Who Needs XFree86?

An anonymous reader writes "With this review Linux and Main says it is kicking off a project to put together a Linux machine that operates entirely in the console, including applications, without the user ever having to enter anything at a command prompt. The review is of Twin, the very cool windowing environment for the console. Applications will be added over time, and readers are invited to nominate their favorite little-known console applications."

Comments

I do.

[Anonymous Coward]

I need X because administration of Solaris machines all but requires it. If you want to use any of the tools that Sun provides to make life easier (not knocking Sun, they do make life easier), then you need a machine running X.

If your'e using gentoo.

[Anonymous Coward]

just "emerge twin".

Re:Two questions

[arvindn]

Hey!

You can easily run X on a 333 Mhz machine.

I use a PII 333 as my server and desktop, and I have very little incentive to upgrade.

If you want to give an example of a bitty box you can't run X on, pick something lower down in the pecking order.

Favorite console app

[jon787]

Bitchx, screen, links, ntaim, and vim.

Re:Favorite console app

[Aliencow]

Mine include screen, but irssi for IRC, and also, bitlbee, which is not really a console app, but more of a deamon. It is based on Gaim, and it provides an IRC server in which the channel #bitlbee is your contact list. To message someone, you just either /msg them or write their name followed by a colon and then your message. Great for MSN/ICQ/AIM over ssh when used with bitchx or irssi !

Re:Two questions

[cyb97]

Not if you use SSH with X-forwarding, all the X traffic travels through the ssh-tunnel. (Hence ssh sets your display-env to localhost:10.0-etc so everything is as secure as your SSH-session)

My Pick

[RAMMS EIN]

I move around a lot, and use SSH to log into my machine at home to continue working where I left off. The apps I use:

vi - IMO _the_ example of bad interface design, but it's fast once you know how to use it (actually, I use elvis, but I guess any vi-clone would do)

mutt - it's just fantastic. A little harder to use than pine, but a lot easier when you have many mailboxen (I have some maildirs and a couple of IMAP accounts)

w3m - ideal if you are on a slow machine. When run under X11 or on the framebuffer, it renders images, too

centericq - all major protocols, and file transfers. This is a program that would benefit from a point-and-click interface, though.

mp3blaster - Housemates flee in terror as the computer suddenly starts playing music while no operator is around ;-) Supports Ogg Vorbis and MP3

dcd - Yes, I have audio CDs, too

cdrecord - burning those ISOs so I can propagate Free software

abcde - Rip your audio cd, look up the track names (CDDB), and encode to your favorite format - with one command!

And, of course, the usual Unix commands, C compiler, yada, yada.

Cheers!

---
Qui in ventem urinat, se lavare constat.

Re:Step futher?

[entrox]

Huh? Why would you want to do that - Symbolics Lisp machines already had an excellent editing substrate called EINE (EINE Is Not Emacs) and later ZWEI (Zwei Was EINE Initially). Zmacs, the LispM editor, was using those and is possibly still more advanced than the Emacs of today.

You can take a look at The Symbolics LispM Museum for more information and pictures.

Re:plenty of toolkits like that already

[RobotWisdom]

I tried to trace the evolution of windowing systems in this timeline. (Lots of links and screenshots.)

Ratpoison

[sleepingsquirrel]

And for those occasions when you do need a graphical X program, use the ratpoison window manager. It's a no-nonsense, no bloat, no mouse needed window manager.

Re:Excellent

[tuffy]

Wow...welcome to 1993.

In 1993, I was using X11.

:)

Re:Useful for Remote Server Administration

[plastik55]

xnest and xmove might help you out.