If you couple this with the recent launch of Apple’s OS X Lion desktop operating system, which includes an iPad-style application launcher and full screen apps, much in the way both the iPad and Windows 8 have it’s reasonable to now ask the question, is the desktop operating system dying out?

Clearly there is a push by the two main operating system companies towards mobile computing in a big way.  The focus is on tablets and other touch devices.  In itself this isn’t such a bad thing as keyboards and mice had their death predicted many years ago, but the fact remains they are still the most effective way to get things done on a computer.  So what does Microsoft’s move mean for the desktop and is the traditional computer now a dying breed?

Well let’s look at the bigger picture for a minute.  It can safely be said that worldwide sales of desktop PCs have been sluggish in recent years as low-power devices such as smartphones and tablets have gained more power and flexibility.  However PCs and Macs are also used everywhere in business.  In fact you will find very few tablets in use in the workplace unless they are employed for very specific industrial roles.  There’s also the simple fact that on Windows 8′s dumbed down Metro interface there’s no scope for controls along the lines of those found in Adobe Photoshop or Sony Vegas Pro.

Clearly then there’s still going to be a need for a desktop operating environment for many years to come.  That is unless Microsoft, Apple and Google find new ways to build more intuitive and functional interfaces, containing more commands, into tablet-focused apps.

In itself this wouldn’t be a bad thing, as innovation in the world of software interfaces has been needed for nearly twenty years now.  For too long we’ve been stuck with a way of doing things that Xerox created in a lab in the 1970′s, it’s way past time things changed.

So is Windows 8′s Metro interface the way forward.  Probably not as it stands right now in fairness, but it will help to act as an catalyst, and so will Apple’s iOS operating system and Google’s stripped-down Chrome OS.  All three are pushing the boundaries of modern interface design and now its up to the software houses to come up with new interface designs that take advantage of these new UIs.  For now it’s just been Apple and Microsoft doing the innovating, with the major software houses including Adobe, content to carry on with the way they’ve been doing things for years.

The ribbon that Microsoft introduced with Office 2007, and that can now be found throughout Windows 8 when you drop down to the traditional desktop, is a good stab at creating an interface that’s both mouse and finger-friendly.  Whether this was by design or purely by chance we may never know, but it’s clear to see how the ribbon would translate to a Metro interface if scaled up a bit.  It would still be recognisable as the ribbon, woulds still work in the same way, and would offer a way forward for software developers to move to a new UI paradigm.

How all of this will sit with the world’s accountants, engineers, publishers, videographers and administrators remains to be seen, they probably won’t like it.  The simple fact remains though that we’ve had the WIMP (Windows, Mice and Pull-down Menus) UIs for thirty years now and the time has come to move on, whether we might like to do so or not.

One of the tools I take advantage of is a thesaurus. Since using a paper thesaurus is so ’80s, it’s almost a necessity to have one in the electronic form. My favorite to use is a combination of the tried and true WordNet and the GUI front-end Artha. With this combination you have a thesaurus at the ready with a simple hot key combination. Let’s take a look at installing and using this handy tool.

The tools

You may have heard of WordNet before. It’s a very handy command-line interface for the WordNet lexical database. By itself, WordNet is not terribly helpful (unless you are using it for writing scripts or applications). When combined with a front-end however, WordNet is very powerful. There are many front ends for WordNet, but one of the easiest to use is Artha. Artha is a free, cross-platform thesaurus that depends upon WordNet for the backend.

Installation

The installation of these two tools is simple. You can either search for them and install them from within your Add/Remove Software tool (search for “wordnet” and “artha” – no quotes), or you can install them via the command line. Let’s install from the command line. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open up a terminal window.
2. Issue the command sudo apt-get install wordnet artha.
3. Type your sudo password when prompted.
4. Accept all dependencies (if necessary).

That’s it. Once installed you will find Artha in Applications > Accessories.

Usage

There are two ways you can use Artha:

• From the Artha window.
• As a hot key tool.

Figure 1

The most obvious way to use Artha is from the Artha window (see figure 1). From within that window you can enter a word in the Query section and hit the Search button. This will bring up all of the information about the word you chose. As you can see, I searched for the word Linux.

Figure 2

The second, and more efficient, way to use Artha is as a hot key tool. When you close Artha (by default) it will minimize to the notification area so it’s still running in the background. To look up a word all you have to do is highlight a word (in any application) and click the hot key combination Ctrl-Alt-w. When you do this a notification window will appear with the information about the word (see Figure 2).  If you hit the hot key combination a second time, the Artha window will appear with the information about your selected word.

