Using Bluefish to Edit Web Pages

If you are a Dreamweaver person, and you have moved to Linux you may be struggling with the aspect of how to edit web pages as smoothly as Dreamweaver. For a long time I have tried several different options but none in Linux worked well. One thing you will have to give up, unless you install Wine, is that the GUI is not going to be possible in Linux like it was with Dreamweaver. My problem is that I do not want to use Windows to do my web page edits. So I left Dreamweaver as it had way to many features I did not need anyway. Recently I tried Bluefish again, and fell in love. Part of this is that I was working on a CSS project and I needed an editor that was clean. Bluefish is not real fancy but it does have some options that may be useful for you.

Here is a description of Bluefish:
“Bluefish is an editor for experienced web designers and programmers. It supports many programming and markup languages, but focuses on editing dynamic and interactive websites. Bluefish is an open source development project, released under the GPL license.”

The editor is convenient to use. You have the option of 8 different menu bars that you can quickly get buttons to achieve the goals you have for the project. I like the fact that I could highlight and then click for the tags I wanted to add. This was actually faster than typing the tags manually.

One of the things that made Bluefish a dream for me was setting up a SSH connection with keys and no password so I could make a change and immediately load it onto the site for instant viewing. I did not even use the preview option with the browser.

Here you can see that all you have to do is highlight text and then choose a tag.

Benchmark Your Computer with Debian 5 Lenny

Ever want to know how your computer stacks up against other computers? Are you running a decent machine or are you seriously underpowered? Debian 5 Lenny provides an easy way to start making some comparisons.

Choose Preferences and “System Profiler and Benchmark”. When the window opens you will see that you can generate a system profile which will provide you with a list of your system resources, hardware, etc. This is a very handy troubleshooting tool. But it also provides a way to benchmark your computer. A benchmark runs a standard test on your hardware and operating system to determine how you stack up against other machines. It will give you a good reference point if you need to convince the wife…you need a new computer!

The benchmarks are at the bottom of the left hand screen. It may be the easiest just to click “Generate Report” at the top of the window because that will run it all and provide the reports in a web browser…easy.

Once you generate the reports you will be able to see how you match up on each of the benchmarks. The comment at the bottom of each window tells you if the best is a higher or lower score in each benchmark. It also compares your score with an Intel processor and a PowerPC. Once you have reviewed your benchmarks closely this is what you say to the wife:

“Honey, Lenny told me I need a new laptop”

“Who is Lenny?”

“Oh, Lenny is my new assistant, he just started work on Valentines Day.”

Good Luck on the laptop.

Debian 5 Lenny Released!!!!

It is official Debian 5 Lenny has now released.

From the Website
The Debian Project is pleased to announce the official release of Debian GNU/Linux version 5.0 (codenamed “Lenny”) after 22 months of constant development. Debian GNU/Linux is a free operating system which supports a total of twelve processor architectures and includes the KDE, GNOME, Xfce, and LXDE desktop environments. It also features compatibility with the FHS v2.3 and software developed for version 3.2 of the LSB.

Debian GNU/Linux runs on computers ranging from palmtops and handheld systems to supercomputers, and on nearly everything in between. A total of twelve architectures are supported: Sun SPARC (sparc), HP Alpha (alpha), Motorola/IBM PowerPC (powerpc), Intel IA-32 (i386), IA-64 (ia64), HP PA-RISC (hppa), MIPS (mips, mipsel), ARM (arm, armel), IBM S/390 (s390), and AMD64 and Intel EM64T (amd64).

Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 “Lenny” adds support for Marvell’s Orion platform which is used in many storage devices. Supported storage devices include the QNAP Turbo Station series, HP Media Vault mv2120, and Buffalo Kurobox Pro. Additionally, “Lenny” now supports several Netbooks, in particular the Eee PC by Asus. “Lenny” also contains the build tools for Emdebian which allow Debian source packages to be cross-built and shrunk to suit embedded ARM systems.

Starting Programs at Login in Debian 5 Lenny

OK, so you use the same application every time you login. So, you are wondering, how do I start that application so that it is already running when I start up? Easy, create an entry in the Session manager so that it will start on boot. Here is how to do that.

Open Sessions Preferences
Sessions Preferences is a program that monitors applications at startup. You can see the applications that are started by default listed. The first thing you should do is to turn off some of these applications that you do not use. This will increase your boot time, slightly, and it will save on system resources. For example, if you do not run Bluetooth, uncheck it so that it does not run on boot time.

