Make yourself a cool writing computer with Scivener and Ubuntu

[Steerpike]

I installed the latest long-term support version of Ubuntu last night (14.04 LTS). Installation was a breeze, and all of my hardware was recognized out of the box. I have it set up to dual boot with Windows 8.1, and even on a UEFI system this worked fine. Here's a screenshot:

Now for the writing part - there is an unofficial beta of Scrivener available in the forums at the Literature and Latte web site (the developers of Scrivener). It doesn't have all of the extras of the latest version for Mac, but it is thoroughly usable and does all of the core things you expect from Scrivener. It installs easily in Ubuntu if you download the .deb files, here:

Literature and Latte • View topic - Linux 1.6.1.1 Beta Released

So there you have it. If you have a computer you don't mind dual booting, or an old one around that is ready to be revitalized, you can install Ubuntu and Scrivener and have a really neat writing computer, and it won't cost you a cent.

 

[Devor]

Is this about GRRM's remark to Conan that he writes on an old DOS computer? Because a writing-only computer is very tempting.

 

[Steerpike]

Ubuntu is a full operating system, so you can do just about anything you want on it. But the combination of Ubuntu and Scrivener make for a cool writing computer at no additional cost if you already have the hardware (i.e. a computer laying around).

I don't know that I'd want to do everything from DOS these days

 

[Svrtnsse]

I'm using a Macbook Air with Apache OpenOffice for all my writing. It does run web browser etc as well, but it's main purpose is to be a writing computer and it is indeed a really nice thing to have. My desktop machine I mainly use for games and for updating my wiki. It's extremely rare that I do any serious writing on it.

 

[Devor]

I don't know that I'd want to do everything from DOS these days

DOS is scary. But that's kind of the point. GRRM's DOS computer doesn't do anything for him but run a word processor. I would really think about stripping down a computer to run only Word or Scrivener if I had an extra laptop lying around. So this post could really be helpful for someone.

 

[Penpilot]

DOS is scary. But that's kind of the point. GRRM's DOS computer doesn't do anything for him but run a word processor. I would really think about stripping down a computer to run only Word or Scrivener if I had an extra laptop lying around. So this post could really be helpful for someone.

I should drag my DOS OS running 386 out of the closet just so I can say I write like GRRM. It still works and has word perfect installed.

But seriously, I have a laptop that's primary function is for writing, and I find that mentally very helpful. When I pull up Scrivener, it's almost like I have my own private office that I can carry around anywhere, and when I'm in the offices, it's time to work.

 

[Aspasia]

Cool set up! I run linux exclusively myself so if anyone wants suggestions on writing software I'm more than happy to help out! I use a combination of Zim Wiki (awesome desktop wiki) and Focuswriter usually (fullscreen word processor -- no distractions), but lately I've been trying out Plume Creator which seems to be kinda like Scrivener but free (I've never used Scrivener myself). Awesome piece of software, very customizable, lets you split up your project into books/chapters/scenes etc like yWriter but feels much cleaner and has more options to really customize it. I've been wanting to try out the Scrivener beta sometime, might do that soon! I've heard a lot of good things about it.

I love the clean feeling of a stripped-down to the basics computer, gets rid of a lot of distractions and feels so much less cluttered.

 

[SeverinR]

Is there a way to transfer "word" files into Scrivener?

 

[Ankari]

Is there a way to transfer "word" files into Scrivener?

You can import Word files.

But I found it better in the long run to paste a clean version of the manuscript instead. Do this by pasting it to Notepad first, then from Notepad, paste it into Scrivener.