Monday 30 June 2014

Give Ted some love!

In the land of [Microsoft] word processing, Microsoft Word is King, but perhaps WordPad is the Prince. WordPad has been a default part of the Microsoft Windows operating system since Windows 95. After some years of neglect, it got a new makeover for Windows 7 and in all honesty, is all that most home users need to accomplish their word processing tasks.

In the land of FOSS/Linux, Libre Office is King, but who is Prince - AbiWord?

I would like to put forward an alternative, and it goes by the unlikely name of Ted.

If you are looking for a word processor more akin to WordPad, for simple tasks, that doesn't get in the way or try to do too many things, then you might be surprised at how nice Ted is to use:

Its author, Mark de Does, calls it "an easy rich text processor" and that's exactly what this is. Moreover, it was always intended to be the de-facto WordPad replacement for Unix/Linux. The default file format is RTF - a format that, although proprietary, is cross-platform and has been stable for many years. That means that whatever Ted produces and saves on Linux, will be untouched and replicated exactly on any other *Nix system, Microsoft, Apple, or even Android. 

Originally built on the LessTif toolkit, it hasn't changed much over the years from inception, but is now compiled with the GTK+2 toolkit, so blends in much better on a conventional Linux desktop.

Ted is a bit quirky, but once you get used to the quirks, you will realise what a nice, clutter-free change from the norm it is.

Get Ted


Ted is quite hard to find in many Linux repositories even though it was last updated in 2013. However, it's quite easy to download a .deb for Debian/Ubuntu or an RPM for Fedora/SUSE/Mandriva as the Author has kindly uploaded them to his own site:

There are some dependencies, most of which should be handled by your package manager, but certainly on Debian, you are going to need libtiff4 which you can download from Ubuntu. Install this first then install the Ted deb file:

Or, I have both packages on Github:

Start using Ted


One quirk of Ted is that is doesn't open to a new blank document by default. This is the screen you will see:

You'll have to click File|New or press Ctrl+N on your keyboard to get a new document.

Then you are presented with a clutter-free page ready for typing. The first thing you notice is the lack of a toolbar. Don't let this fool you into thinking that it is a plain text only editor - everything is found in the menus, or by bring up the Format Tool dialog.

Right-click to bring up the Format Tool which will open by default at the font dialog where you can change the font type, size and apply bold, italics or underline:

Leave this tool open and come back to it each time you need to change an aspect of the page. Click on the drop-down menu at the top and you'll see that you can use it to alter page characteristics, paragraph styles, insert a table, check spelling amongst other things.

A quick look through main application menu indicates you can insert images (which can be resized) and tables as well as other page processing commands.

If you don't already know your basic keyboard shortcuts, now's the time to learn as they'll help you use Ted with a minimum amount of fuss. They are indicated next to certain menu entries:

Conclusion


Ted is lightweight to install, in terms of memory use and in terms of it's GUI. There are enough features 'under the hood' for the vast majority of anyone's home word processing tasks. In fact, it's on a par with Google Docs for text processing features. If you want a distraction-free word processor that won't take up much room on your hard drive or use precious CPU cycles, then I can heartedly recommend this product.

Post-script


Ted is the default word processor on Theme-ix Linux releases.

To start Ted with a blank page try this:
  1. Install xdotool from your distro's repositories
  2. Create a new batch file as follows:
    #/bin/bash
    Ted &
    sleep 1
    xdotool key ctrl+n
  3. Save the batch file onto your desktop
  4. Make it executable (use Thunar or from a command line: chmod a+x batchfilename)
  5. Ted will open and a second after open a new blank file.
The online Ted manual is here:

Similar projects: FocusWriter


Thursday 26 June 2014

First Live CD released: DebianXbluebuntu

If any of you have read my About page, you will know that I originally intended this project to be a theming project where I will share my experience with the wider community via tutorials. I hadn't intended or expected to be releasing any 'images'.

But then I thought, if I am going to go to all the trouble of starting with a Debian net install and creating a themed Linux desktop from scratch and then I might as well share the results with the world.

So here I am announcing the first release from the project code-named THEME-IX, download link below:

DebianXbluebuntu 14-06 Beta3 <-- Download now!


It's my 'port' of Xubuntu 14.04 to Debian (Testing/Jessie). It is a fully functional LiveCD that can be installed thanks to the efforts of the guys at Refracta. I have set up a Sourceforge page which will handle hosting and contains extra info such as a full packages list and a support forum.

