I’ve been trying to lighten the load on my Eee PC…not because it can’t handle it, but because I just like to eek out every bit of speed from my little workhorse. Thunderbird runs fine, but just seems like it takes a few more seconds than I’d like to open, and the interface just isn’t quite as responsive as I’d like. So I went looking for alternatives.

The Eee comes with Kmail (a great small client) but I prefer GTK apps. So I uninstalled Kmail and went searching for GTK email client alternatives. Searching in the Debian repos, I found Claws mail…a lightweight GTK mailer. I fired that puppy up and boy was impressed! It opens practically instantly on my Eee PC, and offers a host of features and some pretty cool plugins, like a tray icon, vcalendar support, SpamAssasin integration, and even attachment reminders! Plus, the interface is easy and intuitive; I had my Gmail IMAP set up in less than a minute. Good looks, blazing speed, intuitive interface, and lots of great features…I think it’s time to be productive with your email!

What’s your favorite lightweight email client?

Claws Mail Homepage

Filed under: Email | 3 Comments »

I want to introduce you WorkLifeCreativity.Net, a new productivity site dedicated to sparking discussions that that allow you to strike that perfect work/life balance, get more done with your day, and grow as person–in new, fresh, and creative ways.

I happen to be the moderator of the GNU/Linux/Unix sub-forum, and I’d for you to drop by and contribute to the existing discussion, or start a completely new topic. I’m exited to see a place where can meet beyond this blog and discuss being productive with free and open source tools.

Check it out, join, post, learn, have fun! See you at WorkLifeCreativity.Net!

Filed under: Advocacy | No Comments »

I was going through my starred items in Google Reader yesterday and I came across a pretty powerful article by Gina Tripani, the head honcho over at Lifehacker. She writes about applying Unix philosophy to personal productivity, and as a Linux user I was intrigued. Points of discussion I found most interesting:

Write simple parts connected by clean interfaces. (Rule of Modularity)

This, of course, refers to the “one small app for each task” approach favored by Linux forever. This makes a lot of sense to me. You often run into problems when using an “all-in-one” approach to your trusted system (I eventually found Evolution to just be too clunky, for example.) While a small modular approach (Thunderbird for Email, A Web app for task management) has allowed me a greater degree of flexibility.

Design for the future, because it will be here sooner than you think. (Rule of Extensibility)

This is a biggie for me. Even though I may not be using the exact same system 2 years from now, I need to be thinking about how I will transfer my information. Does my task manager allow for the exporting of information? Is my calendar in a universal format? How will I retain all of my contact information from my address book? These are things to consider when committing to a trusted system on any platform.

The good news is that since Linux is founded on Unixy ideas, we’re naturally in a good place to start applying these principals to our trusted systems. We have an abundance of excellent, small(er) apps that we can put together to created a flexible system. And there’s no better place to begin storing your data in open, future-proof formats like OpenDocument and plain text than Linux.

How do you apply the principals of Unix and Linux to your trusted system?

Full Story: Applying Unix Philosophy to Personal Productivity

Filed under: Editorial | No Comments »

The things I require from my music manager seem pretty simple: I want to be able to easily create playlists, quickly look up artist info from wikipedia, manage my podcasts, and easily transfer tracks to my Cowon iAudio 7. Things like online music store integration are optional for me, but I do like good Last.fm support. Of course, virtually every music manager for Linux–from Rhythmbox to Banshee–provides the basic features that I need…but Rhythmbox’s podcast support is poor, Amarok clashes with my GNOME desktop, and Banshee is too unstable on my system to be usable. I had all but given up on finding a music manager that I really liked, but then I revisited a project I had tested and given up on months ago: Exaile.

I am thrilled with the improvement and development that this application has seen. The interface is intuitive, it has great podcast support, it syncs well with my iAudio device, and looks fantastic on my desktop. Not to mention the fact that it starts quickly and runs like a top…no crashes at all thus far!

From the Exaile official site:

Exaile is a music player aiming to be similar to KDE’s Amarok, but for GTK+ and written in Python. It incorporates many of the cool things from Amarok (and other media players) like automatic fetching of album art, handling of large libraries, lyrics fetching, artist/album information via Wikipedia, Last.fm submission support, and optional iPod support via a plugin.

IMHO, Exaile is one of the most under appreciated music managers for the GNOME desktop. If you’re looking for an intuitive, stable, and easy way to manage your music collection, then check out Exaile.

http://www.exaile.org/

Filed under: Multimedia | 3 Comments »

I was pretty psyched to read on Lifehacker today that the popular app launcher for Windows called Launchy has released a Linux version for GNOME and KDE. I’ve never tried Launchy (Linux only around here!), but as soon as I get home to my desktop (in about four days or so) I’ll definitely give it a download and try it out. While I’m pretty sure nothing will take me away from my favorite launcher, Deskbar, I’m looking forward to taking it out for a spin.

Have you tried Launchy for Linux yet? What do you think?

Full Story: Launchy for Linux Works Just Like Windows Version

Filed under: App Releases, Deskbar, Keyboard Love | 2 Comments »