Ubuntu Productivity

Problem Summary

In switching from Mac OS Leopard to Ubuntu Linux there was one Mac feature I seriously missed—the ability to drag-and-drop a file onto any application icon to open it. In Ubuntu I experienced a reduction in productivity as I tried to find a way to get this file to open with that application when that application was not the default for that file type.

Description

Coming from the Mac, drag-and-drop is often the easiest way to perform an “open with” action, coaxing an application into opening a file. Perhaps the best example of this is the OS X Dock. The ever-present icons accept dropped files from anywhere.

Now, before anyone jumps to the comments to say “You can do this on Ubuntu!” let me clarify. I know with Ubuntu + Gnome you can drag apps from the panel menu onto the desktop and the launcher will accept dropped files. But this is not the same as the Mac.

On the Mac you can drag any file onto any application icon, be it in the Dock, in a Finder window, or elsewhere, and that application will try to open that file (or files.) The functionality is ubiquitous; it works everywhere.

On Linux (at least the setup I am running—Ubuntu 8.04 Linux with the Gnome 2.22 desktop) this does not seem to be possible. The only way to open a file in any non-default app, using the gui, appears to be right clicking on the file and selecting “Open With”. The user is then presented with a small list of possible applications. However Ubuntu does not list all of the applications that are capable of opening that file type. For example I have provided this screen shot of the “Open With” menu I get for .php files. Neither of my preferred php editors, Aptana or gPHPEdit, are listed.

If the app you want is not listed (which happens to me often enough I cannot trust the contextual menu) then the result is wasted time.

This certainly does not render Ubuntu unusable, but given the drag-and-drop habit I developed from my Mac it certainly is annoying! However, the lesson to be learned here is not how dysfunctional linux is, but rather how entrenched I had become in the methods of the Mac OS. Furthermore, my reliance on the drag-and-drop method caused me to overlook even better “open-with” methods available on the Mac.

The Solution

My annoyance at the lack of drag-and-drop functionality in Ubuntu lead me to search for a better “open-with” method. And I found a very nice, super fast alternative. GnomeDo.

This awesome little app, much like Quicksilver on the Mac, has a great “Open With” plugin. In the screenshot pictured above I typed “keyw” + “OpenW” + “Te” and then pressed “Enter.” The file keywords.csv magically opens with gEdit when the default application was OpenOffice Spreadsheet.

While I never did get acquainted with Quicksilver on the Mac, GnomeDo is proving to be quite versatile on Linux. In some cases GnomeDo is faster and more intuitive than the trusty drag-and-drop method I am so used to

Perhaps I should give Quicksilver another try on the Mac now that I have experience the beauty of these keyboard-based search and launch tools.

I don’t know that I can quantify the productivity increase, but I  certainly notice it. I spend much less time reaching for the mouse. The simple elegance of not having to remove my hand from the keyboard and thus not having to reposition it means fewer needs for the delete key.