12 ms·

Cool project but sublime text is not free software and a nag screen isn't exactly fun to see quite often especially for kids.

by bnejad 12y ago

Igglyboo 12y ago
Also if you want to be taken serious you shouldn't be advising people to use a trial version for free without paying. I guess you can legally say you're trying it out for any amount of time but it's still unethical.
- mojombo 12y ago
  These are both fair points, and we'd like to offer free Sublime Text licenses to recipients of our laptops, I just haven't had time yet to explore the best way to make that happen. Once Atom has a competent Linux version, we'll likely switch to installing that instead, as it's open source but still very friendly for novice developers.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - catern 12y ago
    Why not just use Gedit or Geany or any of the other many free software text editors available on Linux?
    - adrianmalacoda 12y ago
      Probably the same reason they're using Ubuntu and Chrome: the alternatives, while free, aren't fashionable enough.
      - Igglyboo 12y ago
        Except Ubuntu and Chrome are both really good products while still being fashionable. I'd use Sublime any day of the week over Gedit even if it wasn't "cool"
        digisign 12y ago
        Gedit is pretty bare-bones and not really a programmers editor despite a few features in that direction. Geany, on the other hand is everything a beginner needs and without proprietary concerns.
  - jcastro 12y ago
    Check this out for a nice Ubuntu package of it: https://launchpad.net/~webupd8team/+archive/ubuntu/atom https://launchpad.net/~webupd8team/+archive/ubuntu/atom You probably don't want to depend on a PPA, but it's a place to start.
    - yaph 12y ago
      I like atom, but the experience on Ubuntu can be quite frustrating, especially if you use Unity, which is the case here on these laptops. Right now I cannot even launch it. I didn't install it from the PPA though, but from a recent commit.
      - jcastro 12y ago
        Huh, a bunch of us at Canonical use Atom with Unity, I think you might be missing the .desktop file if you're pulling it from github? Make sure you have one for atom in /usr/share/applications. I took a quick scan of the github repo and didn't see one, so you might want to just grab the .desktop and icon from the PPA package.
        yaph 12y ago
        I've used atom since it was open sourced and really like many of the features it offers. But there is an issue with the mouse cursor disappearing when hitting the ALT key described here https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/2122 https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/2122 and the launch problem https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/3190 https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/3190 I've never used a .desktop file for atom and had no problems launching it until a recent update from the master repo. Guess I'll try installing the PPA package to see if that works.
- jck 12y ago
  IMHO, it's also unethical to get kids dependent on a proprietary editor.
  - afarrell 12y ago
    If you can come up with an economic model which will support developers doing the hard work of producing something with a well-thought-out user experience, feel free to suggest it. Do you know of any besides targeted advertising or corporate sponsorship? How would you suggest developing a text editor with a well-designed yet powerful user experience for a beginner?
    - nilved 12y ago
      > If you can come up with an economic model which will support developers doing the hard work of producing something with a well-thought-out user experience, feel free to suggest it. Do you know of any besides targeted advertising or corporate sponsorship? Don't be lazy. There are many many many many many projects that thrive with _zero_ cash flow, of which many are found in ChromeOS already. There is no reason for there to be a single drop of proprietary software on a laptop besides the user opting for it. I'm going to hijack this comment to add that your opinion that money is the only reason to develop software is one of the worst things to ever happen to computing. If creativity and desire to help the world isn't enough for you, pass the torch to somebody else, because they will do a better job.
      - DanBC 12y ago
        What text editors would you recommend for beginners?
        nilved 12y ago
        I don't think that's related to the substance of my comment (so you should consider this independent) but Light Table and Atom are probably the most beginner-friendly. vim is actually very easy to learn if you don't need to unlearn Emacs-style editing as well.
ejr 12y ago
If you're on OSX, there's Lime Text, which is Open Source http://limetext.org http://limetext.org . Linux cross compile is apparently working and a Windows version is in the works as well. https://github.com/limetext/lime/wiki/Goals https://github.com/limetext/lime/wiki/Goals
- b409ba0801cd21 12y ago
  I checked on the status of Lime Text recently, and it is clearly not ready for prime time.
mixmastamyk 12y ago
That's what I came to say as well. I would suggest using Geany, it is great editor especially for beginners and in the debian/ubuntu repos. Not to mention, you should use Chromium rather than Chrome.
- derengel 12y ago
  Chromium on Ubuntu 14.04 is lagging versions behind Chrome, even Debian stable has a version of chromium newer than 14.04.

