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neilp85
November 15th, 2006, 03:38 AM
I'm looking for command line programs that are still in need of a decent graphical frontend. It could also be config files like fstab. I know this topic has been brought up before but I feel that it is still important. Desktop Linux is still in it's emergence and there are many users who fear the command line. My main motivation behind this is that I'm looking for a new project to start and figure I should do something that could be beneficial to the Linux/OSS community.

As people offer up suggestions I can add them to this post so that we might be able to build a comprehensive list. This way other people like me out there can find inspiration for a new project.

Ideas for better/new GUIs:

CVS
xserver-xorg
grub
Abook (address book)
Remind (calendar)

ciscosurfer
November 15th, 2006, 05:00 AM
A new graphical front-end for CVS. There's gcvs, but it's not-so-pretty, and there's lincvs, but that's written with the qt...it would be nice if you could come up with a new front-end for CVS that is gtk+ based and matches the look and feel of Ubuntu (GNOME-like). Just a suggestion. Lincvs is nice (for KDE--and ok, for GNOME too) but I'd like to see something for GNOME that's updated.

tubasoldier
November 15th, 2006, 05:22 AM
I'm looking for command line programs that are still in need of a decent graphical frontend. It could also be config files like fstab.


I think if you look at Mandriva's Control Center that would be a great basis of ideas. But not necessarily they way they set it up. Things I think that could use a GUI:

xorg - I think this is pretty self explanatory.

grub - being able to add and subtract entries. Also the ability to drag and drop in a new grub image.

I'll add in more as I think of them.

ciscosurfer
November 15th, 2006, 05:28 AM
I think if you look at Mandriva's Control Center that would be a great basis of ideas. But not necessarily they way they set it up. Things I think that could use a GUI:

xorg - I think this is pretty self explanatory.

grub - being able to add and subtract entries. Also the ability to drag and drop in a new grub image. I'll add in more as I think of them.
Do you mean xserver-xorg? If so, I agree.
As for GRUB, you can try GrubEd (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=228104) (it's really great!)

neilp85
November 15th, 2006, 05:39 AM
A new graphical front-end for CVS.
This is something that I also think could use improvement, however it's a much larger undertaking than what I'm looking to get involved in at the moment.

David Marrs
November 15th, 2006, 02:51 PM
Abook and Remind (an address book and calendar) are two very useful command line apps that would benefit from a user interface. Remind in particular could do with one, as it has so many switches. You could even combine them with an email client to make a simplified alternative to evolution, which I find annoyingly complicated. If you wrote such an app, I'd be sure to use it :)

neilp85
November 15th, 2006, 09:05 PM
Abook and Remind (an address book and calendar)

I'm not sure how well Abook would translate to a graphical frontend since it's ncurses based but thanks for the input.

tzulberti
November 16th, 2006, 02:11 AM
I agree with the cvs front end

cwaldbieser
November 16th, 2006, 03:18 AM
I'm looking for command line programs that are still in need of a decent graphical frontend. It could also be config files like fstab. I know this topic has been brought up before but I feel that it is still important. Desktop Linux is still in it's emergence and there are many users who fear the command line. My main motivation behind this is that I'm looking for a new project to start and figure I should do something that could be beneficial to the Linux/OSS community.

As people offer up suggestions I can add them to this post so that we might be able to build a comprehensive list. This way other people like me out there can find inspiration for a new project.

Ideas for better/new GUIs:

CVS
xserver-xorg
grub
Abook (address book)
Remind (calendar)


Maybe some kind of simple file sharing configuration. Last time I checked, SWAT requires you to enable the root account to log in, which goes somewhat against the Ubuntu way of doing things. There are other GUIs for file sharing, but none of them is perfect.

Just browse the other help forums and look for solutions where command line solutions are given. If you think you could provide a helpful front-end, go for it.

neilp85
November 16th, 2006, 03:25 AM
Just browse the other help forums and look for solutions where command line solutions are given. If you think you could provide a helpful front-end, go for it.

Good idea, I never even thought of that.