Linux + college = ?

June 25, 2006 6:22 PM

I just made the jump to Linux (Ubuntu). Any good note taking software for this strange new beast?

Or really any college essential software for my laptop. I checked out/was inspired by this thread but it was more of a windows thing.

posted by Blandanomics to technology (9 comments total)

The beagle search app.
posted by pompomtom at 6:50 PM on June 25, 2006

Take your pick:
gjots2
notemeister
notecase
newton (wiki style)
treepad lite for linux

Sadly I don't like any of them as much as I loved MS OneNote, but oh well.

Other college-y programs? Mostly all I need use for school is SwiftFox, Thunderbird, and Open Office -- exactly what you would expect.
posted by puffin at 6:53 PM on June 25, 2006

Also, since you have a laptop and your college likely has wifi: NetworkManager is definitely essential.
posted by puffin at 7:01 PM on June 25, 2006

Tomboy is really popular amongst some Linux folks.
posted by jzb at 7:09 PM on June 25, 2006

Re puffin's comment, Ubuntu 6.06 (dapper) already uses NetworkManager as its built-in ... network manager.

I hoped to upgrade from 5.10/breezy to 6.06/dapper this weekend, didn't happen ...
posted by intermod at 7:59 PM on June 25, 2006

I've been using Tiddlywiki to keep notes on a complicated server install. It's surprisingly useful, and the whole wiki is in one html file, so I can email it or back it up.

"It's written in HTML, CSS and JavaScript to run on any modern browser without needing any ServerSide logic. It allows anyone to create personal SelfContained hypertext documents that can be posted to a WebServer, sent by email or kept on a USB thumb drive."

To download it: "Because TiddlyWiki is a single HTML file, you've actually already downloaded the entire software just by viewing this site."
posted by jjj606 at 8:15 PM on June 25, 2006

Goodle Video about Ubuntu Basics.
posted by Izzmeister at 8:29 PM on June 25, 2006

I'm in college and on Ubuntu.

(1) I absolutely love FreeMind. It isn't available through synaptic, but you can download the .deb package from sourceforge. Do:

dpkg -i freemind.deb

This will show you a bunch of unsatisfied dependencies. Clean up the mess with:

apt-get -f install

Then there might be one package left to install, libforms-java. If you don't have this you can download it as a .deb package from a debian repository. Then just do dpkg -i, and you're all set.

Once you've installed it, find a diagram of the keybindings online and paste it on your wall. Take 10 minutes to learn them, and you've significantly boosted your note-taking efficacy.

(2) If you're studying science, especially math-related subjects, use LyX to take notes instead of doing them by hand or using LaTeX. If you've struggled through LaTeX before, LyX's ease of use will make you very happy. Produces beautiful documents, too.
posted by lunchbox at 9:25 PM on June 25, 2006

And for those nights of procrastinating, the video/other codecs in EasyUbuntu will be essential. (Google it.)
posted by lunchbox at 2:42 PM on June 26, 2006