Evolution 2.11.6: A mail client smarter than I

After putting off doing a fresh install of Ubuntu for almost 2 years (it's just too easy to dist-upgrade), I did a fresh install of Gutsy Gibbon. Among other neat surprises (which I'll try to blog about), this one almost made me fall off my chair:


Being the total klutz that I am, I had forgotten to attach a file to an email I wrote before I clicked send. To my surprise, Evolution made an educated guess that I had done exactly that, and gave me a warning!

I love Evolution + GNOME.

GNOME 3.0 Mockup: "May-B"

There's an interesting mockup of GNOME 3 over on GNOME-Look.org that someone did:


The mockup looks like a combination of Gimmie, (U)SLAB, and Mathusalem (elements which should probably be merged into GNOME sooner or later.) The tags/files panel on the right looks it could use some work (layout, size, fonts, etc.), but the overall concept seems like it's pointed in the right direction.

On a related note, the new DesktopThoughts blog (who's author created the mockup) aims at discussing ideas for "the next desktop". If you're interested in seeing what people come up with or you've got some ideas of your own, be sure to give it a visit.

Now, we just need to make sure that the GNOME logo doesn't evolve into some scary, evil-looking thing like the one in the background of that desktop...

Why I love GNOME (part 1?)

If someone asked me, "What's the most underrated feature in GNOME?", I'd undoubtedly show them this:

Did you see that?

All I had to do to extract that archive was right-click on it, and hit "Extract here". That's it. I didn't have to open an application and choose where I wanted to extract the archive to or anything. (It's probably the feature I miss the most when I use Windows or OS X...)

Oh yeah, and I forgot the coolest part: If the archive you're extracting contains a bunch of files that aren't grouped in a parent folder, it knows to create a new directory to throw them in (so you won't end up with files littered all over your desktop.) Neato.

What do you think is the most underrated feature in Linux, GNOME, or whatever desktop environment you use?

Updates from the Web: GNOME 2.16, Exaile, and more

I've been pretty busy over the past few days, and I apologize for the lack of updates. In the meantime, here's some interesting articles I've spotted:

• Ars Technica has a First Look at GNOME 2.16
• The 2X TerminalServer seems to be getting a bit of press (ie. it popped up on digg, hardly the press though.) It's another open source (but commercial) implementation of the NoMachine server. Honestly, the NoMachine server kicks ass, so I'm not quite sure why you'd want to use this one. (It's a breeze to install in the latest version too - just 3 .DEBs)
• Red Herring has an interview with Michael Robertson, founder of MP3.com and Linspire, where he talks about Linux, Linspire, and the music industry. I found this part of the interview particularly interesting - Way to dodge the question Michael:
  
  

  Q: And so we’ve got to ask you, you’ve recently made CNR–your software update service for Linspire–free. If I’m an Ubuntu user, am I going to be able use this in order to fill up my machine with capabilities like the ability to do DVD playback, Flash, Quicktime? Is that a possibility?
  
  A: If you’ve ever tried to install software on Linux, [you know] it’s really difficult. There’s no easy installer, like an XP user would be used to, and Click and Run goes beyond that, right? One click and everything is downloaded and installed, icons on the desktop, etc. So, absolutely, I think that’s something that makes a lot of sense and so we’re definitely looking at something like that.
  
  

• CRN has an editorial I think I agree with: "Advice to Linux: Kill the Penguin" (especially the part about the acronyms thing)
• A new version (0.2) of the Exaile Media Player has been released. It's apparently described as "Amarok for GNOME". If any long-term readers out there remember my thoughts on Amarok, they'll know that I have beef with the sideways tabs. Worst interface element ever? Quite possibly. Well, now GNOME users can indulge themselves in useless sideways tabs that hide functionality that shouldn't be hidden away. (Compare Banshee's GUI with Exaile's GUI.) Lastly, someone should also quietly tell the author of Exaile that the only good Hooverphonic album is the first one. :P
• ... and if you made it this far, Charlie isn't the only who's just gone through a breakup. (Albeit mine was for different reasons...) :(
  

Mathusalem

Now, here's an idea that should have been thought of a long time ago: Integrate a universal progress bar into the desktop environment.

Luckily, Steve Frécinaux's finally started working on it, and it's first implementation is called Mathusalem.

The author's breakdown of Mathusalem 0.3 gives a good explaination of how it works (and includes a nice screenshot).

Last week, version 0.4 was released and shows some more progress, including:

- Nautilus integration via extension.
- Improved Epiphany integration.
- Only show the status icon when there is an active task.
- Show a notification bubble on task completion/failure.

Very cool stuff, although I think it might make more sense for this to be implemented as a GNOME panel applet. Either way, the author knows clearly what he's doing, so he probably knows better than I. Google's Summer of Code is over now, but let's hope the author keeps developing Mathusalem - it's just too clever of an idea to let go to waste.
Another one to watch.
:)

If you'd like to keep up-to-date with Mathusalem, it can be followed on the author's blog here.

