The default "simple" console text editor "nano" should be replaced by the much more intuitive editor called "ne" (a less known gem).
Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps
111–120 of 246 posts
Re: Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps
#112In most cases I prefer the standard gnome stuff (browser is the big exception).
Web Browser: Chromium / Firefox / Epiphany Email Client: Evolution / Mutt / Thunderbird Terminal: gnome-terminal File manager: nautilus Text editor: gedit IRC: weechat / polaris Office Suite: google docs / libreoffice Calendar: google calendar / gnome calendar Video Player: Totem / mpv Photo Viewer: Shotwell (I wish gnome-photos would work but its reliance on Tracker makes it unusable for me (what is with tracker not following symlinks?? please fix that). Screen recording: I wish the gnome-builtin one did sound, since it doesn't I use SimpleScreenRecorder)
Re: Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps
#113Web Browser: Firefox
Email Client: Thunderbird
Terminal: gnome terminal is ok
IDE: none. I'm using emacs for all the things. Which standard IDE could handle all languages well? I think this is for developers and we pick our tools. If this is a IDE for learning, I don't know if this is the right way to learn. Maybe vim.
File manager: nautilus is ok
Basic Text Editor: gedit should be ok. I never use it because I don't need a basic editor.
IRC/Messaging Client: no idea. I use my phone for messaging.
PDF Reader: evince.
Office Suite: Libreoffice from their PPA. The distro is usually way too behind. This is a general problem with many packages not in the core of the OS. Maybe it's time to give up on trying to be current and let developers package their stuff in any sensible format.
Calendar: I use the offline calendar on my phone.
Video Player: VLC, Gnome Video is just too basic.
Music Player: YouTube :-) Seriously, I use Rhythmbox and it's kinda ok, when it doesn't mess with the metadata of a full directory of files. I'm chmod 400 my mp3 to make them safe.
Photo Viewer: eog? I used shotwell and its predecessor (fspot?) and I lost all labels migrating among versions and computers. I'm not wasting my time anymore with sw that organize picture collections. If at least they had import / export to / from csv.
Screen Recording: I liked to use Green Recorder https://launchpad.net/~mhsabbagh/+archive/ubuntu/greenprojec... but how about adding a video editor too?
Re: Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
This plagued me for a couple of years! Yes! Either make it higher or learn which ones we actually click.
Gnome Shell seems to remember the last opened one. That doesn't really help when you actually do use Calc occasionally, though.
I've never known it to exhibit that kind of memory - and if it does, it needs to be smarter about keeping the much more frequently used calculator above the spreadsheet program.
Re: Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
You'd think so, but no.
It does, but it has a short memory. If you select Office by accident, it'll then start showing that first again for awhile.
It wasn't doing it before, but I have a new System76 machine with a fresh GNOME install, so let's see if it works here.
Re: Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps
#116If I may make a suggestion: I'd rather have a quizz at first install and user account creation that would ask what users want with sane defaults hiding behind an `I don't know` checkbox (ie: don't configure any mail client if people just use GMail). It would definitely ease the adoption from first users instead of throwing a huge pile of shortcuts to their face when they click the apps menu for the first time. I woul…
Really like this idea, a wizard to get all your preferences on setup that preconfigures defaults. Expand it to programming toolsets or whatever your primary use is and have a way to save and share it between different linux versions or even OS's a la dotfiles.
Love the idea of a wizard - but a lot of users will want as painless a setup as possible. if they can worry about configuration when they feel like it, if they feel like it, they may be happier. i.e., some way to use a one-time app for running that wizard later.
Re: Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same but vlc for videos
VLC is indeed superior in comparison with Totem but it does not integrate nicely into GNOME as Totem would. MPV is also a very capable player. There is even an GTK frontend which obeys GNOME HIG and which is called gnome-mpv[0]. Maybe it would be a nice pick for the default video player. [0] https://github.com/gnome-mpv/gnome-mpv
I'd rather have the superior player than the superior aesthetics, IMHO.
Re: Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps
#118Web Browser: Chrome, Firefox
Email Client: Various web clients
Terminal: Gnome Terminal
IDE: VS Code
File manager: Nautilus
Basic Text Editor: vim
IRC/Messaging Client: Slack, Discord
PDF Reader: Chrome, Evince
Office Suite: Google drive web
Calendar: Google calendar web
Video Player: VLC
Music Player: Spotify non-free
Photo Viewer: The default one
Screen recording: None
Re: Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps
#119web browser: firefox
photo viewer: shotwell
Re: Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think in GNOME it learns which one you use more frequently and have that first instead.
You'd think so, but no.
When I type 'calc' I get the calculator as the first entry in GNOME.
Even after I move over and opened LibreOffice Calc, subsequent searches still gave me the calculator as the first entry.
I'm not exactly sure how it works, but I don't seem to have the same issue that's being mentioned.