Scrivener for Linux 2.1 beta (with download link) -Not just for Mac anymore!
Originally published at An Experimental Life. You can comment here or there.
First off, what is Scrivener and Scrivener for Windows and Linux? Only, IMNSHO, the best writing software ever developed. Your mileage may vary, of course, but I've never found anything that's worked as well for me. Formerly Mac-only, it is now nearing the end of the beta cycle for both Linux native and Windows versions.
Here I'll cover some features and tell you how to install and run the Linux native version from the attached .deb package, as well as providing links for the tgz, the Mac version, and the Windows version (which works quite well in Wine, by the way). The Linux version is (for now) distributed via tgz files, but community members like Randy Wallace and I have been putting together .deb files for easier installation on Debian-based distros like Ubuntu. As of this writing, this is the only place to get the latest .deb, but please feel free to share by any and every means possible. And no, I don't get a dime for pimping Scrivener out or building debs--This is just about sharing something awesome.
How much do I love Scrivener? When I moved to Linux as my primary operating system after my poor little iBook died, Scrivener was still Mac-only. After trying every alternative I could get my hands on, I finally resorted to hackintoshing--both on bare-metal and with virtual machines--for the sole purpose of running the one application I absolutely cannot live without. That's right. I spent literally days at a time forcing OS X to run on hardware that the gods never intended it for, and the only thing I ever fired it up for was to run Scrivener. It's that damn good.
Among other features are:
* Outline your projects via drag-and drop, click to create new sections and subsections, etc.
* Ready-made templates for fiction, non-fiction, screenplays, and poetry, plus the ability to create your own.
* An incredibly user-friendly interface
* Use Scrivener's built-in word processor or assign an external one
* Corkboard and Storyline views.
* Built-in organization for characters, research, settings, and so on.
* Drag and drop external documents to the research folder, whether pictures, PDFs, or whatever.
* An active, vibrant, helpful community and incredibly responsive developers who interact with that community constantly.
* Excellent compiling, snapshot, backup, and export options for all the usual file formats. And even without Scrivener installed, you can access and edit your Scrivener projects in any application that works with rtf documents.
* Autosave, autosave, autosave, autosave, and autosave. Every two seconds. But you'll never notice it happening because it's just that smooth.
* Too much awesomeness to fit in a list like this.
All that aside, many people may still prefer a different tool or set of tools. That's okay. Even the Scrivener team knows that not everyone is going to fall as madly in love with Scrivener as I did, and you'll find links to quite a few other tools at the official Scrivener site. (And not too many software companies link to their competition, you know.)
Where'd Scrivener come from?
Scrivener was originally "scratch-your-own-itch-ware" written by a single developer. Originally developed in Cocoa, it wasn't exactly portable to other OSs, and remained Mac-only way for several years--until the right Windows developer came along. (By "right," I mean "willing to rewrite almost all of the code from the ground up.") And whadayaknow? The team figured out pretty quickly that it wasn't much hassle to port the Windows code to Linux. (Incidentally, although I'm focusing on the Linux native version here, the Windows version works quite well in Wine with a minimum of fuss--see below for instruction links.)
Scrivener beta is, of course, free. This beta will expire on April 10, 2011, by which time you can either expect a final release or another beta. Final releases have always come with a thirty-day un-crippled trial period, and there are special NanoWriMo academic discounts. The Mac version is forty-five bucks, and I assume that the Windows and Linux version will be a bit cheaper, as it's going to take a while for them to catch up to the Mac version. And yeah--Even though there are free alternatives, I'd rather pay for Scrivener than use any of them.
Okay, okay, enough gushing. On to installing and running Scrivener beta 2.1 natively on Linux. (If you prefer to run it via Wine or on Windows, or to install the Linux native version from the tgz instead of a deb package, I've included links below for that, too.)
To install from the attached .deb package
First off, of course, download the deb.
IMPORTANT: Don't try installing this beta via Ubuntu's software center or something similar. Instead, open a terminal, navigate to wherever you downloaded the deb to and type:
sudo dpkg -i scrivener-beta_2.1beta-10_all.deb
To run it, open a terminal and type
scrivener-beta
The deb I've provided may or may not provide you with a launch icon, which may or may not work. Again--This is a beta package. The final Linux release will, I'm sure, be much more refined.
Scrivener is compiled for 32-but systems, so 64-bit users (like me) should install the 32-bit libaspell and libaspell-dev libraries before installing Scrivener. Don't worry--it shouldn't mess with your 64-bit libraries, and if you skip installing them, Scrivener will still run--just without spell-check, and with a terminal screen full of errors. This can be solved by installing those libraries and then running dpkg to reinstall Scrivener.
For instructions on installing the 32-bit libraries on 64-bit systems, see:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/32bit_and_64bit
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=474790
For more on installing and running Scrivener in Linux--both natively and in Wine
See the wiki at http://www.literatureandlatte.com/wiki/doku.php?id=running_scrivener_in_...
and (since the Linux code is based on the Windows code) the Scrivener for Windows forum--which contains a sub-forum for the Linux native version, as well.
http://literatureandlatte.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=29&sid=a35fa28a22335...
To get the Windows version or the Linux tgz:
http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivenerforwindows/
To try out the Mac version or to learn more about Scrivener:
http://www.literatureandlatte.com/
* I first mentioned (and provided a deb package for) the Scrivener for Linux beta at this post.
NOTE: If you're reading this on LiveJournal, Tumblr, Facebook, etc., you'll need to follow the link to my blog to download the .deb package.