Banshee 1.2 - 1.x Series Getting to Maturity

The new Banshee 1.2 includes several new features over the last stable release, like the equaliser or the music recommendations panel. The full list of new or improved features is here. For those who didn't hear about Banshee yet, it's a pretty powerful audio player for GNOME which received more and more attention lately, featuring things like a media library, support for Last.fm, podcasts, cover fetching, plugins and many more.

Banshee 1.2.0 playing

I was enchanted to try the so-called 'Amarok Migration' feature, which, according to the official website, lets you import ratings, play counts and podcasts from Amarok. Well, I have Amarok 1.4.9.1 using SQLite but Banshee crashed when I tried to import those using the Media -> Import Media dialogue, already having a media library in Banshee. I tried deleting the file ~/.config/banshee-1/banshee.db and this time the import feature worked flawlessly, and Banshee didn't crash anymore.

Importing the Amarok media library

The equaliser works very well, except that there are no default presets. I think several default presets like 'Rock', or 'Full Bass' would be nice instead of letting the user setting those.

The new equaliser

I was still disappointed to see that the cover fetching plugin doesn't look inside the song's directory for local files like cover.jpg or front.png, but the retrieval of covers from the Internet works pretty well. All of the covers for albums which don't have additions like [2004 Remaster] or [Limited Edition] were correctly fetched.

Plugins

Banshee looks more improved with every version and it's definitely a very promising player. Compared to 1.0.0, this new release it's much more stable (no more crashes when clicking on the Last.fm tab for example), but I think it still needs some work at cover fetching, and the Last.fm integration won't show all the images for recently played tracks. Last.fm changed the layout recently so I'm not sure whether this is Banshee's fault at all.

Last.fm integration - Banshee features song submission too

Although the 1.0 release was also accompanied by a new, professionally designed website, work at the Wiki seems to be still in progress.

Although I'm not a GNOME or GTK fan, I can warmly recommend Banshee to any audiophile using this desktop environment. It's almost full-featured, and stable enough now, the 1.x series showing real signs of maturity now.

About

Tomboy - Yet Another Notes-Taking Application

A few days ago I reviewed BasKet, the wonderful KDE application for taking notes, so today I decided upon Tomboy, which is an application for GNOME.

Tomboy 0.10.2

Tomboy does not provide as many features as BasKet, but it might be the right choice for those using GNOME. It provides global hotkeys, spell-checking while typing, and several options for formatting the text, like highlighting. It can be embedded in the system tray and it uses a low amount of resources.

Formatting text in your notes

Another feature are the extensions, called add-ins in Tomboy, like the Export to HTML or Backlinks, which allows to link between notes. It also allows searching in all your notes.

Tomboy add-ins

Preferences

Running in KDE with the default browser set to Konqueror won't open any links (I noticed this at many GNOME applications which run in KDE) but it's OK if you have Epiphany installed.

As a conclusion, although it's not as feature-rich as its KDE counterpart, Tomboy is pretty good for taking notes in a rapid fashion, considering you don't need advanced options.

Top 10 Best GTK Applications Not Included in GNOME

1. The GIMP - image editor
GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program, and is the most complete image editor on Linux. It supports various file formats and it features many effects. I usually read complains about GIMP regarding the fact that it's not as 'good' as Photoshop. Well, I'm not a graphics passionate, and I only use GIMP for basic image manipulation (cut, crop, basic effects, resize etc), but I think it's the best tool out there to use with images. The current stable release is 2.4.6.
Official website


2. XChat - IRC client
In my opinion, this is the best graphical IRC client for Linux. Its strength is in support for scripts in Perl and Python, together with an easy to learn plugin interface (given that you know basic C). It offers event-based scripting too. Most of the configuration options are available via the /SET variables, instead of the Preferences window. The logging system allows filenames which can use date specifiers, so you can store your logs in whatever way you want. The Windows version usually ships earlier than the Linux one, but that's not quite an issue, since the client is already complete for several years now.
Official website


3. Inkscape - vector graphics editor
This is a complete vector graphics editor made in GTK. You can save the projects in many formats, like SVG or PDF.
Official website


4. OpenOffice - office suite
Although some say OpenOffice is too bloated and prefer Abiword in GNOME, this still is by far our most fully-featured office suite. It's true, OpenOffice is very slow and it takes some time to load, especially on older PCs, but it's complete and fully supports the OpenDocument format. Besides, it's the best response to Microsoft's Word. I'm not bashing any application here (I actually use a word processor maybe once a month), but I'm sure that Abiword and not even KOffice can compete with OpenOffice at features chapter. As for the speed, yes, they are both faster and use less resources.
Official website


5. VLC - audio/video player
VLC is the kind of video player that usually does not fail to play something when other players can't manage to do it (given that all the codecs are correctly installed). Very powerful and very configurable.
Official website


6. Firefox - web browser
The most popular browser on Linux, Firefox uses the Gecko engine not only for rendering web pages, but for the entire Firefox interface. It eats up a lot of resources, but it displays correctly most of the pages and can be extended using add-ons (there are hundreds of add-ons on the official website). It also supports themes. The last Firefox version is 3.0, just recently launched.
Official website