Here's some information you might need to get going:

Live username = user 
Live user password = user 
Live root password = root

DebianXbluebuntu-14-06-beta3.iso = 650,278 KB
MD5 = c0d9142e1fde334f9cd37be6c0fb353a

It's my first public beta and I appears stable on my hardware, in fact it flies. It is almost an exact replica of Xubuntu with the exception of a slight nod towards a couple of lighter-weight applications. Here's the full list:

Base: Debian Testing (Jessie)

Desktop: XFCE 4.10

Theme: Xubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr (Greybird GTK + Elementary XFCE icon set)

Desktop Applications:

  • Firefox web browser with Adobe Flashplayer
  • Sylpheed emai client
  • Ted word processor (like MS WordPad)
  • Gnome paint (MS Paint clone)
  • Transmission bittorrent client
  • Gmusicbrowser for playing tunes
  • Parole for playing movies
  • Printing support
  • GADMIN - Samba configuration manager
  • Xfburn CD/DVD burning application
  • Wicd network including wireless support
  • Various accessories including calculator, notes, archiver, file search, dictionary, pdf viewer
  • XFCE Settings manager
  • Lightdm & lightlocker control logging in, switching users and screen locking
  • Synaptic package manager
  • Refracta tools: installer, snapshot and liveUSB creator

Average memory usage when idle = 160-200MB
Hard disk space required = 4GB+
Recommended RAM = 512MB+ (should run in 256MB)
Processor = i686 with pae

Friday 13 June 2014

Xubuntu with a *pure* Debian Base (from scratch)

Or, rather... How to make Debian look and behave like Xubuntu.

Why? Xubuntu is a very polished distro and has gained many fans over the last couple of years as Ubuntu users dissatisfied with the Unity interface have looked for something more akin to the old Gnome 2 way of working, or wanted something that would run well on hardware no longer supported by Unity. The current version, 14.04 is an LTS release and is as good an Xubuntu release as I have used, and looks stunning - modern, but straight-forward.

Still, Xubuntu has always been a little 'heavy' for an XFCE-based distribution, both in terms of RAM usage and it's reliance on many gnome packages and dependencies.

Debian is a leaner system, though out-of-the-box, XFCE looks really dated on Debian.

The Goal: Create a pure Debian installation with XFCE, themed to look like Xubuntu, but with as few gnome dependencies as possible, whilst maintaining the same functionality.

How: Starting with a net install, install the packages one by one, check dependencies, replace with alternative packages if available, then configure and theme like Xubuntu.

Difficultly: intermediate. Some prior use of Linux is assumed, with some exposure to the command line and packaging tools, although all commands will be given in full.

Time: 1 -2 days. You will be installing a base system and then adding the packages one by one to build a complete system. You will be editing configuration files and using the command line.

This tutorial will be in a number of parts so that you can follow easily if you want to have a go too:


Part 1  - will get you a minimal Debian install with working X, sound, login manager and basic XFCE desktop environment.

Part 2 - will get the XFCE desktop themed like Xubuntu.

Part 3 - will complete the Xubuntu theming through boot up and log on.

Part 4 - will install all the required applications for a fully functional system and perform final tweaks.

Part 5 - will set up the system for remastering and create an installable live ISO.

Edit 20/06/2014 You can now download the entire tutorial in PDF format:


Saturday 7 June 2014

Make XFCE look like ChromeOS Part 2

In Part 1, I demonstrated how you could alter the theme and panel layout of XFCE to mimic the appearance of a Chromebook/ChromeOS. If you followed that tutorial, then you will have pulled some Google Apps down and created a transparent toolbar and dock.

It's nearly there, but not quite. First of all, the icons on the dock are too close together. Secondly, if you look closely at a ChromeOS screenshot, you can see that the docks 'float' a little off the bottom of the screen.

Finally, I have never been happy with the launcher icon, so let's fix that too!

Wednesday 4 June 2014

Make XFCE look like ChromeOS Part 1

So today I decided to make XFCE look like a Chromebook. Here's what I am aiming for:



Note: the Chromebook has a bespoke desktop comprising a transparent taskbar/dock containing Google product icons and integrates the Google Apps launcher in place of a traditional application/start menu. On the bottom right sits a floating dock with a clock, WiFi, battery and user account widgets. There is basically just the one app - Google Chrome.