[geekery] took the plunge [Firefox, Thunderbird]

[trochee]

Okay, I've done it. I've taken the plunge and I'm switched over to Firefox and Thunderbird (I was previously only using the joint Mozilla beast).

Immediate impression: Firefox and Thunderbird seem to be faster when running together than the Mozilla suite was when running both mail and web browser. That seems like it shouldn't matter, but it does. Another nice effect is that the old Mozilla beast used to freeze all the windows (mail and web) when one wouldn't load, but the new arrangement separates the mail download (fast) from the web (sometimes slow).

Additional features that I've not tried out yet: all the extra firefox features, plus the ability to put RSS feeds into Thunderbird (maybe I'll ditch liferea, if Thunderbird can do the same thing).

Looks good so far. I would recommend it already. (But note I haven't uninstalled Mozilla just yet...). Now off to bed.

Comments

[trochee.livejournal.com]

Actually, these days I use a Linux laptop. It's been mistaken for a Mac because it's so cute, but it's really a hardcore hacking machine [/headbanging]

I don't do much with Macs, but Safari appeared because of OS-X, which -- AFAIK -- is a total sea-change for the Mac line (built with BSD! Woo!). My Uncle Dan likes Safari a lot, but I hear Firefox has just released a new edition that might have a better installer for Macs.

[psychicle.livejournal.com]

Pursuant to your advice, I have installed Debian onto my desktop for my virginal Linux experience. [FEAR GOES HERE]

More accurately I had a friend/computer god install it for me. I may need to ask for pointers since I'm completely unfamiliar with this OS. May I turn to you in my time of need?

[trochee.livejournal.com]

sure. I'm not a wizard, but I can maybe serve as a voltage step-down from other wizards.

remember to run apt-get update (as root) religiously.

consider synaptic

[http://users.livejournal.com/_dkg_/]

for someone getting used to the system who's not mad into the command line already, i would recommend the GUI program synaptic instead of the command line method of apt-get update combined with apt-get dist-upgrade.

you just click the "refresh package lists" button, then "mark all upgrades", then "apply" to keep the system up-to-date.

you should see it as an option in your main debian apps if it's installed (under Apps/System, usually). if you don't have synaptic already installed, of course, you can use apt-get install synaptic to get it there. After logging out and logging back in, it should show up in your menu.

even as a longstanding apt-get user, i confess there's something nice about having a browsable gui.

and, uh, you are running debian sarge (debian 3.1), right? debian woody (v3.0) is rock-solid as a server, but will drive you a bit crazy as your desktop machine, if yer used to eye candy and the latest versions of things.

even geekier note: i'm considering switching from apt-get to aptitude. If you supply command line arguments, aptitude behaves like apt-get combined with apt-cache. With no arguments, it shows a curses-based browsable GUI. Plus, it tracks which packages you explicitly installed, and which ones are automatically installed for you. that way, if you uninstall one of the packages that you installed, it has the opportunity to uninstall auto-added packages that only the one removed package relies on. this keeps yer system cleaner in the long run.

Re: consider synaptic

[trochee.livejournal.com]

I defer to _dkg_'s superior kung fu. I will try aptitude.