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

AA support?

[Libor Vanek]

Does it support AA and alpha chanell? .-)

Re:X (and other Window systems) reduce productivit

[ahknight]

In years past, I knew of someone who used emacs as his login shell :-)

I don't know what's more frightening, that he did or that you can.

Re:X (and other Window systems) reduce productivit

[arvindn]

Obligatory:

The only thing he found wanting in emacs was a good text editor :)

Directfb/fresco?

[Anonymous Coward]

These two projects are trying to develop "real" alternatives to X.

Fresco is dead, but Directfb already has full gnome support, X emulation, mplayer support, alpha blending, and hardware accelleration and because it uses the same technology as the penguin logo on bootup, its fast!. This is a REAL alternative to X, and I hope you give it more support.

Directfb homepage

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.

Alternatively...

[Ed Avis]

If you want to switch between console applications but you don't need a 'windowing' environment, you can use screen(1). What I do is this on every ssh login:

% exec screen -E '^Z^Z' -D -R

This brings up my applications exactly how I left them last time. Then C-z c starts a new screen, C-z 0 through C-z 9 switches between screens, C-z C-z sends a literal ^Z, and C-z d disconnects. I normally have pine running in terminal zero, XEmacs in terminal one, then top(1) and maybe a shell in two more terminals. This is much handier than having to start applications every time you log in, and essential over a noisy modem line where the ssh connection might suddenly cut out. If it does, just reconnect, run the above command and everything is just as you left it.

Speaking of Emacs, you can do most things inside that including making shell and terminal buffers, so in a way it provides a windowing system like Twin.