7. Banshee - audio player
Together with Rhythmbox and Audacious, Banshee is one of the top audio players for GNOME. Although the last version, 1.0, is not very stable in my opinion, Banshee is nevertheless a good audio player. It features audio and video libraries, podcasts, Last.fm integration and a configurable playlist to mention just a few. The new website is also well organised and it also looks very well designed.
Official website


8. Deluge - BitTorrent client
Although Linux benefits of many BitTorrent clients, Deluge is one of the best graphical ones, together with Azureus and KTorrent. It features everything a BitTorrent client should have, yet it still has a clean interface.
Official website


9. LinuxDC++ - Direct Connect client
This is the Linux port of the famous DC++ for Windows. It's a bit slow in my opinion, especially when joining very large hubs, but otherwise, it's a complete Direct Connect client.
Official website


10. Geany - text editor and IDE
Not only a text editor, Geany can be also used as a small IDE (Integrated Development Environment), featuring indentation, highlighting for many languages, support for projects, printing to file (PostScript or PDF) and plugins. Those are not all its features though. It's a very good alternative to Gedit.
Official website


Updated: Jun 22, 2008 (Created: Jun 22, 2008)

How-To: Compile and Install Banshee 1.0 in Debian Lenny

Note: This how-to may work in Ubuntu and other Debian-based distributions too.

Banshee is a popular audio player for GNOME, featuring audio and video libraries, internet cover fetching, Last.fm basic integration and song submission and plenty more. The latest version, 1.0, was released recently and it brought many improvements over the previous releases.

To compile it in Debian, make sure to have all the dependencies installed, so type as root:

apt-get build-dep banshee
apt-get install libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil

Note: Ubuntu users, precede these commands with sudo.

Next, download the source code from here, uncompress it, change the current working directory to banshee-1-1.0.0 and follow the usual steps:

./configure
make
make install

The last one as root. Banshee should now be installed, and to run it, type banshee-1 in a terminal.

Banshee 1.0.0

Updated: Jun 13, 2008 (Created: Jun 13, 2008)

3 BitTorrent Clients for Linux - Review

KTorrent 2.2.6
KTorrent is definitely the most full-featured BitTorrent client for KDE. It is complete by all means and highly configurable, offering, among many others: search capabilities (with the results opened in a new tab and the possibility to add custom search sites), the possibility to create torrent files, pause/resume torrent downloading, system tray integration, detailed information about the torrents it downloads, a queue manager, various useful plugins. KTorrent has come to be probably the most complete BitTorrent client out there, being also fast and having an option to use low CPU resources.

KTorrent downloading a torrent file - notice the interface which allows to see as many information as possible in a single window

Like most of the KDE applications, you can configure the shortcuts and control KTorrent through the system tray popup menu.

Preferences window in KTorrent

The Plugins tab

Currently the stable release for KDE 3.5.x is at version 2.2.7, while work is in progress at KTorrent 3.1 (release candidate 3.1rc1 is out). The official website offers a FAQ and a forum, so getting help won't be hard in case you really need it.

KTorrent opens searches in a new tab - you can customise and add new search sites if you like

KTorrent About window

Official KTorrent Website

Deluge 0.5.9.1
Deluge is a BitTorrent client made in GTK, coming with many features, being in my opinion KTorrent's counterpart in GNOME. It is expandable through many plugins, like search for torrents (but unfortunately it opens the results in a browser window instead of in the application itself), or the Create Torrent plugin.

Deluge usual instance

Deluge preferences

The interface is a little inconsistent, meaning some widgets change their size depending on the text inside them. When this changes, it can get a little annoying. It also has system tray integration, can display detailed information about the torrents, it has options to limit bandwidth for upload/download speeds, if you really, really need it. Deluge is probably the best BitTorrent client for GNOME.

The About window

Official Deluge Website

Transmission 1.06
Transmission is a light client written in GTK. It doesn't feature as many options as KTorrent or Deluge, but it's lighter and has a simple interface. Some of the highlights: ability to pause/resume downloads, system tray integration, bandwidth limiting settings, detailed information about the torrents it downloads. A small, yet enough powerful client for GNOME.

Main window - Transmission

Detailed information about the torrents

Transmission features only basic configuration options

The About dialogue

Official Transmission Website

Conclusion
All the three clients do what they are supposed to do: download torrents. If I am to recommend a single one, I'd go for KTorrent, but Deluge is a very good and powerful client as well. Actually, this just might be a matter of taste. If you like more GNOME applications, go with Deluge, if you are a KDE fan, than KTorrent is definitely for you. If you are looking for something lighter and with a somewhat cleaner interface, then Transmission might be just the right choice.

Note: Full reviews for KTorrent and Deluge can be found here and here.

Updated: Jun 14, 2008 (Created: Jun 13, 2008)

Review of Deluge 0.5.9.1 BitTorrent Client for GNOME

This is the second BitTorrent client I decided to review, after the KTorrent 2.2.6 review.

