HOWTO Lightweight package selection (using Xfce and suitable for office usage)

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Contents

[edit] Purpose

This article aims at helping you to choose applications when setting up a lightweight Desktop Environment under Linux. In the Xfce philosophy, applications are lightweight when they are low on memory usage and do not require heavy dependencies (such as KDE or Gnome). This article sticks to it. In case there is no lightweight reliable feature-equivalent application, Gnome depending programs may be added here. Otherwise, all useful applications are welcome: GTK+, QT, tcl/tk, closed source, etc. However, please consider that only free programs (as in free to use) are preferred.

As you might have already understood, this article focuses mainly on lightweight and easy to use applications that would fit a "typical" Desktop Environment. For tweaking your system in order to have a light Gentoo installation, this article should be of interest. Since this article discusses setting up a system suitable for office usage, I am supposing that the final user will be an end-user, not knowing much other than to point and click.

Warning: Throughout this article, packages tagged with the asterix (i.e. GnomeBaker*) require heavy Gnome dependencies.
Note: Please do NOT add anything that depends on the KDE libraries; this page is aimed at not having to run two trees at the same time. Having both QT and GTK libraries running does stress your system.
Note: Before adding packages to this list, please discuss it first.

[edit] System related choices

[edit] Choosing the filesystem

For maximum file system performance, search the Internet (I'm no expert and the opinions might diverge greatly). For maximum interoperability with Windows, consider using Ext3, at least for your /home partition.

Provides support for read and write operations and makes Windows handle the partition natively, i.e. the drive will be available under, say, the drive letter G:\.
  • FAT32 -- Kernel driver
Provides good support for read and write operations. However, the file system is quite limited: it is case insensitive, handles badly UTF-8, limits the allowed size of a single file, etc.
Provides support for read and write operations, is actively maintained and went stable as of 2007.
  • ReiserFS -- rfsd also called ReiserDriver
Provides support for read-only operations. Be warned that it is not maintained since 2005 and is available under pre-release form only.

Further information: HOWTO Newbie Guide to Stage1 NPTL Install, Ext3 in windows, HOWTO NTFS write with ntfs-3g, HOWTO Mount Windows partitions (DOS, FAT, NTFS).

[edit] Choosing fonts

Now, this is one extremely subjective matter, so consider these only as suggestions of fonts that may suit your purpose. Certain users believe that the following are high-quality fonts.

Many users feel that un-antialiased fonts look "cleaner", especially on LCD monitors. After having read and understood this legal note, consider enabling TrueType's Byte Code Interpreter (BCI) in FreeType. Documentation: HOWTO Xorg and Fonts.

emerge -tva ttf-bitstream-vera
Usage: User interface, display
emerge -tva dejavu
Usage: User interface, display
emerge -tva terminus-font
Usage: Console, virtual terminal
Wikipedia has an article on:
emerge -tva texlive-fontsextra
Usage: High-resolution printed output
Documentation: The LaTeX font catalogue
emerge -tva texlive-fontsrecommended
Usage: Printed output
Documentation: The LaTeX font catalogue
emerge -tva corefonts
Usage: Compatibility with .doc-like documents
Remarks: the fonts installed by the Corefonts ebuild are somewhat out-dated (in my experience). You'll be better off installing them manually from your Windows installation.

[edit] Gentoo specific utilities

emerge -tva porthole
Documentation: Overview of portage tools, TIP Speeding up portage with tmpfs, Flagedit
Toolkit: GTK+2
Alternatives: Portato
emerge -tva elogviewer
Toolkit: GTK+2
emerge -tva autounmask
Interface: CLI

[edit] Setting up the Desktop Environment

  • X.Org (x11-base/xorg-x11) -- An X11 implementation maintained by the X.Org Foundation (meta package)
emerge -tva xorg-x11
Documentation: HOWTO Modular Xorg, HOWTO X.org
emerge -tva slim slim-themes
Documentation: SLiM, HOWTO SLiM setup
Alternatives: Xfce/Installation
emerge -tva xfce4 xfce4-extras xfburn xarchiver squeeze xfmedia ristretto xfkc
Documentation: HOWTO thunar-volman, HOWTO localedef, HOWTO Synchronize time
Toolkit: GTK+2
Alternatives: Enlightenment, Fluxbox, Choosing a DE/WM
Wikipedia has an article on:

