Finder Alternative for Linux

I sometimes meander on the web a bit and read Linuxy things that are mostly over my head, and when I read about qt vs. gtk and how qt was the future, I suddenly decided I hate, no, despise, gtk apps. I don't know what triggered this sudden insatiable need to minimize the gtk look from my life, but here it is. Maybe it has to do with using a couple of qt apps like LMMS and Hydrogen, which just look and feel more professional. I also had a brief misadventure burning a CD and couldn't bear to look at another half-assed GUI, so I installed a couple of command line tools to solve my problem. And I got to thinking, I should be going to the command line a lot more. There's something about it that's more fun. So I went down a list in my head of all the programs I could use in a terminal instead of a GUI when I came to file managers. I'd been using PCManFM and Thunar and was never totally satisfied with either, plus I was growing to hate that gtk three-pane look. So I thought, "I'll just do it all in a terminal and brush up on my rm -rf / commands" (joke--don't run this). But then I remembered another file manager, ROX-Filer, that I wanted to take another look at.

I used it once before, but I guess it was a little too eccentric to take an immediate liking to. Eccentric in that it wasn't like all the other Linux file managers, but on a second spin it reminds me of something from the past. If you ask, "The Mac OS Finder?" give yourself a prize! Look at the screenshot below and you'll see ROX-Filer values the same simplicity.



Ironically, I guess, it's a gtk app, but it has a very minimal look with no menu bars or double or triple panes and borders that look like they were made by grade school students. And there's one more thing you get with this minimalism--speed. ROX-Filer is fast. When opening the first time, it's fast. When opening multiple windows, it's fast. When loading hundreds of jpeg thumbs, it's fast. It leaves PCManFM and Thunar in the dust and brings back the feeling of the old Finder.

I've quickly grown accustomed to navigating in it. You can open new folders in the same window much like the OS X Finder, and you can also open folders in new windows with middle-click (Note that ROX-Filer is set to open folders/files with single-click by default, and if you change it to double-click, using middle-click to open folders in new windows doesn't appear to work. You instead have to right-click and choose New Window from the options.). Another useful item is the bookmark toolbar icon (the diagonal arrow button in the screenshot, your icons may differ). Here you can set bookmarks for all your commonly accessed folders, including /media/cdrom0 which is where your mounted CDs and DVDs are.

The only thing I didn't like was MIME types weren't automatically set, so to launch a file you have to set the run action manually for each file type the first time, though after that you don't have to worry about it. Maybe it's different if you're running a proper desktop environment and not pure Openbox.

All in all I'm liking it, and it'll probably save me one day from accidentally erasing my hard drive ;)

Debian Wheezy Goes Stable

I just noticed Debian Wheezy went stable a couple of days ago. I can't believe I missed all those wild and crazy release parties.

Sync Folders On Your LAN with BitTorrent Sync

There's a new syncing service and this one's a little different. Have you ever just wanted to sync your folders without involving the cloud? Here's your chance with BitTorrent Sync. As the name suggests, it uses BitTorrent technology to sync any folder across all your PCs and NAS devices on your home network. The only caveat is you need the client running on both computers, and the OS X version requires Snow Leopard, so Tiger and Leopard users are out of luck. So why is this appearing on a PowerPC blog? Because incredibly BitTorrent Labs compiled a PowerPC version for their Linux client. I've used it to sync folders on a MintPPC desktop and a Debian laptop, and though it's still in alpha and doesn't have many advanced features, it worked flawlessly.

Here's how to get it going. First, download the correct version (Linux PowerPC for your PowerPC Macs) and extract it to any directory in your home folder. Then either use your file manager to open that directory in a terminal, or in a terminal type the command cd path to directory holding the btsync binary. Then get the btsync daemon running by entering ./btsync.

Nothing happened. That's 'cause you have to use the web interface, silly! So get your IP address with sudo ifconfig (among other methods), fire up a web browser and go to yourIPaddress:8888/gui. In my case:

192.168.1.105:8888/gui

Next you should see the web interface where you can click Add Folder. Type the path to it, /home/yourusername/whatever, and then click the generate secret button. You will enter that secret into your other computer to sync to that folder. So do the same thing on your other computer. Extract the binary, startup the daemon, bring up the GUI, and add a folder to sync, this time entering the secret from your other computer into the Secret field instead of generating a new one. Now the syncing should start--Snow Leopard users may see a delay of up to ten minutes which BitTorrent Labs implies is strictly the fault of Snow Leopard ;)

I got pretty much full speed out of my wireless connection, though I haven't tested it over ethernet so I'll defer comment. Also, in their Get Started guide, they mention disabling the "Delete files to Sync trash" option means your deleted files will instead go to your system's trash folder, but on my system they just disappeared. So be mindful of that. Also there's no versioning yet, but I'd expect that in the near future. But overall, pretty cool stuff.

