More appropriately, I’m back using Linux on the desktop. (A subject that was written about in many posts, many years ago…)
So today was my first full day using Debian as a desktop OS and it went pretty well. I still prefer Mac OS X for the desktop, but Linux still beats the hell out of Windows. My editor (yes, I am still using jEdit) worked quite well. In fact, it probably works better on Linux than on Mac OS X. Firefox (er, Iceweasel) is my browser of choice, and Gaim is, um, not Adium but it will work. And terminal is tabbed, like iTerm, so that’s good.
I don’t have to worry about audio/video stuff since I’m just doing development (and my iBook is always handy) but I’m guessing I may have to fire up The Gimp at some point…
Luckily, for my main tools (web, email, editor, terminal, etc.) I’ve typically stuck with things that are open-source and cross-platform. Firefox over Safari, jEdit over TextMate, and so on. This has allowed me to be put in front of a Windows machine, a Mac, or even a Linux box, and been able to use familiar tools. It also helps since I typically use 3 or 4 different Macs, so licensing isn’t a big concern.
Don’t get me wrong… If I had a choice, I would have chose to have a machine running OS X. Not because of the eye-candy or the (supposed) sex appeal, but because my productivity would be so much higher. I’m just an OS X user, having used it daily for the last 6 years or so…
I will miss Interarchy for file transfers though! Any recommended clients for Linux?
5 replies on “Desktop Linux (is back!)”
Why Debian, if you don’t mind me asking.
Just pop open an xterm (or gnome-terminal, konsole, what have you) and run scp or ftp directly. If you’d like a slightly nicer FTP client, try installing ‘ncftp’.
I’ve got no problem using sftp and scp via the command line, but sometimes I prefer a graphical client…
I use Filezilla, which just happens to be in the Debian repositories. The down side to it is that it’s a pretty early beta of the upcoming 3.0 release, but IMHO is the best graphical ftp client available for Linux.
I don’t do much w/ GUI file shuffling and don’t know what Interarchy does, exactly, but doesn’t Konqueror handle ftp/sftp?