At this point you will be able to start the X Server and login into Xfce using a graphical Display Manager. You will also be able to perform, among many others, the following basic tasks:

- manage your files and rename multiple files at once -- Thunar (xfce-base/thunar)
- have you volumes mounted automatically -- thunar-volman (xfce-extra/thunar-volman)
- manage your time -- Orage (xfce-base/orage)
- edit text files -- Mousepad (xfce-extra/mousepad)
- emulate a virtual terminal -- Terminal (xfce-extra/terminal)
- manage your processes -- Xfce4-taskmanager (xfce-extra/xfce4-taskmanager)
- record optical discs -- Xfburn (xfce-extra/xfburn)
- manage your archives -- Xarchiver (app-arch/xarchiver) and Squeeze (app-arch/squeeze)
- play multimedia files -- Xfmedia (media-video/xfmedia)
- view pictures -- Ristretto (xfce-extra/ristretto)
- graphically configure the keyboard layout -- XfKC (xfce-extra/xfkc)
Note: As of April 2008, Xfmedia is quite mature but still problematic on playing videos. Xfburn, Squeeze and Ristretto are not yet "perfectly" stable, with certain features still missing. Several alternatives are presented in the relevant sections bellow.

[edit] File management

Wikipedia has an article on:
emerge -tva emelfm2
Documentation: todo
Toolkit: GTK+2
Remarks: Those coming from Windows and looking for a Total Commander alternative under Linux need to at least check this application. It does not strive to emulate the look and feel of Total Commander; it does however offer you similar (sometimes more) functionality with a more Unix-like approach.
manual installation (ebuild; HOWTO Installing 3rd Party Ebuilds)
Homepage: http://software.twotoasts.de/?page=catfish
Toolkit: GTK+2

[edit] Office tools

With office usage, compatibility and sharing documents in mind, OpenOffice is the obvious choice for an office suite. It is however criticised for its slowness, as well as bloated code and interface. Users report nights of compiling, so seriously consider installing the binary package. OpenOffice hardly fits the scope of this article, but is the choice for inter-operability with Microsoft Office and as an alternative to the latter. Lightweight alternatives to this heavyweight are AbiWord and Gnumeric, word processor and spreadsheet, respectively. It is up to you to try these and decide whether they fit your needs. Also, a worthy alternative to conventional word processors is LyX.

emerge -tva openoffice-bin
Toolkit: GTK+2
Alternatives: AbiWord, Gnumeric
Wikipedia has an article on:
emerge -tva lyx
Documentation: todo
Toolkit: QT4
Remarks: LyX is an WYSIWYM [1] frontend to LaTeX. It can be used to create structured documents and presentations, professionally typeset mathematical formulas, and to insert diagrams in its documents (as images, and created by an external application, such as Dia).
Note: Please do not underestimate LyX as an alternative to word processors. Conventional word processors are stupid and innefficient [2]. For arguments on LaTeX strengths and weeknesses, check this Cambridge University page.

Basically it goes down like this: TeX is a professional type-setting system. LaTeX is a collection of macros that helps using TeX in a somewhat systematic and organized way. LyX helps use LaTeX in a easy way. Somewhat time-consuming are the first two documents; then, using the likes of MS Word or OpenOffice feels like a pain.

