Besides Scribefire, There Are No Good Blog Editors in Linux

I am rather writing this out of frustration more than anything. I have been trying to find a viable alternative to Windows Live Writer for Linux. I know that I mentioned Scribefire a few months ago, but ever since my buddy Sundance convinced me to make the switch to Windows Live Writer (WLW) it has been hard to go back.

There are many desktop blog editors for Linux, just none as good as WLW. I've tried Drivel and Gnome-Blog, both are basically glorified text editors. BloGTK showed some promise, but it crashes when you try to run it in Ubuntu 9.04 (Known bug). There is Qumana, which is Java based, but it hangs when trying to post. There are a few others, and not one of them has the features of WLW.

Scribefire is still pretty good. It has most of the features that WLW has, except it doesn't do on-the-fly picture editing, which is the main reason I like WLW so much. I can just grab a picture from my desktop, import it into WLW, watermark it, add a drop shadow, and tilt it all in one program. I can't do that in any other editor, especially none for Linux.

So how am I working around it? I decided I would use Scribefire in conjunction with the Picture2Life, which is a free online photo manipulation program. There is also a Firefox plugin for Picture2Life so you can grab any picture off the web easily and load it into Picture2Life's editor lickity split.

Now Firefox is my blog editor of choice in Linux. I can blog in Scribefire, and in the window above Scribefire, i can make my edits to pictures using Picture2Life, download the edited pic, and re-upload it into Scribefire without minimizing my window.

It's no WLW, but it is the best blogging solution I have found for Linux that offers the closest-to-wlw experience I can get. So far, nothing else has come close. Above is a picture I did real quick with Picture2Life. I was able to watermark it, add a drop shadow, and tilt it all like I do in wlw. There are other effects you can add too like mirror, lighting, and cropping to name a few.

What do you use for blogging in Linux? Have you gotten BloGTK to work? Maybe you are using a lesser known Linux blog editor. Who knows? Let me know what you are doing in the comments.

Technorati Tags: blog, editor, linux, windows live writer, picture editing, drop shadows, water marks

Read more »

Oh no you didn’t. 11 Reasons why Live Writer is better than ScribeFire

Oh Paul, no you didn’t just try to compile some half assed list of 10 reasons why YOU think ScribeFire is better than WLW! I bet it took you hours upon hours to think of your 10 reasons why you think it's better. Well it’s on. I’ll spare you the embarrassment and just list 11 reasons. Microsoft actually did a good job with their Live Suite, including now with the Movie Maker Live Beta. But to stay on topic lets get to that list. I’ll try to not tear up your post too bad as I’m sure you’ve been getting hell from everyone else about it too.

1. It’s not browser dependent – So you’re not tied to just Firefox. I mean sure a lot of people use Firefox, but not everyone. Actually more people use IE.

2. It’s an actual application – That means it doesn’t have to take up your browser space. So even though ScribeFire is part of Firefox it still takes up most of your browser space. Which to me is one of the most annoying parts.

3. Built in IE Support – WLW has built in support in IE and has great features added with IE8 without having to install anything else. But it does also have plugins for Firefox.

4. More than just Technorati Tags – WLW also supports Live Journal, Flicker, IceRocket, BuzzNet, and many more without any extra plugins. It also pulls a list of all your tags from your blog and you can check them off in a drop down list.

5. Speaking of Plugins – WLW supports plugins. So you want any extra features like Sending a message on Twitter whenever you publish an article, well you can do that. Want to automatically add a Digg button on every post without editing your Blogger code. You can do that too.

6. Easy Embed – Easily embed photos, videos and even maps. All with built in support.

7. Add your own Ads – If you blog already you probably have your own ads. You can easily add them into your blog posts with WLW.

8. Easier more normal interface – Because it comes as an installed application it has all the normal WYSIWYG interface. You can do things like creating tables and set different header types and get the word count.

9. Native Photo Editing – That’s right, you want to add a drop shadow to your image or give it rounded corners, a mirror effect, crop rotate, emboss, ect… you can even add a watermark and well you can do all that directly from the WLW interface.

10. More Support – More people use WLW than ScribeFire so naturally you’ll be able to find more support out there for it.

11. Less Bugs – Now I know that sounds weird being from MS and all. But I had to install ScribeFire twice to get it to work properly and still can’t get the preview to work properly in Flock. Now with WLW. I’ve never had any issues with it.

Well there’s a quick 11 reasons WLW is better than ScribeFire. Not that anyone needs to be told it’s better. They already know. Oh and about your little comment about ScribeFire being portable. Well so is WLW It’s on PortableApps.com. One more thing. Is that the Windows Live Writer uses up only about 12 mb of storage and the same memory that ScribeFire does. So that little bit is also a mute point.

By Sundance of MakeMeASammich.com

Technorati Tags: better than scribefire, top 11, windows live writer

Read more »

In Your Face Sundance! 10 Reasons Scribefire is Better Than WLW

I see how it is Sundance! You want to throw a big, "In your face" at me, but to that I say... "NO! In YOUR face!" I said before that I actually liked Live Writer, but because of your little outburst, I will now have to just say flat out that Live Writer sucks! (Actually, that isn't true... I am just acting out)

I decided to compile a list of the ten reasons why Scribefire is far superior to your pathetic Live Writer. It wasn't hard actually. Mainly because Microsoft Sucks, and it is easy to dig up dirt about just about all of their software! LOL! [Evil Dr. Doom laugh]

So here we go, the top ten reasons Scribefire is better than Windows Live Writer:

1. It's not Microsoft - Everyone knows how crappy M$ stuff is. Just look at Vista and Windows ME!
2. Firefox is already open - I usually have Firefox open anyway. So when I get the urge to blog about something, a quick F8 press and I am off blogging. WLW you have to open separatlely.
3. Firefox is already installed - It is much easier, and faster to install a new FF plugin, than to install an entire separate piece of software like you do with Windows Live Writer.
4. Technorati Tags - SF will inster Technorati tags without the need for additional plugins.
5. Post to Delicious- SF will post to Delicious when you publish your blog post without additional plugins.
   
6. Scribefire can be used in Windows, Linux, and Mac - Were are my Linux users at? I suppose you could install WLW using WINE. Enhoy your Windows 98 style graphics!
7. Less Overhead - Additional programs running means an additional load on the computer. Scribefire doesn't put any additional load on your PC when running.
8. Blog Directly From The Web - Did you find a funny lolcatz picture on the web? Press F8, and blog directly from that page in split screen!
9. No additional crap - Windows Live Writer comes with every other friggin' Windows Live Product they offer. You have to manually un-check all of the extra crap you don't want. SF installs as-is, with no additional junk!
   
10. Monetize with QuickAds - Finally, the best reason to use Scribefire over WLW is the integration of Scribefire QuickAds!
    

I suppose what it all comes down to in the end is preference. Do you like to have a whole boat load of additional software installed when it is completely unneccesary? Do you like supporting an evil multimillion dollar conglomorate? If all your friends jumped off a building would you do it too? If you answered yes to any of the above, then Windows Live Writer is definitely right for you!

If you prefer ease of use, less bloatware, better performance, and the ability to use something on multiple platforms, then you should probably give Scribefire another look.

Oh, one more thing... Did I you can install Portable Firefox to a USB stick with the Scribefire plugin and take it with you with all of your settings, and browser bookmarks? I didn't huh? Maybe that is for a different post.


Technorati Tags: scribefire, firefox, windows live writer, top ten, blog, editor

Read more »