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Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

Twitter, Twitux, gTwitter & Mono

Twitter, I guess it's one of those web applications where you either "get" it or you don't. For a long time I stood firmly in the don't "get" it camp. My history with Twitter is somewhat scattered, I posted my first couple of tweets on December 21, 2006. It was a while until I tweeted again, when I did it took the following form:

Testing twitter on my Nokia N95 06:15 AM January 22, 2008 from web

And then 7 days later I tweeted again:

Once again playing with twitter, still not sure that I "get" it! Hmm. 02:52 PM January 29, 2008 from web

And then just a few hours later:

Testing gTwitter on Ubuntu. Looks good but uses mono and therefore comes in at a rather large 20MB+, hmm. 07:52 PM January 29, 2008 from web

And then today I tweeted this:

Testing Twitux twitter client, looks good and doesn't use mono like gtwitter. This I could use, will leave it running. about 14 hours ago from web

By George, I think I'm beginning to "get" it!

Twitux twitter client running on CrunchBang Linux.

It's only taken me a couple of years, but I think I'm beginning to understand what Twitter is all about. Twitter is a simple little application, at least from a user's standpoint, where you input up-to 140 character messages. These messages can then be viewed by anyone who wishes to follow along. It's quite simple really and I'm now confused by why it took me so long to come to terms with such a simple concept. Why didn't I get the hint from Twitter's front page?

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

Anyhow, as you might have read, I've now started using Twitux. The application was introduced to me by Gabriel D. W. Wollenburg. I've only had it running for day, but I like it, and it beats having to keep another tab open in Epiphany. Unfortunately the application isn't available in the Ubuntu repositories, but you can grab a copy from getdeb.net. It's a small download at about 66.8 KB and only takes seconds to install using gdebi.

Regarding gTwitter, it crashed on first use, this didn't leave a good first impression. Secondly, it uses Mono. I have nothing against Mono, but so far CrunchBang Linux remains a Mono free system, at least it does for me. So, installing gTwitter, which is available from the Ubuntu repositories, gave me an apt-get output something along the lines of:

corenominal@misspiggy:~$ sudo apt-get install gtwitter
[sudo] password for corenominal:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
 libart2.0-cil libgconf2.0-cil libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil
 libgnome-vfs2.0-cil libgnome2.0-cil libgtk2.0-cil libgtkhtml2.0-cil
 libgtkhtml3.8-15 libmono-cairo1.0-cil libmono-corlib1.0-cil
 libmono-data-tds1.0-cil libmono-security1.0-cil libmono-sharpzip0.84-cil
 libmono-system-data1.0-cil libmono-system-web1.0-cil libmono-system1.0-cil
 libmono0 libmono1.0-cil librsvg2.0-cil mono-common mono-gac mono-jit
 mono-runtime
Suggested packages:
 libgtkhtml3.8-dbg libgda2-3 libgdiplus
Recommended packages:
 binfmt-support cli-common
The following NEW packages will be installed
 gtwitter libart2.0-cil libgconf2.0-cil libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil
 libgnome-vfs2.0-cil libgnome2.0-cil libgtk2.0-cil libgtkhtml2.0-cil
 libgtkhtml3.8-15 libmono-cairo1.0-cil libmono-corlib1.0-cil
 libmono-data-tds1.0-cil libmono-security1.0-cil libmono-sharpzip0.84-cil
 libmono-system-data1.0-cil libmono-system-web1.0-cil libmono-system1.0-cil
 libmono0 libmono1.0-cil librsvg2.0-cil mono-common mono-gac mono-jit
 mono-runtime
0 upgraded, 25 newly installed, 0 to remove and 37 not upgraded.
Need to get 6173kB of archives.
After unpacking 22.0MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

While I'm not short of disk space, 22MB for a Twitter client is somewhat extreme. Besides, I prefer Twitux.