Deluge is a complete BitTorrent client for GNOME, offering many options for configuration and plenty of plugins, which can make it very useful for working with torrent files.

Deluge downloading a torrent

Among the plugins it comes with, the Torrent Search is probably the most useful. Unfortunately the results are displayed in a web browser instead of inside Deluge, so you'll have to download separately the torrents and open them with Deluge. This is slower than KTorrent, which instead opens an extra tab for searches. The default sites for searching for torrents are Google, PirateBay, YouTorrent, IsoHunt, Mininova, with the possibility to enter custom search engines.

Add custom search engines

Plugins tab in the Preferences window

Deluge has support to pause and resume from downloading torrents, can be minimised to system tray and it offers options to limit the download/upload speeds.

Deluge preferences

The interface is not very consistent and several widgets get resized whenever text inside them changes, which can get annoying. Otherwise, Deluge offers an intuitive interface.

Another useful plugin is the Torrent Creator, which allows you to create your own torrents and share with everyone.

Create a new torrent

Documentation is available online, and the official website offers a comprehensive FAQ and a forum for troubleshooting your problems with Deluge, if any.

Updated: Jun 13, 2008 (Created: Jun 13, 2008)

Brasero 0.7.1 Review - CD/DVD Burning Application for GNOME

I recently reviewed K3b, the popular KDE burning application, so today I wanted to review a GNOME burning application, and decided upon Brasero.

Introduction
Currently at version 0.7.1, Brasero impresses with a simple layout and an intuitive interface. The left panel contains a file browser from which you can select the files/folders which you want on your CD, and in the right panel you can visualize what files are to be written. Of course, for ease of use, you can drag and drop files from the file browser to the right panel. You can toggle the side panel using F7, and hide it if it stays in your way.

Choose a project

Adding files to the project

Features
Brasero is simple and light, yet it offers the necessary functionality a burner should have, being able to create audio CDs, data CDs/DVDs and burn CD/DVD images, with the ability to save the project for later reuse.

Burning an ISO9660 CD image

Creating audio CD

It has no ability to create ISO9660 images from a selected file or folder, but you can eventually do that on command line if you really need it.

It supports multisessions, and can be used to copy a CD/DVD, useful if you have more than one drive and want to save time.

Copy CD/DVD

You'll have to select the correct drive in which the blank CD/DVD is located, since Brasero doesn't automatically selects it for you if you have more than one optical drives.

Conclusion
Overall, it's a fine burner. I was impressed by the clean interface this application comes with. It's true, Brasero does not feature as many things as K3b, but it is definitely a good burner, without the whistles and bells, which can do your job fast and easy.

Official Website
Download Source

Updated: Jun 12, 2008 (Created: Jun 12, 2008)

Graphical Terminal Emulators for Linux

Command line is known to be the most powerful way of doing things on Linux. Even though there are GUI tools for almost any task, doing them in the shell is most of the time faster and easier. Not to mention there are so many CLI tools out there, you only have to build a graphical interface in order to use them. It is also the most common way of spreading tutorials or helping new users, since it's less bandwidth consumptive (no screenshots, no explanations like 'go there, click on that, not that, the one below it').

So, here are the most popular terminal emulators for X:

Konsole
Konsole is the KDE terminal application. It can be configured in many ways, supports transparency (for desktop only), background images, encoding, pre-defined colour schemes (you can make custom ones), tabs (so you can have several sessions opened without the need to open another Konsole), and it's very rich regarding the configuration options.

Desktop transparency for Konsole

Konsole configuration dialogue

Gnome Terminal
This is GNOME's default terminal, and features desktop transparency and background images, encoding, profiles and more via the Edit -> Current Profile... configuration dialogue.

Gnome Terminal

Irssi in Gnome Terminal

Editing your profile in Gnome Terminal

Yakuake
Yakuake is yet another terminal emulator for KDE. When I first started it, a notification balloon appears saying to press F12 in order to start it. Yakuake is always on top by default, but the nice thing is it disappears when you press again F12. So you can have a shell started all the time, which doesn't annoy you, use it on demand by calling it with F12 and then sending it back in the background.

Yakuake running Irssi

Always on top

You can configure Yakuake to change its size, be always on top or not, and you can disable the notification popup when it starts. Several more options are available.

Configuring Yakuake

XTerm
XTerm is the smallest one, providing only a window with the size of 80x25. XTerm can be configured from command line. Though I rarely use it, I'll look into it and eventually post a how-to for those interested.


Eterm
Eterm is yet another terminal emulator, with a futuristic theme. It integrates well if you are an eye-candy person, but otherwise, I recommend the use of a classic terminal. The thing about Eterm is that you'll have to launch it as Eterm from command line. That's right, the E is uppercase.

Futuristic looks for Eterm

Several more
Some more terminals for X are Tilda, ROXTerm, rxvt, wterm. By the way, did you ever wonder what rxvt stands for? According to the official website, it's an acronym for our extended virtual terminal.

ROXTerm uses GTK

Tilda is a nice terminal similar in many ways with the console in Quake-like games

Updated: June 10, 2008 (Created: June 10, 2008)