Software Synths on OS X

A few posts ago I mentioned Linux software synths and the wide range of choices on that platform. The unsaid implication was that choices on OS X PowerPC suck by comparison, but that's not totally true. So I thought I'd point out a few software synths freely available on Tiger to get your inner musician musicianing.

Of course, pro DAWs like Logic come with their own synths, but if you're looking to get your feet wet, these plugins should keep you occupied. And they're all AU plugins, not standalone synths, so they'll work in an AU plugin host like GarageBand.



First is Automat. It's a three oscillator synth with an easy to use interface, a few dozen presets, and a great randomizer button to produce sounds you'd never think of yourself (mostly for good reason). This looks good for a beginner, though that doesn't necessarily mean you'll outgrow it.



Next is TAL-Noisemaker. Its sound is "fat and full" and especially good for baselines and also for arcade sounds. Its GUI is a bit CPU intensive, but it comes with a couple hundred presets and plenty of filters. Download the .component.zip 32bit version.



Finally there's Crystal. I had a hard time finding a version 2.4.9 that would run on Tiger, but I finally did here (there's also a CNET download link that says it's 2.4.9, but it's actually 2.5.1 which requires Leopard). Crystal is more complex than the previous two. It's got a manual I'll need to study, but it's been around forever and many people swear by it (not at it).

And finally I'll leave you with this video telling you everything you need to know to make electronic music:



How To Make Electronic Music Tutorial BY DJ NICO MALO

"Minimal effort and no talent." This man is my god.

FYI on Amazon MP3 Downloads

So I made my first mp3 purchase on Amazon. I got an EP that wasn't available on physical media (I'm a CD luddite, too), and it turns out in order to download all the tracks at once you need to install Amazon's mp3 downloader. Of course it doesn't work on PowerPC, but you can still download the tracks one at a time by clicking on "Skip installation" where the popup prompts you to install the downloader.

These downloaders that import your music for you are just another pillar in the conspiracy by distributors to get you to forget there's such a thing as a file system and files that you, you know, own. But I'm not paranoid.

We Interrupt Our Programming...

Several times recently I've left comments on blogspot blogs that either never showed up or disappeared soon after posting. I can see two possibilities. First, my commenting style is so rancid that every blogspot blog admin deleted my comments without exception. Or second, my comments are getting sucked into Blogger's spam folder, as has happened to several of my commenters including one who goes by the name commenter.

If anyone has any ideas on how I can get off whatever s___ list google put me on, feel free to leave it in the comments. I'll double check my spam folder to make sure yours doesn't get sucked in there, too.

How I Use Linux

What's with all the hostility to Linux on PowerPC? If you've read certain forums or blogs you've probably come across it. Not just, "Linux isn't for me," but attacking Linux as bad for everyone and warning people not to do it. Among those attacks are common complaints like there's no flash, the UI is boring, the hardware is unsupported, etc. First, flash's performance sucks. You can get way more mileage streaming through Mplayer or VLC. Second, the UI is whatever you choose. And third, I don't remember the worldwide sturm und drang when people put out HowTos on how to install Tiger on unsupported hardware with XPostFacto or Leopard with LeopardAssist.

The fact is Linux is not OS X. And OS X is not Linux. One does some things better than the other and vice versa. I run a mixed environment. I have a desktop that primarily runs OS X and a laptop that primarily runs Debian Linux. So I thought I'd compare the two and show you the ways which Linux has helped me.

On OS X my most used applications are TenFourFox, iText Express, iTunes, Mplayer, MacTubes, and Transmission (it's always on in the background. I'm on a private tracker). Incidentally, all of those applications have identical or very-close-to-it counterparts on Linux. I also commonly use Cyberduck, ToyViewer, GIMP, SABnzbd, TenFourKit, and GarageBand. But sometimes it's not enough. One limitation I have is I don't have a widescreen monitor, so it's difficult to play video and do other work simultaneously. That's where my Linux laptop comes in. I use it for streaming media, Youtube, etc., and it has its own dedicated processor so my desktop's doesn't get bogged down playing a webisode of The Guild. It also has Pithos, which is unavailable for OS X, that streams Pandora radio.

