Develop website using bluefish

Linux is at the forefront of web development. Recently, I've been developing web applications using frameworks, and Linux in general makes these things quite a bit easier. Therefore, I figured I should present some of the basic tools you can use to create, develop, and host a website. This may abstract a bit away from the idea of "applications" in and of themselves, but I thought you may all be interested anyway.

The most logical first step for most users is selecting a development environment. Today, I'll highlight Bluefish. Later on, I'll focus on a WYSIWYG editor. (Which, by the way, is kind of difficult to find. Please, if you have any ideas, leave a message in the comments.)

Of course, to put your webpage on the Internet, you'll probably want to use a reliable web hosting. There's about a million out there, and it's hard to figure out the differences between them. I used to have a site on Bluehost, but I eventually cancelled because I thought their support was poor, and I didn't want to fax in a copy of my driver's license just to have SSH access so I could use Rails. I switched to ThinkHost a few months ago, and I've been really happy thus far. They offer reliable Linux hosting with unlimited bandwidth, space, and domains. Better yet, the servers are powered with wind and solar energy, and they plant a tree on your behalf.

Bluefish is a code editor, so users should have a basic understanding of XHTML and CSS, along with any other development languages. I learned HTML rather painstakingly from an outdated code reference, and I don't recommend you do it that way. Instead, try HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide published by O'Reilly, which can help even the most talented developer learn new tricks. In fact, it taught me all about the tag, and I felt kind of dumb for previously embedding form labels in only a paragraph tag and wrestling with CSS, but alas...

One of the nicest things about Bluefish is that it uses 30 to 45 percent less memory than other editors. This makes quick edits less of a hassle. Sometimes, other editors can be too clunky, and I found myself reverting to a console-based text editor to make a minor change, but Bluefish should stop this from happening. It has built-in project support, so you can easily open multiple files and keep them organized in the right path. It has all the standard stuff, like line-numbers, search and replace, and code highlighting for languages like HTML, Ruby (go Rails!), Python, and PHP. Best of all, the menu bar allows you to instantly drop in code that developers use often.

Bluefish allows you to connect to a remote server and edit files, so here's a quick guide to using Bluefish with ThinkHost. This tutorial assumes you are using GNOME, though I'm sure you can do the same thing with KDE.
Click on the "Places" menu, and select "Connect to Server...".

In the dialog box, type in your FTP address in the "Server" box. You should be prompted for a username and password.

Now, open up the mounted server in Bluefish, and now you can easily edit and save all of your files on Thinkhost.
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source: http://thedailyubuntu.blogspot.com/

Linus Torvalds ditches KDE 4 for GNOME

Linus Torvalds says he has ditched KDE for good and is now sleeping with its arch rival GNOME. Oh well, rhetoric apart, he says the move over to GNOME happened because in KDE 4, he found it quite bothersome that he couldn't get his Right mouse button to access the right menu he wanted. In short, he ran into usability issues while using KDE 4.0.

In an interview given to Rodney Gedda of "Computer World" - Australia, he had this to say, and I quote :

I used to be a KDE user. I thought KDE 4.0 was such a disaster I switched to GNOME. I hate the fact that my right button doesn't do what I want it to do. But the whole "break everything" model is painful for users and they can choose to use something else.

I realise the reason for the 4.0 release, but I think they did it badly. They did so may changes it was a half-baked release. It may turn out to be the right decision in the end and I will re-try KDE, but I suspect I'm not the only person they lost.

I am sure the GNOME camp must be rejoicing in having won over a high profile Linux user to their side. This when a few years back, Linus Torvalds had gone on record severely criticizing GNOME for over simplifying the user interface.

Linus Torvalds was in Australia to attend the annual linux.conf.au organised by Linux Australia. While he was rather critical of KDE 4 in its current form, he did say it was a good thing for Nokia to release Qt as LGPL. Among other things, he also gives his views on Microsoft Windows 7 advising Microsoft to release sooner and decouple the operating system from the applications. A really interesting interview.

About GNOME desktop 2010

Financial troubles are an ever more common reality as the economic climate continues to venture through the monsoon season, and not-for-profit organizations are no exception. Such appears to be the case for the GNOME Foundation, the forces behind the venerable GNOME desktop, as the organization’s 2009 budget is finalized and thoughts — and worries — turn to 2010.

Corporate sponsorship — an increasingly difficult creature to find — appears to have been the traditional financial staple for GNOME, paying for the foundation’s projects and programs as well as providing salaries for its small number of staffers. According to John Palmieri, Board Treasurer, the foundation is fine for 2009, but is “projecting that without a significant influx of steady contributions” it will face a significant shortfall in 2010. From Palmieri’s comments, the culprit appears to be the above-mentioned vanishing corporate contributions, though Foundation Executive Director Stormy Peters has reportedly been able to secure new sponsors, at least for 2009.

Ms. Peters, though a long-time GNOME fixture, is a relative newcomer as Executive Director, having been appointed to the position less than a year ago. It would appear to be her position — likely the greatest personnel-related expense for the foundation — that is most in jeopardy, as a shortfall in the 2010 budget would present a choice between retaining Ms. Peters and cutting project funding, a regrettable position for any group to find themselves in. Palmieri describes the prospect of losing the so recently gained Executive Director as a “real tragedy,” saying that Ms. Peter’s efforts at “kicking our butts” to obtain financing, finish existing projects, and begin new ones are “remarkable in themselves, and even more so in the current climate.” On the prospect of losing her, he says quite succinctly: “[W]ithout her the Foundation will be less effective in its mission.”

Efforts are underway to prevent such a shortfall, and there is ample time to turn the projections around, if supporters turn out in force. In January, the foundation launched a new Friends of GNOME program allowing individuals to make recurring donations at a $10 per month “Adopt A Hacker” level, as well as the option to give on a non-recurring basis beginning with a $25 “Associate” contribution and progressing to a $1200+ “Philanthropist” level. Palmieri, on behalf of the GNOME Board, asks those who have and those who haven’t given to GNOME before to consider it now:

While we can look at this downturn as a time to tighten our belts, I would much rather look at this as an opportunity for the community to take a stake in the future of the Foundation and show that we are not exclusively reliant on corporate coffers to grow GNOME.

If you haven’t donated in the past, now is the time to start by becoming a Friend of GNOME or donating at any of the contribution levels. If you do currently donate to GNOME, look to see if you can contribute a tiny bit more on a monthly basis. Every little bit helps. Remember these funds go to programs like hackfests and putting on local conferences. It also goes to paying for our staff of two who along with the part time and overworked board construct the strategies for facilitating the growth of GNOME.