Jon's Blog

This is a quick review of a few linux-based blogging desktop clients.  While I’m generally going to have a browser window open when I’m using my PC (who doesn’t?), I wanted to try out some client software for blog publishing rather than just using the built-in WP publishing UI.   Here are the results of my own testing.

I’m currently using WordPress as my blogging platform; which I’m hosting on my own.  As of the time/date of this post, my Dell E1505 laptop is running Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala. I did not test any KDE-based apps.

The Contenders

Disclaimer: I did some preliminary research and noticed that there are more than just these clients out there. I chose these because they were either included in the Ubuntu Repositories or are being actively developed.

1. Gnome Blog – A simple tool that pretty much just works

   

2. BloGTK 2.0 – My favorite of the bunch

   

3. Drivel – A simple interface (like Gnome Blog) – has a few additional features that you can find through the menus.

   

4. Lekhonee – describes itself as a desktop client for WordPress blogs.

   

5. QTM – A Qt-based client – but works fine in Gnome without having to install KDE

   

Results

1. Gnome Blog:
   • Pros:
     • Super-simple interface.  Can publish a few thoughts pretty quickly
     • Is sort of a “hybrid” WYSIWYG interface – strong and em are visual while allowing you to add your own HTML markup
   • Cons:
     • No image uploading
     • Way too light on features if you need to post anything more than a few paragraphs of text
     • No categories or tags
     • If you close it – you lose whatever you were doing
2. BloGTK
   • Pros:
     • Can edit existing articles in your blog
     • Can assign your article to multiple categories/tags
     • Can save as a draft entry to the blog
     • Can post to multiple blogs/blog software (blogger, wordpress, etc)
   • Cons:
     • No image uploading – you have to know the URL of the image to embed it into your article
     • The editing screen is really a bunch of controls that insert HTML markup
     • The interface would often respond in a weird way.  For example, the “File..Quit” command in the editor would make me confirm twice before closing.
3. Drivel
   • Pros:
     • Simple interface
     • Can edit existing entries
     • Built-in spell checking
   • Cons:
     • Just another HTML text editor
     • There’s no real “WYSIWG” to it – the “Format” menu is a two-click approach to inserting HTML markup
     • No image uploading
     • One-category only for an article
     • Can’t publish as draft
4. Lekhonee
   [UPDATE:The author of Lekhonee has pointed out a mistake on my part - it DOES allow image uploading - one more in the Pro column]
   • Pros:
     • Multiple categories/Tags
     • Built-in spellchecking
     • Can edit old articles
     • Can save as draft
     • Can add additional categories if needed
     • Image Uploading
   • Cons:
     • The editor is just an HTML syntax highlighter
     • No docs – what’s with the checkbox
     • No image uploading
5. QTM
   • Pros:
     • Multiple Categories
     • Multiple Blogs
     • Has a “template” feature to save time on cookie-cutter articles
   • Cons:
     • No tags
     • The “save” button saves a local copy.  You have to click “blog this” to publish – kind of weird.
     • You can’t edit entries that have already been published unless you saved a local copy first
     • No image uploading – even though the setup says it can use the WordPress API features.

Conclusion

I tried to write parts of this article using each of the above tools and ran into stumbling blocks for each one.  I think BloGTK shows the most promise – it is being actively developed, the developer’s blog is up-to-date and his ideas are very clear about making sure the interface is user-friendly, and it looks like future releases will bring many needed features.

Moving forward, I’m sticking with the built-in WordPress publishing features and/or the ScribeFire Firefox extension.  If I’m using Windows (like my work PC), Windows Live Writer is one of the best clients out there that I’ve seen thus far.