The Best Console App Thread

Harpalus · n00b Joined: 16 Oct 2002 Posts: 26

Hi all,

I am trying to build a system that uses nothing but the console and still lets me get all the work done that I need to get done. I don't know that much about concole apps, expect that the more I use them the more I like them. So, without further delay:

What are you favorite console apps (curses based is okay)?

perry · Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2003 5:23 pm Post subject:

evidence · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 04 Nov 2002 Posts: 85

mutt for email
abcde for ripping cds
irssi for irc
links for web surfing
vim for editing

InvsbleChuck · n00b Joined: 17 Jul 2002 Posts: 28 Location: Brooklyn, NY

It would be helpful to know all the work you need to get done.
If your talking about the usual suspects like Word processing, spreadsheet , database presentation, web and email I have the folowing llist (if framebuffer counts...)
Word processing (vi and latex)
Speadsheet (sc)
Database (MySQL or postgres, not sure of any console frontends tho..)
Presentation (dunno...Could probably do some stuff in TeX and then view it thru framebuffer)
web (links, get graphics through framebuffer (or not))
email (mutt)

but if your willing to put some work in to it, emacs can accomplish an awful lot by itself, but not my cup of tea.

I want to follow this thread, cause this would make a great lightweight liveCD!

duff · Guru Joined: 19 Jun 2002 Posts: 466 Location: Clemson, SC

Have you tried

Harpalus · n00b Joined: 16 Oct 2002 Posts: 26

BaronVonOwn · Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2003 7:16 pm Post subject:

mp3 player - mpg123
web - w3m (possibly supports images, does support tables & frames), links, lynx
e-mail - mutt
irc chat - bitchx
coding - vim
cd ripping - cdparanoia / lame
cd burning - cdrecord
game - gnuchess

I think you might get images in w3m if you use the frame buffer, and I hear that you can even get mplayer to work in the frame buffer.

Esben · Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2003 8:52 pm Post subject: LaTeX still rules :o)

Document editing (I can do typesetting etc... later on a machin with X)

emacs + LaTeX is still the best software for document editing as far as I know... emacs can be substituted :O)
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Kaali · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 12 May 2002 Posts: 80

For music-playing happiness: cplay
For gaming-happines: adom or gnugo
For general-happiness: screen

Rest was already mentioned.

compu-tom · Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2003 9:43 pm Post subject:

zsh (shell, replaces all file managers in the world ;-)

)
screen (multiple virtual terminals in one .*term)
mutt (MUA)
gpg (encryption)
vim (editing)
openssh (networking, remote shells)
rsync (copying)
ctags (tags make coding easier)
find + grep, locate (searching in the fs)

Is there anything missing?

TripKnot · Apprentice Joined: 29 May 2002 Posts: 213

mplayer on the framebuffer is pretty sweet.
links -g for graphical webbrowsing.

dl1vr8r · n00b Joined: 07 Mar 2003 Posts: 39 Location: SLC

mp3blaster is a fantastic curses mp3 player. All the functionality of (say) xmms.

I use it to play mp3s when I'm using a different computer than the one that has the nice sound card

(btw, first post. Long time lurker, first time poster)

seang · Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2003 7:09 am Post subject:

Games => nethack, no contest

rbonthond · Apprentice Joined: 24 Jun 2002 Posts: 190

midnight commander

http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/

PARENA · Guru Joined: 06 Jan 2003 Posts: 349

emerge -s centericq

I'm using Gnome, but still I want centericq, it's absolutely great.

gsfgf · Veteran Joined: 08 May 2002 Posts: 1266

latexer · Retired Dev Joined: 05 Mar 2003 Posts: 239 Location: NYC

console necessities :

screen - one ring to rule them all. everything relies on screen to easily maneuver, manage, and create new terms.
waif - best console frontend to media playing. plays CDs, .ogg, .mp3, .wav
irssi - need a good IRC client
pork - new AIM client that uses the new protocol (versus naim which can't see away messages, etc)
mutt - as mentioned. (note the great gpg support)
bootsplash - make your console pretty to look at (not all console junkies are complete stoics too) example
links - quick http stuff
ncftp - best console ftp client out there
vim - (no need to start a flamewar over this one)
latex - see the nick. nuff said.
wv - package that gets wvLatex, wvHTML, wvCleanLatex. wv == word view. For command line conversion of MS Word documents to useable format.
bash-completion - ever want to type "ssh 192.<TAB>" and get the rest of the name resolved? bash-completion is the solution

shall i go on?
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nuance9 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 09 Sep 2002 Posts: 85

I have an old laptop running gentoo - and having X on it just isn't making sense, so I am going to switch it to console only.

Just curious what everyone's favorite, most-useful, etc console apps are - so hopefully I can better educate myself about the wonderful world of command line applications.

Right now the main ones I use are:

Vim
Nano

I had been doing my email / web-browsing from IceWm - but now I plan on using:

Mutt
Lynx

What command line tools / apps do you use?

- JP

guero61 · l33t Joined: 14 Oct 2002 Posts: 811 Location: Behind you

Personally, I prefer links, but...

An "emerge -S console" or "emerge -S framebuffer" might net you some interesting results.

I forget what they are (haven't used them in quite some time), but I have framebuffer image and video viewers, console-based cd-burning, and of course, a couple of MUD's... ;-)

Ellidi · Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2003 5:44 pm Post subject:

..If you're gonna use MSN, or AIM or an instant messenger of any sort,
I recommend centericq ;)

http://freshmeat.net/projects/centericq/?topic_id=23%2C27%2C24%2C22%2C87
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DefconAlpha · Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2003 5:44 pm Post subject:

If you like using behemoth vim to write emails, use mutt. If you like writing emails in less than 3 minutes, try pine.

For fetching email without using fetchmail try:
http://www.qcc.ca/~charlesc/software/getmail-3.0/ - getmail

For web browsing try:
http://www.w3m.org - w3m

For FTP try:
http://www.ncftp.org - ncftp

For AIM try:
http://site.rpi-acm.org/info/naim/ - naim

And then there's mplayer for multimedia in a framebuffer environment...
transcode for encoding dvd's in console...
cdrecord and mkisofs for burning cd's...

Just about any task that you do in the GUI can be done in a console environment in linux :) Oh, and you can emerge all of these through portage.
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nuance9 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 09 Sep 2002 Posts: 85

Thanks for the recommendations. W3M looks very impressive. I will definitely be trying that one out soon!

Again, thank you! Any others?

- JP

Ellidi · Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2003 6:18 pm Post subject:

Not that I can remember

Like your avatar though :lol:

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pjp · Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2003 7:48 pm Post subject:

Moved from Other Things Gentoo.
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count · Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2003 8:59 pm Post subject:

By far may favorite console app has to be screen.

It is a terminal multiplexer (like a window manager) for your console that is so incredibly powerful it needs its own zipcode. If you work in a console you should have this app! (especially remotely)

One of the coolest things is that you can detach a screen session, logout, go play some hockey, log back in and reattach your screen session. And guess what, nothing in the console was interrupted. This is great for remote sessions when you need to logoff but dont want to stop a compile process or something (with Gentoo this is a good thing). But that is just one of the many benefits, there are also many that aren't for remote sessions, like copy/paste.
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