Why all the rant? Check this pdf document giving reasons for using LaTeX with, at the end, a page containing MS Word-like text near LaTeX formatted text. You'll understand that it is much about output and printing quality. With LyX the user only has to care about the structure and content of the text, while the formatting is done by LaTeX, an advanced typesetting system. Again, check the application, then decide whether it suits your needs.
  • eqe (app-office/eqe) -- LaTeX equation editor that produces images interactively
emerge -tva eqe
Toolkit: GTK+2
Alternatives: Ekee
Remarks: Perfect if you want to use beautifully typeset LaTeX equations in conventional word-processors. The application also has support for drag-and-drop. Ekee is in fact the recent (as of March 2008) successor of eqe, using however QT4. The latter has many more features and seems to be more robust.
emerge -tva scribus
Toolkit: QT3
emerge -tva acroread
Toolkit: GTK+2
Alternatives: ePDFView, Xpdf
Remarks: Beginning with the acroread-8* editions, Adobe's Reader give the feel of a "normal" GTK+ application, which loads relatively fast. If you prefer open-source programs, consider ePDFView (GTK+2 based) or Xpdf (Motif based), both free lightweight PDF document viewers. Please note, however, that in day-to-day usage acroread-8* feels faster and more comfortable.
emerge -tva qalculate-gtk qalculate-bases qalculate-currency qalculate-units
Toolkit: GTK+2

[edit] Statistical packages

Migrating to Linux often means searching open-source equivalents to proprietary software. For those looking for an alternative to SAS or SPSS statistical packages, the R programming language is the answer. R is command-line driven. However, it does provide several GUIs among the multitude of its modules.

Wikipedia has an article on:
  • R (dev-lang/R) -- Language and environment for statistical computing and graphics
emerge -tva R
Documentation: todo
sudo R and install.packages("Rcmdr", dependencies=TRUE)
Homepage: http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox/Misc/Rcmdr/
Documentation: todo
Toolkit: Tcl/Tk
Remarks: Unless you use Paludis, Rcmdr needs installed from within R.
Note: From my quests, this is the more viable alternative to SPSS. It provides a clean user interface and is designed "to support, through an easy-to-use, extensible, crossplatform GUI, the statistical functionality required for a basic-statistics course". Although it does not yet offer all the advanced functionality of SPSS, recently (as of end 2007) a plugin infrastructure was implemented, meaning that Rcmdr has interesting perspectives for growth. Check the available plugins ("RcmdrPlugin.*") on the Contributed Packages at CRAN.
sudo R and install.packages("JGR", dependencies=TRUE)
Homepage: http://rosuda.org/JGR/
Interface: Java
sudo R and install.packages("rattle", dependencies=TRUE)
Homepage: http://rattle.togaware.com/
Toolkit: GTK+2
emerge -tva paraview
Toolkit: QT4

[edit] Network related applications

This article prefers web suites to stand-alone web browsers. Under the awful sounding SeaMonkey, one will find the good old Netscape Communicator. SeaMonkey does not yet fully emulate the comfortability of Opera, but if you are on the look-out for a modern and up-to-date GTK+2 web suite, this would be your choice.

  • Opera - Fast and secure free Web browser
emerge -tva opera
Homepage: http://www.opera.com
Toolkit: QT3
Remarks: Beginning with the 9.50 Betas, if run under the correct environment (say, DESKTOP_SESSION=xfce) Opera uses the native GTK+ file-chooser.
  • SeaMonkey - Mozilla Application Suite - web browser, email, HTML editor, IRC
emerge -tva seamonkey-bin
Homepage: http://www.seamonkey-project.org/
Toolkit: GTK+2
Alternatives: Kazehakase, Epiphany*
  • gFTP - Gnome based FTP Client
emerge -tva gftp
Homepage: http://www.gftp.org/
Toolkit: GTK+2
  • Pidgin - GTK Instant messaging client
emerge -tva pidgin pidgin-extprefs pidgin-libnotify pidgin-smileys
Homepage: http://pidgin.im
Toolkit: GTK+2

[edit] Graphics applications

  • Mirage - Fast and simple image viewer
emerge -tva mirage
Homepage: http://mirageiv.berlios.de
Toolkit: GTK+2
  • The GIMP - GNU Image Manipulation Program
emerge -tva gimp
Homepage: http://www.gimp.org/
Toolkit: GTK+2
  • Inkscape - A SVG based generic vector-drawing program
emerge -tva inkscape
Homepage: http://www.inkscape.org/
Toolkit: GTK+2
emerge -tva dia
Toolkit: GTK+2
Alternatives: grace
Remarks: Dia is somewhat similar to the proprietary MS Visio. It can export to an array of formats, and thus can handily be used to create and insert diagrams into LyX documents (capabilities that are integrated in conventional word-processors).

