I’ve finally gotten the dual-boot part of my dual-boot system working (Ubuntu 8.10, Windows XP) and this means that I finally got to try out Google Chrome. That’s a different story in itself–I’m developing rather an opinion on it. But it also means that I have the Big Three installed–Firefox 3, Internet Explorer 7, and Chrome.

I decided to do some startup tests–just timing how long they took to start up.

A few notes on the procedure:

I opened all three of them without timing them, and then closed them all. Then I did:

• Open A
• Close A
• Open B
• Close B
• Open C
• Close C
• Repeat a few times
• Disregard page load time–just measure actual startup.
• Use stopwatch on wrist–KMandla’s “Timex Method” (I’ll also give him credit for planting the seed of this post in my head a few months ago.)

And the results were:

Chrome: Consistently ~1.5 seconds. The fastest of the bunch.

Internet Explorer: About 3.5 seconds.

Firefox: Surprisingly lame–it was just under 4 the first time, 6 the second time, and repeated tests showed it levelling in the 3.5-3.9 range. I really thought it would beat IE….guess not. To it’s defense, it had to deal with the SU toolbar as well. If I keep getting bothered by this, I might repeat the experiment without.

So congratulations, Chrome!

OpenOffice.org Write, MS Word and Google Docs are all covered in depth in my previous post. So remember that Google Docs was good for quick, portable, multiple-computer stuff, OpenOffice.org was good if you were a fan of either the F or the LOS in FLOSS, and MS Word was the best, assuming you had the money and operating system.

But there’s still more word processors–Abiword and Zoho Writer. Observations:

• Abiword is the fastest of the three ‘desktop’ entries. Even more so if you’re already running GNOME (with its GTK+ libraries)
• Abiword has an interface that looks remarkably like Word 2003.
• Abiword doesn’t excessive amounts of auto-formatting–which I like, since frequently Word/Write and I don’t see eye-to-eye on how things should be.
• Zoho has a slight edge over Google Docs in features–but loses a lot in speed. Typing lag, anyone?
• Abiword feels more ‘polished’ than Write. Don’t ask me how, but it just does.
• Abiword doesn’t seem to have outline numbering. Which is a shame.
• Abiword doesn’t support built-in drawing.
• Write does.
• Write actually does a much better job of imbedded pictures than Word.

Summary:

If you have the money (and proprietary immunity), Word remains king.

If you don’t have the money, or have a thing about open-source, then:

Use Abiword for general stuff. It does normal things faster and better than Write.

Use Write if you need the extra features it provides. You probably don’t, but it’s there.

As far as the online ones go, use Google Docs for online stuff. Zoho has a few more features, but it’s probably not worth it unless you’re some kind of extreme online power-user. And I can assure you that you’re not.

I don’t see any benefit to using the offline versions of Google Docs/Zoho over the other three. Unless you knew you were going to have Internet at the beginning and end of your document-writing session, and knew that you wouldn’t in the middle. Or something. Go figure.

Since I’m a webmaster, I obviously need to upload things. When I was on freeservers.com (very bad), and Geocities (pretty bad), there was a little web-based ‘File Manager’, which did all the uploading and manipulation of my files. It was bad. Slow, non-intuitive, clumsy, you name it.

So one of the many reasons I’m now on andrewmin.com is that I can use FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to upload things. Dreamhost has ‘WebFTP’, which is marginally better than the ‘File Manager’s. So I just use (much, much) better third-party apps to do it instead. I’ve used three. Filezilla, and Whirlpool (just kidding, Filezilla, gFTP and Nautilus–I felt like messing with the people who don’t read the title) (Note to self: If FLOSS app is ever made, name it Whirlpool )

(Edit: I actually made Whirlpool….)