Another thing I turn to Linux for is LibreOffice. LibreOffice on OS X is too dog slow (and the Tiger version has monospace font issues), but on Linux it feels almost like a lightweight word processor.

Lately I've been getting my feet wet with music production and trying software synths like Yoshimi and Phasex, and sequencers like LMMS and Qtractor. Some Linux DAWs and synths are more polished than others, but the range of choice is amazing. And as far as music playback goes, I love Audacious's xmms interface and hate that there's nothing like it on OS X.

My point is, nobody who says Linux will be bad for you is making a definitive statement, 'cause I'm right here and Linux for me is working nicely. Here are a few screenshots taken with Shutter (a Linux Skitch replacement now that Evernote has destroyed the original). I find the dark theme much easier on my eyes.

I had to use -vo x11 to capture the Mplayer video, 'cause with the xv default it showed up as a transparent window.

ArchLinux PowerPC?

Peter S. emailed me a Youtube link that I found somewhat interesting.



Linux.Extra - ArchLinuxPPC and XFCE switch Ep/1

Basically this person's suggesting he's going to start an ArchLinux port for PowerPC, sort of take over the project from where it was abandoned a couple of years ago. I don't know if this will come to fruition as it's a ton of work, but the author has been posting videos regularly so we'll see.

In the meantime, if you want a rolling release, which is what ArchLinux is (a release where the latest packages are updated as they come in), you can run Debian Sid and also pick packages from the experimental branch. You may be able to do something similar on Ubuntu, but I'm not sure. The thing about a rolling release, though, is that things can break. There isn't a lot of testing done before packages are allowed into the repository, and this is why rolling releases are geared to the more adventurous. But I've never used Arch, so it would be interesting to see the stability of their bleeding-edgeness vs. that of a traditional release-based distribution.

In other news, there's been some chatter on Linux blogs lately about Ubuntu's future plans (Mir, release schedules) and how they might affect the Xubuntu and Lubuntus of the world. There's thus far baseless speculation that the other flavors might jump ship and base themselves on Debian or some other distribution, but on the Lubuntu mailing list Lubuntu's lead developer withheld their opinion but said they'd have more to say when work is done on the current development release. So stay tuned.

I wonder how long Canonical can keep up its secrecy and arbitrary decision-making before people decide it's not a community worth contributing to anymore.

iOS 7 Leaked

Don't ask me how I got this (I don't want to be responsible for any drone strikes), but I have a prototype of Apple's upcoming iOS 7.  This has been hotly anticipated, partly because people were getting fed up with the staleness of iOS 6, and also this is our first chance to see Jony Ive's fingerprints since he took over as head of design.



Gone is the schizophrenic skeuomorphic implementation of previous releases in favor of a much simpler, more unified design.  Instead of switching from metal to leather to blue jeans, your eyes will be now be focused on one texture, with all icons and graphics following the same graphical framework.  But that's just the visual.  The real innovation here is with two brand new technologies called "MultiFinder" and "Hypercard."



MultiFinder, simply put, brings the new ability to run apps side by side in an interactive manner.  I almost don't know what to say about this.  It's so new I think we'll need some time to process all the implications.  It's one thing to have apps, but to have multiple apps working together at the same time?  My head is officially blown.

Hypercard is something I haven't had time to get much into yet, but it's supposedly an intuitive programming interface that will allow any ordinary Joe or Josephine to produce their own apps, no programming language necessary.  This is nothing less than the democratization of software development and could be a revolution in how we interact with our devices.  One can even imagine people eschewing current media models and producing their own communication networks.  Imagine if we had something like this twenty-five years ago.  The World Wide Web would be a far different place.



Other additions are a built-in calculator (finally!) and something that makes my fingers particularly happy, an extended keyboard.  I should apologize for not going more in depth, but I just got this and I'm literally trembling with the adrenaline rush as I write it.  Hopefully I'll have more, though I'm sure Gizmodo will chime in.  They're never far behind on this stuff.  But, yeah, the world's changing.  Thank you, Apple.  Just thank you.