Help out a newbie Xubuntu user?

[innerslytherin]

Hi everyone! I've read through the entries about Linux and netbooks, and thanks to everyone who has shared their knowledge.

I have a post at my personal journal about my Acer netbook and having just installed Xubuntu. I'm hoping I can get tips from people in this community as to how I can, well, prettify my system a little.

I'm also interested in your recommendations for word processing apps. Xubuntu came with Abiword, which I have used a handful of times. Are there other programs that are better? (Background: I've been a Windows and Microsoft Word ever since I left DOS and PFS First Choice as a high schooler, and I am, generally speaking, a fan of Microsoft Word, in that it's never given me problems.) I don't want to bog my system down with more program than it can handle, given that I have 1 GB of memory and a 1.66 GHz processor, but I definitely want to know my options.

And while we're at it, what about blog clients? I'm using DW, LJ, and WordPress, so something that can handle all of those would be great, but any of the three would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance! So far I'm loving my Linux experience, and I'm already planning to fix my mom's laptop by installing Ubuntu on it for her. :)

Comments

[momijizukamori]

OpenOffice (now possibly known as LibreOffice?) is sort of the big name one - it's very MS Office-like, and will read and write at least the old MS file types (can't recall if I've tried it on .docx or any of those yet). I don't have any suggestions for blog software, but maybe a quick search in the Software Center? That's usually my go-to when I need a tool for something and don't know one off-hand.

For themes - http://gnome-look.org/ has GTK themes (which builds some of the basics of Xfce, the windowing system - you'll want ones that come in both GTK2 and GTK3 for max pretty, as apps are still mixed between the two systems), and http://xfce-look.org/ has some tweaked specifically for Xfce and it's window manager. You can also look in Synaptic for 'theme' - I've personally found I really like the Shiki series of themes and icons (not yet ported to GTK3, which means some apps look ugly, but the GTK2 ones are pretty). Gnome-Look also has icon sets which are compatible with Xfce, iirc.

And welcome to Linux! I just switched to Xubuntu from regular Ubuntu (didn't want Unity when I upgraded) last week, and it's been fun.

And welcome

[amianym]

LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice and it's what I use (unless I'm in the mood to fight with Calligra...) I haven't used OpenOffice recently enough to recommend one over the other; either should work well enough for your situation.

Also wow *buntus are *so* not what I'd pick for a netbook but oh well :U

[kerravonsen]

Xubuntu isn't bad, it's more lightweight than the other *buntus because it uses Xfce4 as the default desktop environment.

[innerslytherin]

:P Honestly, I went with a friend's suggestion of Xubuntu because of the XFCE mention, and because when I looked into the *buntu distros, they seemed easy enough for a noob to learn on. I did enough research to figure out Linux wouldn't make me tear my hair out, and then jumped in blind.

Out of curiosity, what would you suggest for a netbook and why? So far I'm pleased with Xubuntu, but I'm definitely open to learning new stuff, and now that I know Linux doesn't have to be terrifying, I'm willing to experiment more! :)

[amianym]

On my netbook I'm using Chakra Linux. I'm a big KDE fan, but for KDE to be practical on a netbook the base has to be veeeery lightweight, as with Chakra. Gentoo or Arch would of course be lighter, but I'm not up for such an involved installation. I've previously recommended LMDE to people who do not share my tastes, but I haven't tried it myself. When I used Ubuntu, aside from hating Unity and GNOME, I got some really bizarre bugs and it felt sluggish.

[kerravonsen]

I found that ArchBang is much easier to install than Arch, and you end up with a system that is Arch-compatible. And I use Fvwm as my window-manager, because I like having total control over everything. And it is lightweight too.

[innerslytherin]

Thank you! I had seen mention of LibreOffice but didn't know what that was. I have used Open Office in the past, so I would probably be comfortable using either of those. :)

I had a look at http://xfce-look.org earlier, but I kept getting all kinds of error messages when I attempted to download things. I'll give them another try tomorrow.

I've seen all kinds of cussing about Unity while researching Linux. :) I confess, I don't know enough yet to understand, but I also completely get not wanting to have a change forced on you when you don't like it.

