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24

Building a Web Developer / Designer PC Using Ubuntu Linux – Revisited

March 24, 2009 | By: UbuntuLinuxHelp | 5 Comments
Posted in Applications, How to..., Linux Projects - Hands On

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This entry is part 2 of 6 in the series Building a Web Developer / Designer PC

Building a Web Developer / Designer PC

Recently I posted "Build a Web Developer PC and Enable Most Media Playback Using Ubuntu Linux" and received a few messages asking what other tools I use. To save me time with answering email messages that essentially contain the same information, and to help the maximum number of readers, I thought it would be a good follow up to that earlier post.

First off, there some other applications I use, namely:

xVidCap. This facilitates screen capturing video so that I can create tutorial videos. After which ffmpeg can be used to convert the captured video to flv format for web streaming.  If you're interested, they have a couple instructional videos: Video 1 and Video 2. To install it, the command is:

sudo aptitude install xvidcap

Also, to be able to quickly find the differences between file versions I use TkDiff File Comparison and Meld. Both allow me to open different versions and display where files differ. These are particularly helpful if you access files from different locations and then need to troubleshoot changes. To install:

sudo aptitude install tkdiff

sudo aptitude install meld

In my personal case, this became more useful when I tried out Unison. As explained on the Unison web site:

"...Unison is a file-synchronization tool for Unix and Windows. It allows two replicas of a collection of files and directories to be stored on different hosts (or different disks on the same host), modified separately, and then brought up to date by propagating the changes in each replica to the other..."

While I'm mentioning Unison, I should point out that I had a horrible experience with it (Note: I did not read the manual). In my opinion it's a great idea, and I am truly waiting for the latest versions, however I did have issues (which I have not been able to resolve yet):

It advertises that synchronization can also occur between Linux and Windows systems (or Linux to Linux systems).

My reality with regards to Windows :

  • Linux can connect to Windows, but then the connection is lost with an error message after supplying the correct password.
  • Window can connect to Linux and does begin searching for changes, but then the application freezes, becomes unresponsive, network traffic is almost zero and CPU load shoots to 100% if you try to stop.
  • For it to work the same version needs to be installed on both machines.
  • Compiling from source did not work on Ubuntu 8.04 as it indicated there were errors in the make file (yet the sudo aptitude install unison-gtk command does succeed - So I know all dependencies and libraries are already available)
  • Currently it does not work. (However other solutions like rsync etc. work without any issues or much hair pulling).
  • There is no option to delete a profile.
  • Importantly, the FTP synchronization option is not available.


I really hope I can get this going - But it's slow as it's taken me almost 5 hours to try and get it working - to no avail. I wish there would be the same updated versions for all platforms available as packaged binaries (I think this would make things easier).

imgSeek is another useful tool that manages graphic collection and has the unique search capability where you can provide a rough sketch of the image you are looking for - And the results will be returned. No more having to use tags! In my opinion that is a great feature. You can view the screenshot of the search feature.

Many of the other web design and development related tools are also Firefox extensions:

Codetch allows me to edit files right inside Firefox. It's a little bit like Bluefish.

Copy Plain Text gives you the ability to copy and paste text without all the formatting.

W3C CSS Validator does exactly that - validate that your CSS is formatted to the correct standards.

CSSViewer allows you to hover your mouse around a web page and see a small box that clearly shows all the CSS element in effect for any object or area.

EditCSS allows you to edit the CSS of any web page in real time and see the immediate changes, then you can simply copy and paste the change into your final style.css file.

Firebug is a robust extension that allows you to live debug and monitor CSS, HTML, JavaScript, etc. actions and results. It's a good tool for troubleshooting issues.

Web Developer provides a tool bar with lots (and lots...) of development tools! If you're only going to check one of these extensions, this is the one to look at!

Side note: I've often been asked what the "Ubuntu Firefox Modifications" extension does (as there is no ability to edit the preferences for it). It's function is to allow installation of Firefox add ons via the Ubuntu package manager, however I've not played with that yet.

Finally, one issue I've found very helpful is to tweak how Firefox operates, in other words making it function faster. The video below provides a good guide to tweaking Firefox for speed improvements:

Hopefully the revisit of this topic helps answer questions as well as improving the web developer and designer productivity in an Ubuntu Linux environment.

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Related posts:

  1. Build a Web Developer PC and Enable Most Media Playback Using Ubuntu Linux
  2. Ubuntu Linux Plug ‘N Play Zone Revisited
  3. Installing an Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 LAMP and FFMpeg Server With a GUI – Installation of OpenSSH.
  4. 10 Things to do After Installing Ubuntu Linux
  5. How to Install VMware in Ubuntu Linux


Comments

5 Comments so far

  1. Top 10 Linux Video Applications - NOT! | Ubuntu Linux Help Top 10 Linux Video Applications - NOT! | Ubuntu Linux Help on May 21, 2009 10:04 am

    [...] Building a Web Developer / Designer PC Using Ubuntu Linux – Revisited [...]

  2. Paul Paul on June 3, 2009 10:33 am

    Do you have any suggestions as to a tool to manager MS SQL server? This is a drawback for me as I keep virtualbox running almost just to run Enterprise manger due to a lack of a really good replacement in linux.

    Also tkdiff looks great I’m going to get that now.

  3. UbuntuLinuxHelp UbuntuLinuxHelp on June 4, 2009 4:15 pm

    @Paul – Have you considered MySQL and phpMyAdmin? Also, you could try RDP or VNC, as they’d allow you to log into a Windows box and manage the SQL server. I did hear about SQL Workbench at one point (but have not played with or looked at it). Finally, SQuirreL SQL allows you to connect and manage MS SQL as well. Hope they give you some good info!

  4. Paul Paul on June 4, 2009 4:27 pm

    PHPMyAdmin is fine for basic use but its cumbersome and alot or applications use Microsfot SQL server and there is just no going around that. Currently I run Virtualbox in coherence mode and just use SQL Enterprise manager in Windows. Both of your suggestions look good. Thanks for the tips I will try them out.

  5. dallas dallas on November 15, 2009 9:43 pm

    was wondering if there is software that can be used on linux/ubuntu that is like spectorpro..monitors computer activities..

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