Screenshots in Linux

[Scarpozzi]

I've never had to do one of these in Linux before. Anyone know how?

 

[Electrode]

At the command prompt outside of X, you could just highlight the entire screen and paste it into a text editor, if you are running gpm. 🙂

As for X, there are quite a few ways:

1. import -window root filename
The "import" utility comes with ImageMagick. Most distros install this by default, and all distros offer it as an option. You can give the filename a .jpg, .png, or .tif extension, and it will save it in the correct format automaticly.

2. ksnapshot
This is a program that comes in the kde-graphics package. It's easier to use than import, as it has a graphical interface, and lets you take screenshots of individual windows just by clicking on them. However, I think it can only save as PNG.

3. The GIMP
Open it up, then go to File > Acquire > Screen Shot.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Thanks....I wasn't too worried about the console...heh. I had noticed that most screenshots I've seen when I did a search had "GIMP" running. I'll try to see if I can learn those proggies. Thanks.

By the way...for those of you not running RH8. They're getting closer to making microsoft obsolete. This is the best Desktop Linux I've seen yet. (though a little bloated) If Red Hat could get Apple to help design a desktop, they'd take over the world.

-Ryan

 

[MGMorden]

Linux needs to ditch (or seriously redesign) X11 as the main local display method (we can keep it for remote use) before it really begins to catch on. Desktop use is just too slow for mainstream use as it is. With GUI apps my 750mhz Duron feels like a 300mhz running Windows. I do agree though that with some work Linux could kill Microsoft. Open source just rocks. OpenOffice for example is an amazing office suite that I think most people would be better off using than buying MS Office (even if you think MS Office is better, which I don't, few will think it's $500 better). KDE already has a nice looking and useable GUI (I'm sure GNOME is nice too, though I don't use it). Now all we need is speed and app support (and for general use apps they are already there. we just need games). Combine this with easily installed programs (we need it as simple as the setup.exe's that people can use in windows; that pretty much means all statically linked libraries) and Linux would be the best OS on the planet.

 

[owensdj]

MGMorden, that's quite a list of things Linux needs to have to be the "best OS on the planet." 😀

 

[MGMorden]

Not really. It's three things:

1. a better display/GUI subsystem
2. more app support (this isn't an issue with the OS but with developers and users)
3. easier app installation

2 will come if you get 1 and 3. 3 wouldn't be too hard a thing to get done if everybody just would sit down and agree on some standards for this install format (not RPM or apt-get. we need a single downloadable and clickable file with no dependencies). 1 is the major issue though it is being worked on (the DirectFB project for example).

 

[oniq]

3. easier app installation

Gentoo Linux has the easiest (IMO) app installation method. Just type emerge appname and in a few minutes you will have appname specifically compiled for your system.

 

[MGMorden]

Originally posted by: oniq

3. easier app installation

Gentoo Linux has the easiest (IMO) app installation method. Just type emerge appname and in a few minutes you will have appname specifically compiled for your system.

That's not good enough. It requires typing. I've written a script for myself called installapp that runs ./configure, then make, then make install, and finally ldconfig (and it can take an optional commandline parameter for the --prefix= option). It's fairly simple to do and also compiles for the host system, but this isn't good enough. For general use we need BINARY packages with statically compiled libraries (maybe a bad example, but binary distros like Loki did). We also need one-click executables that you click to install. If you have to open a terminal and type it's already too hard for your average user (I'm not saying that all software need be this way. I personally don't mind at all compiling my stuff from source, but for regular users there has to be an easier way). Also, IIRC, that Gentoo installation system requires that the package be registered in a central database right? What happens if Gentoo goes out of business? I'm sure you could reconfigure to a public server, but wouldn't that introduce difficulties? It also assumes that you have internet access. Not everone does. (these same issues come up with Debian's apt-get. RPM's dependencies on very specific dynamic libraries eliminate it as a possible solution). It also just doesn't work well for CD-distributed software (like the games I mentioned earlier, and good luck getting them to go open source anyways). We need an easy equivalent of setup.exe, and possily an autorun system for the cdrom (disable-able, since I personally don't even run it on my windows system. still, many people rely on this feature to get their software installed).

EDIT: Another thing that would be helpful in getting this to work would be if HTTP could transmit a file with the execute permission bit already set to 'on', because with an executable install file, even if it works, if you have to chmod it then it's to difficult again (I'm pretty sure that FTP preserves the permissions). I don't see http being abandoned anytime soon (though there are better protocols, but HTTP is entrenched), but we could probably have the browser automagically set the bit with an HTML tag in a link.