[edit] Multimedia applications

  • Brasero* (app-cdr/brasero) -- Application to burn CD/DVD for the Gnome Desktop
emerge -tva brasero
Toolkit: GTK+2
Alternatives: Graveman!, GnomeBaker*
Remarks: Brasero installs many undesired dependencies, with Nautilus one of the more disturbing. However, it performs various checks before burning the CDs. If you don't care much about having your CDs and DVDs messed up from time to time, consider the alternatives.
emerge -tva xsane
Toolkit: GTK+2
emerge -tva sonata mpd xfce4-mpc
Toolkit: GTK+2
Remarks: Sonata is an excellent "music player", with a highly clean and intuitive interface. It uses MPD as a backend for playing audio files and for the library support. The "kool" thing about MPD is that at boot-time it will resume playing before X is initialized and at halt-time will stop playing after X was shut down.
  • VLC media player (media-video/vlc) -- Media player supporting a large number of multimedia formats
emerge -tva vlc
Documentation: HOWTO VLC
Toolkit: GTK+2
Wikipedia has an article on:
emerge -tva gnome-mplayer gecko-mediaplayer mplayer mplayer-skins
Documentation: HOWTO MPlayer
Toolkit: GTK+2
Remarks: GNOME MPlayer pulls in only the base Gnome libraries, and provides a clean and intuitive interface to MPlayer. It is also well suited for playing audio disks. Gecko Media Player makes GNOME MPlayer available as a browser plugin.
  • OGMRip - Graphical frontend and libraries for ripping DVDs and encoding to AVI/OGM/MKV/MP4
emerge -tva ogmrip
Homepage: http://ogmrip.sourceforge.net/en/index.html
Documentation: HOWTO DVD to Matroska
Toolkit: GTK+2
  • Grip - Audio CD Player/Ripper
emerge -tva grip
Homepage: http://www.nostatic.org/grip/
Toolkit: GTK+2
  • EasyTAG - Utility for editing MP2, MP3, MP4, FLAC, Ogg and other media tags
emerge -tva easytag
Homepage: http://easytag.sourceforge.net/
Toolkit: GTK+2
Remarks: Beginning with version 2.1.1, EasyTAG uses libid3tag. Thus, it fully supports writing UTF-8 tags to mp3 files, tags that are - among others - compatible with at least Winamp >=5.5.
  • Audacity - Free crossplatform audio editor
emerge -tva audacity
Homepage: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Toolkit: GTK+2

[edit] Miscellaneous utilities

manual installation (ebuild; HOWTO Installing 3rd Party Ebuilds)
Homepage: http://hardinfo.berlios.de
Toolkit: GTK+2
  • Gmrun (x11-misc/gmrun) -- Launcher box with bash style auto completion
emerge -tva gmrun
Toolkit: GTK+2
manual installation (ebuild; HOWTO Installing 3rd Party Ebuilds)
Homepage: http://developer.berlios.de/projects/ktsuss
Toolkit: GTK+2
emerge -tva gtkam
Toolkit: GTK+2
  • Alexandria (app-misc/alexandria) -- A GNOME application to help you manage your book collection
emerge -tva alexandria
Toolkit: GTK+2

[edit] Mind-breaking games

I've worked hard to get to this section. :) It's pause time.

  • Enigma - Puzzle game similar to Oxyd
emerge -tva enigma
Homepage: http://www.nongnu.org/enigma/
  • Eboard - Chess interface for POSIX systems
emerge -tva eboard
Homepage: http://eboard.sourceforge.net/
Documentation: HOWTO Chess
Toolkit: GTK+2
  • pouetChess - 3D and open source chess game
emerge -tva pouetchess
Homepage: http://pouetchess.sourceforge.net/

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Credits

Original article written by --Landroni 22:12, 19 January 2008 (UTC). If you can improve this page, don't be shy - do it. For package additions please take the time to discuss them first on the talk page. If this article was of any help or you have any comments, you can always leave a message on my talk page.

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