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.

Oh, and tell us about your favorite plugins in the comments!

Zemanta

Zemanta is very useful for bloggers, because when you write a post, Zemanta browses the Internet for related pictures and links you can add to your post. We all know that 50% of a blog post is searching for pictures and links to link the words you want, but Zemanta makes it really easy for you. It also features other cools stuff, such as re-posting content you find on the Net. It integrates especially well with Wordpress. Just open an editing tab with Zemanta on, and see what happens

DownThemAll!
An awesome Download Manager. Speeds up the downloads a bit and enables you to resume them, also has a cool “DTaOneClick” feature, that makes it easy to download files to desired directories with just one click. It also doesn’t bug you like the default Download Manager.

BugMeNot Firefox plugin

Every wanted to just check out some text or a part of content in a site that you’re not registered on, but requires you to be? Save time with the Bugmenot extension.

“BugMeNot will log in for you automatically using user-submitted passwords. Features: multiple login attempts, failure reporting, and auto-submittal.”

Yeah, it simply synchronizes bookmarks. BUT! Now it can also store passwords and share them between Firefox setups. You unlock them using your PIN. It’s not that safe, but I believe many people will find it very useful. Of course, there’s always Weave if you need more functions.

RoboForm

Another time saver, especially if you have to sign up for different thins very often:

“If you use RoboForm for web form filling, site logins, and/or password management, be sure to use the extension for Firefox.”

Runners-up:

• FireFTP
• ScribeFire
• AdBlock Plus

In the recent years, podcasting has been gaining momentum and today we have a multitude of podcasts for almost every topic, including my favorite (and yours, I hope), GNU/Linux. Instead of listening to the same song over and over, why not educate yourself about the latest in open source technology?

If you like what you’re reading, go on - cause here’s a  list of my favorite podcasts, along with a short description. Some of them are recorded by normal Linux users, and others have some hard-core Linux hackers on board - what all these shows have in common though, is that they’re both fun and interesting.

The Bad Apples Linux Cast

Klaatu, the show-host of TBA, has been a Mac user for a long time. While this may not be a show for most newbie users, Klaatu’s Bad Apples provides a wealth of information about Linux on, and compared to the Macintosh OS X, with some focus on Slackware and Fedora. The new season started just a while ago.

What makes it special: Klaatu does the show alone, but somehow still manages to keep it dynamic and interesting. Also, the podcast features some cool sci-fi music which I enjoy listening to.

Linux Outlaws

Dan Lynch and Fabian Aleksandar Scherschel are two Linux users who produce an interesting and funny Linux show each week. That’s why Linux Outlaws is mostly focused on new distros releases, bashing Microsoft and miscellaneous news, so check it out if you want to hear some cool comments and rants (while laughing until you piss your pants (check the rhyme)).

What makes it special: Just like the Linux Action Show (more on that later in the post), the audio quality is phenomenal (I believe both hosts have some experience in audio production). Dan and Fab’s jokes never get old, the atmosphere is laid-back, and it’s always interesting to hear a podcast made by an international crew.

Linux Action Show

“HEEEEEEEEY, BRIAN! “

The LAS is a fast-paced, informative and engaging (gosh, I hope I used that adjective right) podcast done by Chris and Brian of Jupiter Broadcasting (fame). The release “cycle” of each season is bi-weekly. The hosts always produce a hi-quality show with lots of interesting topics, news and reviews (the reviews are very well done). It is a podcast for both new users and experienced Linux nerds alike.

What makes it special: Don’t be surprised if you first think the show is recorded after smoking ridiculous amounts of crack. Just a little warning.

The Linux Link Tech Show, or TLLTS

TLLTS is recorded live by a group of experienced Linux users, based in the USA. It is the oldest Linux podcast I know of. Normally, the shows are very long, and the ‘frame’ is pretty lose, but Pat, Dann, Allan and Linc do a very entertaining show each week. The most interesting shows are probably the interviews: the TLLTS crew has interviewed a whole lot of famous (and infamous) people of the open-source world.

What makes it special: The show is, quite surprisingly very engaging, as it has an extremely ‘natural’ feeling to it -  the show is recorded live, there are always glitches or dead air, but that’s what makes it fun, really.  TLLTS’ Dann keeps a list of other Linux podcasts.

Distrowatch Weekly Podcast

The Distrowatch Weekly is basically an ‘audio-book’ version of the Distrowatch Weekly Newsletter. DW Weekly is always well written, so it’s also pretty good in audio form.

