Cmd-as-Ctrl in X

Here's a quick tip, I got the idea from KDE but it isn't implemented in GNOME so I had to figure out how to do it myself.

Basically, the Ctrl key is awkwardly placed on my iBook keyboard. This is a shame, since most of my applications use that key as an accelerator. KDE has a great option to "Use Cmd as Ctrl" for Mac users, and it makes using my iBook keyboard a pleasure, much nicer than the old "Caps Lock as Ctrl" trick. There is no built-in option for this in GNOME, which is very disappointing. However, I found that if I use the keycaps application I can simply remap my keys to turn my Cmd key into Ctrl, just like that!

First I downloaded and installed keycaps, which is trivial on my Debian system. Then I started the program and duplicated the Ctrl key so that the Cmd key sends an identical signal. I did this for both Cmd keys on either side of the keyboard. Then I saved an .xmodmap file in my home directory. The keymap can then be loaded manually with the xmodmap command. You can also add it to your X startup file. I simply opened the "Session Properties" dialog in GNOME and added a startup program to do it.

Now when I'm using X, the Cmd key behaves just like Ctrl. On a Mac running the X window system, I think this is an essential bit of functionality.

Live bookmarks in Firefox

Whoa, I just found out about a cool feature of the Mozilla-based web browser Firefox (you did switch to Firefox, right?). You can use site syndication feeds to create Live bookmarks!

Using this feature, you can utilize the RSS feed for this site as a group of bookmarks that update dynamically as new articles are added! It's extremely cool. I've already enabled the feature for my blog. Try it! If your browser supports it, there should be an orange icon on the bottom-right corner of your browser window.

RSS is an interesting technology, and I think I've been under-utilizing it. The blogger.com service published an RSS feed automatically, but I've only just now begun to understand what it's good for. There are a ton of "feed aggregators" designed to slurp and organize RSS feeds for multiple sites. I leave it as a task for the reader to find a suitable RSS reader for your platform.

Desktop software: the saga continues

I use free software on my computers. This is a choice I made some time ago, and I feel pretty good about it. Sometimes (like when I first bought my iBook) I experiment with proprietary software offerings, but I always find myself becoming bored with the limitations. Free software, for me, is ultimately about choice.

This can be a blessing and a curse. I've spent years trying on different operating systems, with varying degrees of success. I love FreeBSD, but I got tired of compiling everything, and the support for binary updates is minimal. I could never get DragonFly to self-host for some reason. Red Hat Linux was alright, but stuffy. I liked SuSE and Mandrake as alternatives, but eventually I settled on the unstable branch of Debian GNU/Linux. I often think that I should switch from unstable back to testing, though.

Big choice, right? I'm not even close to being finished! In addition to choosing my underlying operating system, I also have to choose a suite of software to run on my desktop. The choices here have thinned a bit, for me at least. On nidhogg, my underpowered Toshiba laptop, I run the XFCE environment because it's fast and intuitive. Windowmaker is an alternative that is also fast, and highly usable, but a touch obscure in comparison. However I only employ these environments when I have very limited hardware. On casper, my iBook, I can run something heavier.

The software suite that I have long used for this task is KDE, the K desktop environment. KDE has long been one of the most complete and full-featured free desktops available. The GNOME (for GNU Network Object Model Enviroment, pronounced guh-nome) system was originally created as a "more free" alternative to KDE, and I used it at first, mostly because I thought KDE was ugly in comparison. Eventually KDE got really good-looking, and I switched.

Since then, I have looked at the GNOME environment a few times and found it lacking in focus. It wasn't until recently that I re-tried GNOME yet again and found that I has come a very long way. I have switched back to GNOME for now, I find there's a great selection of software built for it, and it feels much more responsive than KDE. Visually, it's a very close call. Both enviroments look great, but KDE is much more customizable. I had it looking exactly like a Mac OS X desktop.

All of this brings me back to the inevitable discussion of operating systems. I've been hearing lots of buzz about a new Debian-based system called Ubuntu Linux. Ubuntu seems very impressive: It's a Debian system with a strict 6 month release cycle and complete out-of-the-box functionality. The catch is that it's GNOME-centric, which made me glad I'm a GNOME user again. I ordered some Ubuntu CDs, I can't wait to see how it does on casper.