Finally, I'd just like to publicly thank Gouki for encouraging me to explore Twitter some more. Gouki is without a doubt the main cause of all my time wasting experiences. BTW Gouki, I've still not forgiven you for this ;)

You can follow along with my pointless twittering at: http://twitter.com/corenominal

Tagged with: software, twitter, ubuntu

12 Responses to “Twitter, Twitux, gTwitter & Mono”

Alan Pope wrote, Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

Eeeek! My face!

Of course if you already have other mono applications such as the amazing Tomboy or F-Spot then most of those libs you'll already have and then gtwitter will only take up about 200K of space, not 20M.

alan@tp:~$ sudo apt-get install gtwitter
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  bochsbios tango-icon-theme vgabios recordmydesktop gtk2-engines-murrine
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following NEW packages will be installed
  gtwitter
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 47.4kB of archives.
After unpacking 266kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get: 1 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/universe gtwitter 1.0~beta-5 [47.4kB]
Fetched 47.4kB in 4s (11.6kB/s)  
Selecting previously deselected package gtwitter.
(Reading database ... 140312 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking gtwitter (from .../gtwitter_1.0~beta-5_all.deb) ...
Setting up gtwitter (1.0~beta-5) ...

jerichokb wrote, Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

Now using Twitux, it's wonderful. Thanks for another great post!
Stas Sushkov wrote, Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

Philip, why just not use Pidgin for twittering? You know twitter offers the posibility to attach an XMPP/Gtalk account to you twitter… I'm happy with it so far.
gouki wrote, Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

LOLOL! Good one ;)
jerichokb wrote, Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

Sorry to post again, but apt-cache search twitter gives two results: gtwitter - Client for tracking and posting to twitter twitux - Twitux is a Twitter client for the Gnome desktop. So it is in the repositories after all :)
Vincent wrote, Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

Still nothing for me. Did you have any audience on Twitter you could Tweet to? I mean, it feels a bit stupid sending messages about what you're doing to nobody in particular…
gouki wrote, Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

My biggest problem with Twitux is the fact it doesn't display the whole message. Maybe I'm missing something here, but I get '…' and can't read past that.
Philip wrote, Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

@Alan: Yes indeed and I did neglect to mention that. Again I have nothing against Mono and this wasn't intended as a Mono bashing post. I'd be interested to know how big the dependencies for Twitux are — the installation didn't show any so I'm guessing that I already had the necessary Python libraries etc.

@jerichokb: Blimey you're right, I'm absolutely sure that gTwitter wasn't in the repos last night, but it is now. That's a good thing:
```
corenominal@gonzo:~$ apt-cache search twitter
gtwitter - Client for tracking and posting to twitter
twitux - Twitux is a Twitter client for the Gnome desktop.
```
@Stas: I didn't realise Pidgin could do that, thanks for the tip. Does it display tweets from the people you are following?

@Gouki: Yeah yeah, laugh it up. I'm devising a plan to get you back! :) BTW - have you tried this non addictive helicopter game lately?

@Vincent: :| No I didn't have an audience, but then I'm not too sure that Twitter is about having an audience, at least not in the traditional sense. Personally, I quite enjoy reading the tweets from the people I'm following, it can be quite amusing. Also, people tend to tweet stuff that maybe they'd be less inclined to write/post elsewhere.
Stas Sushkov wrote, Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

Well, not those from the past (I mean, if you're not online, really online - not just invisible, you won't get any updates from anyone), but it works pretty well if you're online. The only con is that you have to know the twitter commands for direct messaging (d) and reply to (@). But I do know those… ;)
Joe Smith wrote, Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

Good to see another twitter user :)

I was having issues running gTwitter, so thanks for the heads up about Twitux.
Mackenzie wrote, Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

Twitux 0.61 debs for Hardy: http://ppa.launchpad.net/maco.m/ubuntu/pool/main/t/twitux/
Philip wrote, Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

Thank you for the link Mackenzie :) I have been using the 0.61 release for sometime now, I love the new improvements and fixes, they make Twitux much more usable.

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Twitter, Twitux, gTwitter & Mono

By George, I think I'm beginning to "get" it!

12 Responses to “Twitter, Twitux, gTwitter & Mono”

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