In keeping with the style of this blog, I’m just going to spill my thoughts out (in a concise way, I hope (!) )

• Nautilus is beautiful.
• Filezilla is functional. Sure, it has a GUI, but it has a GUI to be functional, not to be pretty.
• gFTP is very similar to Filezilla, except you might convince me it’s prettier. It’s probably personal preference.
• Assuming Nautilus is your File Manager, it’s very nice–the FTP server is just like another drive. It even shows up when you hit ‘Browse’ in something.
• This means that you can open up a webpage in your IDE, and when you hit save it’ll be uploaded.
• I haven’t clocked it, but I think Filezilla and gFTP are faster than Nautilus.
• Filezilla works in Windows.
• Nautilus and gFTP don’t.
• You’ve probably noticed by now that Filezilla and gFTP are very similar. The three main differences are:

1. Operating System compatibility.
2. The way you use it. Filezilla is drag and drop–very easy and intuitive. gFTP is a bit more complicated–you select a file(s), and then hit the “->” button to copy it to the server. Which is actually safer….
3. gFTP has a really easy interface for getting files off “FTP, FTPS (control connection only), HTTP, HTTPS, SSH and FSP” websites (quote from the official site). It even has preloaded bookmarks of common ones–such as Debian and SuSE.
   

• If you have this much time to spend reading about FTP clients, than you’re probably fine with either one

Summary

If you have Windows, use Filezilla. If you have Linux but not GNOME (and use Thunar or Konqueror or something) don’t mess with Nautilus, just investigate FTP with your own File Manager. If you do have GNOME, then use Nautilus, unless you’re the type to upload a LOT of files at one time, infrequently, or you just want a slight edge in speed.

As for Filezilla vs. gFTP…make your own decision. If FTP managers were more popular in general, that would probably be a flame war comparable to GNOME/KDE or Vi(m)/Emacs.

In short, this pretty much boils down to appearance vs. function, which I can’t hope to compare

The solution? Do what I do–use both. Nautilus for editing, Filezilla/gFTP for adding.

In my Python pursuits,I’ve used three IDEs to write the code. Geany, IDLE, and gedit (aka ‘Text Editor’ in Ubuntu) (OK, OK! I know gedit’s actually a text editor! But I’m using it as an IDE! Calm down!)

I’m kind of developing a love for the bullet form of review, since it keeps things concise. Also note that this is not very technical, it’s just what Timmy-the-end-user likes and dislikes.

• I used IDLE for about five minutes. I didn’t like it. Don’t ask why, it’s the same feeling I had when I tried KDE. The gut-reaction, pseudo-phobia, I-can’t-deal-with-this moment. I’m sure it’s great, I just don’t like it. Case closed.
• Geany is definitely…bigger than gedit, and it’s written with an eye to programming, not text editing. As such:
• Geany: When you open a new document, it has a nifty GPL license already put in.
• Geany: It has the all-powerful ‘Execute’ button, which is definitely faster than executing it with the Terminal.
• Geany: I’m not quite sure how sound the ‘Execute’ button is, it seemed a bit buggy to me, but that may just be a hallucination.
• Geany: When you type an if/while/for/etc., it’ll automatically indent. Which is kind of cool.
• Geany: Speaking about those, it has the ability to ‘fold’ ifs/whiles/comments/fors. So you can just minimize them into one line to save screen real estate. Which is also kind of cool.
• Geany: There’s variable auto-completion. So if you have variable user_input, just type in user, and a menu will show up asking if you want to autocomplete. It’s actually really intuitive.
• Geany: Wikipedia calls it ‘cross-platform’. So it runs on every major OS except for Macs.
• Both: They both have syntax highlighting.
• Both: They both have tabs.
• gedit: gedit’s lighter/faster/smaller.
• gedit: gedit has plugins (read: Stinkin’ AWESOME!!. So with plugins (easily addable from Edit=>Preferences|Plugins), some of the highlights are that you can:
• gedit: Have a Python interpreter chilling in the bottom of your screen. Which is HANDY.
• gedit: Mass indent/unindent (Nice if you add or remove an extra level of control flow)
• gedit: On the lame side, you need to have a Terminal running to execute your entire program. Though you should be executing less often with the interpreter.
• gedit: Since we’re on the lame side: It only runs in ‘Unix-like systems’. Sorry, Windows people! (I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some kind of workaround, though that’s outside of the scope of this post)

Conclusions:

Don’t use IDLE (haha, just kidding. But I really don’t have anything else to say about it).

Use Geany if you want to feel like the editor knows what you’re thinking (variable autocompletion, auto-indenting), or if you execute your program like crazy.

Use gedit (which I personally prefer) if you want speed, an interpreter, or handy tools (aka plugins).

Really though? They’re both great, I’ve used them both, and the easiest way of knowing is to code in both of them and make an executive decision.