Ubuntu’s efforts have been pretty successful to develop and flourish a friendly Linux distribution for normal desktop users. Ubuntu has changed the every Joe’s perspective about Linux operating system. The perception of its compatibility with Geek’s suit is now pretty much gone. Still, there are many applications which lack to provide a perfect alternative for its counterparts in popular Windows operating system. I tried Ubuntu 6.06 and didn’t feel much difficulty in getting used to it for normal operations. On the way it has improved much and got friendlier. Recently, I was looking to write my first post on Ubuntu with a desktop blogging client/editor and searched for a Windows Live Writer alternative. The quest has been somewhat satisfying but not successful to find a perfect alternative.
I have found two Gnome desktop blogging clients to use in Ubuntu. They slightly compete with Windows Live Writer and are not best solution to be used as desktop blog editor in Ubuntu.
It is one of the popular desktop blog editors developed for GNOME. Unfortunately, the development has paused long since Drivel 2.0.3 release in August 2008. Its design is simple and refined but it provides necessary to potent features to manage a blog from Ubuntu Desktop. Posts can be composed, edited, deleted, and published. It is packaged with an integrated spellchecking and syntax highlighting. It supports LiveJournal, Blogger, MovableType, Advogato, and Atom blogs. The derivates of these standards like Wordpress and Drupal are also included.
This nice blogging client is built using Python and PyGTK. It is meant to be light and fast. BLOGTK can handle multiple blogs and saves your time from switching different browser windows. The latest version was recently released which has fixed many bugs. It also supports popular blog systems like Movable Type, Blogger, and Wordpress. Although, it can work with any platform that supports XML-RPC publishing.
Obviously, you have always options to use Firefox add-on like Scribefire or social browser lick Flock. The above mentioned clients are solely developed for GNOME environment. I am waiting to listen your experience of Blogging from Ubuntu Linux.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi there,
I were like you previously: searching for WLW alternative for Ubuntu, until I found … Bilbo/Blogilo, which is based on KDE but is running flawlessly under GNOME (Ubuntu).
Here is my blog post (sorry, it’s Indonesian though, but you can use the translation tool at the sidebar ^^)
http://www.animaster-talks.net/2009/12/15/bilboblogilo-aplikasi-blogging-terbaik-untuk-gnulinux/
.-= animaster´s last blog ..Bilbo/Blogilo: Aplikasi Blogging Terbaik untuk GNU/Linux? =-.
In my earlier draft Blogilo was included. Later on, i decided to stick with client solely designed for Gnome in Ubuntu. In my revision, I will include it. No doubt, it is pretty client
Thank you for your article. BTW, there is a new version of Drivel that was released in October 2009. Your link just points to an old version of Drivel’s website. You’ll find the new version at http://drivel.sourceforge.net/
I forgot to point out separately for the new version. This version is not updated by original author rather it is a community effort.
As for me, i like Lekhonee – a wordpress client. It has both GNOME and KDE front-ends.
.-= retimer´s last blog ..Самый линуксовый пингвин =-.
I tried to use the kde clients bilbo and kde blog, and both of them crashed just trying to setup my account. I settled on using drivel. So far it seems to work fine.
.-= happy linux guy´s last blog ..Use your Blackberry as a Modem with Ubuntu =-.
Nice article. Thank you for this info