My tools of the trade
Rubyflow blog started yesterday a thread called Tools of the Trade, so to reply here is my main tools, I use everyday.
Hardware
As described in a previous post I now use a netbook as main development machine until September this year.
Machine1: Medion E1312,11.6″,Athlon 1.6 Ghz single core, 2 Gig Ram . For all task, it’s really responsive, but when you run tests, the single core is as slow as a dead cow unfortunately. The screen can sometime be a bit small, but it’s ok most of the time.
Machine2: At home, an old P4 is used to backup everything on 1,5 TB hard drive. (Ubuntu server)
Screen: At home I’ve got a second monitor, 19″ from HP.
Headphones: Sennheiser HD215
External mini western digital HD: 360 Gig in a small pocket size.
Software
Ubuntu, because it’s efficient and easy. If you want to learn more about my setup you can see my Rubyists guide to Linux development environment.
Gedit combined with Gmate makes my editor of choice under Linux. One day, I’ll learn to master Vim …
Gnome-do, a Quicksilver like.
Banshee media player, really good at managing music collection and screencast/podcast feeds.
Firefox 3.5, with web developer extension, bugzilla, Yslow, Delicious.
Tweetcetera is now my twitter client of choice. Normal you would as I’m the developer 
. Should be released in beta soon.
Liferea is my main RSS reader. Needed to do some tricks to make it quick in Ubuntu.
Gnome-evolution for all my different emails accounts.
Gnome terminal.
Gitg, a git desktop app, better than the old gitk.
The Gimp, I’m not a designer, so, that fit my needs.
Inkscape, same as The Gimp. Fits my needs.
Other
Bike: I use an old Raleigh racer bike, transformed into a single speed after an accident.
Bag: Targus messenger bag that can all my life, and carrying it around the city.
What are those Liferea tricks?
If you’re on Jaunty with Liferea 1.4 here is the how-to
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1135349.html
But, since my migration to Karmic, everything is fine.
I could not agree more…
GMate (which you wisely mention in your other article) os conveniently installable also by repository: adding ppa:ubuntu-on-rails/ppa to the software sources, and…
$ sudo apt-get install gedit-gmate
is enough.
I also strongly suggest “Rails Footnotes for Linux”, from the same author as GMate, installable as a gem:
gem sources -a http://gemcutter.org
sudo gem install rails-footnotes-linux
rails-footnotes-linux-configure (without sudo!!!!)
than in development.rb…
config.gem “rails-footnotes-linux”, :lib => “rails-footnotes”, :source => “http://gemcutter.org”
…restart server and you’ll have convenient links at the end of every page, linking directly to the files involved in that page, and in-page information about session, cookies, queries, and so on…
And, far by being a technical detail, but le me say that I love “Mac4Lin”… combined with a Foxdie.us Firefox theme, Gnome-globalmenu and Cairo-Dock, they re-create a macish atmosphere, which is not only quite usable and good for focusing on your tasks, but perfect to make envious your friends who (not so wisely) purchased a Macintosh at 3 times the price of a good laptop…