If you want to add an application you can choose “Add” and this window will open. The problem is, what do you place in the window? You need the name of your application and a comment but the real problem for you will be, what is the command that will work to start my application. You can open a terminal and use the which command like so:

which gimp
/usr/bin/gimp

The which command is asking the system the path to the application you want. It will return the path which is what you can place in the “Command:” section. So if you wanted to start gimp when your machine boots then you place /usr/bin/gimp in that line and add the name and you are set.

Another way to find the path for the application you want to start is to go to the menu right click the application you want, like Iceweasel, and place it on the panel. Once it is on the panel, right click and go to properties which will list the command to start Iceweasel.

You can see the command for iceweasel that has been copied and saved to the command section.

Here is what it looks like once you have it set up. If you decide not to start it at login, then simply uncheck it.

One other thing you can do to get the applications you want to start at boot. You can start all of the applications that you want to start at login and then go to the “Session Options” and click “Automatically remember…”. That way you do not have to search for the command to start an application.

These options then allow you to set up your login sessions any way you want to and have all of your programs running when you log in.

The Unthinkable: Moving From Ubuntu to Debian 5 Lenny

I am thinking the unthinkable…..I am considering changing from Ubuntu 8.10 for my desktop to Debian 5. I have been running the Debian 5 Lenny candidate for awhile and have bee very pleased with the stability and features. It actually functions and acts more like the distribution I need and work on than Ubuntu. Not so say that Ubuntu is bad, just that I typically do not need or use the latest applications. I mainly work on my Linux desktop for about 60 hours a week. So I really need something I can count on. Again, not that Ubuntu has let me down, it has never really crashed on me but I do struggle with bugs from time to time. I use my GUI desktop to work from as I manage Linux servers, either Ubuntu or CentOS.

1. Stability
Debian has a philosophy that is more like Red Hat/CentOS in that the focus is more on testing to insure stability of the whole system than to provide the latest and greatest applications. I am weary of checking bug reports for Ubuntu, especially on the server end. In one recent week working on Ubuntu servers I had to work through 3 bugs that cost me a lot of time and energy that could have been spent elsewhere. Every time I talk about bugs in Ubuntu I get riddled with attacks, but what I have discovered is that most of the attacks are emotional responses from people attached to Ubuntu but not those who spend 20-30 hours a week working on configuring and managing Ubuntu servers. Sorry but Ubuntu needs to do a better job on the server end in terms of testing.

2. Security
Basically the security issue is the same as stability. It is even more important now in terms of servers. Security is always related to the testing of applications, that is where many of the security issues develop. This is where Debian 5 has done more testing, at least from what I can see and ascertain than is done with Ubuntu. Debian seems to take security more serious that Ubuntu. I remember writing an article on how it was unthinkable for me to see the first Ubuntu desktop with no firewall option at all. Or even worse, calling the UFW firewall “uncomplicated” in current versions of Ubuntu. I am happy to write an iptables firewall and be done with it.

3. Simplicity
I do not need many features, in fact I can easily be happy with a system that has less features. I am tired of the bloated desktop that takes CPU cycles but that I do not use. I am probably looking at moving to Fluxbox on Debian. I see where some have labeled the icons of Debian as the worst on the planet, well not quite but they are not as nice as Ubuntu but so what?

4. Scope
Debian comes with 18,733 packages. Debian 5 Lenny will have 5 DVDs to download with those packages, that is simply beyond any other distribution. The scope is not just in relationship to the packages that are offered, these packages are maintained by volunteers who cover the globe providing insight and thinking from various cultures and backgrounds. Of course I recognize that all distributions are international in scope but Debian 5 is a group of volunteers which separates them from a group of paid programmers run by a corporation.

5. History and Purpose
This paragraph from the Debian web site sums up the history and purpose of Debian. Now certainly it has not been a golden road of tranquility, as there have been problems, but for the most part this purpose is seen throughout the distro.

“Debian was begun in August 1993 by Ian Murdock, as a new distribution which would be made openly, in the spirit of Linux and GNU. Debian was meant to be carefully and conscientiously put together, and to be maintained and supported with similar care. It started as a small, tightly-knit group of Free Software hackers, and gradually grew to become a large, well-organized community of developers and users”

All in all, some of this may be a result of having used Ubuntu for several years and yearning for a change. But I think now is the time as Debian 5 Lenny is on the way.