GNOME's preferences to get overhaul

Word on the street is that GNOME's preferences/administration "capplets" are going to get an overhaul, although it won't be ready for the 2.16 release.

While the specifics are still up in the air, it looks like there's going to be a fair amount of the capplets grouped together. Rodrigo Moya's initial proposal looked like this:

* about-me
* at-properties
* a11y keyboard, keyboard and keybindings: merge them in one single
Keyboard capplet
* background, display, font, mouse?, theme switcher, ui-properties,
windows: merge them into a single 'Display' capplet
* default apps
* file types, mime-type
* localization
* network, url-properties
* sound: add video device setup and call it Multimedia??

If you had to ask me, I'd say that judging by a few similar discussions I've read, the new "preferences/administration" would maybe end up looking like the following: Display, Input Devices, Sound and Multimedia, About Me, File Associations, Accessibility, and Localization. (Note: This is almost complete speculation.)

Now, by the time development starts rolling on this, the whole "preferences/administration" interface may have been blown away in favour of the "GNOME Control Center" or have at least a different interface style (compared to the menu method used now.) Since it looks like the preferences and administration menus might be merged, I'd bet that a bigger redesign and reorganization like this is the most likely thing to happen.
If you'd like to get a more in-depth glimpse of the ideas that people are throwing around, check out "Preferences Revisted" on GNOME Live.

(I should also mention Ubuntu Control Center, which is an answer to Novell's control center in their SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10. It'll be interesting to see what the GNOME guys do if Ubuntu ever decides to switch over officially to the Ubuntu Control Center...)

August GNOME Journal

The August edition of The GNOME Journal has been out for a few days, and it's worth checking out if you want a behind-the-scenes look at GNOME development. I've mentioned Tinymail before, and if you're a developer, the article on it is a good read. (Tinymail is being developed as a sort of object-oriented framework instead of just a library.)

Lastly, the interview with Davyd Madeley is pretty interesting:

In your opinion, what should be the next GNOME big steps?

Integration and collaboration. If I have a Bluetooth device, its useful functionality should be integrated with my GNOME applications. My Nokia 770 (or the one I wish I had) should be able to seamlessly integrate with my GNOME Desktop. Not just by syncing data with Evolution, but also at an application level integration. The Jokosher remote is an interesting example of this.

Collaboration is somewhere where we can really get ahead of the game. Collaborative Abiword, collaborative Inkscape, these applications are really pushing the limits with how people expect conventional applications to function. The way we work is undergoing a paradigm shift, in that we no longer all work together in the same office and sometimes, there is no office at all. The ability to collaborate in the same basic way but over a network is seriously a cool thing.

Read on!

USBSink 0.1

Today we saw the first release of USBSink:

USBSink is a GNOME program for file synchronization over USB.
It is designed for users of removable drives, such as flash drives
or external hard disks. The goal is to have a complete automation of
data trasfers, after a task has been defined. With file monitoring and
hardware detection features, USBSink is able to respond and act
according to relevant events across the desktop.

I'm surprised nobody's created this utility before, and thankful someone finally has. (How long have USB flash drives been around for?)
There's two screenshots available as well as some basic development plans.
If looking for a useful utility to synchronize files to a USB drive, this is the answer to your prayers - Give it a download!

Edgy Eft and GNOME 2.16 Features

A Stranger's Universe has a nifty article on Edgy Eft (Ubuntu 6.10) & GNOME 2.16 Features. Most of the items in the preview are mild improvements to individual GNOME applications, but there's still plenty of time for the next Ubuntu to become a bit more "edgy".

Last-exit Player and Last.fm

Last-exit is an audio player for the handy last.fm music service. If you have a free Last.fm profile, the player will stream music from artists that it thinks you will like based on your past listening history.

The website for Last-exit gave me a good chuckle when I saw it the first time. If you click the "magic stuff", you'll see some nice screenshots as well. That brings me to my next point: The user interface on this application absolutely kicks ass. It's simple, organized, functional, and looks great.

So what's Last.fm?
Last.fm is a useful website/service for finding artists similar to those that you already listen to. If you use an audio player that has last.fm support, last.fm will automatically build up a profile of what music you listen to. If you login to the last.fm website, it'll show you stats on what you've been listening to, and it'll help you find similar artists. Banshee takes it a step further by integrating some of these stats directly into the player's UI.
Sometimes it tells you about artists that you already know about, but it's usually a great way to expand your taste in music. Personally, I've found it pretty useful in my experience with it, but there's always some interesting bias in the statistics it gives you. For instance, the first few songs that appear in Banshee or Rhythmbox for me get played disproportionately more than other songs in my collection simply because they're at the top and more accessible - not because I like them more. If you keep these sorts of things in mind, it's pretty interesting to see if the music you listen to the most is actually the music you like the most.

Give it a shot!

Edit: A .deb for Ubuntu Dapper is available here. (.DEB updated to version 2, but if you want to run the newer version 3, download the sources.)