Cool project but sublime text is not free software and a nag screen isn't exactly fun to see quite often especially for kids.

by bnejad 12y ago

Cool project but sublime text is not free software and a nag screen isn't exactly fun to see quite often especially for kids.

Igglyboo 12y ago

Also if you want to be taken serious you shouldn't be advising people to use a trial version for free without paying. I guess you can legally say you're trying it out for any amount of time but it's still unethical.

mojombo 12y ago
These are both fair points, and we'd like to offer free Sublime Text licenses to recipients of our laptops, I just haven't had time yet to explore the best way to make that happen. Once Atom has a competent Linux version, we'll likely switch to installing that instead, as it's open source but still very friendly for novice developers.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- catern 12y ago
  Why not just use Gedit or Geany or any of the other many free software text editors available on Linux?
  - adrianmalacoda 12y ago
    Probably the same reason they're using Ubuntu and Chrome: the alternatives, while free, aren't fashionable enough.
    - Igglyboo 12y ago
      Except Ubuntu and Chrome are both really good products while still being fashionable. I'd use Sublime any day of the week over Gedit even if it wasn't "cool"
      - digisign 12y ago
        Gedit is pretty bare-bones and not really a programmers editor despite a few features in that direction. Geany, on the other hand is everything a beginner needs and without proprietary concerns.
- jcastro 12y ago
  Check this out for a nice Ubuntu package of it: https://launchpad.net/~webupd8team/+archive/ubuntu/atom https://launchpad.net/~webupd8team/+archive/ubuntu/atom You probably don't want to depend on a PPA, but it's a place to start.
  - yaph 12y ago
    I like atom, but the experience on Ubuntu can be quite frustrating, especially if you use Unity, which is the case here on these laptops. Right now I cannot even launch it. I didn't install it from the PPA though, but from a recent commit.
    - jcastro 12y ago
      Huh, a bunch of us at Canonical use Atom with Unity, I think you might be missing the .desktop file if you're pulling it from github? Make sure you have one for atom in /usr/share/applications. I took a quick scan of the github repo and didn't see one, so you might want to just grab the .desktop and icon from the PPA package.
      - yaph 12y ago
        I've used atom since it was open sourced and really like many of the features it offers. But there is an issue with the mouse cursor disappearing when hitting the ALT key described here https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/2122 https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/2122 and the launch problem https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/3190 https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/3190 I've never used a .desktop file for atom and had no problems launching it until a recent update from the master repo. Guess I'll try installing the PPA package to see if that works.
jck 12y ago
IMHO, it's also unethical to get kids dependent on a proprietary editor.
- afarrell 12y ago
  If you can come up with an economic model which will support developers doing the hard work of producing something with a well-thought-out user experience, feel free to suggest it. Do you know of any besides targeted advertising or corporate sponsorship? How would you suggest developing a text editor with a well-designed yet powerful user experience for a beginner?
  - nilved 12y ago
    > If you can come up with an economic model which will support developers doing the hard work of producing something with a well-thought-out user experience, feel free to suggest it. Do you know of any besides targeted advertising or corporate sponsorship? Don't be lazy. There are many many many many many projects that thrive with _zero_ cash flow, of which many are found in ChromeOS already. There is no reason for there to be a single drop of proprietary software on a laptop besides the user opting for it. I'm going to hijack this comment to add that your opinion that money is the only reason to develop software is one of the worst things to ever happen to computing. If creativity and desire to help the world isn't enough for you, pass the torch to somebody else, because they will do a better job.
    - DanBC 12y ago
      What text editors would you recommend for beginners?
      - nilved 12y ago
        I don't think that's related to the substance of my comment (so you should consider this independent) but Light Table and Atom are probably the most beginner-friendly. vim is actually very easy to learn if you don't need to unlearn Emacs-style editing as well.

ejr 12y ago

If you're on OSX, there's Lime Text, which is Open Source http://limetext.org http://limetext.org . Linux cross compile is apparently working and a Windows version is in the works as well. https://github.com/limetext/lime/wiki/Goals https://github.com/limetext/lime/wiki/Goals

b409ba0801cd21 12y ago
I checked on the status of Lime Text recently, and it is clearly not ready for prime time.

mixmastamyk 12y ago

That's what I came to say as well. I would suggest using Geany, it is great editor especially for beginners and in the debian/ubuntu repos. Not to mention, you should use Chromium rather than Chrome.

derengel 12y ago
Chromium on Ubuntu 14.04 is lagging versions behind Chrome, even Debian stable has a version of chromium newer than 14.04.