Thanks for your suggestions! I really appreciate it!

[kerravonsen]

If you search for "themes" with your package manager of choice (Synaptic is a good one) then there are quite a few that you can install. And, yes, Gnome-look and Xfce-look are good places to go. One thing I've noticed with themes, though, is that they mostly fall into three categories: bland grey, shiny black, and garish.

Every now and then I try my hand at themes, but I never seem to get around to packaging them up for other people (with two exceptions; my Celtic theme which I submitted to Fvwm, and my CedarBrass GTK theme which I put up on one of those *-look sites but I can't remember which one now).

[innerslytherin]

Ha! And what I was looking for was red, blue, or green, and definitely in non-garish. I'll look into yours, definitely. :) Thank you! (And thanks for giving me the courage to try this at all!)

[kerravonsen]

One of the things that might be a bit confusing at first (which I bet the sites never explain) is that there are two main kinds of theme: GTK themes and Window-manager themes (in your case, that's Xfce4). The window-manager themes control the look of the window decorations - that is the titlebar, the buttons, and the borders of the windows. The GTK themes control the look of GTK applications; that is, programs which were written with the GTK toolkit, which is popular. And some window manager themes pay attention to one's GTK theme, so it is still relevant. And some people make matching window-manager and GTK themes so that it will all be harmonious.

My Cedar-Brass GTK theme is here: http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/?content=139506
It is a steampunk-ish look; dark wood with brass highlights.
I made a matching Fvwm theme, but I haven't released it anywhere; the problem with Fvwm theming is that it isn't really standardized. No, that's just an excuse; I just don't feel like the extra effort needed to package up a theme and release it somewhere... (sigh)

Some additional GTK themes I've liked:

* Blueheart (black-and-blue) which is actually part of UbuntU: gtk2-engines-blueheart.
* Greenheart (green-and-black) a variant of Blueheart.
* Blue_Lagoon_X (grey with blue/green water look)
* BrushedMetal (grey brushed-metal look, with teal)
* CatBrass (olive green)
* Cloudscape_Green (grey with cloudy green)
* Country Oak (pale wood look)
* Glossy Blue (blue, with blue glass)
* Glossy Green (green, with green glass)
* H2O Emerald (grey, with green glass)
* H2O Saphire (grey, with blue glass)
* Leaded Glass (grey, with clear glass)
* TransMetal (another brushed-metal look, but brushed diagonally)
* WoodenHead (another wood-style theme, medium brown)

[innerslytherin]

Thank you SO MUCH for explaining this! Now that you have, it makes a great deal more sense than what I was muddling through on my own. I've also picked up a few library books about Linux, so I'll hopefully be learning some of this stuff without leaning on you to explain more. :)

And thank you also for the link to your theme and the list of suggestions. I confess, I like fussing with the look of my desktop on a frequent basis, so I'll probably be installing several of these!

[kerravonsen]

Enjoy!

[jewelfox]

For blogging apps, try Logjam, Drivel, or BloGTK! There's also a KDE app I can't remember the name of (probably something like Kblogger).

[algorhythm]

Blogilo would be the KDE client, but it doesn't work so well with LJ or Dreamwidth.

[innerslytherin]

Aha, thank you! :)

[innerslytherin]

Thank you very much! I'll look at these. :)

[innerslytherin]

I decided on Drivel, and so far it seems to do exactly what I want! Thank you. :)

[jewelfox]

Welcome!

[sprat]

I'm not using Linux at the moment, but when I did (about six months ago), I used google docs as my primary word processor and Koalawriter as a distraction-free writing app.

[innerslytherin]

Ahhh, distraction-free writing apps, they are my friends. I have used Q10 in the past but haven't yet looked to see if it's available for Linux. I'll definitely check out Koalawriter.

I've had some issues with being able to format Google Docs the way I want them to look, but that's an obvious solution I hadn't thought of for most of my word processing needs. Thanks! :)

[innerslytherin]

Errrr, and by "obvious" I actually mean "seems like it should be obvious, but since I hadn't thought of it, I clearly needed someone to point it out to me". I realized after I hit post that my comment might sound rude, and I absolutely didn't mean it that way. :)