the supposedly “tight” integration with web services (if you can call a basic installation of Google Gears and shortcuts to websites “tight”), badly copying OS X (along with the stupid dock).I checked out the last version of gOS, and again it s a meaningless pile of installed packages already available for every other major Linux distro out there. It’s slow, the boot-up screen is ugly, the wbar dock is too basic (the version with AWN is too demanding for low-end PCs, their main target), the window buttons are too small and indistinguishable… and I still don’t know why all the Web 2.0 guys are so excited about a few Google Gadgets and some Facebook and other social network icons which simply open a browser window ( so instead of clicking Firefox and Facebook, you click Facebook and get a retarded browser window. I don’t see any Gears there).

I was first excited about gOS. It promised to offer a real ‘cloud’ operating system, but what they have now is a weird greenbuntu which still needs OpenOffice to do some real work. Now I think their main goal is just to copy the Mac as well as possible.

gOS devs: take another look at your goals and separate the bling from the functionality!

2.) ZeBuntu / ZevenOS

I reviewed this distro a while ago and I though it’s cool that someone is aiming to create a distro in the spirit of BeOS. Looks like the developers didn’t hear the last part. It said ‘philosophy’ not ‘theme’. When I booted into zevenOS I got a very ugly net-book interface (why? It didn’t say that it was for net-books), although they have IceWM. The desktop background is very bad, so is the choice of software. Yeah, the version I tried was a late beta, but betas are finished products which need to remove bugs, not stuff that pops up German menus when you choose the English language. Anyways, now I know why Mark Shuttleworth doesn’t want the name Ubuntu to be associated with low-quality products.

ZeBuntu devs: Your goal is awesome, but you will have to work very, very hard!

1.) Linux XP

“As of September 24th 2008, their web site does not have a way to obtain a serial number to register the OS, and they do not respond to emails sent to them. It is not known if the distribution is dead, or Linux XP is only being registered in Russia.”

I’m still wondering whether this distro is violating the GPL. For Pete’s sake they have a 30-day TRIAL. Linux XP is a Fedora re-spin with a Vista skin, Wine and some other front-ends. It is being sold, you can also obtain a serial number.

Check out this ‘feature list’ from the site. Are they trying to sell Fedora here?!

• The most user-friendly interface ever made for Linux
• Simple and clear installation and Windows-style setup tools
• Full set of applications for work in the Internet.
• Support of Microsoft Office document formats (WORD, EXCEL and others)
• Useful tools for working with Windows networks and VPN
• Full control of your computer, data and applications
• Stable, dependable and without any reinstallation
• Absolutely virus-free environment
• Free updates through a simple but useful interface (no RPM knowledge is required)

Linux XP devs: seriously, wtfiddlesticks

Do you know any distros whose developers sadly didn’t fulfill the promised goals? Share your thoughts in the comments.

You don’t have a lot of time. On the operating system market, there are lots of great products, like Linux. With Linux, you can easily customize the look and feel of your system, tweak every aspect of the desktop to your specific needs. What many people forget to tell you is that this can take hours of work.

So how will you get your favorite daily comics to show up on your grandmother’s old ThinkPad?

If you have a passable Internet connection, there are ways of keeping everything on a server, instead of on your computer. Besides this, there is a growing range of web services, apps and sites available, which allow you to manage your daily lightweight computing and entertainment. Data security is an issue, although if you’re really worried about your documents, you can easily host some web apps on your own.

Web Operating Systems

Why not? Your tasks are performed mainly by the server your Web OS is on. In most cases you get a full desktop which you can tweak to your hearts desire, a basic office suite, and other everyday apps, like mail readers, FTP clients and other useful software. But the best part is, your fully customized desktop is available anywhere, anytime, in any (mainstream) browser, at its web address. I’ll name a few of my personal favorites: EyeOS (it got a Yahoo! tech award just recently, congrats!), Cloudo (still in alpha) and G.ho.st (3 gigs of space).

Of course, as always, Mashable compiled a mammoth list of +46. This guy scares me with his lists.

Mashups or customized jumping-off pages

More famous bloggers put these sites into the same category as Web operating systems, but I disagree, you will se why. Netvibes is one of the best data personalized data sites out there. There’s also iGoogle and Pageflakes. I use Netvibes, though (least kludgy). With an account at sites like these you can create a mashup of all the data you need to start and organize your day. Be it a simple Gmail checker, RSS feed, or a full-fledged to-do list, calendar, calculator, the possibilities are limitless. The community also creates its own widgets, and there are already thousands in the directory to choose from. So, while you don’t get a desktop, you can, theoretically, get a similar functionality.

Online apps

Zoho Office, Google Docs, Buzzword, Conceptshare, ThinkFree Office: all attempt to replace the software you are using now on your desktop. While they may not have all the features you notice in your full Microsoft Office 13, most people don’t even need them and a simple app like Google Docs can satisfy your word-processing hunger. At least the gOS team thinks so…

So there you have it. Even though there are other ways to synchronize your desktop software, you will always have a big advantage if you manage to keep them on the Internet and in your browser window.

And now a question for the readers:

Do you use any of these services? Why?

I just found about about a new start-up on the social media scene (in beta) , called Hurox.

Normally, what should follow is a description of this web 2.0 ’service’ website, but I’m still deciding what to say. Roughly said, Hurox wants to be everything.

The sheer wealth of information and apps, which Hurox provides, is a bit overwhelming for the newbie user, and that’s why I think it won’t be as appealing to such Internet users. Instant messaging, listening to music, selling art, they even managed to integrate a friggin’ online desktop environment!

Upon signing up, Hurox asks you a few questions to learn about your interests. This enables you to customize Hurox to some degree (I still see a lot of ‘coming soon’ labels on the site).

I’m still getting used to the interface (waaay to much information), I’ll probably post an update later and we’ll see if Hurox will avoid the dreaded Dead-pool.

And no matter what others are saying about it, I think the guys at Hurox made a brave step towards creating the ultimate entrance to the Internet. Props for that.

P.S. I don’t know why, but I find the site to be extremely amusing, reminds me of the “999,999 games in 1!” cartridges for the Sega Mega Drive

Let the ‘wow’ start! Buzzword is really just a word processor, much like Google Docs or some other counterpart. What separates Buzzword from the rest, you ask me?

Heh… almost everything.

You see, I use Google Docs for word processing (sometimes Zoho) only because most of the people I work with use it - it’s become a kind of a standard. Now Buzzword is not you everyday ajax app, it is built on top of Flash, which means teh interface looks much better than your standard web writing application. Now that Preview 7 is available, you can really enjoy the full power of Flash 9 : as Emily Chang wrote, Buzzword is not WYSIWYG, it is WYSIWYP.

And now for my favourite feature, the collaboration support: simply by selecting ‘Share’: now all your friends who have a Buzzword account work with the same version of the document. Neato! More points for web productivity there.

Of course, Buzzword still has a few flaws which I would like to point out: I’m not a big fan of the black interface, black interfaces are not for serious apps in my opinion, let the football manager games keep it. Also, don’t't forget, it’s still Flash. That means you’ll see the loading screen a few times.

That’s all I noticed, in comparison to others, it’s a great choice, especially for Opera users, because it ’s a Flash based app, so it’s not supposed to have any compatibility issues. You can sign-up and try Buzzword by signing up here.

In short, the guys at Virtual Ubiquity (purchased by Adobe somewhere in the beginning of winter 2007) have done a great job. Congrats!

Has anyone else tried Buzzword? How do you feel about it in comparison to other online word processing apps?