“DistroWatch.com, the popular Linux distribution news and information site, publishes a weekly news and commentary section. Russ Wenner reads Ladislav Bodnar’s content, and adds a little of his own. “

What makes it special: Distrowatch.com’s featured stories are something no-one should miss, especially if you want to hear cool interviews or find out something new about GNU/Linux’ history or architecture. So why not listen to it?

That’s about it. Do you have any GNU/Linux podcasts you’d like to share with us? Please comment!

On a side note, I also do a GNU/Linux podcast (in English) with a friend from Lithuania.

Disclaimer: I never met anyone from either company, so here are only my views on the matter. I hear the former CEO of Linspire said it’s going to ruin the company, because the shares will become worthless. While I’m no expert on shares etc. and since I’ve never been a CEO, the guy’s probably right about this. But for us users, what we’re going to see, is a new direction for the not-so-popular Click ‘n’ Run and maybe even a new, merged distribution?

Click ‘n’ Run. Currently, what Linspire has done with Click ‘n’ Run, isn’t really impressive. I’ve got my APT, and so do Ubuntu users and all the other distros already have their package management systems. No distro is going to adopt Click ‘n’ Run, the organization around the distro wants to be able to control all aspects of it, right? That means Linspire had to do all the work for a something I’ve never seen anyone use. Since Click ‘n’ run is perhaps one of the most interesting assets of Linspire,maybe the guys at Xandros have an idea about what they’re going to d with it. hey must have a lot of experience, after all they are one of the oldest Linux distro-based businesses.

Distro. Face it, at the moment we’re witnessing the rise of Ubuntu, followed by cool distros such as Fedora, Debian, SuSe Linux, Mandriva and others. The last time Iv’e seen anyone use Linspire is when it was still called Lindows and Xandros got  help from the huge sales of the Eee PC. The Xandros OS is a horrible show of what Linux could do, it actually makes peopel turn away and choose the nicer-looking XP, even though everyone knows Linux could look and perform much better. Putting this aside, I think that a merged distro would be in order to challenge the other major distributions and finally secure a good place for Xandros + Linspire in the top 5. Is it doable? I don’t know. But if they don’t do something real fast, the others are going to run them over and everybody will forget Xandros or Linspire ever existed…

We need something USEFUL and INNOVATIVE! TRY HARDER!

(and good luck)

Well I guess I should join the Firefox 3 review bandwagon. I’ve been using Firefox 3 since beta 5, which came bundled with the new version of Ubuntu. I also upgraded my browsers on both my PC and MacBook, so I got an impression of the browser’s functions, bugs and most importantly speed on all of the three major platforms, except Vista of course, but Vista sucks, so why bother. Get your read on, I’ll be starting with:

Windows XP SP3

I’ve been using Firefox on XP for a long, long time and there were a lot of plugins which ceased to function. The most important ones worked, though. So I uninstalled all of the old ones and gave some alternatives a shot. The upgrade went pretty smoothly, although the plugin compatibility check took a considerable amount of time. What you can really notice is the increase in speed. As a matter of fact, it runs almost as quickly as on Linux. I don’t like the theme they used for XP, though it’s interesting to see that the larger Back button isn’t stupid design at all, on the contrary, it makes work faster.

Ubuntu Linux 8.04

Loads up in three seconds, a real rocket! Firefox 3 integrates with your GTK+ theme, so you’ve got some cool visual consistency going on which is actually an exception in Linux. A problem many reviewers forget to tell you about is that even though this is great for GNOME or XFCE, KDE 4 ain’t no beauty with FF3. It just uses the ugly default GTK theme if you don’t do any tweaking. Uuuuugly… If you want to use Firefox with KDE 4, I recommend you use this theme.
Firefox is a great browser for Linux and is probably the most widely used one, but note that even though the final version of FF 3.0 is far better than the beta, it crashes more and has more bugs than the other major browser, Opera 9.5 for Linux. I personally experience the worst crashes when trying to print stuff.

Mac OS X

It’s probably got something to do with my config: Firefox 3 needs about 8-10 seconds to load in Mac OS X. I like the way they changed the theme for the Mac, now it looks like a part of the OS, so thumbs up for that. Somehow, I can’t get ScribeFire to work with Firefox on the Mac - it’s a big problem for me, so currently I’m staying with Flock on the Mac, because FF 3.0 crashes repeatedly when I’m doing complex stuff, like running a lot of tabs with Java and Flash or have more than 10 tabs open at the same time.

Are you using Firefox 3? How do you feel about it?