Final thoughts

Writers tools are a must have for anyone looking to make their work more efficient and accurate. If you’re looking for a solid thesaurus tool, look no further than WordNet and Artha.

One of those tasks is backing up with Rsync. Of course you can set up rsync by hand (see my article “Backup your Linux box with rsync“), but for many new users, having to edit configuration files or run lengthy commands is simply not an option to be explored. That is where a good GUI will go a long way. Gadmin-rsync is just that – a good GUI that takes all of the hassle out of backing up with the classic rsync command. With this handy GUI you can set up rsync for local, local-to-remote, or remote-to-local backups. In this tutorial I am going to show you how to install and use Gadmin-rsync to set up and run a local-to-remote backup. This backup will be to and from Linux boxes. This tutorial will assume you have access to the remote box.

Installation

There is only one tool to install – Gadmin-rsync. The rsync command should already be installed on your distribution. To install this tool, follow these steps:

1. Open up Synaptic.
2. Search for “gadmin” (no quotes).
3. Mark Gadmin-rsync for installation.
4. Click Apply to install.

When the software has completed installation you are ready to backup.

Using the software

Figure 1

To run the tool go to the System Tools sub-menu of the Applications menu, where you will find the Gadmin-rsync entry. Click on that to open up the main window (see Figure 1). As you can see, the GUI is well laid out.

To create a backup you need to know:

• The directory/directories you want to backup.
• The address and authentication credentials of the user you want to use for backup.
• The path on the remote machine you wish to backup to.

When you have all of this information gathered, click the Create new backup button near the bottom.  When you do this a window will open asking you to name your new backup. Give this backup a name and click OK.  Now a pseudo-wizard where you will configure your backup. In the first window of the wizard you select the type of backup you wish to create. You have three choices:

• Local: Backup a directory or multiple directories onto the same machine you are working with.
• Local to remote: Backup a local directory to a remote machine.
• Remote to local: Backup a directory (or directories) from remote machine to a local machine.

After you select the type of backup you want to make a navigation window will open where you locate the directory or file you want to backup. Make sure you see the full path to the directory you want to back up in the Selection line above the text area. For example: If I want to backup /home/jlwallen/Documents I should see the line:

Selection: /home/jlwallen/Documents

near the bottom of the window. If I only see:

Selection: /home/jlwallen

That means I am planning on backing up /home/jlwallen and not /home/jlwallen/Documents. This can happen if you don’t double click the directory you want to back up in the navigation window. After you have made the selection click OK to continue on.

Figure 2

The next step is to configure the remote machine information. Figure 2 shows all of the information you need to set up your remote location. When you have filled out all of this information click Forward. It may take a moment, but a new window will open informing you that the Public key installation on the remote host was successful. You can close that window, which will take you back to the main window.

The final step is to select the backup you want to run and then click the Run selected backup button. This will run your backup in the background (the Gadmin window will remain open.

Before you close out the window you might want to click Save backup so that backup you just created will be there when you open up the Gadmin tool the next time. This way you can set up multiple backups, open up Gadmin-rsync, select the backup you want to run, and run it with a simple click.

Final thoughts

Backups should never be an after thought. And now, with the help of Gadmintools, you can create simple rsync backups with the help of an outstanding, user-friendly GUI.

Luckily, there are a whole lot of Windows frontends for Mplayer. You can choose any one, depending on your needs. My favorite is SMPlayer but the one that first got me hooked on Mplayer is MPUI. It is a combination of Mplayer and a simple, neat GUI, which looks similar to the old Windows Media Player interface. The software plays virtually everything and can even take screenshots. It also has keyboard shortcuts and supports command line instructions as well.

The beauty of this media player is that it does not require any extra codecs to be installed, which is a very big advantage. The entire package comes in a 4 MB zip file and only needs to be extracted to a directory of your choice. The small size means you can simply copy the directory to a USB drive and have a media player available wherever you go.

An added bonus with this player is the ability to create a movie CD or DVD that will play automatically. Along with your movie, copy the files MPUI.exe, Mplayer.exe, and autorun.inf, to your CD. Now, whenever you put the CD into CD-Rom drive, the movie will play automatically in MPUI.

Sadly, MPUI hasn’t been updated in over a year. However, this media player is still high on my list of preferred players.