Program Recommendations

[Tim Chase]

> I'm in the process of putting together a text-only install for
> a friend of mine utilizing a soft-synth for TTS and was
> wondering if there might be anyone else running a similar set
> up? What day-to-day programs would you recommend? I'm looking
> at alpine for an email client, lynx as web browser and pico as
> a text editor. He loves to play muds so I'm putting in tf as a
> mud client. I still need to find a media player as well, and
> I was thinking of mplayer or xmms. Does anyone have any
> experience with any of these programs in a CLI-only
> environment or could you provide some input to any others?

I maintain a list of console apps by category at

http://tim.thechases.com/bvi/console.html

Depending on how much your friend will be editing text, they 
might want to invest time learning a more powerful editor like 
vi/vim or emacs.  I'm a vi/vim guy, but lots of folks like emacs too.

For browsing, there are several console browsers, some of which 
support certain sites better/worse than others, so it's worth 
having them in your toolbox.

For gaming, he may enjoy the Frotz package to be able to play 
Inform games a'la Zork.

For multimedia, there are piles of console players:  mp3blaster, 
MusicOnConsole (moc), mpd, music123, mplayer.  For playing 
individual files, I often just use play/aplay/ogg123/mpg123 which 
are simple.  A couple comparison/evaluation sites:

http://www.chineselinuxuniversity.net/courses/using/guides/19594.shtml

http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2007/05/01/howto-use-cplay-like-a-pro/


You may also want to introduce your friend to "screen" to 
multiplex multiple console "windows" into a single session.  I'd 
consider it a must-have for my console work.

Lastly, I'll put in a plug for Finch & centericq as a console 
instant-messaging program in case he wants to IM with folks or 
hang out in IRC rooms.

-tim